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on the border line between the US and Mexico
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Saturday, August 5, 2017

Mexico's Deadliest Town. Mexico's Deadliest Year.

Posted by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from the NYT

Colima's Very Active Volcano
An Auspicious Symbol
Award Winning Photo by Nat Geo Photographer Sergio Tapiro
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By:Azad Ahmed
Paulina Villegas Contributes from Mexico City
Aug 4, 2017

TECOMÁN, Mexico — He slumped in a shabby white chair, his neck unnaturally twisted to the right. A cellphone rested inches away, as if he had just put it down. His unlaced shoes lay beneath outstretched legs, a morbid still life of what this town has become.

Israel Cisneros, 20, died instantly in his father’s one-room house. By the time the police arrived at the crime scene, their second homicide of the night, the blood seeping from the gunshot wound to his left eye had begun to harden and crack, leaving a skin of garish red scales over his face and throat.



Tecoman, Colima: a Part of What was Once One of the Safest States in Mexico
photo: Rodrigo Cruz / NYT
This was once one of the safest parts of Mexico, a place where people fleeing the nation’s infamous drug battles would come for sanctuary. Now, officials here in Tecomán, a quiet farming town in the coastal state of Colima, barely shrug when two murders occur within hours of each other. It’s just not that uncommon any more.

Last year, the town became the deadliest municipality in all of Mexico, with a homicide rate similar to a war zone’s, according to an independent analysis of government data. This year it is on track to double that figure, making it perhaps the most glaring example of a nationwide crisis.


Mexico is reaching its deadliest point in decades. Even with more than 100, 000 deaths, 30,000 people missing and billions of dollars tossed into the furnace of Mexico’s decade -long fight against organized crime, the flames have not died down. By some measures, they are only getting worse.

The last couple of months have set particularly ominous records: More homicide scenes have emerged across Mexico than at any point since the nation began keeping track 20 years ago.

Some of the crime scenes, like the room where Mr. Cisneros was found dead in his chair, had only one victim. Others had many. But their increasing frequency points to an alarming rise in violence between warring cartels. 

Criminal  groups  are  even sweeping into parts of Mexico that used to be secure, creating a flood of killings that, by some tallies, is surpassing the carnage experienced during the peak of the drug war in 2011.

“What is happening here is happening in the entire state, the entire country,” said José Guadalupe García Negrete, the mayor of Tecomán, a coastal community of roughly 100, 000. “It’s like a cancer.”

For President Enrique Peña Nieto, the torrent is much more than a rebuke of the government’s efforts to fight organized crime. It is a fundamental challenge to his guiding narrative: that Mexico is moving well beyond the shackles of violence and insecurity.
  
Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto, "EPN"
Long before he took office, Mr. Peña Nieto made it clear that he would reshape Mexico’s international image, transforming it from a nation sullied by its deadly reputation into a globally recognized leader in energy, education, telecommunications and trade.

For a while, it worked. His economic changes sailed through Congress. Even as the grisly reality of violence reared its head, like the mass disappearance of 43 students in 2014, tourism climbed and homicides fell, a fact the president often mentioned in speeches.

But the numbers are overtaking the plotline. Homicides are soaring. Violence is also stalking places like Baja California Sur, home of the resort town Los Cabos, pushing Mr. Peña Nieto’s image of Mexico toward a breaking point.


Another  Pacific Coastal Paradise Going the Same Way as Others
How Long Before Mexico's Booming Tourist Industry Goes Bust ?
(Many of which are part of  the Giant Money Laundering Business)
“The Peña Nieto administration seriously underestimated, or misunderstood, the nature of the problem that Mexico was experiencing,” said David Shirk, a professor at the University of San Diego who has studied the drug war. “They thought by using marketing they could change the conversation and refocus people’s attention on all the good things that were happening, and away from the violence problem that they thought was totally overblown.”

The government says it has taken violence as seriously as anything else. But the rise in homicides comes from many forces, it says: the weakness of local and state police, the fracturing of criminal groups after their leaders have been arrested, the increase in demand for drugs in the United States and the flow of money and weapons it sends back to Mexico.

“The Government of the Republic has spoken out publicly about the upsurge of violence as a priority issue,” the Ministry of Interior said in a statement, adding that it has deployed the armed forces to dangerous cities like Tecomán.

But, faced with the surging homicides, government officials have also put forward another culprit to help explain them: the sweeping legal reforms pursued by their predecessors.

