Mexico's Curbs On U.S. Cooperation In The War Against The Drug Cartels Is Raising Concerns In Washington

Mexico’s Curbs On U.S. Role In Drug Fight Spark Friction -- New York Times

MEXICO CITY — In their joint fight against drug traffickers, the United States and Mexico have forged an unusually close relationship in recent years, with the Americans regularly conducting polygraph tests on elite Mexican security officials to root out anyone who had been corrupted.

But shortly after Mexico’s new president, Enrique Peña Nieto, took office in December, American agents got a clear message that the dynamics, with Washington holding the clear upper hand, were about to change.

“So do we get to polygraph you?” one incoming Mexican official asked his American counterparts, alarming United States security officials who consider the vetting of the Mexicans central to tracking down drug kingpins. The Mexican government briefly stopped its vetted officials from cooperating in sensitive investigations. The Americans are waiting to see if Mexico allows polygraphs when assigning new members to units, a senior Obama administration official said.

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Update #1: Mexico ends open access for US security agencies in fight against cartels -- FOX News/AP
Update #2: U.S. role at a crossroads in Mexico’s intelligence war on the cartels -- Washington Post

My Comment: Mexico is shifting it's enforcement policies on the drug war .... but I doubt that the drug cartels even care.

One Third Of Mexico Would Migrate To the U.S. If They Had The Chance

Fewer See Better Life North of the Border, but 35% Would Migrate -- PEW Research

U.S. Image Rebounds in Mexico.

On the eve of President Barack Obama’s visit to Mexico, the United States is enjoying a resurgence of good will among the Mexican public, with a clear majority favorably inclined toward their northern neighbor and more now expressing confidence in Obama.

A national opinion survey of Mexico by the Pew Research Center, conducted March 4-17 among 1,000 adults, finds that roughly two-thirds (66%) of Mexicans have a favorable opinion of the U.S. – up from 56% a year ago and dramatically higher than it was following the passage of Arizona’s restrictive immigration law in 2010, when favorable Mexican attitudes toward the United States slipped to 44%.

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My Comment: Only 1/3 would migrate to the U.S. if they had the chance .... I thought that the number would be higher.

Ex-Marine Jon Hammar Back On US Soil

Ex-Marine Jon Hammar Back On US Soil After Release From Mexico Prison -- FOX News

The ordeal for Jon Hammar Jr., who languished under deplorable conditions in a violent Mexican prison for four months, is finally over.

Jon Hammar Sr. has confirmed that his 27-year-old son, a Marine combat veteran, is back on U.S. soil and with him in a rented car in Brownsville, Texas.

Hammar Sr. said his son was released from the notorious CEDES prison at 8 p.m. local time and made it back across the bridge between Matamoros, Mexico and Brownsville, Texas by around 8:30 p.m.

The ex-Marine, who was arrested at the same border crossing Aug. 13 after attempting to declare an antique shotgun, was suffering from a stomach virus, his father told Fox News as he and his son drove from the border looking for a hotel to spend the night.

"We're both tired and at our wits end," Hammar Sr. said. "We're glad he's out of there."

His son declined interviews.

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My Comment: This is excellent news. Oorah!

US Marine To Be Released By Mexico

Jon Hammar, Marine Jailed In Mexico, To Be Released From Prison Today -- FOX News

DEVELOPING: Jon Hammar, the U.S. Marine who has been in a Mexican prison since August on a dubious weapon charge is being released today, his father confirmed to FoxNews.com.

Jon Hammar Sr. said during a flight layover in Houston that he was on his way to get his son, after he and his wife Olivia received a call Thursday night from their attorney, Eddie Varon-Levy telling them their son was going to be released.

"I haven't seen it in writing yet but Eddie has confirmed it with the court that Jon is being released today," Hammar Sr. said. "The U.S. consulate said they would pick Jon up at the prison and accompany him to the border crossing."

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More News On Mexico Agreeing To Release US Marine Jon Hammar

Florida Marine veteran Jon Hammar to be released from Mexican jail -- Miami Herald
Marine to be Released From Mexican Prison in Time for Christmas -- FOX News
Ex-Marine Jailed in Mexico to Be Released -- ABC News/AP
Home for the holidays: Marine Jon Hammar to be released from prison in Mexico, gun charges to be dropped -- New York Daily News
Marine To Be Unchained From Bed And Released From Mexican Prison -- Business Insider

My Comment: This is welcome news .... I guess this news scared some officials in Mexico.

