We are heading back down for an extended stay - But Wait, there's more

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First, we shall be heading down to the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre for a while.  There is a possibility of making a kind of linkage with a hunting/fishing operation on the coast and the people have expressed an interest in looking at our place as kind of an "off the beaten trail" alternative for some of their clients.   It is encouraging because they are indicating that good numbers of duck, whitening and mourning dove, and quail groups returned during this season.  They likened it to a dry hose, and then about 2 years ago there was a drip, and this year there has been a steady flow.  So we shall see.

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Now, more about our friend El Chapo Guzman.  It was my opinion back in the hours and days following the escape of Guzman from the ultra-high security prison deeper into central  Mexico that he was not leaving the country.   There are simply too many people waiting for him, people from all walks of life.   They also have all sorts of interest in him.

News concerning Joaquin (El Chapo) Guzman:

My notion was that he would go back to his dear and comforting Sierra Madre Occidental, a vast, vast extension of canyons, rivers, tropical, and alpine forests the size of New England and, on there lie low.  Stories had already begun to surface that Guzman was having arguments within the family....that he was more trouble than he was worth....that he would womanize and get stoned like before and spend more and more of the highly overestimated wealth that he has.   There would be nothing left "....for the rest of us".
     Supposedly his American wife (dual citizenship) went to the prison some time back to plead with him to co-operate with the authorities so that they could salvage some of the ill-gotten gain and erase the stain against their two daughters.   Emma Coronel, the niece of a man who was one of El Chapo's higher ranking inner circle, was killed in a shoot-out with the Mexican Army back in 2010, but officially authorities say that she just a nice girl, a beauty contest winner, college-educated homebody who likes to whelp her babies in the United States.

Emma Coronel de Guzman

     Guzman, when he left the prison down that long tunnel, possibly thought he was going to some nice place with no extradition, such as Costa Rica.  But, in fact he was, after several clumsy deceptions, spirited off to his mountains.   Yesterday we spoke a bit about Cosala' in Sinaloa State, and Tamazula in Durango State....two towns quite closely situated one to the other.

     Without belabouring the issue any more than necessary,  Guzman has had babies by two other women beside his present "wife''.  Another minor complication has arisen because the State Congress Representative for the district including Cosala is a (lamentably, a PAN party member,  the homologous entity to the American Republican Party or the Conservative Party in Canada)

(reportage de Gardenia Mendoza - freelance desde la Ciudad de Mexico)

      Mexican Marines are nipping at the heels of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s – or at least that’s what the minister overseeing the Marines believes.  Since Oct. 6, thousands of soldiers have been sent to the area known as Mexico’s “Golden Triangle,” the remote, mountainous region where the states of Chihuahua, Durango and Sinaloa converge. Most of them parachuted in.  The operation was reportedly triggered by information provided to Mexican authorities by U.S. drug agents who were monitoring cell phone activity.

Around 200 people from the region, presumably scared of getting caught in the crossfire between the Marines and the Sinaloa Cartel’s sicarios, have fled to the town of Cosalá.“The Marines told us that they want to capture the Lord,” they told reporters, and mentioned talking about soldiers attacking civilians.  “People are frightened,” Cosalá’s representative in the state legislature, Lucero Sánchez López, told TV reporters, adding that at least eight people were missing.

The most interesting fact about Sánchez  is that she has been identified by the Mexican press and the Attorney General’s office, as Chapo’s newest lover and the mother of his youngest child, an allegation she has consistently denied.

For its part, SEMAR says there haven't been any civilian attacks, but it doesn't deny that the Marines are carrying out an operation in that sector of Sinaloa and across the state line in Durango – a state that’s governed by Ricardo Ochoa, whose sister, Emma Coronel, happens to be Chapo’s current wife.   The presumed romantic relationship between the 57-year-old Guzmán – the world’s most wanted drug kingpin – and a 26-year-old, thick-lipped and light-haired member of the National Action Party (PAN) – has spread ever since June, when it was first reported that she visited Chapo in Altiplano prison, some 55 miles from Mexico City, in May when she was pregnant.

At the time, authorities at the prison lodged a complaint with PGR saying that Chapo received a visit from a woman who used a fake ID who was not his wife. For her part, Sánchez says that the woman photographed with the drug lord isn't her.  The newspaper Excélsior, suggested that Sánchez first met Chapo in 2013, at a party in the Golden Triangle that both attended. A few months later, her former husband and the father of her two sons, Rubén Chavez, 27, was shot to death.

A few days after Chapo’s second escape from a Mexican high-security prison in July, the Attorney General’s office (PGR in its Spanish acronym) leaked to the media a statement by one of Guzmán Loera’s attorneys confirming that Sánchez  visited his client to discuss details of where and how their child would be raised.

A veteran columnist from El Universal newspaper, Ricardo Alemán, wrote, “Very little is known for a fact about Chapo’s children … What we do know is that Chapo’s youngest kid is the son of Lucero Guadalupe Sánchez López, presently a deputy in the Sinaloa Congress from the 16th district of Cosalá.”