Begun in 2008 and completed last year with the help of more than $300 million in American aid, the new legal system is widely considered the most important change to Mexican jurisprudence in a century. Intended to fix the nation’s broken rule of law, it essentially adopted the model used in the United States, where innocence is presumed before guilt, evidence is presented in open court and corruption is harder to hide.

But the new legal system inhibits arbitrary detentions. Suspects held without evidence have been released, leading a growing chorus of officials to argue that the new system is responsible for the very surge in crime and impunity it was supposed to prevent.

For months, top officials in the president’s party have been laying the groundwork to chip away at the new legal system, taking aim at basic civil protections like the inadmissibility of evidence obtained through torture. And with violence worsening, the government has new ammunition to roll back the legal changes, pushing for broader powers like the ability to detain suspects for years before trial.

Mr. García, the mayor of Tecomán, understands the president’s dilemma all too well. As one of seven children born to a family of lime farmers here, he is a fierce defender of his town and does not want it to become a byword for murder.

Scream too loudly about the crisis around him and he risks reducing his community to another grim statistic. Stay silent and it could be overrun by criminals, helpless to confront them alone.
Tecoman's Mayor, Jose Guadalupe Garcia Negrete, in his Office
Not one for silence, Mr. García has opted to make a fuss. Cowboy hat in hand, he has made the rounds in Congress and among the political elite in the capital, landing help for his town. Not that it has done much for Tecomán.

Last year, the federal government sent in the marines, the military and the military police. Operations soared in the early months of 2017. But the grand result was the same: Homicides climbed even higher.

“You can’t attack a fundamental problem like this by pruning the leaves, or dealing with the branches,” says Mr. García, who often uses farming metaphors. “You have to go to the roots.


So he has decided to take his message to the young. On a recent afternoon, dozens of school children lined up in the sweltering heat for their elementary school graduation. The mayor adjusted his hat and dived into his speech.

Tecomán was losing its values, the traditions that kept families intact and the criminals at bay, he told them. He mopped his brow and continued. Forces from outside were tearing at the fabric of the community, and citizens needed to redouble their efforts to stay strong in the face of it all.

“We celebrate life, not death, here in Tecomán,” he said. “We must be the architects of our own lives and futures.”

The government’s monthly statistics, which date back to 1997, suggest a hard road ahead. The data tracks crime scenes, where one, two or ten killings may have occurred. May and June, the latest months available, set consecutive records for the most homicide scenes in the last 20 years.



The total number of homicides in Mexico is also climbing quickly. According to the government’s monthly tally, which goes back to 2014, May and June also set consecutive records for the most total homicides. This year is on pace to be the deadliest yet.

It is an indictment of the drug war. The strategy of the United States and Mexico to relentlessly pursue high-ranking cartel leaders has not dampened the violence. To the contrary, some experts believe, the extradition of Mexico’s most notorious drug baron, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, known as El Chapo, to the United States this year helped generate the latest wave of violence as various factions look to fill the power vacuum left in his wake.

A sudden brazenness prevails on the streets of Tecomán. Late last month, a red Volkswagen barreled through the congested streets at 80 m.p.h. Four patrol cars gave chase before an officer shot out the back tire.

The driver struggled with the police. Handcuffed, he stared at the officer straddling him and promised they would see each other again.


Man Threatens Cops During a Speeding Stop
Photo: Rodrigo Cruz / NYT
“You already know how this ends, and what happens to you,” he said before screaming out to a friend: “Come and kill them all right now. Kill them!”

For many, a dull familiarity with the violence has settled in. Restaurants still teem with patrons. Families host festive baptisms for newborns. On a recent evening, young and old swarmed the central square, the children playing soccer while elderly residents sat on benches, enjoying the sunless warmth.

Angela Hernández brought her 5-year-old son for an ice cream. When she moved to town 10 years ago, there were hardly any murders. Still, she doesn’t feel frightened.

“It really only touches those involved in the world of crime,” she said. She knows her child is growing up in an environment where violence is stitched into the rhythm of life, but in the end, she’s O.K. with that, she said.

“It’s better he gets used to it,” she said as her son climbed a gazebo railing nearby. “This is not going to change. None of it.”

47 comments:

  1. Mexico is fighting a loosing battle. With drug consumption globally. Organized crime will continue to shape the fabric of its nation. A narco state. A country where government officials and municipal officials are bribed and intimidated to the will of its nemesis. Moreover, its citizens as hostages to the daily criminal activities.
    Values and morals have all withered in a society plagued by a cancer which continues to spread.
    However, I see no end in sight unless legalization in America is implemented. A battle for such to be achieved due to the many conservative principles and values held.

