The War Next Door: Dear Mr. President, Do Your Job. Secure Our Borders !!!

Discovery of 49 mutilated bodies dumped on a highway Sunday in northern Mexico is latest violent incident ~ VIDEO http://barracudabrigade.blogspot.com/2012/05/discovery-of-49-mutilated-bodies-dumped.html

A popular vacation spot for ... body parts http://barracudabrigade.blogspot.com/2012/05/popular-vacation-spot-for-body-parts.html

Mexican cartel may be trying to silence bloggers !!! http://barracudabrigade.blogspot.com/2011/11/mexican-cartel-may-be-trying-to-silence.html

Gruesome Discovery in Mexico http://barracudabrigade.blogspot.com/2011/04/gruesome-discovery-in-mexico.html

14 Headless Bodies Found in Acapulco http://barracudabrigade.blogspot.com/2011/01/14-headless-bodies-found-in-acapulco.html


Below is a list compiled by Stratfor (available here) of drug-related violence in Mexico during the first week of May. It doesn't even include this week's discovery of 49 more victims—but consider these recent events and ask yourself what we would be demanding of our government if this was happening here in the United States.
May 1
• Gunmen killed three people sitting at an outdoor candy stand in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state.
• Authorities discovered the body of a police officer in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco state, who was likely killed the previous day.

May 2
• Gunmen hiding in a motel in Estacion Bamoa, near Guasave, Sinaloa state, engaged a military convoy in a firefight that lasted two hours and left 15 gunmen and two soldiers dead.
• Five gunmen and one federal police officer died in Sain Alto, Zacatecas state, after a car chase.
• The Mexican navy arrested Luis Alberto "El Casanova" Perez Casanova in Xalapa, Veracruz state. Perez allegedly served as Los Zetas' security chief in Xalapa.

May 3
• Authorities found two photojournalists for local media outlet Notiver in black bags in a river in Boca del Rio, Veracruz state. The journalists were reported missing April 27.
• A newspaper vendor was shot dead on a street in Chihuahua, Chihuahua state.

May 4
• Nine individuals were hung from a bridge in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas state. Along with the bodies, a narcomanta was displayed denouncing individuals coming to Nuevo Laredo "to heat up the plaza" and singling out Gulf cartel leaders such as Metro-4 and Juan Mejia "R1" Gonzalez.
• Authorities discovered 14 headless bodies stored in a van in front of the Association of Customs Agents building in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas state, along with a narcomanta signed "El Chapo." The message demanded that the Mayor of Nuevo Laredo recognize the presence of the Sinaloa Federation in the city. The same day, authorities discovered 14 severed heads in three coolers in front of the city hall.
• Several gunfights in the Iztapalapa neighborhood of Mexico City left six dead and four wounded.
• Gunmen opened fire on a police patrol in San Nicolas de los Garza, Nuevo Leon state, killing one police officer and wounding another.

May 5
• A firefight between two groups left eight gunmen dead in Jerez de Garcia Salinas, Zacatecas state.
• At least two gunmen in a vehicle shot and killed a strip club bouncer in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon state, in front of the club.
• Gunmen traveling in a vehicle shot a man walking home in the Azcapotzalco neighborhood of Mexico City.
• Federal police detained alleged La Linea leader Javier "El Dientes de Ajo" Hernandez Marquez in Chihuahua state. According to authorities, Hernandez assumed the leadership of the group after the arrest of La Linea's previous leader 10 days before.

May 6
• Authorities discovered three dead men along a highway in Atoyac de Alvarez, Guerrero state.
• Federal police announced the arrest of 12 La Barredora members in Acapulco, Guerrero state.

May 7
• Authorities discovered the bodies of two executed men in the La Draga neighborhood of Mexico City.
• Gunmen shot and killed an individual inside his vehicle in Cajeme, Sonora state.
• Mexican authorities announced the arrest of Maria "La Tosca" Jimenez, the leader of a Los Zetas cell of sicarios (assassins), along with eight other people in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon state. Jimenez was arrested with three male sicarios the week before.

Discovery of 49 mutilated bodies dumped on a highway Sunday in northern Mexico is latest violent incident ~ VIDEO

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- The discovery of 49 mutilated bodies dumped on a highway in northern Mexico on Sunday appears to be part of an increasingly gruesome war of intimidation among Mexican drug gangs. Here is a partial list of other notable incidents over the past 12 months. More

A popular vacation spot for ... body parts

Don't be an idiot, stay out of Mexico !!!

