US Warns Tourists of 'Small-Unit Combat' at Mexico Border

[American Patriot]

US Warns Tourists of 'Small-Unit Combat' at Mexico Border
Cybercast News Service ^ | 5/16/2008 | Penny Starr

The U.S. State Department has issued an alert, warning travelers that the "equivalent to military small-unit combat" is taking place across the southern U.S. border in Mexico and that Americans are being kidnapped and murdered there.

"Recent Mexican army and police force conflicts with heavily-armed narcotics cartels have escalated to levels equivalent to military small-unit combat and have included use of machine guns and fragmentation grenades," said the State Department alert.

"Confrontations have taken place in numerous towns and cities in northern Mexico, including Tijuana in the Mexican state of Baja California, and Chihuahua City and Ciudad Juarez in the state of Chihuahua," reads the alert. "The situation in northern Mexico remains very fluid; the location and timing of future armed engagements there cannot be predicted."

The State Department particularly urged that Americans be wary when traveling in that part of Mexico closest to the United States. "U.S. citizens are urged to be especially alert to safety and security concerns when visiting the border region," said the alert.

Murder and kidnapping of Americans has become routine in Tijuana, which sits just across the border from San Diego, California, according to the State Department, and sometimes heavily armed attackers wear the uniforms of the Mexican police or military.

"Dozens of U.S. citizens were kidnapped and/or murdered in Tijuana in 2007," says the alert. "Public shootouts have occurred during daylight hours near shopping areas. Criminals are armed with a wide array of sophisticated weapons. In some cases, assailants have worn full or partial police or military uniforms and have used vehicles that resemble police vehicles." (And we're doing JACK SHIT about it too)

The alert also warns Americans to avoid areas where drugs and prostitution are evident and to "refrain from displaying expensive-looking jewelry, large amounts of money and other valuable items."

In light of this alert, which was first issued on Apr. 14, and was listed as "current as of today, Thursday May 15 17:51:35 2008" on State's Web site on Wednesday, Cybercast News Service submitted a number of questions to the State Department via e-mail, and received non-responsive answers the next day. Cybercast News Service's questions were as follows:

-- "The alert says 'attacks are aimed primarily at members of drug trafficking organizations, Mexican police forces, criminal justice officials and journalists.' Can you provide more details about who has been attacked and the result of those attacks, including injuries, fatalities and legal ramifications?

-- "The alert says violence has 'escalated to levels equivalent to military small-unit combat and have included use of machine guns and fragmentation grenades.' Can you provide more information, including the number of incidents involving these kinds of weapons and the number of weapons confiscated?

-- "The alert says that violence not related to drug trafficking has increased in Tijuana and Ciudad Jarez, with 'dozens of U.S. citizens ... kidnapped and/or murdered in Tijuana in 2007.' How many people were kidnapped or murdered and how do those numbers compare with the numbers in prior years?"

-- "The alert recommends that Americans avoid areas where prostitution and drug dealing occurs. Where are those areas?"

-- "How many incidents in 2007 and other years are recorded that show U.S. citizens being followed or harassed in the border areas, including Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros and Tijuana?"

-- "How many kidnapping cases of U.S. citizens remain unsolved?"

-- "What actions is the state department taking to reduce the violence on the border?"

The State Department's written answer to those questions is as follows:

"The State Department's Office of American Citizens Services and Crisis Management (ACS) administers the Consular Information Program, which informs the public of conditions abroad that may affect their safety and security.

"Travel Alerts are issued to disseminate information about short-term conditions, generally within a particular country, that pose imminent risks to the security of U.S. citizens. Natural disasters, terrorist attacks, coups, anniversaries of terrorist events, election-related demonstrations or violence, and high-profile events such as international conferences or regional sports events are examples of conditions that might generate a Travel Alert.

"The travel alert is a collaborative effort based on media reports and other information released within a particular country. It is provided so that American travellers (sic) can make an informed decision about their plans to visit a particular location at a particular time.

"For various reasons, American citizens often choose not to report their involvement in activities while abroad.

