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ANOTHER ASSOCIATED PRESS RELEASE WITHOUT COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER. WE BRING IT TO THE OROG COMMUNITY DUE TO THE FACT THAT IT APPROACHES 99 PER CENT ACCURACY! The reason these people are being stopped now is because it began to become very obvious that many of the people moving north out of Central America are actually the criminal element. The press tells us that all these poor, innocent refugees are fleeing danger, abuse, and violence. The fact is, about a third of those moving to the north will commit multiple crimes in Mexico, brutalise and extort the common viajero (traveller), and then join up with his/her gang in the appropriate community in the United States. Once there, those criminal types will begin to join in with the activities of his/her gang, raping, killing, doing arson, armed and strong arm robberies, home invasions, and extortion just like they did back home. Drug dealing goes without saying.
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Mexico authorities stage midnight raid on migrants heading north on freight train 'The Beast'
SAN RAMON, Chiapas, Mexico – The lumbering freight train known as "The Beast," a key part of the route for migrants heading north to the United States, rolled to an abrupt, unscheduled stop in the black of midnight.
Mexican federal police and immigration agents had waited silently in the brush alongside for at least hour, visible only by the glint of their powerful flashlights. As the train stopped, the area was suddenly flooded with spotlights as agents pounced from both sides of the track, scaling ladders to the tops of the freight cars and shouting: "Federal police! Give up! You're surrounded! Come down carefully!"
About a dozen men, some literally spitting with anger and desperation, were firmly led off the track, an agent's hand on the back of their necks neck, and taken to waiting vans for processing and deportation. Agents helped a lone female migrant clambering over a coupling between cars to reach their van, telling her "Walk carefully, don't fall."
"Don't touch me," she snarled.
The scene early Friday would have been unheard of in Mexico during the decades in which Central American migrants were allowed to freely hop freight trains to reach the U.S. border. But the raid is part of a crackdown that has sharply reduced the number of women and children trying to make their way to the United States, where they turn themselves into the U.S. Border Patrol — an exodus that caused what U.S. leaders call a crisis at the border.
Fewer than 15 migrants were detained Friday on a train that once carried 600 to 1,000 migrants at a time. It seemed — at least temporarily — like the end of an era for the train the migrants dubbed "La Bestia" because of all the travelers who had been maimed or killed trying to hitch a ride.
But the migrants, fleeing unemployment, violence and poverty in their home countries, have been only temporarily deterred by past strategies. Some already have devised ways to avoid capture under the new crackdown. One lone migrant escaped Friday's raid by lying flat on the roof of the last freight car and managing to stay aboard as the train pulled out.
Police said the most experienced border crossers wait near the back of the 50-car train, where they have more time to react when it stops.
They know it's hard for police to patrol the entire length of the train.
-30-
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We place below a bit of photogravure and a regional Mexican newspaper article that shows, while Arriaga, Chiapas is not a very rich place, by world standards it is a pretty nice little corner of the world. The article deals with the establishment of an "Italian Coffe Shop" in Arriaga, and the Chamber of Commerce, complete with Miss Arriaga in her day formal, traditional Chiapaneca dress with lace and frill, and the obligatory skirt with scenes that reflect noteworthy buildings, archaeological sites, and other Arriagan landmarks.
The "designer" coffee shop (adjacent to coffee growing farms) is part of a shopping centre anchored by a Soriana grocery and department store along with other upper-middle and even glitzy occupants. Arriaga, while not a stop on the "World Tour" for many people, is a Cabecera Municipal (county seat), and therefore attracts hundreds of people per day into town to do local government business. Such business is increasingly important in Mexico as duties of registry and taxation and archives are steadily being passed down to more local authority by the central government. The article celebrates the recent opening of the new highway (toll road) between Tapachula on the Guatemalan border all along the coastal route to Tehuantepec in the State of Oaxaca. The train parallels that coastal route, and then turns sharply to the northeast, through the "Tehuantepec Pass" connecting the Pacific to the Atlantic Basin roughly near the Minatitlan - Acayucan area in Vera Cruz State. Most people would abandon the train, however, in Tehuantepec.
