U.S. pays millions to help Mexico fight

[Lt_Ripley]

U.S. pays millions to help Mexico fight vicious cartels

By Ramon Bracamontes / El Paso Times

Posted: 02/07/2009 11:01:52 PM MST

More on the violence in Juárez

EL PASO - Mexico's vicious drug war - a bloody conflict that has claimed the lives of thousands of people throughout the country - is now costing U.S. taxpayers $465 million so far.

Whether the U.S. will get a return on the investment is the topic of a fiery debate. Locally, some say the so-called Merida Initiative, which will provide $1.4 billion to Mexico and other countries over three years, will not do enough to help reduce the violence that is crippling Mexico and border cities like Juárez.

Others say the U.S. has no business spending one dime in Mexico and argue that improving security along the U.S.-Mexico border should be the priority.

Now, the United States has a $465 million stake in Mexico's brutal drug war.

Whether that is enough or merited remains a point of contention. Some El Paso officials want the U.S. to do more because the violence is beginning to cripple Juárez and, to a lesser degree, El Paso.

As of last month, the U.S. began spending the $465 million that Congress approved last year in the Merida Initiative, a three-year counter-drug and anti-crime package for Mexico and Central America.

cont ..........

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_11655818

My Niece and her husband who's stationed near El Paso ( they live there ) have already been told about the possibility of more violence and the use of our troops . She'll be coming home to Michigan with the kids in that case. They worry about the cartels taking over the government .

we've more to worry about our boarders than Iraq - and we haven't been able to get rid of gangs here let alone terrorism elsewhere .

[Cleomenes]

The situation across the border is very bad indeed. Cuidad Juarez is an awful place, where corruption and lawlessness are the norms. I really hope the Mexican government is able to get the situation under control sometime in the near future, but there will be much more bloodshed before that happens. Just goes to show the importance of actually having a real border, instead of a porous one.

[AzTide]

U.S. pays millions to help Mexico fight vicious cartels

By Ramon Bracamontes / El Paso Times

Posted: 02/07/2009 11:01:52 PM MST

More on the violence in Juárez

EL PASO - Mexico's vicious drug war - a bloody conflict that has claimed the lives of thousands of people throughout the country - is now costing U.S. taxpayers $465 million so far.

Whether the U.S. will get a return on the investment is the topic of a fiery debate. Locally, some say the so-called Merida Initiative, which will provide $1.4 billion to Mexico and other countries over three years, will not do enough to help reduce the violence that is crippling Mexico and border cities like Juárez.

Others say the U.S. has no business spending one dime in Mexico and argue that improving security along the U.S.-Mexico border should be the priority.

Now, the United States has a $465 million stake in Mexico's brutal drug war.

Whether that is enough or merited remains a point of contention. Some El Paso officials want the U.S. to do more because the violence is beginning to cripple Juárez and, to a lesser degree, El Paso.

As of last month, the U.S. began spending the $465 million that Congress approved last year in the Merida Initiative, a three-year counter-drug and anti-crime package for Mexico and Central America.

cont ..........

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_11655818

My Niece and her husband who's stationed near El Paso ( they live there ) have already been told about the possibility of more violence and the use of our troops . She'll be coming home to Michigan with the kids in that case. They worry about the cartels taking over the government .

we've more to worry about our boarders than Iraq - and we haven't been able to get rid of gangs here let alone terrorism elsewhere .

The violence in the US Mexico border towns are well documented over the last few years it's just that the national news won't cover it. Even though Juarez is bad Nuevo Laredo is a true old west city were even the chief of police gets gunned down. And marines in San Diego are now forbidden to enter Tijuana because of the violence in that border town.

In As Mexican troops actually escort drug runners into the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and Saguaro National Park as it is the largest smuggling routes into the US. And these troops shoot at ICE, Park Rangers, and State and Tribal Law Enforcement.

I've actually been told by law enforcement officials from Southern AZ who I grew up with that the main reason the US government looks the other way is because the drug cartels actually protect the US border. The cartels understand the US leaves them alone and in return no terrorists or dangerous terrorist materials come across the Mexican. But drugs are ok!!!!!!!!

[AzTide]

The rest of the story is found on the link...

For the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of families of people who have vanished amid Baja California's drug wars, the search for justice has been lonely and fruitless. But their hopes have been buoyed recently by the Jan. 22 arrest of a man Mexican authorities believe is behind the gruesome disposal of bodies in vats of industrial chemicals.

Santiago Meza Lopez, a stocky 45-year-old taken into custody after a raid near Ensenada, was identified as the pozolero who liquefied the bodies of victims for lieutenants of the Arellano Felix drug cartel. Authorities say he laid claim to stuffing 300 bodies into barrels of lye, then dumping some of the liquefied remains in a pit in a hillside compound in eastern Tijuana.

His capture riveted Mexico with sickening details behind drug violence that has left more than 8,000 dead in two years. For the families of the disappeared, however, it was a chance to revive cases that seemed long forgotten.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...0,2537684.story