Canadian archbishop in pedophile case

Canadian police have charged the head of the Archdiocese of Canada of the Orthodox Church in America with two counts of sexual assault on young boys. Archbishop Kenneth William Storheim, who has held many Church positions in Canadian communities, turned himself in to Winnipeg police on Wednesday after being charged. He has since been released [...]

Stupid Drug Story of the Week: The Associated Press on the arrival of “deadly, ultra-pure heroin.”

Yesterday, the Associated Press moved a story completely devoid of historical context. The piece, titled “Deadly, Ultra-Pure Heroin Arrives in U.S.,” claims that in “recent years”—a time frame that goes undefined—Mexican dealers have started peddling “ultra-potent” black tar heroin and are selling it for as little as $10 a bag. In alarmist prose, the article [...]

Los Angeles teacher call for Mexican revolution in the US

San Francisco City workers banned from official travel to Arizona

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced today a moratorium on official city travel to Arizona after the state enacted a controversial new immigration law that directs local police to arrest those suspected of being in the country illegally. The ban on city employee travel to Arizona takes effect immediately, although there are some exceptions, including [...]

Mexico warns citizens in Arizona

HTML clipboard The Mexican government warned its citizens Tuesday to use extreme caution if visiting Arizona because of a tough new law that requires all immigrants and visitors to carry U.S.-issued documents or risk arrest. And a government-affiliated agency that supports Mexicans living and working in the United States called for boycotts of Tempe, Ariz.-based [...]

Another Mexican Politician Wants Legalization

The state governor of Veracruz, Fidel Herrera Beltrán, has called for the legalization of marijuana as one tool to reduce the narco-violence that plagues Mexico. He acknowledges that it is not a “silver bullet” that would eliminate the cartels or related violence (the straw man argument that many against legalization use to support their gossamer [...]

First Europe, then the US – now abuse claims sweep Latin America

The pedophile priest scandal currently enveloping the Vatican has spread to one of the most Catholic areas of the world following a string of new abuse revelations throughout Latin America. Reports of priests raping or abusing minors have now emerged in Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay, Mexico and Chile causing growing anger in a continent that is [...]

The Chemist’s War

The little-told story of how the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition with deadly consequences. It was Christmas Eve 1926, the streets aglitter with snow and lights, when the man afraid of Santa Claus stumbled into the emergency room at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital. He was flushed, gasping with fear: Santa Claus, he kept [...]

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department buys gear from company targeted by sweatshop investigators

The Safariland website is a virtual big box retailer of tactical equipment, chemical weapons and forensics for police departments, military and private security contractors. The Premium Wallbanger System is used for SWAT team entry operations and can create a shooting port through a wall. It can use an explosive charge to breach metal doors and [...]

SPLC Suit Wins $2.75 Million Settlement for Exploited Workers

COLUMBIA, Tenn. – In one of the largest settlements of its kind, an Arkansas forestry company has agreed to pay $2.75 million to settle the legal claims of foreign guest workers who say they were cheated out of the wages they earned planting trees for the company. Superior Forestry Service Inc.’s agreement to pay more [...]

Mexicans Say U.S. Drug Crackdown Feeds Violence

Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – A Mexican law enforcement agency is blaming recent violence along the border in large part to a U.S. crackdown on drug traffickers, prompting skepticism from American government agencies. Mexico’s Secretariat of Public Security (Secretaría de Seguridad Pública) reported that in the past six months the value of cocaine in [...]

Marine scum Cesar Laurean: murder trial to move

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — A former North Carolina-based Marine accused of killing a pregnant colleague has been granted a change of venue for his murder trial. Onslow County Superior Court Judge Charles Henry issued an order Monday, saying the trial of Cesar Laurean should be moved because pretrial publicity surrounding the case might influence jurors. Laurean’s [...]

Court issues arrest warrant for ex-Guatemalan president

The Guatemalan criminal court has issued an arrest warrant for the country’s ex-President Alfonso Antonio Portillo Cabrera, who faces extradition to the U.S. on charges of money laundering, local media said on Monday. The Periodico newspaper said the warrant for Portillo, who had been Guatemalan president in 2000-2004, was issued following a request by a [...]

