Mexican Rancher: Eat Lead, Cartel Thugs
An alert tipster sent me a link to this piece in the New York Post about a 77-year-old rancher who, when threatened by the drug cartels, turned his house into a fortress and went down shooting.
Authorities said the cartel first rolled up that Saturday to Garza's ranch, located about 15 miles outside of Ciudad Victoria, to tell him the house he'd built by hand 34 years ago was on land they needed to expand their cocaine and marijuana routes to the US border.
Garza immediately dismissed all the workers on his ranch and told them not to come to work the next day.
Then the hunter and gun collector gathered up every weapon he could muster.
He perched guns in the windows and doors, lining the floors with extra ammo. And he waited in the dark and silence. ...
Now, I have a few questions about this story--not sure how the reporter could have known quite how it went down, seeing as everyone ended up dead--but I hope it really happened that way.
The anonymous tipster adds: "A few million more of him, and Mexico might be okay. On the Zeta being a terror organization, they manifestly are -- but as soon as USG confers that designation, the whole web of support that the Zetas draw upon become official terror supporters. And that's a good swath of Mexican officialdom ..... which in turn compels policy responses that frankly we don't want to embark upon."
Maybe.
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Oct '10
Re: Mexican Rancher: Eat Lead, Cartel Thugs
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
"as soon as USG confers that designation, the whole web of support that the Zetas draw upon become official terror supporters. And that's a good swath of Mexican officialdom ..... which in turn compels policy responses that frankly we don't want to embark upon."
Who's "we", Mr. Anonymous Tipster? Embark away, I say. The federal government has ignored this problem for far too long, mainly because the majority of politicians - Democratic and Republican alike - don't give a damn about long-suffering law-abiding Americans living on our nation's southern frontier. There is much historical precedent in this nation for such callous behavior toward those viewed as politically inconvenient, going back to Bacon's Rebellion. Men go and come, but human nature abides...
Oct '10
Re: Mexican Rancher: Eat Lead, Cartel Thugs
Sorry, this is old news if you were unaware. As it played out the old fella died, seems not before gaining the advantage of numerous dead thugs in his front yard.
In the overall, the Mexican public has been disarmed due to a serious history of Revolutions. Goes without saying that thought has brought this place nearly to its knees at the hands of cartels.
As one spends most of the time in Mexico this is of grave concern.
The real issue would be why the current administration refuses to address this...
Jan '11
Re: Mexican Rancher: Eat Lead, Cartel Thugs
Anyone seen Roque Nuevo?
Jul '10
Re: Mexican Rancher: Eat Lead, Cartel Thugs
The current administration doesn't address the border problem because it believes it can assemble a winning coalition next year comprised of the black vote, the brown vote, labor, the MSM and college-educated white women. Combine that with ACORN-style vote corruption and Bob's your uncle.
Oct '10
Re: Mexican Rancher: Eat Lead, Cartel Thugs
Simply because it knows it can.. And there is nothing to be done about it..
Jan '11
Re: Mexican Rancher: Eat Lead, Cartel Thugs
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Now, I have a few questions about this story--not sure how the reporter could have known quite how it went down, seeing as everyone ended up dead--but I hope it really happened that way.
Some stories reported that a couple of gunmen were still alive when the Mexican Marines arrived at the scene. Also, they (the Marines) put in some time reconstructing the sequence of events as best they could. I'm sure there was some guesswork involved.
Now can we bring our army home from Afghanistan?
Dec '10
Re: Mexican Rancher: Eat Lead, Cartel Thugs
Claire, here is the State Department's official list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Note that while it includes Kahane Chai (Kach), a far-Right Israeli organization, it doesn't include some rather obvious candidates, like the Sicilian Mafia, the Calabrian 'Ndragheta, or the Neapolitan Camorra. The Revelutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is on the list; the Medellin and Cali cartels are not.
Perhaps there needs to be a new law in the USA to designate particularly violent organized crime entities as Foreign Terrorist-Equivalent Organizations. However, it's not clear whether the laws governing FTOs are all that more intensive and far-reaching than the laws regarding good old-fashioned organized crime: RICO (the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970) pre-dates the FTO designation provisions of INA Section 219, enacted in 1996.
Edited on Apr 20, 2011 at 8:24pmJun '10
Re: Mexican Rancher: Eat Lead, Cartel Thugs
Or "Robert is your dad's brother" as we "Upstairs Downstairs" fans say.
Oct '10
Re: Mexican Rancher: Eat Lead, Cartel Thugs
Until this Mexican gov't (or any Mexican Opposition prez candidate) asks the US to designate the Cartels as FTOs, there's nothing the US can do about it?
Apr '11
Re: Mexican Rancher: Eat Lead, Cartel Thugs
Shouldn't that be "Roberto is your dad's brother?"
Feb '11
Re: Mexican Rancher: Eat Lead, Cartel Thugs
Alejo Garza Tamez was his name.
That deserves to be known.
Apr '11
Re: Mexican Rancher: Eat Lead, Cartel Thugs
Well, I'm not sure this is why they don't get rated as terrorists.
The depth of corruption in Mexico boggles human understanding, but that is certainly something every Mexican knows and much of what Calderon is using the Army for instead of the police force-- the Army does the safecracking, as it were, which allows for them not to have to trust the police forces where they are and then that police force is fired and people who would rather fight these people than take their money are hired. The Army units can then be rotated to different areas in the country to help keep them honest.
But on Calderon's immediate hit list were the people this guy was talking about.
While if the US wound up the finances to these people like they did the terrorist networks 10 years ago, they would be hurting something awful, I do have to wonder to what extent the Mexican government actually trusts us.
This worked in Columbia, with very little (noticable) US involvement and something that worked in Columbia is an infinitely easier sell to Mexico than as something the Yankee gringos came up with to help Columbia...
Oct '10
Re: Mexican Rancher: Eat Lead, Cartel Thugs
mexico is different from colombia. mexico shares the same border with TX, AZ, CA, while Colombia is a country far far away from the US. Many of the Cartel leaders and operators probably have US citizenship and the can move in and out of the US without getting checked. Their relatives and family members are probably living in the US too. I would not be surprised if these cartels have bought influence with corrupt american local politicians and law enforcers at the border states. They have the money to do it.
Edited on Apr 21, 2011 at 7:24amNov '10
Re: Mexican Rancher: Eat Lead, Cartel Thugs
Here's the very non-COC version of the story.