No Early Mexican Release For U.S. Marine Jon Hammar

Letter From Mexican Ambassador Dampens Hope For Early Release Of Jon Hammar -- FOX News

Any hope that Jon Hammar, the Marine imprisoned in Mexico on a disputed gun charge, might be freed in time for Christmas has apparently been dashed by a terse letter a top Mexican diplomat sent to Hammar’s congresswoman.

The two-page missive from Mexican Ambassador to the United States Arturo Sarukhan to Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), who has been aggressively advocating for Hammar's release, leaves little hope of a diplomatic solution. In it, Sarukhan takes a thinly veiled swipe at the U.S., blaming it for gun proliferation south of the border.

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My Comment: It appears that the Mexican authorities have no interest to release this U.S. Marine. Sighhh .... welcome to the Mexican justice system.

Why Is This U.S. Marine In A Mexican Jail?

Former U.S. Marine Jon Hammar is in a Matamoros prison in Mexico, charged with bringing an antique shotgun into Mexico. Handout via the family/MCT

Lawmakers Assail Mexico, Obama Administration Over Jailed U.S. Marine Veteran -- McClatchy News

MEXICO CITY — Florida’s senior U.S. senator Tuesday exhorted Mexico to release an imprisoned Marine Corps veteran of campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan who is being held in a Matamoros prison, declaring that “enough is enough.”

Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, said in a speech on the Senate floor that former Marine Lance Cpl. Jon Hammar “does not deserve the treatment” that Mexico is giving the Miami native, including putting physical restraints on him.

“I’m bringing this to the attention of the Senate so that we can further get through to the Mexican government,” Nelson said. “If it requires me speaking on the Senate floor day in and day out to keep this issue alive, I will do so.”

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My Comment: Kudos to Sen. Bill Nelson for publicizing this case.

Americans Shot By Mexican Police Were C.I.A. Operatives

Americans Shot In Mexico Were C.I.A. Operatives Aiding In Drug War -- New York Times

MEXICO CITY — The two Americans who were wounded when gunmen fired on an American Embassy vehicle last week were Central Intelligence Agency employees sent as part of a multiagency effort to bolster Mexican efforts to fight drug traffickers, officials said on Tuesday.

The two operatives, who were hurt on Friday, were participating in a training program that involved the Mexican Navy. They were traveling with a Mexican Navy captain in an embassy sport utility vehicle that had diplomatic license plates, heading toward a military shooting range 35 miles south of the capital when gunmen, some or all of them from the Federal Police, attacked the vehicle, Mexican officials have said.

The Mexican Navy said Tuesday in a statement that an American was driving the vehicle and that during the attack the captain, who was handling logistics and translating for the men, remained in the back seat calling for help on his cellphone.

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More News On the CIA Officials Who Were Shot In Mexico

Mexican police attacked CIA officers, ambush likely: sources -- Reuters
Mexico: 2 CIA Agents Wounded in Shooting Go to US -- ABC News/AP
AP: 2 Americans wounded in Mexican attack work for CIA -- USA Today/AP
Americans wounded in Mexico 'were CIA employees' -- AFP
US agents attacked in Mexico believed to be CIA -- Christian Science Monitor
Mexican police ambushed CIA officers: Sources -- Toronto Sun/Reuters
Mexican police officers detained over shooting of U.S. diplomatic vehicle -- CNN
U.S. workers shot in Mexico may be CIA employees -- Washington Post

Update: Mexicans raise questions over CIA role in drug war -- AFP

Mexico's Presidential Election Raises Concerns In Washington

Mexican presidential frontrunner Enrique Pena Nieto greets supporters. Photograph: REUTERS

Mexican Election Raises Fears In Washington -- The Telegraph

The frontrunner in Mexico’s presidential election has promised to bring down the death toll in his country’s bloody drug war, prompting American fears he may step back from directly confronting the cartels.

Mexico’s 80 million voters will go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president for the first time since the military was deployed against the drug barons six years ago, beginning a bloody conflict that has already cost 50,000 lives.