    E42

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    1. Bullshit! Legalization would solve all the problems associated with organized crime overnight. The consequences of drug use would be put squarely with the user and the vast majority of the money flowing into corruption and criminal organizations would disappear.

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    2. Hey 42, at least act like you read books. Mexico has been getting sold out to the highest bidder since the old times, right now a good chunk of that racket just happens to be drug trafficking and drug cartels. Take a look at any of the Mexican presidents from now all the way back who have sat at the helm, and one way or another it's greased palms for a look the other way, while the common man loses out; it's a well oiled machine. Having said that, talk up "values and morals" no matter how eloquent or grim you try to make it sound, remember this article is but a tiny snap shot into a country that still stands.

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    3. Arriba Mexico jijos del cocho

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    4. Illegal money pays no taxes, and used wisely makes the owner of the money the King of the World,
      or at least puppet prezident,
      If drug trafficking is illegal, the government gets to pay billions and billions of dollars IN CASHIERS' CHECKS THAT GET PAID UPON DEMAND TO THE WARRIORS OF THE WAR ON DRUGS.
      but good luck with "legalization"

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    5. On photo at top you can see it clearly, the murderers did not kill'em for the plastic pails or the silverware.
      Hijos de su puta madre, they never murder people that live in million dollar residences, WHY?

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    6. because.. its pretty simple if you think about it like this.. you can get one half of the poor people to kill the other half....

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    7. Colombia, murderous AUC have been imprisoned, for murders and disappearaces, and their dominion over haciendas, land and other properties has been "extinguished"...their dirty deeds coming clear for all to see, a d their leader is still traveling to Mar-a-Lago, alvaro uribe velez is his name, he took good care of murdering his daddy, his partnerand former boss pablo escobar and his sicarios the Castaño Brothers the urabeños from the Uraba and assassins 5hat planted their victims around the hacienda El Ubèrrimo.
      That should tell you that in mexico some of the murdering is to consolidate properties under one feudal lord, people knows who that is, but they know they better keep quiet if theyon't wanna die.

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  2. Blame on Trump on this. Why not ?
    It will make you feel much, much better.

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    1. @740pm..every one blames the USA mainly cause we are winning by any means necessary. This site tends to attract liberals and immigrants huggers that want to save the world by sacrificing others real americans that served this country whether on the military or creating jobs. not with taco stands. liberals and democrats tribe on instability and they blame others than don't agree with them kind of what a dictador does censor those that think differently. Mexico is screwed up due to the culture they have. Trust me I'm mexican myself so I know first hand "let the debate begin I would do an interview " ..I seen this country decay "USA " so much due to the inability of multi national "white black asian indian" immigrants failure to adapt to the American way..all this is interconnected. But again the moderators in this site are democrats like minded always blaming others for the problems of the world wanting the good old USA to fix them...back on 1989 when I arrived my neighborhood was full of Italians and nice houses with nice lawns and everyone flew American flags..now 2017 with all the italian white people gone death by age. the italians second generation the kids sold the houses..to banda tompping 10 cars on top of the lawns savages. Look at Los Angeles back in the 1980s and look at it now. That's is what is happening to this country failure to love your homeland that gives you freedom...ask any real mexicans that actually lived or lives in mexico are you ready to fight for freedom and go against the narcos or the government....the simple answer is NOOOOO because they would hurt me...I fought fucken Islamic savages in the middle east for cheap gas I admit it !!!!that is the real reason why we run including myself..we are like democrats good to live on others sacrifice for freedom but unable to create but always ready to take. JFK said it himself..don't ask what your country could do for you...but what you could do for your country . I dare you censor me..that is some good old journalism..

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    2. 10:02. Your all over the board with no salient point made.

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    3. Anonymous 10:02 pm,you hit it right on the nail,and I commend this site for not been too politically correct to print your reply.Believe it or not there are a lot of hispanics that feel exactly the way you feel,but we never get the microphone,the biased news media only puts out what the liberal progressives say,like that parasite Jorge Ramos.Kudos to you and keep fighting the good fight,good day.

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    4. 1002 - people (largely unarmed) don't want to "fight for freedom" against the narcos or the government because they'd get hurt, and you're going to insinuate it's a lack of character or courage on their part? What have you done to help besides bash your fellow Mexicans and throw them under the bus?

