Venezuela, Guns, Gangs, Mob Trade

This Associated Press article is a stunning revelation and

 admission by a normally leftist news organisation that

demonstrates the fact that  deranged, criminal groups

work hand-in-hand with the Chavez Thug Factory;

The Voice From the Sierra Madre Oriental knows, believes, and thinks that most of the guns and ammunition moving into the criminal sector of Mexico has little or nothing to do with private American gun dealers.   Illegal dealings in firearms in the United States is already dealt with and prosecuted under a mix of local, State, and central government laws that now number in the scores of thousands.   The most compliant with these laws are the non-criminal element.   The least compliant is the criminal element and the United States central government itself.

     The United States government remains committed to surreptitiously usurping firearm rights and to the total disarming of the American population.   That is the objective of the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives arm of an increasingly totalitarian, marxist government, as presently composed in Washington, D.C.

      The fact is that most of the guns come from outside Mexico, usually from communist countries, or countries whose governments are intentionally involved in black market arming of drug cartels, Islamic terrorist groups, and "liberation movements" in various parts of the world.

      The central Mexico City zone of "El Tepito" and the anchor outlet of the Buenavista Market is the crowning glory of Mexico's organised crime.   As the saying goes, "if you can't find it in El Tepito, it was never made".   It is a 16 square block area in the very middle of Mexico City that is almost completely dedicated to the receiving and processing for sale of stolen goods.  Pilfering, burglary, prostitution, and all forms imaginable of illegal activity are centered there, just north and adjacent to the very centermost point of Mexico City.

     The area described in Caracas, entire parts of the city are something considerably different.   Assemblies of heavily armed, somewhat uniformed gangs make much of the slumland of Caracas a veritable 666 wonderland.    It is completely operated by hideously violent gangs who are hypnotically tranced out monks in the Satanic religion of Hugo Chavez's Communism.    If the OROG will study the above included picture, he or she will see religious art works modified to show the Jesus with a crown of thorns for some reason, and holding an AK47 rifle.   The other picture shows the the infant Jesus standing and holding a similar automatic weapon.    These gangs, as reported, zone off entire "colonias" of the city and practise "immigration control" by allowing or prohibiting entry or exit by the general population.

          The members of the various gangs, possibly as many as 250 in the city with organised structure and administration procedures,  essentially determine who comes and who goes, who lives and who dies.   They publicly execute people, force family members to eat body parts of executed individuals, and generally set the bar for their counterparts in Brazil, Honduras, El Salvador, and other places in Latin America.    They are the inspiration for the MaraSalvatruchas 13.

         When people and the American press strut around, huffing and puffing about Mexico's "cartel violence" and how superior we are to Mexico because we do not "permit spillover violence" they are fools.   When the American government or even local governments talk about how they are "preventing spillover violence", they are simply trying to justify bigger budgets for a police force that will ultimately be used against the American people.   They can do nothing about the MS13  except arrest a few thousand and deport or detain them.   They call that victory.   Mexico does a bit better because they have militarised the issue.
        But the gangs in Central America and Venezuela and Brazil are so depraved, violent, unpredictable, and drugged-up or drunk almost all the time that the world would be stunned if it were to know of their actions.   It would make Hitler look like an old Roman Catholic nun.    At least we can be comforted that there are only three or four million of them.    But they breed quickly, chiefly by bastardy.  Perhaps it is well that they kill so many of their own babies during their glue sniffing, everclear drinking, marijuana smoking, cocaine snorting, and methamphetamine escapades.    Perhaps it is well that they kill so many of each other during fights over a few feet of "territory".     In the new "socialist workers' paradise" that Hugo Chavez birthed upon the South American Continent, one can estimate that almost one million all but anonymous deaths...murders....killings have occurred among these people during Chavez's rule.

       While all of the gangs are indescribably violent, the ones that become the survivors are the ones that develop interior discipline and a "political philosophy" of a combination of "liberation theology'', some form of socialism, and a willingness to practise militant anarchy and/or nihilism.   The survivor gangs, clans, tribes...whatever...are also, ironically, the one who kill and terrorise and commit atrocities that are truly unthinkable.