Walter McKay on Police Accountability and Reform

I’m pleased to share a new blog with LEAP supporters. Walter McKay‘s blog is titled Police Accountability and Reform. It’s been around for a while, but recently he started posting on it more regularly. He lives in Mexico and so much of his writing focuses on the violence of the drug cartels in that country. [...]

National Geographic’s ‘Border Wars’

National Geographic’s Border Wars: Incident Reports National Geographic’s new series Border Wars premieres this Sunday, January 10. The series follows United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents and officers at one of the busiest border crossings in the country, Nogales, Arizona and Heroica Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. Cameras follow the CBP agents “as they use [...]

Last son of Pancho Villa dies in Hayward at 94

HAYWARD — Ernesto Nava, the last living son of Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa (José Doroteo Arango Arámbula), died of natural causes Dec. 31. He was 94. Nava, a Hayward-area resident since moving to Russell City in 1942, was born in Mexico but moved with his mother to New Mexico when he was very young. Nava [...]

Wife of slain El Monte civic leader didn’t think drug war would touch her family

[ When you live in a democratic society, you are equally responsible for the crimes you allow your "po-po" to commit.  Take back control of your life from him  Stop the drug war. See Law Enforcement Against Prohibtion. ] Betzy Salcedo cited an old Mexican saying: He who doesn’t owe anything has nothing to fear. [...]

Venezuela, Colombia and Peru stock markets the most profitable in the decade

The stock exchanges of Colombia, Venezuela and Peru were, in that order, the most profitable markets in Latin America in the first decade of the 21st century, according to a survey released on Monday by the consulting firm Economática. The study took into account currency fluctuations in the main Latin American markets between December 31, [...]

7,724 Slain in Mexico in 2009

MEXICO CITY – Last year was the deadliest in Mexico in the past decade, with 7,724 people killed in violent incidents attributed to organized crime, Mexico City daily El Universal said on Friday. That total translates into an average of more than 21 homicides a day. The newspaper, which has been keeping a daily tally [...]

Old school meth: Mexican cartels go back to basics

Mexican cartels are increasingly going “old school” to keep supplying America with methamphetamine despite an ingredient squeeze. Some gangs have responded to a Mexican crackdown on their meth chemical of choice — pseudoephedrine — by reviving a production method so old, it was used by U.S. motorcycle gangs and bathtub chemists in the 1970s and [...]

UPDATES: 3 police officers among 5 people indicted in fatal, race-related beating

Luis Ramirez was in a coma on life support before he died two days after he was beaten. See updated article on this case, with photos, here.  Then see here.  YouTube here … Five people, including three police officers, have been indicted on charges related to the beating death of a Latino man in rural [...]

Cell Phone Application directs border-crossing immigrants to water

SAN DIEGO — A group of California artists wants Mexicans and Central Americans to have more than just a few cans of tuna and a jug of water for their illegal trek through the harsh desert into the U.S. Faculty at University of California, San Diego are developing a GPS-enabled cell phone that tells dehydrated [...]

America’s Secret ICE Castles

“If you don’t have enough evidence to charge someone criminally but you think he’s illegal, we can make him disappear.” Those chilling words were spoken by James Pendergraph, then executive director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement‘s (ICE) Office of State and Local Coordination, at a conference of police and sheriffs in August 2008. Also present [...]

‘Revenge killings’ rattle Mexico

Source Armed men have killed family members of a Mexican special forces marine involved in a military raid last week that ended in the death of a powerful drug leader. The attack at the family’s home in Quintin Arauz on Tuesday took place just hours after the military honored the officer, Melquisedet Angulo Cordova, as a [...]

Claremont man who aided migrants convicted for littering

When Walt Emrys Staton stumbled upon a migrant mother, Concepcion, carrying her daughter Jessica, 9, along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, they’d been lost for days and had no food or water. “The daughter was crying, `I’m sorry, mom, this is my fault,”‘ Staton said. “It’s heartbreaking to see that.” Passion to help those in [...]