Enrique Peña Nieto, a telegenic former governor who enjoys a commanding 14-point lead, has vowed to shift the focus away from disrupting the cartels’ smuggling operations and look instead to curb the violence that all too often ends in beheadings or with bodies hung publicly from bridges.

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My Comment: Here are my Mexico predictions. Enrique Peña Nieto will win with an overwhelming majority .... and will start to disappoint Mexicans right away. The drug cartel war will continue .... but at a slightly lower level not because of government policies but because so many drugs lords have killed each other off. The economy will stagnate because their number one economic partner (i.e. the U.S.) has an economy that (as we all know) will continue to stagnate .... and a slow trickle of Mexicans will start to self-deport from the U.S. and go back to Mexico. Corruption will continue .... and maybe even get worse. U.S. - Mexican relations will remain the same.

U.S. Law Enforcement Becoming More Involved In Mexico's Drug Cartel War

U.S. Agencies Infiltrating Drug Cartels Across Mexico -- New York Times

WASHINGTON — American law enforcement agencies have significantly built up networks of Mexican informants that have allowed them to secretly infiltrate some of that country’s most powerful and dangerous criminal organizations, according to security officials on both sides of the border.

As the United States has opened new law enforcement and intelligence outposts across Mexico in recent years, Washington’s networks of informants have grown there as well, current and former officials said. They have helped Mexican authorities capture or kill about two dozen high-ranking and midlevel drug traffickers, and sometimes have given American counternarcotics agents access to the top leaders of the cartels they are trying to dismantle.

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My Comment: I prefer law enforcement over military involvement any-day .... I just hope that it works out for both Mexico and the U.S..

A Prospect Of Things To Come As Mexico's Drug Cartel War Continues

Mexico's "Narco-Refugees": The Looming Challenge for U.S. National Security -- Dr. Paul Rexton Kan., Strategic Studies Institute

Since 2006, when Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug cartels, there has been a rise in the number of Mexican nationals seeking political asylum in the United States to escape the ongoing drug cartel violence in their home country. Political asylum cases in general are claimed by those who are targeted for their political beliefs or ethnicity in countries that are repressive or are failing. Mexico is neither. Nonetheless, if the health of the Mexican state declines because criminal violence continues, increases, or spreads, U.S. communities will feel an even greater burden on their systems of public safety and public health from "narco-refugees." Given the ever increasing cruelty of the cartels, the question is whether and how the U.S. Government should begin to prepare for what could be a new wave of migrants coming from Mexico.

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My Comment: In the late 1980s and early 1990s I enjoyed taking a week off every year and going to Mexico for some R&R. No more now. I stopped going over a decade ago .... Mexico has changed and it is not what it was a decade earlier. For those who must live in that cesspool today .... I know how they feel. Who wants to live in a crime ridden society where corruption and violence is the norm and not the exception. Narco-refugees .... an appropriate term for what is now a horrible ongoing disaster in what was once a tourist friendly and peaceful Mexico.

US Troops Into Mexico?

Rick Perry Says Drug War ‘May Require Our Military In Mexico’ -- FOX News

Texas Gov. Rick Perry spent today campaigning in New Hampshire, hammering away at his message that “over-taxation, over-regulation, and over-litigation” are hurting business and the U.S. economy, but he also advocated for a larger government role in the war on drugs.

At a house party in Manchester, Perry said that ending the drug war in Mexico “may require our military in Mexico.”

“The way that we were able to stop the drug cartels in Colombia was with a coordinated effort,” Perry said. “It may require our military in Mexico working in concert with them to kill these drug cartels and to keep them off of our border and to destroy their networks. I don’t know all the scenarios that are out there but I think it is very important that we work with them, to keep that country from failing.”

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Update: Perry Open to Military Intervention in Mexico’s Drug War -- New York Times

My Comment: Being Governor of Texas has given Perry an insight into Mexico's drug cartel war that many politicians may not have. But sending US troops into Mexico .... that is an option that makes me feel very uncomfortable. My preferred choice .... guard the border and enforce immigration laws (especially deporting illegals who have committed crimes), and let the Mexican government handle the heavy lifting of battling these criminal organizations.