       The gangs all support Chavez even as they fight among themselves for even a couple of yards of slum turf.  They also handle sales in bulk from the Venezuelan military of weaponry that is gathered from around the world.  The sales include criminal elements in Mexico.   Deliveries of these sales of Cuban, Venezuelan, Brazilian, Eastern European, Red Chinese, and North Korean arms are delivered onto the Mexican east coast and west coast via everything from tramp steamers, to cruise liners, to jerry-built submarines, and  "tuna fishing boat".

Chavez Seeks Leave: Fly to Cuba for More Cancer Treatment...

(drawn from Drudge Report) 

     It is commonly understood by the opposition in Venezuela that they will have to physically fight these ghastly, ghoulish gangs as well as secret government army squads during any election process that might still be allowed by Chavez or those like-minded totalitarian thugs who survive him.   He is returning to Cuba very quickly after having come back home.   His time may be limited. 

We're going to pick up the boss.   Thanks for your time and attention.

El Gringo Viejo 

A gentle suggestion....

It may be at times difficult to keep up with the eclectic, pin-ball machine activity of El Gringo Viejo's neurons and synapses.   It is recommended to scroll down and even dabble a bit in the "older" offerrings.    We do wish to assure that when we write about specific issues of war and peace in Mexico,with reference to the cartels, we are dealing with information derived from first or second hand, on the scene information.

      We derive information from official sources within government, military and/or police entities,  from the military privately at times, from press reports and from reporters speaking privately and off the record, and from other private citizens speaking privately and off the record.

       We have found that in all cases our information and interpretation has always been at least accurate in the transfer of information.   We also accurately assert that our information and interpretation of events is almost always better than what is being transmitted by the foreign press, especially the American mainstream media, and unfortunately, FOX News as well.

       Talk radio and overnight radio information is dismal, obnoxious, half-truthed, and even deliberately misleading, 90% of the time.   The OROG can imagine that something is dreadfully wrong with the United States if people are leaving to go back to Mexico....not because of deportation....but as El Gringo Viejo predicted four years ago, because Mexico would be entering into a labour-shortage situation and the United States would be entering into a prolonged period of somnambulatory economic activity.   Those things have come to pass.    Mexico stumbles away from socialism, along with Canada, and the United States falls into the same morass the Canutes and the Mexicans are leaving in the dust bin.   Hope and Change.

      We call attention to the fact that the return to normalcy in Mexico has become increasingly evident.    Much remains to be done, and the job will never be done in totality....man is born imperfect.    But while Mexico returns to something that might appear to be closer to normal, the social situation in Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina deteriorates by the hour.    Tomorrow a mainstream media report that exposes Hugo Chavez's and the Castro brother's involvement in weapons trafficking that makes minor leaguers like Obama and Eric Holder look like the the buffoons they are.

More later
Thanks for your time and interest as usual.

El Gringo Viejo

Rumblings from the Sierra Madre Oriental

Being away from the Quinta for such a length of time leaves the observer a bit in the dark about the nuts and bolts, the ins and outs, of activities South of the Border.    To be sure, anyone who says that he knows and understands everything that is happening in Mexico at any any given moment, past, present, or future, is a fool.   There are many such observers, some who even charge for their services.    This particular entry into the annals of Voice from the Sierra Madre Oriental is simply a bit of a summary of notions, observations, and a few facts about what is going on.

(1)    President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa :

                 The President enters his end days in office now, having served well.   My own evaluation of his service might even place him in the highest tier of Mexican Presidents who were worth more than a bucket of spoiled donkey mare's milk.    El Gringo Viejo gains no friends in some Mexican circles by citing the bad ones, in our opinion, such as Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Benito Juarez Garcia, Venustiano Carranza, Alvaro Obregon, Pllutarco Elias Calles, Lazaro Cardenas, Luis Echeverria Alvarez,  and Jose Lopez Portillo.    There are others who were just dumboes, and others who were "interim Presidents" who had little effect, good or bad.  There were others who had some value of a positive nature.

                  The greatest objection we have with Felipe Calderon is that he cannot resist the ancient Mexican political custom of blaming the United States for the interior problems of Mexico.   He does so much less frequently than most Mexican national level politicians, but that is to be expected from someone who comes to the political scene from the right wing of the spectrum.  Figure that demagoguery ranks about like this:

Percentage of Demagogic Bilge when mentioning the USA

Partido de Accion Nacional - PAN                                    13%
Partido Revolucionario Institucional - PRI              28

Partido Revolcionario Democratico - PRD               63

        

     These figures are highly scientific and approved by Nancy Pelosi, who will read them shortly after the OROGs have voted for this blog-entry.