Fear of violence after killing of drug lord in Mexico

As Mexican and US officials have hailed the killing of top drug lord (Marcos) Arturo Beltrán Leyva, many are fearing further violence in the struggle to replace him. Arturo Beltran Leyva, nicknamed the “boss of bosses,” was killed in a shoot-out with the navy south of Mexico City late on Wednesday, along with six cartel [...]

Major Political Reforms Proposed in Mexico

In the most dramatic proposal for political reform in decades, Mexican President Felipe Calderón announced yesterday a 10-point plan aimed at revamping Mexico’s political system. Among the many reforms, the proposal would allow independent candidates to run for office and relax term-limit rules for legislators, allowing lawmakers and mayors to hold office for up to [...]

Arizona Dictator Sheriff Joe Arpaio Approaching Retirement

The day after the federal government told Maricopa County Sheriff Joseph M. “Joe” Arpaio that he could no longer use his deputies to round up suspected illegal immigrants on the street, the combative Arizona sheriff did just that. He launched one of his notorious “sweeps,” in which his officers descend on heavily Latino neighborhoods, arrest [...]

Mexicans in drug war city call on army to leave

Ciudad Juarez (Mexico): Thousands of people dressed in white demanded soldiers leave Mexico’s most violent city on Sunday, accusing troops of provoking a surge in drug-war killings and running protection rackets. Around 5,000 people marched through Ciudad Juarez on the US border, many with white balloons and holding signs saying “leave Juarez, soldiers and federal [...]

Los Zetas Investing in Legitimate Business

Ever since the original founders of Los Zetas were trained by US Special Forces personnel at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, GA, they’ve been upping the ante and redefining the very model of a modern major drug cartel. Reports Alfredo Corchado of the Dallas News (“Mexico’s Zetas gang buys businesses along the [...]

Mexican Families Begin Sending Money to Relatives in U.S.

Mexico is expected to lose more than 700,000 jobs this year due to a slumping economy that may decline as much as 7.5%. Almost half of the country’s population lives in poverty, and yet, it is managing to reverse a trend of money that has traditionally flowed from north (the United States) to south. While [...]

Mexican Consulate will provide temporary vehicle import permits for persons who plan to travel to Mexico

Drawn by its beauty, mysticism of ancient traditions, or love of the country, hundreds of thousands of tourists and Mexican nationals will defy the weather and possible bad road conditions and will venture into Mexican territory during the holidays by vehicle. However, in order to avoid infractions and legal troubles, those adventurous travelers would have [...]

Global survey on free market capitalism: Majority say fix it or ditch it

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a new BBC poll has found widespread dissatisfaction with free-market capitalism (laissez-faire). In the global poll for the BBC World Service, only 11% of those questioned across 27 countries said that it was working well. Most thought regulation and reform of the capitalist system were necessary. [...]

Here’s That Leaked Copyright Treaty Document

The secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement document we wrote about on Wednesday appeared on Wikileaks today, and our source has cleared us to publish it here as well. We wrote that the document, (.pdf) if true, amounted to policy laundering at its finest -– that the United States was pushing the world to require ISPs to [...]

Mexico ‘opens arms’ to immigrants

The Drug War Leads to Gun Control

A fundamental principle of interventionism holds that one government intervention inevitably leads to more interventions, in order to “fix” the problems of the previous interventions. At the end of this road lies omnipotent government and the loss of freedom. A good example of this phenomenon is being provided by a group called the Binational Task [...]

Former Colombian president blasts U.S. anti-drug strategy

Former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria on Tuesday strongly criticized the United States’ approach to fighting drugs. “Just putting all consumers in jail, as the U.S. does, is not a solution,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “You have to reduce consumption.” In a wide ranging interview, Gaviria said the United States now has more people in [...]

