Saturday 10 September 2016

Apatzingan - Belly of the Beast

The area of Apatzingan, and the zone of heavily jungled mountains to the south and west of that city in western Michoacan State of Mexico, continues to be a problematic stretch of territory for the counter-trafficking forces in Mexico.   Several tiers of police and military organisations are operating there at any given time.  The Army, Naval Infantry, the Federal Civil Police, the State Police, and the famous rural militia that was legalised by the Mexican Defense Secretariat about two years ago, are all involved in the counter-drug and human trafficking efforts.
     As is typical, Mexican and International rights and protection groups almost continuously harass and defame the efforts of these military and police entities.  At times they are correct about authority overstepping its correct prerogatives and responsibilities.....remember that it is Latin America and Italian and Spanish rules of process still are followed.
     But.....Mexican processes have also taken on various and sundry common law procedure characteristics.....right to counsel, right to avoid self-incrimination, right to certain knowledge of the charges and dates of the accused offense(s).  It is similar in many ways to the American / Canadian / British, mixed with French and Japanese process.

     This evolution of the Mexican legal system has led to an increasingly compliance by the Mexican legal system in the service of extradition requests and warrants from the United States.   It is as different as daylight from dark, now.  But along with this has come an amplified, re-fortified, and shrill yellow press, at times accurate, and at other times absolutely lunatic and mendacious.   It is very similar now to the United States in many ways.

     We have posted a picture which depicts a crashed Mexican Army or Federal Police forward observation helicopter that was being used to help elements of the Guardia Rural.   Approximately 100 members of this (essentially) national  guard unit had tracked down and (essentially) trapped about 20 members of a gang affiliated with the now almost totally debilitated "Caballeros Templares" (Knights Templar).   There are about 20 pandillas (gangs) roughly coalesced into another "cartel" named "Generacion Joven".   The State and central government all agree that the helicopter was shot down and all causes were being considered, the take down was probably from from a 50 calibre Barrett rifle.   There have been reports that the weapon was a shoulder-fired missile.   That is an area of dispute.

     Later that day, several of the "pandilla" were finally flushed from their hideout, and captured, leaving a total of 9 "Generacion Joven" members dead,  9 wounded,  and two or three "missing".  It is the nature of the fight against the extortionists, traffickers, and generally criminally anti-social elements with which Mexico is afflicted during these times.  The cartels have been substantially gutted and crippled.  Lower level "officers" now conduct affairs, and normally they do not perform with the efficiency nor effectiveness of the leaders from four or five years ago.

     Russian arms and Eastern European ammunition shipped through Cuba, then Venezuela, then Nicaragua, and finally into Mexico is becoming scarcer and of even lower quality than before.   Much of that is due to the fraying ability and/or willingness of the Cuban mafia / military to participate in the chain of Death.  Then the situation in Venezuela during these days and hours is essentially one of anarchy, and the organised criminal element has taken to fratricidal warfare so as to determine who will be "last man standing" when and if order is every restored.  In other words, their attention is diverted to more important stuff...at home.
    Nicaragua also has its problems, with its military shipping guns to different criminal and nutcase groups even as far away as the Indonesia - Malaysia - Philippines theatre of low-level, but continual, Muslim and criminal violence.   Then a fellow has to deal with the American Coast Guard, patrolling in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, the Mexican Navy, the Mexican Naval Infantry, the Mexican Army, and then various civilian authority.
      The Mexican Military continues to serve and serve well.  We should have continued our inter-laced co-ordination with them that existed during the Bush administration, but it was one of the first things that Obama / Jarrett administration snipped.   Hence, Fast and Furious, which was nothing more nor less than an attempt to do a frame job on American firearms sales businesses.  It also managed to get a lot of Mexican civilians killed and wounded, along with several people in the United States.  Even though the intellectual authors and the actors who implemented and oversaw the operation are known, none have ever been prosecuted by the Obama administration.   Most were promoted and transferred to duty closer to the promised land, Washington, D. C.

    We place this simple article here for the attention of the OROG who just might have failed to hear or see about this event from the Obsolete Media or FOX & Trump Network.
El Gringo Viejo
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