Mexico Has Fired 10 pct Of Federal Police In 2010

[Richard]

And so it goes...

Richard


Mexico Has Fired 10 pct Of Federal Police In 2010
MiamiHerald, 29 Aug 2010

Mexico's federal police agency has fired nearly 10 percent of its force this year for failing lie detector tests or other checks designed to detect possible corruption, officials said Monday.

Mexico's approximately 35,000 federal police are required to undergo periodic lie detector, psychological and drug examinations, and the government routinely investigates their finances and personal life.

Federal Police Commissioner Facundo Rosas said 3,200 officers have been dismissed this year for failing to meet the agency's standards. He did not give more details.

The fired agents are barred from taking jobs in any other security force - a recurring problem that Mexican governments have vowed to solve for many years. Another 1,020 federal police are facing unspecified disciplinary measures.

Police corruption at all levels is widespread in Mexico, which is mired in an intensifying conflict with brutal drug cartels. Police are often found to have been involved in cartel attacks, including the assassination two weeks ago of a mayor who had disciplined municipal officers in his northern town. Investigators say local officers aligned with the Zetas drug gang killed the mayor in retaliation.

Scandals have also ensnared the federal police. Two years ago, a corruption probe known as "Operation Clean House" toppled the former anti-drug czar, Noe Ramirez, and other high-ranking police accused of protecting the Beltran Leyva gang.

Rivals of the Sinaloa cartel, which broke with the Beltran Leyvas before "Clean House," have sometimes accused federal officials of protecting that gang. Earlier this year, Reforma newspaper reported that a trove of papers containing the names and phone numbers of federal police officers was found in the car of an associate of Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin Guzman during a May 2009 bust. The government has never confirmed or denied that report.

President Felipe Calderon, who has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers and federal police to fight drug traffickers in their strongholds, insists his government combats all cartels with equal force.

He has pointed to the regular police tests and crackdowns such as "Clean House" as evidence that his government is also aggressively fighting corruption.

Drug violence has surged since Calderon intensified the crackdown on traffickers in late 2006, claiming more than 28,000 lives.

Last week, marines discovered the bodies of 72 Central and South American migrants believed to have been gunned down by the Zetas after refusing to smuggle drugs, in what may be the deadliest cartel massacre to date.

The lone survivor - an 18-year-old Ecuadorean who escaped and alerted marines at a highway checkpoint - returned to his home country over the weekend after declining a humanitarian visa that would have let him stay in Mexico, the Foreign Relations Department announced Monday.

Luis Freddy Lala Pomavilla, who had been recovering from a gunshot wound under heavy police protection, flew home Sunday on an Ecuadorean air force plane.

The migrants were discovered at a ranch about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the U.S. border in Tamaulipas, a state controlled by the Zetas. Begun as a gang of hit men, the Zetas have grown into a major trafficking cartel with increasing control over migrant smuggling routes.

Violence has surged in Tamaulipas and neighboring Nuevo Leon state this year since the Zetas broke ranks with their former employer, the Gulf cartel.

On Sunday, gunmen killed the mayor of Hidalgo, a town near where the migrants were slain. Two weeks earlier, the mayor of Santiago in neighboring Nuevo Leon state was assassinated, allegedly by police tied to the Zetas.

In June, cartel gunmen assassinated the leading candidate for governor of Tamaulipas, Rodolfo Torre Cantu, less than a week before state and local elections.

The government offered a 15 million peso ($1.15 million) reward Monday for information leading to the capture of his killers.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/2...in-border.html

[nmap]

Fascinating development. I cannot help but wonder whether some large percentage of the newly unemployed will go to work for the drug gangs. They may have few alternatives.

The bankruptcy of Mexicana Airlines is suggestive of fiscal distress, perhaps.

[CombatMuffin]

Fascinating development. I cannot help but wonder whether some large percentage of the newly unemployed will go to work for the drug gangs. They may have few alternatives.

Lets not forget the possibility that these cops may have already been on the payroll, the difference being that they are probably less useful now that they don't carry uniforms and cop cars....

What I want to know, is who they are replacing that 10% with? From what I've experienced growing up here, it is VERY rare not to find a crooked cop, since bribing your way out of the cop's way is common culture here. If they are willing to let you go for something as cheap as a parking ticket... how much will a monthly bonus for smuggling do? Its nice that they are trying to replace the bad cops, but the truth is, the other 90% is probably crooked in its majority.

Its somehow understandable: They are underpaid, they lack vehicles and uniforms, etc. They mostly earn a living to feed their family from those tiny bribes. Most people look at them as a single speeding ticket, when in the long run, they are supporting a corrupt culture.

[mark46th]

Nmap, CM- You both are probably right. Now they are riding around in Black Denali's w/ AK's and RPG's....

[CombatMuffin]

Sorry for the quick post, but here's another update that I thought compliments part of what Richard already posted, as well as add some new information(on capturing "The Barbie").

Violence has been rapidly increasing, I'll try to find a source for this, but right now the news are also informing that they had a 15 hour shootout with Cicarios(Hitmen) last night, probably linked with the Barbie's capture.

MEXICO CITY — Mexico's attorney general says authorities have captured long-sought drug kingpin Edgar Valdez Villarreal, alias "the Barbie."

The Texas-born Valdez Villareal is alleged to be leading one of the two factions battling for control of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel.

The 37-year-old has been indicted in the United States on charges he distributed thousands of kilos of cocaine in the eastern U.S. between 2004 and 2006.

U.S. authorities have offered a $2 million reward for information leading to his arrest.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Something interesting to consider, is that Calderon's term is nearing its end and with so many political interests at stake, one can only wonder if the increasing violence is not politically motivated to cause distrust in the future candidates. After all, the PRI party governed Mexico for a little over 70 years... They probably want it back.