Violence in Mexico

[NathanAllan]

My humble opinion about the news:

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=126241&hl=

Nathan

[IBMMuseum]

My humble opinion about the news:
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=126241&hl=


Login required, so I had to register to try to see your humble opinion. Then it told me that the link was broken. So I am still clueless for what was written.

The violence in Juarez and the surrounding areas (close to where you live in El Paso) is almost completely based on the drug cartels and Mexican military slugging it out right now. Before this current fight for territory Juarez was relatively calm for a Mexican city of 1.2 million people on the border with the United States. It's also unfair to say that the whole country of Mexico (purely just going from the title here, not knowing any more of your opinion)has the same horrible level of violence throughout right now too.

My wife and stepchildren are from Mexico, with family in Juarez and elsewhere. We have to travel through Juarez and Villa Ahumada (a small town on the highway south of Juarez, where the police were ambushed and the military now has control) to visit. I've felt safe enough before the current situation to even take my parents through.

The short of it is, I enjoy every moment of my visits to Mexico. The border areas of course have much more tension and bad elements present. It is also worthwhile to mention that the drug cartels are there to supply their biggest customer, that of the American public.

That is my opinion, and probably going off-topic enough that it would have been originally placed in the political area of this forum that was removed for good cause. My family has much more at stake with these conflicts, so please remember our aspects too. Certainly I am willing to take the matter offline.

[NathanAllan]

This is the off-topic section so I'm comfortable sharing. Atariage must be changin the way views are handled, here is what I posted:

If you read here, you would think nothing much is going on. If you live on this side of the border (El Paso) you see our military camped up by the bridge and not a whole lot of people are willing to cross going either way. I have talked with people who have been flanked while driving downtown, near the bridge, by military types with large automatic weapons.

A lot of this stuff is not being reported locally so people won't freak out so bad.

The above article starts off "But violence did not appear to be worse than usual in Ciudad Juarez, home base of the powerful Juarez drug cartel and one of the hardest-hit cities in a surge of homicides across Mexico," right there in the second paragraph. The tone set is "nothing to worry about."

If you read on, it's like decapitations and bodies dumped in plain sight are commonplace in Juarez. Um, they're not. If this was normal stuff, why is the American Military being called out?

Something else that hasn't been reported pretty much in any official channels is that Chinese military has been training in the Mexican desert near here. Google it, you can find a couple/few pages by Minute Men, self-appoined guards that have written about it. They've even come across the border, not realising where the border is, and met our secret operations in the desert! So what the HELL is happening in Mexico? As far as I have heard, the Chinese are helping Mexico manage its own people (remember Tiananmen Square), so I am not sure that's 'help.'

I don't think anyone here has mentioned this, and I think I'm one of the only El Pasoans here on the boards. Had to report.

Nathan

There are reference links, but they didn't translate.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24820753/

http://www.txminuteman.org/mambo/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989

[IBMMuseum]

...Something else that hasn't been reported pretty much in any official channels is that Chinese military has been training in the Mexican desert near here. Google it, you can find a couple/few pages by Minute Men, self-appoined guards that have written about it. They've even come across the border, not realising where the border is, and met our secret operations in the desert! So what the HELL is happening in Mexico? As far as I have heard, the Chinese are helping Mexico manage its own people (remember Tiananmen Square), so I am not sure that's 'help.'...

Based on what I know about Mexico, having the Chinese military there "helping Mexico manage its own people" would be an arrangement I wouldn't believe. By their nature, Minuteman (and the term covers many groups, that often fight between themselves) aren't very familiar with Mexico at all, and commonly try to stir up as much controversy as they can to get the border sealed. Just because I can Google something to find someone has put up pages of (sic) information doesn't mean I will believe the claims.

A couple of years ago, Chris Simcox (Minuteman CDC) taped an encounter with a Mexican military unit and put it on YouTube. Allegations of how aggressive the soldiers were thrown around beforehand, but when you watch the video they are turning their backs to the Minutemen (rather than saying they were Minutemen, Simcox announced he was a news reporter from owning the Tombstone Tumbleweed at the time). None of the Minutemen knew Spanish, and it was more of a comedy for the two groups to understand each other than any aggression.

They were just out for a standard patrol, but the Minutemen tried to make more of the incident than there actually was...

And you do know what happened when the Texas Minutemen and Simcox's organization tried to group up, don't you?...

[tezza]

There is something to be said for having a border that is simply coastline with the nearest place over 2,250km away.

Mind you, there are negatives, astronomical shipping costs being one. (-:

Tez

[NathanAllan]

That part was actually an aside to the main story, I wish I could verify it, but that's the best I've got for that tidbit. That's not my only source for the part of the Chinese military, but equally unverifiable, unfortunately.

I know that the minutemen aren't the greatest, and any news is suspect. I figure there is a grain of truth in the desert of bu****it. Rumors of heavy armored vehicles, whole units, I wish I could remember the whole thing. I'll leave it alone.