Is Mexico Becoming Open To The Idea Of U.S. Military Aid In The Drug Cartel WarsÉ

Mexican Public Warming To US Military Aid In Drug War? -- Christian Science Monitor

Although a broad majority of Mexicans still oppose US troop support to maintain law and order in Mexico, a new survey indicates a growing percentage of the Mexican public support US assistance.



Since the days of the Mexican-American War, US intentions south of the border are regarded with the highest degrees of suspicion. Today, as Mexico struggles under a barrage of violence related to drug trafficking, the idea of American military assistance is anathema to the public.



But that might be starting to change. A majority still opposes such a scenario. But according to a Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project survey released Wednesday, that opposition is shrinking. Of Mexicans surveyed, 38 percent favor US troop help today, up from 26 percent in 2010.



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My Comment: Only 38% are in favor of direct U.S. military involvement in Mexico`s drug cartel war. Only 38% in favor .... hmmmm .... this is not a ringing endorsement. Besides .... Mexico`s political elites would never accept such a proposition.



As to what is the American opinion .... I suspect that the focus would be more on closing the border .... not intervening into Mexico`s dirty and corrupt drug wars.

ATF's 'Fast And Furious Program" -- News Roundup July 26, 2011

ATF Accused In Congressional Report of 'Arming' Cartel For 'War' Through Operation Fast And Furious -- FOX News

The failed federal anti-gunrunning program known as Operation Fast and Furious got so out of control in November 2009, it appeared the U.S. government was single-handedly "arming for war" the Sinaloa Cartel, documents show, even as U.S. officials kept lying to fellow agents in Mexico about the volume of guns it helped send south of the border.

Those shocking allegations are revealed in the latest congressional report investigating the operation.

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More News On "Fast and Furious"

A gunrunning sting gone fatally wrong -- Washington Post
Issa: ATF warns witnesses to limit testimony -- Washington Times
Feds Silent on How Convicted Felons Bought Guns in 'Operation Fast and Furious' -- FOX News
ATF 'stonewalled' agents on botched gun probe, report says -- CNN
Report: Federal officials kept Mexico gun plans secret -- USA Today
New report shows American ATF officials in Mexico were kept in dark about ‘Operation Fast and Furious’ -- Examiner
Guns from botched US operation found at Mexican crime scenes -- The Guardian
Guns from U.S. sting at Mexican crime scenes: report -- Reuters
Report: ATF Guns Recovered At Mexican Crime Scenes -- NPR
Guns at Mexican Crime Scenes Linked to U.S. Sting -- New York Times
Report: Agents sought 'Fast & Furious' end -- Politico
Report details objections in ATF to ‘Fast and Furious’ sting -- Washington Post
U.S. Embassy in Mexico not told of ATF guns sting -- L.A. Times
Fast and Furious: Embassy kept in dark as guns flooded Mexico -- FOX News
Gun Probe Lost Track of More Than 1,000 Weapons -- Wall Street Journal
Interactive map: Where in Mexico did ‘Fast and Furious’ guns end up? -- Houston Chronicle

U.S. Lacking The Will To Help Mexico Combat The Drug Cartels

U.S. Lags In Vow To Help Battle Cartels -- Houston Chronicle

After 3 years, much equipment still hasn't been sent to Mexico

WASHINGTON - Nearly three years have come — and gone - since the United States agreed in 2008 to provide equipment and training worth $1.5 billion to Mexico in an effort to help combat raging drug violence.

Yet, despite pledges by two White House administrations to fix the bureaucratic problems besetting the so-called Merida Initiative, barely 59 percent of the promised U.S. spending has been completed, according to the State Department's latest accounting.

And with the toll of horrific killings in Mexico mounting, the yardstick for success is even more elusive.

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My Comment: Meanwhile .... on the ground in Mexico .... the narco wars are reaching levels of barbarity never before seen in modern Latin America, with even the narco gangsters now wearing uniforms and insignia to identify who they are.

Why Did The ATF Permit Weapons To Flow To Drug Gangs In Mexico?

Agent: I Was Ordered To Let U.S. Guns Into Mexico -- CBS News

ATF agent says "Fast and Furious" program let guns "walk" into hands of Mexican drug cartels with aim of tracking and breaking a big case.

