Monday 22 November 2010

Positive Developments

     We have just learned that the entrance of approximately 4,000 heavy infantry and direct support personnel into what is referred to as the "Frontera Chica" (small border) was fully accomplished about four or five days ago.   Supposedly this detachment is going to stay in the area of Falcon Dam, Mier, Miquel Aleman, and Camargo indefinitely.     This deployment had been scheduled for an earlier time but was interrupted by the peculiar incident concerning a couple who had gone jet-skiing near a remote part of Falcon Lake on the Mexican side.   Once that situation was resolved as best could be, the Army and Naval Infantry proceeded with what is essentially a re-establishment of civil order in Mier.
     Mier is an important place for various reasons.   It is, along with Camargo, something of the Grandmother city of the Lower Rio Grande Valley.   It was the second city established on the Rio by Jose de Escandon and many of the "old families" who are Latin in the Lower Rio Grande Valley trace their ancestry to Reynosa, Camargo, and Mier and/or the various land-grants associated with those cities.    They derived   land grants and awards from the King of Spain which were titled at that time....during the mid-point of the 1700's.     It was and will be again a charming city with much colonial architecture of French and Spanish...as well as Anglo-Irish... influence.   I could drone on about literally hundreds of historical and personal matters which concern this "Magic City" but that will be for a later time.
     About 40% of the community had finally left over the last few weeks due to drug gang and illegal alien (essentially slave traders) transporters.  Factions with invented names and titles, normally from places far from Mier,  warred over the city, gradually turning the place into what would have been a Pyrrhic victory for anyone.     Yesterday, however, after a series of engagements between gang members and the Mexican military, about half of those who had felt it necessary to leave, came back with their pickups loaded with family effects.   Newly shot film showed little restaurants opening back up, repairs being made to houses, the Army towing (or dragging) shot-up gang vehicles to a temporary "auto morgue" on the east side of town.   There were also scenes of people painting and plastering homes and businesses.
     Interviews with the Mieren~os all ended with essentially the same refrain, that being " ......the Army needs to stay here until all the gangs are dead".    It is hoped that there are the resources to maintain this presence and to prosecute this terrible but necessary matter to its ultimate victory.
     
     For many, many years the American Embassy and the American and world press has gone out of its way to report negatively about Mexico.   To be sure, at times, it had been and is an easy task.   I return, however, to the old admonition in courts which practice the rule of English Common Law.   The bailiff comes before the witness and asks..."In the affair of  His Majesty's Court in the case of the charge of fraude against Mr. Harold J. Pickering, do you, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, swear that the evidence you are about to give in this matter is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth;  So help you God?"
     It is in this that the press fails.   They take elements of the truth and reject other elements, thereby magnifying the moat in another's eye, while ignoring the beam in their own.    Begging the pardon of sensitive readers, it is the same mentality of people who receive a "tingle running up and down the leg"  when they hear the words "hope" and "change" without begging the definition of said words.....especially as such words are defined by the speaker.

    I am in a bit of a good mood....Mier was, is, and shall be an important little place.    We are still in the library....the Mission library has about 100 DELL computers for access by citizens and visitors....it is clean....fairly quiet...and generally pleasant.   We are only about two blocks away, so my suffering without having my own DELL at home could be worse.     Highly placed authorities have assured us that our new DELL computer will be arriving during the latter days of this month.

Thank you all for putting up with my whining, moaning, and pontificating.
More Later,
El Gringo Viejo