Mexican authorities report 20 dismembered bodies found in the state of Jalisco, presumed to be the latest victims of the country’s escalating drug war.

At first, reports said there were 12 bodies,then 18, left in two vans on a road in the Lake Chapala region, popular with US retirees and tourists.

Now, on a road in Jalisco, officials have spotted two more bodies and Mexico's attorney general suspects those killings could be connected to the other corpses, Europa Press reports. More

World's most dangerous volcano erupts in Mexico ~ VIDEO

MEXICO CITY – The Popocatepetl volcano is shooting a heavy plume of ash into the sky southeast of Mexico's capital, and television images show a reddish glow near the crater.

Webcam images on the site of the National Disaster Prevention Center show the plume rising from the top of the 17,886-foot peak at dawn, though clouds obscured the volcano for people further away.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/04/20/mexico-volcano-spews-glowing-rock-tower-ash/#ixzz1sbaqRoT6

U.S. Drivers Head to Mexico For Cheaper Gas, Despite Violent Drug Cartels

Drivers Head to Mexico For Cheaper Gas: MyFoxPHOENIX.com

As gas prices skyrocket, drivers are looking south of the border for some alternatives to ease the pain at the pump.
But there's growing concern that bargain-seekers could be putting their lives at risk.
The national average for a gallon of gas is hovering around $3.80 right now -- $4.35 in California, according to AAA, and some analysts think it'll keep climbing as we head into summer.

So it's no wonder in cities along the border -- people are driving into Mexico to fill up their tanks -- where the price for a gallon of gas is around a $1.50 less.
"I do work with a lot of people who do go across the border for gas and other stuff, but they're risking their lives. There's no way I would do it," said Elizabeth Perdoza, a driver from El Paso.


Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/03/19/us-drivers-head-south-to-mexico-for-cheaper-gas/#ixzz1q4D7mZxe

Breaking: 7.6 earthquake hits near Acapulco, Mexico

A strong, long magnitude-6.59 earthquake with an epicenter in Guerrero state shook central southern Mexico on Tuesday, swaying buildings in Mexico City and sending frightened workers and residents into the streets.

Mexico's National Seismological Survey said the temblor had an epicenter southwest of Ometepec.

It was six miles (10 kilometers) underground.


USGS



Earthquake Details


This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.
Magnitude
7.6
Date-Time
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 18:02:48 UTC
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 12:02:48 PM at epicenter
Location
16.662°N, 98.188°W
Depth
17.5 km (10.9 miles)
Region
OAXACA, MEXICO
Distances
25 km (15 miles) E (95°) from Ometepec, Guerrero, Mexico
42 km (26 miles) NNW (335°) from Pinotepa Nacional, Oaxaca, Mexico
87 km (54 miles) SW (219°) from Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca, Mexico
162 km (101 miles) WSW (255°) from Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico
186 km (115 miles) E (96°) from Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico
Location Uncertainty
horizontal +/- 15.8 km (9.8 miles); depth +/- 6.5 km (4.0 miles)
Parameters
NST=438, Nph=440, Dmin=312.8 km, Rmss=0.88 sec, Gp= 79°,
M-type=regional moment magnitude (Mw), Version=9
Source
Magnitude: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Location: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID
usc0008m6h

Mexico's army captures "El Chapo," security head for Sinaloa drug cartel, one of world's most wanted men

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- The Mexican army announced Sunday that it had captured the head of security for Sinaloa drug cartel head Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, one of the world's most wanted men.


The suspect, who was not identified by name, was captured in the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan and will be presented to the media Monday morning, the army said.


Guzman, Mexico's top drug lord, is one of the world's richest men, and has eluded authorities by moving around and hiding since his 2001 escape from prison in a laundry truck.


The army said the man they had arrested also ran cartel activities in Durango and southern Chihuahua state, and was responsible for carrying out secret burials of cartel victims, kidnapping, extortion and arson. They did not say if the arrest moved the military closer to capturing Guzman, an arrest that would be seen as a major victory for the government of President Felipe Calderon.


Guzman is worth more than $1 billion, according to Forbes magazine, which has listed him among the "World's Most Powerful People." He has a $7 million bounty on his head, and thousands of law enforcement agents from the U.S. and other countries working on capturing him.