      It is none of any foreign head of state's business what Arizona does with its relations concerning the central government of the United States of America.   It is none of any foreigner's business who, what, when, where, why, or how matters transpire within the govbernment and the people of the United States of America.   Not the Queen of England, the Prime Minister of Canada, or the President of Mexico or any other of their elected and/or appointed officials.

     While the President of Mexico did point out during his most recent visit, that the military and other authority in Mexico has recovered 150,000 or more firearms during the past 5 years with origins in the United States, he could well have pointed out that over 400,000 weapons such as automatic rifles and pistols, grenade launchers, hand grenades, and even bazookas have been decommissioned, whose origins were from Red China, Russia, Eastern Europe, Hezbollah, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba.   El Gringo Viejo has had too, too many conversations with military personnel who freely admit that this is the case, and whose numbers have almost always been in very close focus.
      We are certain that the Mexican President, who is certainly an intelligent man, knows that the Fast and Furious debacle was an artificial construct, meant almost exclusively for the purpose of causing the death of a few Americans and/or American police so as to have a huge pin~ata made of gun dealers, gun owners, and any one else who is stupid enough to think that the American Constitution means anything.
       To the President of Mexico's kind attention, El Gringo Viejo also points out that Mexico is awash with firearms that are normally only found in large armies of small countries.    So, it might occur to him that, in spite of the draconian anti-gun and ammunition laws in Mexico....only the law abiding are disarmed.    The thugs, trash, cockroaches, gangs, and other human refuse are, however, qualified to have automatic weapons and unlimited access to Red Chinese ammunition for AK47s and AR16s.    Thankfully, the vast majority of the people who have been killed or wounded during the last 10 years have been the thugs, trash, cockroaches, gang members, and other human refuse.   But the innocent have also been unjustifiably punished.    Some 200 - 300 civilian deaths alone have been traced to the firearms moved in the Fast and Furious disaster.    Many of those were miscreants.  But others were women, children, soldiers, sailors, honest and semi-honest cops, who were killed because Obama and Holder thought the had a sure-fire way to forward the progressive agenda of disarming American civilians.
       The President did return from a relatively productive trip to Cuba, however.  He made very few friends among the higher ups in the Government by Gulag.   It is said that he made his overtures to Fidel and Raul about how Mexico would be willing to renew investment in the Cuban mess.   When Raul began to point out how the accomplishments of the "Revolucion" could not be compromised even while Cuba begins to make linkages with "friendly and understanding" nations, it is said that Calderon stood up and declared, "Gentlemen, I am on vacation.   I came to give you my message, not to listen to yours.   We'll go out an take our pictures and you can announce that the Revolucion is working as always for the betterment of the Cuban people and that we are all brother nations in Democracy".
      The President was insolently received at Jose Marti' Airport, which was to be expected.  He was received, for instance, by the Assistant Secretary for Foreign Relations.   He did have sit downs with Raul Castro and Congressional leader Alarc0n.   Distance has steadily increased between both official and man-on-the-street Mexico and the regime in La Havana de Cuba during the past 20 years.    Almost all of Calderon's statements in public were directed over the head of the media and directly to the Cuban populace.   He did speak about the future possibly involving Mexican private industrial investment.
     It is sad in a way.   Mexico is Cuba's number six or seven trading partner, but trade does not exceed 400,000,000 dollars total per year.    Mexico and the United States do about that much trade in a day and a half.    C0untries that trade with Cuba in declining rank are (1) Venezuela, (2) Red China  (3) Canada (4) Spain (5) Holland, then Mexico and the United States.    All of that commercial interaction barely totals 10,000,000,000 dollars.
      Cuba has little or  nothing to sell, and it cannot buy anything since it is broke.   Fidel is a zombie, but Raul has the metabolism of a 40 year old man.   So my granddaughters will get to grow up with the Castro-Ruz brothers, just like El Gringo Viejo has.
     Obama has ruined the mystique generale of the gringo.   No political leaders or presidents or dictators want to sidle up to the El Presidente Americano if he is not a tough, fair, real-live-pro-gringo gringo.   The grovelling apologiser is not the guy you want to stand beside at the bar in the Real World Saloon.