He added, “It is also known that Mrs. Sánchez became deputy in the state congress by virtue of Chapo’s influence in Cosala.”  Sánchez continues to deny having a relationship with Chapo. At a session of the Sinaloa Congress in July, she said the topic was “ridiculous” and condemned  the PGR’s “coarse leaks” and said she intended to “file a claim with the [Mexican] Human Rights Commission for defamation and moral injury to me, my children and the rest of my family.”

It isn’t known whether she has filed any claim or if she has been called into the PGR for questioning. Chapo’s wife, with whom the kingpin has twin daughters, has not made any public statement on the matter.   PAN leaders have stated that Sánchez will be removed from her post if it proves that she did, in fact, visit Chapo at Altiplano.  Whether or not Sánchez is involved with Chapo, few people doubt that he’s in the Golden Triangle. What’s less clear is that Mexico’s forces will be able to catch him a third time.                                                                                               

“There’s hardly any other place where he could feel more secure than the Golden Triangle, where he has not only friends but family and social protection,” analyst José Reveles, author of the Spanish-language book, “El Chapo: Surrender and Treason,” move alo-----0ng.....the reporterette is a leftist observer, and she is a freelancer, but she doe0s have veracity in terms of her reportage.   If El Gringo Viejo says so about an0y leftist....then you know that it simply has to be true.  What we want to do h0ere, however, is (1) demonstrate that there are things going on that are no0000t reported by a0ny American media....things that are not that hard to figure out or learn.....(2) that those things are important to Mexicans, Americans, and Canadia0ns.....(3) and finally that El Chapo did not have friendly terrain back up in Choix, Sinaloa when the "peasants" volunteered to help the Army uproot and run him out of town or into hell two years ago.

     He is in his second-best terrain at this point, and has been up-rooted from there by an effective attack by the Mexican brand of the American 82nd.   In this case, 120 Mexican Army Special Forces personnel did parachute from fairly high, stationary helicopters, at night. The "Run Away Escape" episode has begun, the objective has one bullet-wound in the right leg....(we'll keep tabs on that matter)....and a significant facial wound....of unknown profundity.  El Chapo and his "friends" or "controllers" or by this point, perhaps his "kidnappers"....are trying to cover the man and keep the issue.

    We shall keep our own ears close to the ground and learn if we have g00d news for our neighbors and Christian Allies concerning this matter.   I am not fluxed or surprised that the truth of this issue is not front page of any Newspaper of  McAllen area.

More in a few Days.  For now....it is off to the Tropics and the celebrations of the Mexican Halloween, or the Fiesta de los Muertos y Todos Santos.    I'll try to have better pictures upon the return.
El Gringo Viejo

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FUNDAMENTAL STRATEGIC AND TACTICAL VICTORIES

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CDG:"El Orejón" leader of "los Ciclónes" captured

Lucio R. Borderland Beat using information from Reforma

Angel Eduardo Prado Rodriquez
"El Orejon"

The Coordination Group - Tamaulipas said Friday members of the Ministry of Defense National arrested in Matamoros Angel Eduardo Prado Rodríguez, head of the Golfo Cartel in this border town and premier leader of CDG’s “Los Ciclones”.

Prado-Rodríguez, "Ciclón 7 also known as El  Orejón (Big-ears), it was rated as one of 15 priority objectives of the strategy of Tamaulipas security.

The suspect was the sole objective on that list had not been detained since May 13, 2014. The remainder are either dead or in prison in Texas or Nuevo Leon State. (emphasis- el gringo viejo)
His arrest was made in a raid shortly after six in the morning today.    He was transferred to the premises of the Deputy Attorney Specialized Investigation of Organized Crime (SEIDO) in Mexico City, and is expected to be presented later to the media. (All credit to: Borderland Beat Reporter Lucio - Posted at 4:16 PM 15 comments:  

DON'T CRY FOR ME, ARKANTINA

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DON'T CRY FOR ME,
ARKANTINA
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WIERD....AND IT IS BEING ESTIMATED THAT 40% OF THE TELE-AUDIENCE VIEWERSHIP WERE REPUBLICANS WHO TUNED OUT AROUND MID-WAY

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SANDERS  54.38%  (163,559 votes)

WEBB  25.31%  (76,137 votes) 

CLINTON  8.76%  (26,355 votes) 

O'MALLEY  7.18%  (21,591 votes) 

CHAFEE  4.37%  (13,156 votes) 

Total Votes: 300,798_________

THIS IS A DRUDGE POLL, BE AWARE OF THE FILTER ON THE COHORT OF THE UNIVERSE OF POSSIBLE RESPONDENTS.

BUT!!!

  SO MUCH FOR THE  IDEA THAT (SIR EDMUND) HILLARY CARRIED THE DAY.  FACT IS, HOWEVER, THAT (SIR EDMUND) HILLARY FINISHED A DISTANT 3rd.

 A CONFIRMED CRYPTO-BOLSHI, AND THE MOST CONSERVATIVE DEMOCRAT LEFT STANDING IN THE DEMOCRAT PARTY ESSENTIALLY HAD 80% OF ALL THE APPROVAL. 

