Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
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Friday, December 31, 2010

Mexican Officials Want to Re-brand Cartel Members as Terrorist

by: Will Ripley
KRGV.com

Mexican lawmakers are fighting a war against the cartels and against public opinion.

Fred Burton is Vice President of the Global Intelligence company Stratfor.
He wrote an article claiming Mexico is trying to re-brand the cartel wars.
Some Mexican lawmakers want to label crimes committed by the drug cartels as acts of terrorism.

Burton say by labeling cartel crimes as domestic terrorism it would allow Mexican authorities to hand out harsher prison sentences.

The violence is so intense some citizens blame the Mexican government. Burton thinks by labeling cartel members as terrorists Mexico could try to win back public support. He says they may have a harder time actually prosecuting kingpins for terrorism.

"The corruption aspect. The degree of influence that the cartel bosses have over the judicial system. The police, the elected officials, in many ways place them in positions where they're untouchable," said Burton.

A prison break two weeks ago in Nuevo Laredo proves even if cartel members are thrown in jail, there are no guarantee they'll stay there.

Just before that prison break Mexican lawmakers approved a change in the law allowing 10 to 50 year sentences for terrorist acts. No word if they will actually implement these reforms.

4 comments:

  1. This is a complete joke considering less than 2% of those arrested ever go to trial. Even if they do get sent to prison they soon escape with the help of corrupt officials or guards. The narcos are but one part of the problem, the corruption at government levels is out of control.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ernest1-
    People are already denied any rights at all here in Mexico. Other than a PR campaign,as Anonymous says, it doesn't really matter what the sentence is because almost no crimes ever get to the point of the accused being tried and sentenced. It is a joke to debate changes in the "justice system" in a country where there is no justice.

    ReplyDelete
  3. If these criminals are going to be labeled as terrorists, is it going to be a shoot to kill type of thing now? Because prison isn't working.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Is it to be taboo now to mention how labeling one a 'terrorist' will be used to deny POWs of any 'war' any human rights? It has already been done in Iraq and Afghanistan, Somali and Yemen, and all points elsewhere outside of Latin America.

    This article carries the title of...'Mexican Officials Want to Re-brand Cartel Members as Terrorist'

    ...but the better title, and more accurate one, would be... US Officials Want to Re-brand Cartel Members as Terrorist.

    Ernest1

    ReplyDelete

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