| These are a mix of "all-stops" and "semi-direct" busses available in the "middle of nowhere" Chiapas, arriving and leaving every 10 to 15 minutes or so. The 1st class SD to Mexico City will set the passenger back about 29 USD (400 miles). The 2nd Class to Acayucan will be about 14 USD, (240 miles). Young French and Euros use the 2nd class de rigueur. Even old curmudgeons can be found on the 1st class (very few stops) with frequency. They (the busses) are very survivable to even pleasant. |
One of the problems they have been having is that the "refugees" from Central America who arrive on the freight train's first stop have stormed over the city at each opportunity to relieve themselves in various ways, all injurious to the public sensibility and health standards. The "refugees" are also frequently violent and extortive, roughing pedestrians up, shaking down small businesses, and generally threatening the public tranquillity. It is because a third of the "refugees" are the same people that the "refugees" are trying to escape.
Arriaga is rural and agriculturally based, along with some advanced fishing, since the County is bounded by the Pacific on its west side. Citrus, coffee at higher elevations, and melons, kiwi, chilies, and certain vegetables take advantage of the 400 days per year growing season. Unlike the north of Mexico where Caucasian bloodlines are plentiful, in this area the people are mainly Indian (65%) or Mestizo (30%) with a small, urban white cohort. By the way, "coffe" is the spelling of the store's trademark.
| Arriaga's Main Plaza's weird but attractive clock |
| This is what the train looked like before Obama and now, after the Mexican authorities have once again begun cracking down on the violation of their own sovereignty and the public's safety. |
| This is what the train looked like once the news had percolated for about two months in Central America that Obama was giving home, hearth, food, and amnesty to children and "victims" of exploitation and crime. |
En Cintalapa se pronóstico un establecimiento de este tipo con servicio de 24 horas en la cabecera municipal, exactamente con la llegada de Soriana y Coppel. Algunos hasta señalaron el sitio en el que se ubicaría, pero todo quedó en comentarios ciudadanos, porque a la fecha esto no ha sido una realidad para los cintalapanecos.
The Italian Coffe en Arriaga comparte instalaciones con una estación de servicio de gasolinería en la carretera Arriaga-Tonalá, aproximadamente a dos kilómetros del poblado Calera.
Sin embargo, muchos habitantes de Arriaga y Tonalá llegan hasta ese lugar para poder degustar de sus productos, que en el área urbana de ambas ciudades no es fácil encontrar.
Se había pensado que en Arriaga por ser un municipio de temperaturas altas, no sería atractivo para la venta de café, pero el éxito ha sido precisamente con las presentaciones de café en frío.
Sin duda, la empresa de italianos, tiene planeado quedarse definitivamente en éste lugar, y con proyectos para extender a la zona urbana, según las autoridades arriaguenses.
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Two oddities about all of this...beyond Barry Soetoro....is that local authorities have always been resistant to enforcing any vagrancy laws or anything similar, really, when it comes to dealing with the train moochers. For one, there is reason to be afraid of them. The local police in these areas are for breaking up fights between drunks, not confronting Mara Salvatruchas who would like nothing better than a selfie with some Sergeant Garcia's head included in the picture....detached.
Discretion, seriously, has been the better part of valour. But another thing is that, in truth, the local police do not have jurisdiction within the right-of-way of the "ferrovia" (railway). The train jefes use their own investigators and private security to handle such matters. In other public areas, things can be quirky as well.
Like in a wreck on the open highway, only a Federal Highway Police trooper can move or do anything, even if an auto is blocking an important bridge and can be moved easily. Local police, firemen, civilians, etc. cannot do anything...save for very certain persons...the Presidente Municipal of the Municipio (County) or the Alcalde (mayor) of the nearest ciudad (city) can, with discretion, move damaged vehicles by his/her order. A military commissioned or non-commissioned officer can, as well, cause by his/her hand, the removal of an impediment in the case of serious interruption of vehicular commerce.
With all these other oddities covered, we move to the second oddity, and that is the nature of the Mexican, and the very representative conduct of the President of Mexico in that hypocritical vein, to notice that the wave of underclass, parasitical people washing across Mexico as victims, are actually parasites, damaging the interests of all Mexicans, of all classes, and of all legal pursuits. Now they act, as they have, sporadically in the past. But, at the same time, they are completely comfortable in demanding that Mexicans have more consideration given them in terms of allowance to stay in a country illegally than the Mexican Government and Constitution allow anyone else, including your humble servant to do the same.