(2)    Please beware of news articles about the unpopularity of Felipe Calderon Hinojosa.   His overall approval ratings remain remarkably high.    The sober and silent Mexicans who are undecided about their vote this round have a very high level of possibility that they will keep to the right.    El Gringo Viejo had thought about printing bumper stickers in the blue and white....with slight orange accents....which are the PAN's battle colours....with the ancient highway sign admonition (before the days of deaf-mute, metric signs with circles and bars).
     The was a sign for the literate that stated "Conserve su derecha".....which means Keep to the right.   Anyway it was a thought, but it would have probably resulted in my being escorted to the border.   We'll leave everyone with what it might have looked like, more or less.   There will be more on the Mexico situation, politically and in terms of the peculiar calm that has settled over most of Mexico.   Perhaps it is Popocatepetl....or maybe it's the Mayan Calendar thing....or perhaps Al Gore is going to visit Mexico City and they are breaking out the snow ploughs.

                     CONSERVE SU DERECHA  -   Vote Josephina, Vote PAN


As always, we appreciate your presence on the blog, and your continued interest in the affairs we cover.
El Gringo Viejo

Fleeting Observations

(1)    There is a boy who drives the pickup out to our Ejido, all the way from Cd. Victoria, with about 8 medium sized ice-chests every morning....five, six, or seven days a week.   He sells pre-measured 1 kilo packs of freshly made corn tortillas that arrive still too-hot-to-handle.   He will frequently dally at our gate, although El Gringo Viejo only buys about 1 kilo per week (13 pesos at the current time).

     He likes to ask questions about his use of English, or how to say this or that.   We try to tell him to speak English at the same level he speaks his Spanish, and to avoid VHI and MTV and such.    Then, the time before last, he showed me a 1099 IRS form that showed his earnings for having worked in Wisconsin for five months during the last year.   His earnings had been about 11,500.oo American dollars.  The contracting firm had requested that he sign and send back the carbon in the return envelope that had been provided.  He had been concerned that he was in some kind of trouble.  He was assured that it was just a standard thing now.   Nobody owes anything.

     "I had wondered where you had gone," th Gringo Viejo inquired obliquely.

     "We go up every year, except the year before last." the Tortilla Man says.  He is a jovial fellow and smiles broadly after every finished statement.

    "What do the people make or produce?" another question comes at him.

    "The have farms and canneries and quick-freeze plants.   I do building maintenance and machinery preparation in the early mornings and put the machinery to sleep sometimes."

    El Gringo Viejo asks, "This is all money that you sent here?   Don't they charge you for room and board or anything?"

     "No, they tell me, no social security, no withholding.   Then our contractor says, no social security, no taxes.   He pays our taxes, but no social security.   We are paid 12.50/hour and out checks show a net of 11.77 per hour after the income tax."

      "And you receive the 11.77?   No problem?"

      "They send it to my house in Cd. Victoria in a money order every fortnight.   My wife puts it on the debit card.   But she's a good wife.  She spends very little. Mainly the house and our daughter.   They want me to come back again next year.   They can't get anyone there to work."

       "And they don't charge you for meals or a place to stay?"

       "I ask them to give me 30 dollars every week out of my check to buy things.   But they give me a small apartment at the plant.   Sometimes trucks come early in the morning, and I open the locks on the gates for them.   Sometimes I wash their trucks and they give me effectivo (cash)for that.   But my apartment is nice.  It has a bathroom with tile and I have a flat screen and cable, nice furniture.   It's not fun being away from the family.   But then I get to come back and help my mom and dad with this, and relax for seven months...at home all the time.  Our Tortilla business is really good."

     The mean old lady with the store near us is tapping her foot in the middle of our little trail, waiting for the truck to bring her delivery.   The tortillas are a little too big, and very well made, so she sells about twenty kilos every morning.   We state our departure good-byes and the boy "roars" off the 100 yards to her place.

     Bebe the Labrador is happy, because he knows El Gringo Viejo will play a bit of tortilla Frisbee with him on the very short walk back to the front door.    Bebe will catch it and bring it back a couple of times before just eating it.   They really are good tortillas.

