Sunday, August 31, 2008

Mexicans Protest CIA Drug Running Operation

Because we know whom the biggest drug dealer in the world is, readers!!!!

Also see: The Hard-Working Mexican Immigrant

"Mexico's drug battles alter a way of life; Violence leaves many in fear" by Marc Lacey, New York Times News Service | August 31, 2008

TIJUANA, Mexico - With a bingo hall, a dog track, and a vast room of slot machines, Casino Caliente has a fair share of shrieks and groans any night of the year. But when a team of heavily armed men dressed in black barged in and ordered everyone to the floor on a Friday night this month, the outbursts rose to an entirely different level.

It turned out, no shots were fired that night. The armed men proved to be federal police officers, and they quickly left with two men suspected of being traffickers in tow.

Gone are the days when Mexico's drug war was an abstraction for most people, something they lamented over the morning papers as if it were unfolding far away. Reminders are everywhere, from the radios blasting drug ballads that romanticize the criminals to the giant banners that drug cartels hang from overpasses to recruit killers and threaten rivals.

The Mexican-based traffickers that ship narcotics from South America to the United States are in a pitched battle with President Felipe Calderón's government, which has sent the army to trouble spots around the country to shut them down. Police agencies, infiltrated by the drug traffickers and lacking training, have not shown themselves to be up to the job.

Tens of thousands of Mexicans marched in Mexico City last night to protest against the wave of kidnappings and murders linked to the cartels, pressing Calderón to meet his promises to crack down on crime.

Holding candles and dressed in white, demonstrators on the capital's Paseo de la Reforma main street carried posters and pictures of kidnap victims and signs saying, "Enough Is Enough." Officials estimated the crowd at 50,000 shortly after the march began, but thousands continued to pour into the streets.

Thousands of Mexicans protested yesterday around the Independence monument in Mexico City, against the tide of killings, kidnappings, and shootouts sweeping the country.
Thousands of Mexicans protested yesterday around the Independence monument in Mexico City, against the tide of killings, kidnappings, and shootouts sweeping the country. (Eduardo Verdugo/ Associated Press)

Thousands more attended demonstrations in other cities across the country last night. A similar mass protest four years ago drew a quarter of a million people.

In all, 2,682 people have been killed in the drug war this year, including elderly bystanders, schoolchildren, and pregnant women, according to a tally by a newspaper, El Universal. The wealthy bulletproof their vehicles, wear protective clothing, and move around with burly men wearing earpieces. But others with fewer resources resort to their makeshift measures to stay alive.

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As usual, the rich elite are insulated from whatever mayhem they are responsible for or profiting from.