"Your best source for detailed statistics and information about specific locations would be from sources within Mexico."

[eversman]

Thank you for the notice. just learned today my brother was planning his honeymoon in the next month, down there in tiajauna. i sent him this advisory, and advised him to go to florida instead.

ev

[American Patriot]

Tell him to go to Jamaica.

7 days and nights for 2000 bucks, all inclusive at "Club Ambiance". I highly recommend it.

They will have a much better time than Mexico anyway.

Give the Jamaicans money and stop sending it to places like Mexico.

[American Patriot]

http://www.clubambiance.com/

[Ryan Ruck]

40,000 Mexican Troops on US Mexican Border

As reported executively in the Laguna/El Paso Journal the Calderon administration was expected to rush more Mexican Army troops to the border cities of Juarez, Tijuana, Mexicali, Palomas and others. The first leg of that troop enforcement became an reality yesterday -- Hundreds more Mexican army soldiers arrived in Juárez under the cover of darkness as part of Joint Operation Chihuahua, intended to augment the Mexican governments war against the Mexican Drug Cartels operating in Mexico.

Juarez has been particularly hard hit with 300 plus murders that has rocked the city since the beginning of the year. Click on or Google: Mexico's National Security Cabinet expected to declare a state of emergency

It is estimated that Mexico has 36,000 troops fighting the Mexican drug cartels and their Para-military units throughout the country. With the expected injection of more soldiers being sent to the U.S. Mexican border cities those troops will number near 40,000.

Calderon is seeking U.S. military aid under the provisions of the Merida Initiative, a multiyear $1.4 billion anti-narcotics package proposed by President Bush. Click on or Google: Merida Initiative Will It Work?

In recent months, and after Mexican president Caldron dispatched the Mexican army and federal police to many interior cities and to Mexican cities on the Mexican U.S. border the level of violence has risen substantially, with some of it spilling into the United States. According to Jayson Ahern, the deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection.

"It's almost like a military fight," Ahern said. "I don't think that generally the American public has any sense of the level of violence that occurs on the border."

As the cartels fight for territory, this carnage spills over to the U.S., Ahern said -- from bullet-ridden people stumbling into U.S. territory, to rounds of ammunition coming across U.S. entry ports.

At least Three Mexican border city police chiefs barely escaping with their lives have requested political asylum in the U.S. as violence escalates on the U.S. Mexican border where the Mexican drug wars are spilling across the U.S. border, a top Homeland Security official told The Associated Press.

In the past few months, the police officials have shown up at the U.S. border, fearing for their lives, according to Ahern.

They're basically abandoned by their police officers or police departments in many cases," Ahern told AP.

Ahern said the Mexican officials -- whom he didn't name -- are being interviewed and their cases are under review for possible asylum.

U.S. humvees retrofitted with steel mesh over the glass windows patrol parts of the border to protect U.S. Border Patrol agents against guns shots and large rocks regularly thrown at them. At times agents are pinned down by sniper fire as drug and human smugglers try to illegally cross into the U.S.

In the last few weeks, the Mexican government began military operations on its side of the border against Mexican drug cartels and their gangs who are engaged in smuggling drugs into the United States.

[Ryan Ruck]

Wave of Mexicans Plead for Passage to U.S. as Border Killings Escalate

Dozens of Mexicans — including police officers, businessmen, at least one prosecutor and a journalist — are asking for political asylum in the U.S. in a desperate and probably hopeless bid to escape an unprecedented wave of drug-related killings and kidnappings south of the border.

Under U.S. law, fear of crime is not, in itself, grounds for political asylum.

But the sharp spike in asylum applications from the areas wracked by drug-cartel violence — and the willingness of asylum-seekers to sit behind bars in the U.S. for months while they await a decision — are a measure of how bad things are in Mexico and how fearful people have become.

"It's hard. I've been doing this work for 25 years. I've been a reporter for 25 years," said newspaperman Emilio Gutierrez Soto, who is seeking asylum. "We had a life there, a house, my family. It's my country. But it's not safe for a journalist."