I will say that the pro forma of legalising one's visit, or stay, and /or permanent or semi-permanent residence in Mexico is fraught with little difficulty or expense. BUT IT IS STILL REQUIRED. AND BEING SO REASONABLE, IT GIVES THE MEXICANS EVERY JUSTIFICATION TO BOOT SOMEONE OUT FOR ANY REASON THEY DEEM TO BE ACCEPTABLE TO THEM. And at frequent times, they do.
Among the conditions required by The Law are proving that you do not need to work for a living, especially if applying for a work permit, and, if residing on your rents, that one must have a minimum of 1,200 dollars income per month without lifting a thumb or a finger, in terms of anything remunerative. They allow an owned home to count for 750 USD/month as a displacement of income. Also, no voting, no campaigning, and pay your real estate taxes, if applicable.
One trade off? No inheritance taxes are charged any person living or dead. Not the survivors, not the dead people, no one. Another trade-off? It is a mystical thing that cannot be defined....the food, the civilities, the position one has as an old curmudgeon and foreign eccentric....among the urbane and rustic both...they treat such people as somewhat afflicted lesser Saints of the Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church....or something like that. It's Mexico.
Two oddities about all of this...beyond Barry Soetoro....is that local authorities have always been resistant to enforcing any vagrancy laws or anything similar, really, when it comes to dealing with the train moochers. For one, there is reason to be afraid of them. The local police in these areas are for breaking up fights between drunks, not confronting Mara Salvatruchas who would like nothing better than a selfie with some Sergeant Garcia's head included in the picture....detached.
Discretion, seriously, has been the better part of valour. But another thing is that, in truth, the local police do not have jurisdiction within the right-of-way of the "ferrovia" (railway). The train jefes use their own investigators and private security to handle such matters. In other public areas, things can be quirky as well.
Like in a wreck on the open highway, only a Federal Highway Police trooper can move or do anything, even if an auto is blocking an important bridge and can be moved easily. Local police, firemen, civilians, etc. cannot do anything...save for very certain persons...the Presidente Municipal of the Municipio (County) or the Alcalde (mayor) of the nearest ciudad (city) can, with discretion, move damaged vehicles by his/her order. A military commissioned or non-commissioned officer can, as well, cause by his/her hand, the removal of an impediment in the case of serious interruption of vehicular commerce.
With all these other oddities covered, we move to the second oddity, and that is the nature of the Mexican, and the very representative conduct of the President of Mexico in that hypocritical vein, to notice that the wave of underclass, parasitical people washing across Mexico as victims, are actually parasites, damaging the interests of all Mexicans, of all classes, and of all legal pursuits. Now they act, as they have, sporadically in the past. But, at the same time, they are completely comfortable in demanding that Mexicans have more consideration given them in terms of allowance to stay in a country illegally than the Mexican Government and Constitution allow anyone else, including your humble servant to do the same.
I will say that the pro forma of legalising one's visit, or stay, and /or permanent or semi-permanent residence in Mexico is fraught with little difficulty or expense. BUT IT IS STILL REQUIRED. AND BEING SO REASONABLE, IT GIVES THE MEXICANS EVERY JUSTIFICATION TO BOOT SOMEONE OUT FOR ANY REASON THEY DEEM TO BE ACCEPTABLE TO THEM. And at frequent times, they do.
Among the conditions required by The Law are proving that you do not need to work for a living, especially if applying for a work permit, and, if residing on your rents, that one must have a minimum of 1,200 dollars income per month without lifting a thumb or a finger, in terms of anything remunerative. They allow an owned home to count for 750 USD/month as a displacement of income. Also, no voting, no campaigning, and pay your real estate taxes, if applicable.
One trade off? No inheritance taxes are charged any person living or dead. Not the survivors, not the dead people, no one. Another trade-off? It is a mystical thing that cannot be defined....the food, the civilities, the position one has as an old curmudgeon and foreign eccentric....among the urbane and rustic both...they treat such people as somewhat afflicted lesser Saints of the Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church....or something like that. It's Mexico.
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We were in a tete-a-tete the other day on that ghastly Facebook with a high-school chum, and it was suggested that my nickname should be"Curmudgy"....but we'll let that one ferment, ruminate, and distill for a bit.
El Gringo Viejo
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