While journalist Jesus Ramos Rodriguez was having breakfast in a restaurant in Mexico’s Tabasco state, a stranger approached and fired eight shots, killing him. The assailant then fled, avoiding capture. Rodriguez had been warned not to report drug cartel activity on his radio program for which the punishment is death. Continue reading “The Shot That Explains the Caravan”
Tag: Mexico Drug Cartels
Caravan from Hell
Whatever the degree of outside organizing and financing, the thousands of people trying to reach the United States are fleeing some of the most hellish conditions on earth, a violence equal to war zones that is not fit for life. The drug lords, financed by U.S. consumers, have taken over El Salvador and Honduras, not to mention Mexico, and it is they who pose this challenge to the U.S. border. Continue reading “Caravan from Hell”
Cartels Face the Wall
We’re not sure yet what the wall on the Mexican border will look like – something new and forbidding or, sensibly, an extension of the adequate steel-bar fence that already exists along parts of the border. Whatever it is, it will challenge the ingenuity of the drug cartels determined to keep their billion-dollar business going no matter what. And to be sure, there are many Americans just as anxious for the drugs and the drug money that can be put to illicit uses. Continue reading “Cartels Face the Wall”
Journalists Under Fire
Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. In the last several years, 86 have been murdered by the drug cartels for covering their activities; that is, for doing their job. Among weapons used were knives, rifles, machine guns, grenades and fire. The choice is not the victim’s. Continue reading “Journalists Under Fire”
Hit Man
One of the most prestigious and high paying jobs in Mexico is the hit man, he who assassinates people on the order of the drug cartels. One of this illustrious group told how he went about his work to the late Charles Bowden, author of many books on Mexican drug violence, and Molly Molloy, a research librarian at Mexico State University, in their book “El Sicario” (Hit Man). Continue reading “Hit Man”
Trump’s Wall
Not content with some 500 miles of fencing along the US-Mexican border, President-elect Donald Trump wants to erect a wall over its 2,000 mile length. Preposterous, say critics. It would further divide two nations, two peoples. It would damage wildlife and environment. And would it work, after all, since nothing else has? Continue reading “Trump’s Wall”
Biggest Threat to America
Geography favors America and has made it safe. There’s the protection of two oceans east and west, a benign neighbor to the north, Canada, and until recently, a compliant one to the south, Mexico. No longer. Crime has overtaken geography. Hard drugs are pouring across the Mexican border, accompanied by violence and billions of dollars in corruption. The murder rate has spiked in both the US and Mexico and is largely attributed to the battle over the heroin trade, the drug that has reached epidemic proportions in many parts of the US. Continue reading “Biggest Threat to America”