Between October and July, at least 63 people have sought political asylum at border crossings in West Texas and New Mexico, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. That is almost double the 33 claims made for the entire fiscal year that ended in October. Elsewhere in South Texas, asylum applications are also up sharply.

In other sectors along the 1,969-mile border, asylum applications are coming in at the usual pace.

Immigration lawyers say they believe most of the asylum claims in the West Texas and New Mexico sector are motivated by the bloodshed in Mexico, the worst of which is just across the Rio Grande in Ciudad Juarez and surrounding Chihuahua state.

Juarez, a city of 1.3 million, has seen a record-breaking 500-plus murders so far this year. High-ranking police officers are shot in broad daylight. Businessmen who are not necessarily mixed up in the drug trade are kidnapped, held for ransom and gruesomely killed if their families don't pay up. Children have been caught in the crossfire.

"There's been nothing like this in terms of cartel activities," said George W. Grayson, a Mexico expert with the College of William and Mary in Virginia. "In the 1970s there were guerillas in several very poor southern states. But there's not been any kind of violence like this."

Immigration lawyers representing the El Paso-area asylum-seekers say they have never seen such a flood of people seeking a haven from violence in Mexico. Up until recently, most asylum requests in this sector were made by people who said they were being persecuted by Mexico's ruling party because of their political activities.

Immigration lawyers say they are representing several law enforcement officers and others who were targeted for their efforts to stop or expose the murderous activities on both sides of the war between the Mexican military and the drug cartels.

As for the businessmen, they include a 37-year-old used car salesman who was kidnapped and held until his family paid a $40,000 ransom, said his attorney, Carlos Spector, an immigration lawyer handling numerous other asylum cases, including Gutierrez's.

Immigration officials would not discuss why people were applying for asylum or what their prospects were. "The numbers show that there is an increase, but that's all we can say," said Roger Maier, a Customs and Border Protection spokesman in El Paso.

The federal government rarely, if ever, grants asylum to a citizen of a U.S. ally who is in trouble because of choices he made — such as where he lives or what he does for a living.

Asylum cases hinge on proving that a person is being persecuted because of his race, religion, political view, nationality or membership in a particular social group, according to Micaela Guthrie, an El Paso immigration attorney. The applicant has to prove that his government is either part of the persecution or unable or unwilling to protect him.

"It has to be an immutable characteristic, something so fundamental that you shouldn't be forced to change, or can't change," Guthrie said. Guthrie said being a police officer or journalist usually will not qualify a person for protection, since the person can often find other work or move to another part of the country.

Gutierrez, a 45-year-old reporter in Ascension, Mexico, said he received death threats nearly every day for more than two years as he wrote stories about the Mexican army's rough treatment of civilians in its search for drug cartel members. He said that in June, men identifying themselves as soldiers ransacked his house, and he was told they were planning to kill him.

Gutierrez headed with his 15-year-old son to a border crossing in New Mexico, about 170 miles west of El Paso. Now he is jailed at a U.S. immigration detention center in El Paso. His son is held in a separate institution.

Spector said Gutierrez may have a strong case if he can prove that the Mexican army threatened him and is likely to kill him.

There are other legal ways to immigrate to the United States. But obtaining a visa can take several months. Many of those asking for asylum show up instead at a border crossing and announce their intentions, upon which they are immediately brought over into the U.S. — and placed in a detention center with no chance of bail.

In contrast, those who sneak across the border, get caught and then ask for asylum are allowed out on bail. "They get more if they come in illegally than by doing it right," Spector said.

Those seeking asylum also include Salvador Hernandez Arvizu, a police lieutenant in Juarez who was named on a cartel hit list and fled after being shot repeatedly in an ambush earlier this year, said his lawyer, Spector.

Spector said his clients know the odds are against them. But still, leaving Mexico for at least a few months is worth it, he said.

"They don't have many options and these cases are life and death," the lawyer said. "Sometimes in immigration law, you get paid to lose slowly."