THE BORDER REPORT

Update: I don’t know why it’s so easy for me to forget that the U.S. engages in the same inanities as Mexico. See below.

Having a conversation with an old friend last night, he made the point that with its level of political and social abuses, you would think Mexico would be a more powerful country. It’s a bit Machiavellian but I think he’s correct. Instead, the country acts like a 1980s banana republic.

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THE BORDER REPORT

Manuel Clouthier Carrillo is fast becoming my favorite Mexican politician. The Sinaloan Congressman was the publisher of Noroeste newspaper until last spring when he resigned his position to run for Congress. His father, Manuel J. Clouthier, was the PAN candidate for the presidency in 1988 against the PRI’s Carlos Salinas de Gortari and the PRD’s Cuathemoc Cardenas, whom many in Mexico believed had actually won the presidency. He died in a car accident a year later.

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THE BORDER REPORT

Vicente Zambada Niebla’s extradition went off without a hitch through Brownsville-Matamoros, yesterday, surprising some of us that the son of El Mayo, Ismael Zambada Garcia would be tossed to the Americans so easily.

But it’s his charges that interest me.

El Mayito is wanted in the United States in two separate federal court cases, one in Illinois, where he was sent yesterday; and the second in Washington D.C. That case is sealed but in short, it is the beginning of the case against the present-day Sinaloa Federation, Operation Trifecta.

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THE BORDER REPORT

Well here’s a city council meeting that may be worth attending tomorrow – for the public comment period if nothing else.

Three El Paso city councilmembers are trying to pass a resolution condemning the violence in Juarez. I’m not even sure what to make of this yet. In some ways, it’s absolutely worthless, almost childlike (we demand Calderon and Obama meet here to re-examine our failed war on drugs? Really?). And of course, there’s the “free the weed” clause; they’ve tried this move before.

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THE BORDER REPORT

So, we have Arturo Beltran down; a blow to his own family, the Zetas and Juarez. Then we have Teodoro Garcia, Teo, and that’s a blow to Mayo and Chapito. Hm. Uno y uno. Granted, Teo’s never been more than a regional drug trafficker and, frankly, barely that. I remember seeing a crew of his taken down in Tijuana, must have been some eight months ago. Police Chief Leyzaola had boasted that he would eliminate “the smaller elements irritating his city like a virus.”

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