Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Mexican Government Says It Backs Public Safety Secretary


Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna has the full backing of the government despite calls for his resignation by poet Javier Sicilia, who has become a symbol of the struggle for justice in Mexico, the Calderon administration’s security spokesman said.

The federal government respects differing opinions in society, but it disagrees with the points made by Sicilia at the end of a peace march on Sunday, federal security spokesman Alejandro Poire said.

“If anyone has worked for the creation of a civilian police force that is professional, follows the law, is well equipped and has intelligence capabilities that guarantee the safety of the people, that person is Garcia Luna,” Poire said in a press conference Monday at the Los Pinos presidential residence.

The Federal Police, which is under the control of Garcia Luna, “has achieved the capture of many criminals, some of them responsible for some of the crimes that hurt us the most,” Poire said.

The Federal Police is responsible, along with other federal forces, for the weakening of the country’s drug cartels, “the ones that generate violence, kidnappings, extortion,” Poire said.

Garcia Luna has expanded the size of the Federal Police from 6,500 officers at the start of President Felipe Calderon’s term in December 2006 to more than 36,000 officers, of whom 7,000 are “graduates of the country’s best universities and all are subject to strict background checks,” Poire said.

The federal government accepts the public’s criticism, but “a strong citizens’ culture includes support for the institutions that have yielded fruit in the fight against organized crime and criminality,” the security spokesman said.

Lack of agreement, however, should “not be an obstacle to dialogue,” Poire said.

Sicilia concluded his national march for peace on Sunday with an address to thousands of people in Mexico City’s main Zocalo plaza at the end of the peace march.

The poet organized the four-day march from Cuernavaca, located about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Mexico City, to protest the unraveling of the country at the hands of drug traffickers, violence and corruption.

Sicilia’s 24-year-old son, Juan Francisco, was killed along with six other young men on March 27, with investigators saying that drug traffickers were behind the slayings.

The poet called on Calderon to demand Garcia Luna’s resignation.

The war on drugs has left 40,000 people dead, Sicilia said, adding that Calderon continues to pursue his strategy despite mounting criticism.

Some in the crowd called for the ouster and even killing of Garcia Luna, a conservative who is widely hated and has been accused of corruption by grassroots organizations and some in the media.

The 55-year-old Sicilia, however, urged the crowd to avoid more violence.

“No, don’t let him die, fire him, no more deaths, no more hatred, violence will lead us to more violence,” Sicilia told the crowd.

The dignity and fortitude with which the writer has coped with his son’s death and his demands that the government do more to halt the violence have resonated with people in different sectors of Mexican society, who have come together under the slogan “Estamos hasta la madre!” (We’ve had it up to here!), a typically Mexican expression of exasperation.

The goal of Sicilia’s movement is to forge a national pact aimed at sharply reducing the violence resulting from turf wars among rival drug cartels and a government offensive against the gangs.

Calderon, whose term began in December 2006 and runs through November 2012, is stubbornly sticking to his strategy of combating the powerful drug gangs with tens of thousands of soldiers and Federal Police officers despite an ever-escalating death toll, the poet said.

Calderon’s critics contend that his strategy has only triggered an increasingly violent response from drug traffickers, who are known for brutal tactics, such as hanging their decapitated rivals from bridges in urban areas.

Federal forces also have been accused of rights violations, but the government says it is essential that they play the lead role in combating the cartels due to widespread corruption among law enforcement at the local and state level.

A total of 15,270 people died in drug-related violence in Mexico in 2010, the deadliest in current government’s four-and-a-half-year war on the cartels.

Source: EFE



4 comments:

  1. This reaction tells me that the movement definitely has his attention. I doubt that he will alter the direction he has so firmly trenched himself in though. He is head strong with his plan and is not the kind of man that can admit his idea was not successful. Most politicians aren't. Failure to change or adjust proves that he most certainly is a typical politician and not a true leader with Mexico's best interest at heart.

    He has his work cut out for him with the battle lines drawn with Los Zetas. They are controlling a lot of territory and certainly have lots of artillery. They have there backs to the wall and will most definitely fight to the end. I am concerned that he, the CDG and Sinaloa cannot finish this battle and it could make them a very strong and unpopular significant cartel.

    I wish he would direct all his military and federal police at the Zeta task and leave the other cartels to battle and settle their turf wars so that all the conflict would end. The kidnapping, extortion and violence is directly correlated with his plan to attack smaller cartels, and allow the larger to succeed. The crime is how these cartels pay for the added expense of employing their armies to battle. If the battles cease, so will the need for lager cartel armies. Unfortunately, then you have more renegade criminals. The smaller cartels will not go away and will only get more violent and dramatic as this progresses.

    I am afraid he has stomped in way to many fire ant beds and they are attacking the citizens.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Professional Mexican PAN party political hack, Calderon, versus Mexican poet, Javier Sicilia. It's kind of like a battle between life and death here, is it not? And Calderon is not the one for LIFE.

    I thought of that as I read an article on the Counterpunch website today about the decades long US drug war, and how all the BB resident Right Wingers time after time have attacked me as being too 'Berkley', a hippy, and supposedly obnoxious and rude to God fearing American patriot dittoheaded sheeple types,such as themselves.

    The Counterpunch article I was reading then...
    Here is Living Free, Outside the Mainstream- That Hippie Sacrament
    By JOHN SINCLAIR
    http://www.counterpunch.com/sinclair05132011.html

    Like the Mexican poet, Javier Sicilia, John Sinclair knows that the 'drug war' is not just about a struggle between law and order versus criminality. It is also about bad law and the criminal governments that back such.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Decriminalization: Hopefully the US is investigating new options in eliminating 'the war on drugs' from an incarceration approach to a health issue approach. When addict is caught, instead of court and jail time, the user is offered treatment and counseling.

    This step could also aide Mexican drug war...

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/27/portugals-drug-policy-pays-eyes-lessons/

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree with you, Layla2.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are moderated, refer to policy for more information.
Envía fotos, vídeos, notas, enlaces o información
Todo 100% Anónimo;

borderlandbeat@gmail.com