His cartel controls cocaine trafficking on the Mexican border with California and has moved eastward to the corridor between the Mexican state of Sonora, which borders Arizona.


Separately, Mexican soldiers discovered 13 bodies in an abandoned truck Sunday along with a message that they were killed in a war between rival drug cartels in the eastern state of Veracruz, officials said.


The bodies were found in Tamaulipas state, a few hundred yards (meters) from its border with Veracruz, according to the Tamaulipas attorney general's office.


The area has been the scene of bloody battles between the Gulf and Zetas cartels, and a pair of banners alluding to a rivalry were found in the truck, the statement from the attorney-general's office said.


On Friday, the attorney general's office in Veracruz said it had found 10 bodies in a different area along the border with Tamaulipas after receiving a tip.


On Thursday, three U.S. citizens traveling to spend the holidays with their relatives in Mexico were among those killed in a spree of shooting attacks on buses. In the spree, a group of gunmen attacked three buses in Veracruz, killing a total of seven passengers.


The Americans killed were a mother and her two daughters who were returning to visit relatives in the region.


The five gunmen who allegedly carried out the attacks were later shot to death by soldiers.


Earlier, the gunmen also shot to death three people and killed a fourth with grenade in the nearby town of El Higo, Veracruz.


Local police in Veracruz have become so corrupt that on Wednesday the government decided to dissolve the entire police force in the state's largest city, also known as Veracruz, and sent the Navy in to patrol. Some 800 police officers and 300 administrative employees were laid off.

Apocalypse, or chance to make a few pesos ??? Mexico's Mayan territory starts the countdown to Dec. 21, 2012

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Seize the day.


Only a year is left before Dec. 21, 2012, when some believe the Maya predicted the end of the world.


While some doomsday theorists may suggest putting together survival kits, people in southeastern Mexico, the heart of Maya territory, plan to throw a yearlong celebration. And to make a profit while they party.


Mexico's tourism agency expects to draw 52 million visitors over the coming year just to the five states richest in Maya heritage. Mexico as a whole is expected to lure just 22 million foreigners this year.


It is selling the date, the Winter Solstice, as a time of renewal. Most Mexican archaeological authorities say that the 2012 reference on a 1,300-year-old stone tablet only marks the end of a cycle in the Mayan calendar, not an apocalypse.


"The world will not end. It is an era," said Yeanet Zaldo, a tourism spokeswoman for the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo, home to Cancun. "For us, it is a message of hope."


Cities and towns in the Mayan region are starting the yearlong countdown on Wednesday. The city of Tapachula on the Guatemalan border will start an 8-foot (2.5-meter) digital clock in its main park to begin the countdown exactly a year before the date.


In the nearby archaeological site of Izapa, Maya priests will burn incense, chant and offer prayers.


On Mexico's Caribbean coast, between the resorts of Cancun and Playa del Carmen, people are putting messages and photos in a time capsule that will be buried for 50 years. Maya priests and Indian dancers will perform a ritual at the time capsule ceremony.


"People who still live in Mayan villages will host rites and burn incense for us to go back in time and try to understand the Mayan wisdom," Zaldo said.


Yucatan state has announced plans to complete the Maya Museum of Merida by next summer.


And President Felipe Calderon recently announced there would be about 500 Maya-themed events throughout the year in southern Mexico, including workshops and dance and music festivals.


Officials are building a state-run tourist hotel at the natural reserve of Calakmul in the state of Campeche. And the National Institute of Anthropology and History is opening three additional ruins to tourists.


Some theorists have found evidence of a 2012 apocalypse in the Bible, the prophesies of Nostradamus or in the alignment of celestial bodies, and official assurances that the world is likely to continue have not convinced everyone.


An article on the website "survivalguide2012" advises readers that in addition to stocking up on emergency supplies, they might consider heading to mountains on Dec. 21, perhaps those in Alaska or Bolivia.


"Regardless whether the threat of December 21, 2012, is real or not, there is no harm in being prepared" said the author, writing under the name Yang Muffins.


The Mayan civilization, which reached its height from 300 A.D. to 900 A.D., had a talent for astronomy


Its Long Count calendar begins in 3,114 B.C., marking time in roughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. Thirteen was a significant, sacred number for the Mayas, and they wrote that the 13th Baktun ends on Dec. 21, 2012.