(2)    We have communicated with the Quinta, and we have been informed that the security situation has been very, very quiet.    Cd. Victoria and all the surrounding counties...quiet.   Perhaps no more should be said.

(3)    The better half continues to improve....well into the A- level now, but she took quite a mule-kick in the gut.    So she is still not in the position to run any 100 yard dashes or  880 relays.

(4)    We are prepared to wait for every convoluted, tax-the-rich, Romney's a polygamist, "the Republicans want to starve the children" attack imaginable.    In Mexico, Josephina met with Fox in Monterrey and buried their differences (they clashed in intra-party[PAN] affairs before).   She continues to gradually build her percentages.   In the Pena Nieto (PRI) camp, there is grumbling that Ernesto likes to make sweeping ads, like intros to his wife's stupid telenovelas.    The party poobahs are certain that the people will tire of the "ads that say nothing'', and begin to listen to the conservative candidata and the leftist nut-case and forget about the PRI....leaving them to finish in 3rd place like the last two times.    We'll see.

Enough for the night.   Thanks for your time and interest!

El Gringo Viejo

Cain't Beat It With a Stick!

Humour, Ire, Wonder, and Frustration....

Among the OROGs are many, many more eloquent and well-stated than the Gringo Viejo.  My old buddy from days of yore is one of those more intellectually endowed who will write in occasionally with recommendations, corrections, and salient comments.    He arrives at certain points where the frustration of things like, "Why doesn't somebody make Obama understand .....blah, blah, blah.."   or the famous, "I think Obama is a loyal American who wants the best for this country. ....blah, blah, blah."  drive him back down to the television store to buy another flying-brick-proof television.    We meet down there frequently.   It's like buying another battery for your car.   They measure the time left on the warranty on the old television, figure our remaining credit and then we pay the difference on the new brick-proof television.    My last one only set me back about 43 dollars.

      He states things in a way that neither requires nor begs apology.   He very frequently states exactly what I am thinking, only in a more readily understood way.   To wit:

 0.)   I feel your mortality as I do mine.  The issue about belief in Jesus is huge.  To be a charismatic Christian or not, that is the question.  Never mind.  The ends make the means a difference without a distinction.

1.)   Without having any informed basis to comment, I believe the Mexicans who are dedicated are as good or better than any soldiers in the world excluding ours truly.  They have motivation without prejudice.  The problem I see is the dysfunctional bureaucracy/govt. with the disclaimer that the govt. appears to be struggling mightily to “do the right thing” unsolicited corruption notwithstanding.

2.)   University is not one size fits all nor is it appropriate for what could be more than 60% of the high school graduates.  There are alternatives that could shrink the number of unfit significantly i.e. associates studies, trade schools, OJT, last but not least the military.  The problem is education.  They need to go to university “to know what’s in it”.  Actually, the pressure for the urchins to attend college by family is absurd.  Not all your 90 IQ offspring are qualified or able to comprehend that level of dribble.  Then the vigorish to the government is equivalent to racketeering by the mob (wait… they are the mob).

Sorry.  I feel compelled to, rather commiserate with, your brilliant knowledge and analysis on most matters affecting the universe.  I will try to limit my inane commentary...

      This OROG's code name inside of our computer and files is EL Zorro.  We had thought about using his initials, but they are 'JR' and we did not want anyone to think that Larry Hagman had anything to do with this blog.   Larry Hagman can act like he was an officer in the Air Force hobnobbing with beauties like Barbara Eden, but while that show was going on El Zorro was actually serving in Viet Nam.   He did advanced technical work on the F-4 Phantoms, and also did black-ops work outside of, and adjacent to, Viet Nam, especially related to counter-insurgency and recovery.   He was one of the guys who won the war that the pinkoes in Congress decided to lose for us after we had withdrawn.   Thanks, Sen. Church.

This is Barbara.  She's a Republican.
She performed for the troops.
  After second thought we
decided Larry Hagman is a drunken pinko, so
we did not show a picture of him.

     Anyway, you all can see that OROGs are a literate bunch....most of them much better than El Gringo Viejo.   It is interesting how El Zorro can state forcefully in three paragraphs more goodies, and in pure Texian lexicon, than El Gringo Viejo.   Must work on my brevity!
El Gringo Viejo