      You might label me an immigrant hugger, but the racist crap I've seen on the comments lately makes me sick. You're not better than anyone else. Regardless of whether immigrants should be here illegally or not, they are still human beings, and the last I remember, the punishment for coming into the United States shouldn't be death at some sadist's hands. The attitudes here, along with the open threats of one poster to other people for just posting here (you have to keep your mouth shut about certain things or else), let me know I'm done here after a few years. Not sure what happened to this site with these recent shitty comments, but I'm done. See you! (And no, I won't let the door hit me on the ass on the way out.) Kiss Trump's feet a few more times and he might throw you some crumbs.....

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    5. Dude you admittingly fought and maybe murdered for cheap gas and still qualify to call someone else savage?

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    6. Don't forget how Italians were treated when they first migrated to the US, not any different than Mexicans are treated today.

      Don't forget how it took decades for Italians to live down the mafioso stereotype...

      BTW I am a first generation Italian-American.

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    7. 10:02. Lets pretend Mexico fights against all the narcos and wipes them out. The drug production just moves somewhere else. What if it just moved back to the U.S.? This country would be on its knees if drug production happened here. Being American doesn't mean we don't have any responsibility for our thirst for drugs.

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    8. 2:04 and 10:02 are the same guy blowing his own horny ass.
      Congratat ions on finding the root of the world's problems and the volcano of your lowly passions...
      "Mexicans with ten cars parked on the lawn"
      You hit it right on your nalgas.

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    9. 7:24 comments about how BB commenters should "repent" ecaue we are being watched WAS and still is sarcasm, not a personal threat, and in any case, the commenter can not survey or spy anybody, I can barely post comments here because I am computer illiterate. Capisci Goomba?
      Also we are not suppossed to quit because the going got tough with the assy comments some russian trump-bots contribute here, also blaming Jorge Ramos is dumb, his light strawberry reporting does nobody any harm, it is like I am not going to get jealous and kill my wife because she loves him.
      --Don't quit mister espaghetti bender, debunk the Tromp Toe Lickers and do some good in the process, at least be counted.

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    10. 10:02 es "El Cachetón del Puro" alias el Señor Patiño, que sus nalgotas no son de niño

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    11. 1002 said...... a whole bunch of stuff lol. I didn't read it cuz what the hell man lol. Take a Zanax or 4.

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    12. Todos los de arriva son indios.

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    13. George Soros early life resembles that of Hannibal Lecter, but he has been more.discreet about eating people in real life,
      Among his charity work he financed the appeals of the imprisoned convicted murderers of the indians of Acteal/Chenalhó, about 50, because one or two could be innocent, all but one walked. Then they went back to murdering in guerrero and chiapas to take up with their murdering ways again.

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  3. Too much 💰 is paid by cartels to operate freely, just ask a moreira. It's not going to stop as long as there is suply and demand.
    La familia michoacana clicked up with cds in colima to fight against cjng. Cjng has always had presence in colima, same with lfm but it's mostly la familia that is fighting cjng with little help from cds (la barredora) thebonly way tge vilence will stop is when there is a dominant cartel that controls the market. That's why there is so much deaths this year and it's because of cjng trying to take control. Happening in veracruz with zetas and in tijuana with cds.

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    1. U just said it 8:19. "Just ask Moreira." Maybe if he did his job, along with every other Mexican politician, instead of taking bribes, the cartels could be handled. Somehow, the Mexican politicians have to get the dream of retiring in Texas with a couple mil in the bank, outta their pea sized brains, and try and make MEXICO a better place to live.

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    2. Coahuila State's debt of more than 30 billion peisos was not bribes, it was money loaned to the State by irresponsible foreign entities that should eat their loses or prosecute their defrauders instead of accepting that the state legislators make it "pubLic debt by law"
      In doas it is about 1.5 billion dollars,
      or $1 500 000 000.00 USD, MIL QUINIENTOS MILLONES DE DOLARES, un pinchi robo miserable, i mean a miserly robbery of Coahuila's present and future. A crime of state in total complicity with EPN...

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  4. Bullshit the extradition of Guzman to the U.S. has caused more violence! Only in Sinaloa perhaps but not all the violence across the country has to do with that fucker! Tamaulipas, Colima among other states have little to do with CDS. Don't protect CDS, get Zambada first and or Chapos kids and see if the same shit happens then begin making assumptions.

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  5. @7:40pm Have you noticed that the Liberals like to blame Trump for everything.