WASHINGTON - Federal agent John Dodson says what he was asked to do was beyond belief.

He was intentionally letting guns go to Mexico?

"Yes ma'am," Dodson told CBS News. "The agency was."

An Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms senior agent assigned to the Phoenix office in 2010, Dodson's job is to stop gun trafficking across the border. Instead, he says he was ordered to sit by and watch it happen.

Investigators call the tactic letting guns "walk." In this case, walking into the hands of criminals who would use them in Mexico and the United States.

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More News On Guns From The U.S. Being Permitted To Go To Mexico's Drug Cartels

U.S. gun-tracing operation let firearms into criminal hands -- L.A. Times
CBS report: ATF was ordered to let guns get into Mexico -- Pajamas Media
ATF encouraging gun smugglers, with deadly consequences, CBS reports -- Washington Examiner
ATF Orders Immediate Review of Gun-Running Operation -- Voice of Tuscon
ATF to Review Firearms Trafficking Strategy -- PR Newswire
Grassley: ‘Congress needs to get to the bottom of this’ -- Examiner
Justice IG to look into anti-gun efforts on border -- AP
Guns move south, as drugs move north -- Globe And Mail editorial
Project Gunrunner, an ATF operation run amok -- Tod Robberso, Dallas News
Editorial: Federal gun-smuggling surveillance program backfires -- Dallas News editorial

My Comment: This ATF operation makes no sense .... no sense at all.

US-Mexican Presidents Meet Amid Rising Tensions

US-Mexico Ties: Tensions Simmer Beneath Calderón's Visit To White House -- Christian Science Monitor

Ahead of today's visit, Mexican President Felipe Calderón said the US has not done its part to reduce arms trafficking and drug consumption, and lambasted US diplomats for leaked cables that called his security forces corrupt and uncoordinated.

Smiles are likely to be all around when Mexican President Felipe Calderón meets with President Obama today at the White House. But simmering beneath the surface, the highest-profile US killing in Mexico in 25 years along with damaging cables released by WikiLeaks have pushed bilateral relations to one of their most tense points in Mr. Obama's presidency.

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More News On Today's U.S. - Mexico Talks

Heads of U.S., Mexico to Meet as Tensions Rise -- Wall Street Journal
Obama, Calderon hold tense set of meetings -- USA Today
Obama, Mexico President Calderon to Meet Under Shadow of `Tense' Relations -- Bloomberg
Mexican Leader Visits Obama Amid Tension -- New York Times
US, Mexico leaders to meet as drug violence rages -- AFP
Mexico's Calderon visits Washington amid rising tension -- CNN
Tensions, drug war highlight Obama-Calderon meeting -- Houston Chronicle
Drug war dispute to dominate Obama-Calderon meeting -- Reuters
Mexico's Calderón meets Obama to showcase close ties. Is it just a show? -- Christian Science Monitor

My Comment: Mexico is now experiencing a full fledged "insurgency" from its drug cartels, producing casualties that is surpassing war zones like Afghanistan. I do not know what will be on the agenda when President Calderon and President Obama meet, but it would not surprise me if discussing the drug war is on the top of the list.

President's Of Mexico And The U.S. To Meet In Washington

Heads Of U.S., Mexico To Meet As Tensions Rise -- Wall Street Journal

Violence From Drug War to Top Agenda as Calderón Visits Obama in Washington.

MEXICO CITY—President Felipe Calderón will meet in Washington on Thursday with President Barack Obama in an attempt to repair relations at a time when spiraling violence in Mexico's drug war has frayed ties between the two allies.

The meeting comes just three weeks after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent was killed and another wounded by alleged drug gunmen. Jaime Zapata, the slain ICE agent, was the first U.S. law-enforcement official to be killed in the line of duty in Mexico in a quarter century.

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More News On Thursday's Meeting Between The Presidents Of Mexico And The U.S.