The doomsday theories stem from a pair of tablets discovered in the 1960s at the archaeological site of Tortuguero in the Gulf of Mexico state of Tabasco that describe the return of a Mayan god at the end of a 13th period.


"The Maya are viewed by many westerners as exotic folks that were supposed to have had some special, secret knowledge," said Maya scholar Sven Gronemeyer. "What happens is that our expectations and fears get projected on the Maya calendar."


Gronemeyer of La Trobe University in Australia compares the supposed Mayan prophecies to the "Y2K" hype, when people feared all computer systems would crash when the new millennium began on Jan. 1, 2000.


For some reason, Gronemeyer says, people have ignored evidence that dates beyond 2012 were recorded in Mayan ruins.


"Human beings seem to be attracted by apocalyptic ideas and always assume the worst," he said.


Jonnie Channell of Albuquerque, New Mexico, says that 2012 "is going to be one of those things where people are definitely going to have to plan," not because of impending apocalypse, but because hotel rooms in the Maya region are probably going to be full.


Channell, who owns Maya Sites Travel Services, said she already has 24 reservations for three tour packages she is offering to major Mayan ruin sites in the week leading up to the solstice.


She named one "Beginning the New Calendar Era Under the Yucatan Stars."


"We put together these tours, and we've got lots of signups, and people are excited about it," she said. "If anybody think it's going to be the end of the world, then they better stay home."

Cross-Border Drug Violence Rages as Obama Mulls Pulling Troops

As violence along the U.S.-Mexican border continues to breed fear in some communities, the Obama administration may be considering pulling up to half of the National Guard troops who help monitor the southern border.  
“The administration is not serious about it,” said Rep. Francisco Canseco (R-TX), in reference to security along the border.  

The congressman, whose district includes nearly 800 miles of the southern border, said leaked White House reports reveal a plan to pull up to 600 of the 1,200 troops helping to monitor the divide. Canseco said people who live along some areas of the border are already feeling very insecure.
“We see all these reports (of) people coming across – killings happening, break-ins happening, sequestrations, and extortions,” he said, “even though [Secretary of Homeland Security] Janet Napolitano and President Obama refuse to recognize that there is cross-border violence.”
President Barack Obama ordered the troops to the border last year to help Border Patrol agents watch for illegal crossers and drug and human smugglers. The first of the 1,200 troops arrived in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas in August 2010, and were expected to be in place for about a year. Earlier this year, Obama extended that deployment.
The Guard troops don't have arrest power and have spent much of their time monitoring the 2,000-mile border and alerting Border Patrol agents to suspicious activity. The deployment was to have ended at the end of the year.
Canseco said the administration would need to develop an alternative plan for keeping the border secure.
Department of Homeland Security spokesman Matthew Chandler told Fox News Latino in an e-mail: “The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense are continuing to explore options to further strengthen the already unprecedented levels of personnel, technology and infrastructure deployed at the southwest border.”
Last week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection released data that said narcotics seizures for the 2011 fiscal year – which covers October 2010 to September – increased 20 percent compared to 2010.
Canseco believes it’s a combination of increased staffing of Customs and Border Protection agents and more drug smugglers making attempts to cross the border.  
“What is happening is [drug cartels] are amplifying the amount of trafficking that’s going through,” he said.
DHS also reported a major dip in apprehensions of undocumented immigrants.
In 2011, 340,252 arrests were made compared to 463,382 in 2010. Canseco said the drop is due to fewer migrants attempting to cross the border due to the poor U.S. economy.
Early next year, Canseco plans to propose the Southwest Cross Border Violence Recognition Act to Congress, which will allow the DHS and the FBI to define clearly what cross-border violence is.
“Over the summer we had incidents in the valley in Texas where [Department of Public Safety officers] were shooting across the river [at] drug cartels that were shooting at them,” said Canseco.  
He noted an incident that occurred on November 21 in Houston, where Zetas drug cartel members apparently opened fire at a tanker being transported for the Drug Enforcement Agency, which was carrying 300 pounds of marijuana, according to Canseco.
He said the incident resulted in the death of a federal informant and the wounding of a Harris County deputy sheriff.
“[We really need to] get serious on that national level about border security,” said Canseco. “That is one of the first things that our federal government should be doing.”

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/12/19/cross-border-drug-violence-rages-as-obama-mulls-pulling-troops/#ixzz1h4sQ9qVP