Guatemala Police Chief and Drug Czar Arrested

As U.S. Funded drug wars pressure cartels in Mexico and Colombia the cartels are invading other countries. The article reports that, “Few countries exemplify the corruption more than Guatemala, where the current government’s drug czar and the national police chief were arrested Tuesday as the alleged leaders of a gang of police who stole more than 1,500 pounds of cocaine from traffickers. Nelly Bonilla and National Police Chief Baltazar Gomez were the latest in a string of top law enforcement jailed for drug-related corruption in recent years.” Full Story

Mexico: Police No Better Than Criminals

As I reported here recently, Mexicans are saying “Enough is Enough” but as The Times (UK) recently reported, they cannot reply on the police to help solve the recent crime wave. In many cases the corrupt police force are the perpetrators of the crimes and are also protecting drug related criminal gangs.

In Mexico it is said that 99% of crimes go unsolved and the kidnapping rate is worse than in Iraq. One detective interviewed in the article indicates why, “We work with limitations,” he said. “You don’t do your job, you just chill out, you take your salary, and you avoid trouble as best you can. Sometimes I get depressed when I think about the situation in Mexico.”

Trouble often comes in the form of officers from rival police departments — there are said to be at least 1,600 of them in Mexico — many of which provide protection to drug cartels or run their own criminal operations. If Mr Gomez raided a “narco store” in the wrong part of town, he would risk being shot or thrown in jail by one of his fellow detectives. Jail can be worse than death so instead Mr Gomez does nothing.

The upshot of police corruption in Mexico has been in an almost total collapse of law and order in recent months, a terrifying state of affairs that seems to have gone largely unnoticed north of the border in the US, even though many Mexicans blame Americans for the troubles. Americans bought the drugs that funded the drugs cartels, which paid off the police, they said. Americans also supplied the weapons.

The detective interviewed described the police being arrogant”and said, “they never follow the rules, they torture people, they act with impunity. The corruption is huge. We have to change everything, from the highest level down. It’s going to be difficult.”

FULL STORY

Mexico: "Enough is Enough"

More than 150,000 Mexicans dressed in white marched on Saturday to protest a wave of kidnappings and gruesome murders, putting pressure on President Felipe Calderon to meet his promises to crack down on crime.

Demonstrators filled the capital’s historic Zocalo Square, holding candles and pictures of kidnap victims and bearing signs that read, “Enough Is Enough”.

Mexico is one of the worst countries in the world for abductions, along with conflict zones like Iraq and Colombia. Much of the crime relates to battles for the control of drugs routes.

Most crimes in Mexico go unsolved, with corrupt police and justice officials often complicating investigations.

Full Story