CIA documents on Agent Posada Carriles released

The Washington, DC-based investigative nonprofit National Security Archive released several documents on Oct. 6 written by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1965 and 1966 about its Cuban-born longtime “asset” Luis Posada Carriles, who currently lives in Miami under indictment after entering the US illegally in 2005. The Archive’s Peter Kornbluh obtained the documents [...]

National Security Virtual Fence, Real Disaster

The project was supposed to be stone-simple: “basically cameras on a pole,” in the words of one congressman. Boeing would tweak some off-the-shelf surveillance gear to create a so-called “virtual fence” along the U.S.-Mexican border. The whole thing would be done by early 2009. Well, that date has come and gone for SBINet, the cameras-on-a-pole [...]

State Department Faces Criticism on New Merida Initiative Report

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars recently made available an unclassified U.S. State Department report on Mexico’s human rights as related to the Merida Initiative. The report comes as a response to section 1406 of the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2008 (P.L. 110-252), and section 7045 of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related [...]

Congress dismisses building additional Mexico fence

The US Congress has rejected to erect another 300 miles of tall fencing on the Mexico border, as Washington struggles to stop smugglers and illegal immigrants from entering the US soil. Congress scrapped an appropriation bill by the Department of Homeland Security that envisaged equipping another 300 miles of US-Mexico border with fencing. Lawmakers said [...]

Tijuana Morgue Overwhelmed with Corpses

Coroners at the Tijuana morgue say they have run out of space for the dead, but the bodies keep coming in. The Tijuana coroner brings in another body this morgue can’t hold — another casualty of the ongoing brutal drug war. Inside a decrepit building, more than a hundred bodies lay lifeless in a place [...]

What happens to U.S. if Mexico legalizes illegal drugs?

Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico, strode onto a St. Louis stage Tuesday night wearing a conservative business suit and pedestrian black loafers. The cowboy boots and “Fox” belt buckle that were his trademarks while in office until late 2006 were gone. The serious attire gave hint to the serious message he delivered: Mexico [...]

Report: Top anti-drug official was ’secret ally of drug lords’

DEA says key ICE official sold info about informants, ran Panamanian cocaine to Spain via US ports Richard Padilla Cramer, a 26-year veteran anti-drug official, is behind bars, arrested after officials accused him of directing a massive cocaine shipment to Spain via the United States, and selling important information in law enforcement databases to a [...]

Point man in Mexico’s war on drug cartels resigns

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Felipe Calderon has accepted the resignation of the attorney general who was leading the battle against drug cartels, making the biggest shake-up yet in his offensive against organized crime. Attorney General Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza‘s image was tarnished by charges that his top confidant was on the take and there had [...]

ACLU demands records of border searches of laptops

The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol‘s controversial practice of randomly searching laptops upon U.S. entry quietly began last year but has quickly drawn attention, including a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed this week by the American Civil Liberties Union for records related to the practice. With regard to the searches, which don’t require “individualized suspicion” to [...]

MEXICO BUILDS BORDER WALL TO KEEP OUT US ASSHOLES

Mexico Legalizes Drug Possession

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico enacted a controversial law on Thursday decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs while encouraging government-financed treatment for drug dependency free of charge. The law sets out maximum “personal use” amounts for drugs, also including LSD and methamphetamine. People detained with those quantities will no [...]

Once You Pop, You Just Can’t Stop… Those Damn Drug Cartels!

Need more proof that the drug war isn’t working? Watch the above video of 20 Mexican drug cartel members dressed as police freeing 53 inmates from a Mexico jail. The cartel members arrived in 10 vehicles and a helicopter. Yes, they have fucking helicopters. And submarines. How many of the drug dealers and users that [...]

Police: Pfc. pulled trigger in cartel killing

EL PASO, Texas — An 18-year-old U.S. soldier was the triggerman in a paid hit on a Mexican drug cartel figure who was also an informant for the U.S. drug enforcement agency, police said Tuesday in announcing the arrests of the soldier and two alleged co-conspirators. Pfc. Michael Jackson Apodaca, who was based at Fort [...]