Tensions, drug war highlight Obama, Calderon meeting -- Houston Chronicle
Mexico's Calderon to visit Washington for talks with Obama, Boehner -- CNN
Mexican leader visits White House amid tensions -- Washington Post
President Calderon at the White House: Immigration and More on the Agenda -- FOX News
Mexican President Felipe Calderon set for US visit -- BBC
Friction evident as Mexican president visits US -- Washington Post
Obama urged to pressure Mexico on abuses by security forces -- FOX News
Obama to discuss armed US agents in Mexico -- AFP
US-Mexico talks: Key issues facing Obama and Calderon -- BBC
Latest Violence in Mexico Underscores Problems, Tensions -- Voice of America
Can Obama and Calderon Solve Mexico's Bloodshed — and the Bad Blood? -- Tim Padgett, Time Magazine
Working with Mexico -- L.A. Times editorial

Is The U.S. Boosting Funding To Aid Mexico's Drug Cartel War, Or Is It Withholding Millions To Aid Mexico's Drug War

Photo: Mexican soldiers stand next to weapons seized at a warehouse Thursday after a gunfight that killed 25 suspected drug cartel members. (Tomas Bravo/Reuters)

U.S. May Drastically Boost Funding To Aid Mexico's War On Drug Gangs -- L.A. Times

Obama administration officials say they continue to examine their approach toward an issue they consider to be a top priority.

Reporting from Washington — The Obama administration is considering a substantial spending increase on the Mexican drug war, the latest sign of its growing concern about the rampant violence incited by narcotics cartels in Mexico.

Administration officials said internal debate on the issue continues, and they are not yet at a point where they can estimate how much of an increase may be requested. But they said the matter is considered urgent even at a time when the White House is struggling with costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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The Mexican army drug raid took place in rural north-east Mexico.
Photograph: Tomas Bravo/Reuters

U.S. Withholds Millions in Mexico Antidrug Aid -- New York Times

MEXICO CITY — The United States will withhold about $26 million promised for Mexico’s drug war because of concerns that the country has not done enough to protect its people from police and military abuse.

It is the first time that the United States, citing human rights concerns, has held back a portion of the financing for Mexico under the Merida Initiative, a three-year-old, $1.4 billion effort to help Mexico and Central American nations fight drug trafficking organizations.

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My Comment: It appears that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. But what is troublesome about this, is that the Mexican cartels understand the politics behind this contradiction, and are exploiting it to their advantage.

U.S. - Mexico Officials Meet To Discuss The Drug War

Mexico Plan Unveiled -- Wall Street Journal

MEXICO CITY—The U.S. and Mexican governments on Tuesday unveiled a "guns and butter" strategy for cracking down on Mexico's violent drug cartels, promising to use not only military force, but social and economic strategies as well.

During a high-profile visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a number of senior Obama administration officials, both sides agreed to expand cooperation under the $1.3 billion Merida Initiative, a three-year program aimed at helping Mexico quell rising drug-related violence that has killed some 18,000 people in the past three years.

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More News On Today's US - Mexico Meeting On The Drug War

Clinton Leads Entourage of U.S. Might to Mexico Drug Fight -- FOX News
U.S, Mexico eye new phase in drug war -- Reuters
Hillary Clinton’s ‘War Cabinet’ sweeps in to Mexico for drugs summit -- Times Online
U.S. and Mexico Strengthen Joint Drug Strategy -- New York Times
U.S. to broaden anti-drug program in Mexico -- CNN
Obama officials say US drug demand fuels violence -- AP
More Police Sent to Crime-Plagued Ciudad Juarez -- New York Times
More police sent to crime-plagued Ciudad Juarez -- AP
Mexico Violence Demands Steps Beyond Military, Napolitano Says -- Business Week/Bloomberg
Gates, Mullen Extend Military Support to Mexico -- US Department of Defense
The War on Drugs Is Doomed -- Wall Street Journal opinion

Plan Would Deploy Guard Near Mexico

The US/Mexico border. Photo: AFP

From Washington Post:

$350 Million Effort Aimed at Drug War

The Pentagon and Homeland Security Department are developing contingency plans to send National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexican border under a $350 million initiative that would expand the U.S. military's role in the drug war, according to Obama administration officials.

The circumstances under which the troops could be deployed have not been determined, the officials said. They said the proposal was designed to give President Obama additional flexibility to respond to drug-related violence that has threatened to spill into the United States from Mexico and to curb southbound smuggling of cash and weapons.

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My Comment: This may appear to be a lot of money .... but it is not. But at least they are now looking at the problem.