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    Replies
    1. They never even mention Trump in this article. They spend half of it calling out EPN's failures, but there's no critique of Trump.

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    2. Why do people whine to much, it's getting rediculous.. Wha wha wha the whole fuking word knows that the reason these cartels STARTED in Mexico it's because the demand for drugs from the U.S 90% of the drugs go to the U.S tge other 10% stay in Mexico for local sale. Suck it up, it's the truth.

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    3. 9:11 but trompitos' brown nosers full of brown to their ears do not miss an opportunity to push for their great leader, who has been mentioned on other occasions, along with the US part of terrorism and drug trafficking, which may hurt, but is Nothing but the truth, well documented in thousands of books, movies documentaries and reports,
      --many of them CIA, DECLASSIFIED by the US.government itself.

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    4. 9:15. I would blame it on those who divides the U.S into teams (Republican, Democrat, Liberal ect.). When in fact we are all on the same team. This is not competitive sports to see who wins this year, or wins this 4 year cycle. You have to look at the bigger picture here. Instead of stuck in your CNN/Fox world.

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    5. Not everyone is on the same ship that's a lie. Most "business" oriented individuals usually put their bank accounts & interest first, then the other stuff.

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  6. At 7:40... you're an idiot

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  7. Screaming out the top of my lungs I love chivas

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    Replies
    1. 4:23 30 000 coyotes agree with you.
      Yo agarro cola atrás de ti.

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  8. Does R18 still run tecoman?

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  9. You want to extract 'the root of the problem'? Look at an international Marxist financier like George Soros. Over the past 100 years, Marxism capriciously spilled the blood of 100's of millions of people. No other ideology has brought more death under the guise of promising everyone their 'fair share'. When has everyone EVER gotten their fair share? The closest in human history is a democracy where the acceptance of basic human rights and the rule of law allows ordinary people to participate in a free economic market without venality or fear of reprisals. Cartels of any kind are by nature against encouraging open participation to anyone. They're parasites, predatory, and no they don't 'share their toys' or 'play well with others'. For their public image, on occasion they will be conspicuously 'generous', but they still rule through fear. The Prince. Niccolo Machiavelli. When a nation is ruled by venal, nepotistic aristocrats and their cartel stooges, ordinary people are screwed. Of course they must bow down. What choice do they have? Elections come and go, but in the end, the same people fundamentally control everything... PRI, PRD, or PAN. Take your pick. Oh here, have some free stuff. Bread and Circuses - Futbol, Bud Lite, and sexy ladies with big round boobs and butts to stare at on television. That's right, now be distracted. Whatever you do, don't think. Oh gee, another cartel shootout just happened. 'There's nothing to see here. Move along'. Never mind the puppeteers behind the curtain pulling the strings.

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    1. George Soros has come a long way, from a kid bent of surviving g the nazi camps through collabortion and obsequiousness to the profit obsessed currency manipulator that has stolen billions and billions of lounds, euros and dollars from the best of the best and loves his gold too much, about 80 years at it.
      But the richest mam In the world, mister Carlos Slim Helu only graduated from high school in the early 60's later made a lot of money to "buy" Telmex for imaginary invisible millions of dollars be never paid,
      the dark secret of the origins of Mr Slum's money needs to be revealed, politicians and businessmen are more dangerous than any "narco wanna bees" take carlos salinas de gortari and manlio fabio beltrones, alias "la secre, or, La Fabis"

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    2. Liberal George Soros is a terrorist that should be arrested. There is proof that he has meddled in foreign affairs. Arrest George Soros- He is just a Rothschild pawn.

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    3. George the bleeding heart Liberal is a destroyer of culture. He has zero respect for borders. I'm curious to see if the liberal police will post this comment. A certain liberal dictator on this site has power issues and makes sure your comments are not posted if they don't like them. Before the Dictator ran the site Buggs kicked ass. Is sad to see the censorship on this blog. To the person that won't allow liberal comments "You are no better than the cartels that censor the media"



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    4. Soros does have his hand in a lot stuff, but he's capitalist vulture, nothing about him has anything to do with Marxism. Maybe you should read up on Marx.

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    5. Soro is evil. He should be arrested and Tried for his crimes

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  10. Whack the Mayor, he let's it happen

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    Replies
    1. Mayors ain't nothing in those places, sometimes even governators ain't shit compared billion dollar cartels.

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  11. only americans around tecoman are surfers hitting pascuelas

    ReplyDelete

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