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Repairs around the Adobe Hut

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The Culprit after having body and soul restored
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   One can imagine a voice calling out at 23:00 hours, "Deivy, don Deivy", and at least taking some comfort in knowing that it is the "backdoor neighbour".    I stumbled to the door, knowing that the voice was Anastacio's and quickly inquired as to what I might offer to be of assistance....(that is the way things are phrased in this 'behind the times' locale).

     Anastacio then suggested that I might need to go check on the water heater in back of our place, because it was on fire.   Instantly, of course, I went through the house, and to the water heater, and sure enough, it was not totally engulfed in flames, but it did had a significant leak fire in the area of the thermostatic control.   The fire was coming out from the bottom of that apparatus, obviously from a small leak that had just occurred.   The flame was yellow, and not at all spewing like a flamethrower....but it did need attention.

     Our water heater has served relatively faithfully during the past 14 years....never failing during the times of client visitation, and only needing, on a couple of occasions, a change-out of ignitors.   El Gringo Viejo took advantage during his last couple of days of his stay down at our little hideaway of the slightly warm water in order to shower. This was done while he contemplated from whence to scrape up the money to buy a new water heater and just get it all over with.

     Alvaro returned a little earlier than was programmed a couple of days after the "Great Conflagration" and said that there was nothing serious.   I, of course, suggested that having an indisciplined fire fed by propane under pressure was, in fact, something most people would consider serious.   Later that same day, our neighbour, Rafael, came and Alvaro showed him the problem.   Anastasio came over to kibbitz a bit, as men often do, and they all seemed to agree that "....there is no problem."

     The next thing is that I receive a photograph sent from Rafael's I-pod, showing the newly renovated thermostatic control with its new ignitors, etc.    The "maestro" replaced the plastic face with a forged aluminum face,  replaced the priming thumb-plunger, replaced the temperature control dial, cleaned all the innards (removing several preserved moths that I had been keeping, just in case), tested it out, pronounced it whole, and then charged Rafael and Alvaro, apparently as best I can determine, three hundred (300) pesos.  That is right at sixteen - forty(16.40) Yankee dollars installed!

     So, of course, we are searching for a small claims attorney to see if we can arbitrate a better deal.  Just joshing, folks.

Thanks for all attention and time diverted in this direction.  More will follow later to-day.
El Gringo Viejo

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Something to Ponder from the Outpost in Extreme Central Texas - Internet Server Integrity?

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My Internet browser has a gizmo that shows the flag of the country hosting the website I’m currently viewing. Lately, many of the U.S. websites I visit display the tricolor flag of the Republic of Ireland. That means the servers that host the information I’m viewing — and the information those servers are gathering about me — are located on the Emerald Isle.

That’s very much by design. Ireland is in the European Union, where privacy rules are much stronger than in the so-called Land of the Free. Ever since Edward Snowden’s bombshell revelations about U.S. government spying on Internet users, big U.S. data companies such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Apple have transferred server capacity to places such as Ireland and Norway, out of reach of U.S. courts. That’s because they knew that both European and U.S. users would eventually realize that U.S. servers aren’t safe, and would stop doing business with them.

But the U.S. government seems to think its laws apply to everyone on the planet. For the last year, it’s sought a court order to force Microsoft to hand over private emails from a European customer accused of drug trafficking in the U.S. Microsoft has so far refused, arguing that the servers containing the emails are subject to Irish law. But Obama’s Department of Justice hasn’t backed down. It says that since Microsoft has control over the servers, it’s subject to U.S. law.

This is precisely why a courageous Austrian lad by the name of Max Schrems sued Facebook in the European Union Court of Justice, rightly claiming that the company’s inability to guarantee the privacy of his data from U.S. spies violated EU law. Even though Facebook’s servers were in Ireland, he argued, it was clear that the company was vulnerable to U.S. legal demands. Essentially, he argued that the “Safe Harbor” agreement between the U.S. and Europe was worthless, and now he has been proven right. 

The decision to invalidate Safe Harbor was long overdue. Everyone on both sides of the Atlantic knows that American companies can’t guarantee the safety of anyone’s data from U.S. government eavesdropping. Even worse, those companies aren’t allowed to tell customers when their information is accessed by U.S. law enforcement or spy agencies. In some cases, they aren’t even aware that Uncle Sam is doing so.

The ruling will be devastating for American data companies with operations in Europe. Absent a change in U.S. practices, their only hope is to set up legally separate companies with completely separate infrastructure in Europe — a highly expensive and complex proposition. Even then, it’s quite likely that European courts will hold that any connection at all between U.S. and European companies — say, common shareholding and boards of directors — will render them noncompliant with EU law. French courts have already made such rulings.

Congratulations, Uncle Sam. You’re destroying one of the central pillars of what’s left of the U.S. economy. 

Clearly, there are still countries that understand privacy is an essential right to be protected, not violated whenever it’s easier to do so — an idea that seems increasingly alien to the U.S.

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