Calling James Monroe
One of the last European colonial possessions in the Americas took a huge leap into the modern world of nations this week when Kalaallisut, aka Grønland, became self-governing, except in finances, foreign affairs and defense. Prime Minister Kuupik Kleist heads a thirty-one member parliament in the new nation of 57,000 people. Head of state is Queen Margarthe II of Denmark, the once (and still) colonial overlord.
Similarly having a European monarch as head of state and no control over its finances, foreign affairs or defense (and serving as major military outposts for the United States, at the behest of the colonial power) is the Turks and Caicos Islands, which may lose (supposedly temporarily) its quasi-independent status as a “British Overseas Territory”:
… Premier Galmo Williams says the country is at a standstill, as citizens await the release of the final report of the Commission of Inquiry into corruption.
The interim report, which has already been released, contains recommendations for the suspension of the TCI Constitution and the implementation of direct British rule. Those are expected to take effect when the final report is released at month end.
The “corruption” of which Prime Minister Williams speaks is not that of the British parliament, nor of U.S. money laundering in the islands, but that involving the former Prime Minister who made a killing in real estate (and boinked an American citizen). Which is reason enough for the British to resume complete control of the American quasi-nation.
Both Kalaallisut and the Turks and Caicos Islands — despite their European colonial ties, are typically American nations in that the larger American nations are keenly interested in economic control.
From the BBC report on Kalaallisut, we read:
… US experts believe it will become easier to exploit the island’s mineral wealth as global warming melts the ice sheets.
Independence advocates hope the expected increase in revenues from minerals will help fund a final breakaway from Copenhagen.
The Turks and Caicos main industry is catering to Canadian tourists and Canadian politicians have expressed serious interest in annexing the islands. But, as Turks and Caicos writer Ben Roberts writes, there are other players with a major interest in the territory:
…as humanity progressed to a point of two savage world wars, we entered into the Cold War era. This was a war of deterrence, known for its posturing, saber-rattling, and muscle-flexing. Here once again the United States, and by extension Western Europe, got to maintain its military and security edge by looking to, and relying on, the Caribbean. This was in the form of US military bases in Puerto Rico, Chaguaramas in Trinidad, an important naval base in the Bahamas, the famous Guantanamo base in Cuba, and in Turks & Caicos a Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard base, all at the same time, in a World War II deal with their overseers, the British.
This military privilege, afforded the US in the Caribbean, most definitely translated into wealth for that country and its Western allies, because it extended their global reach and their ability to guarantee shipping and all the commerce connected with it. For those who might not know, the Turks & Caicos bases for the American military were an important asset to the US in the Cold War era. So much so that in the frantic race for dominance in outer space by America and the Soviet Union, astronaut John Glenn and his space capsule splashed down in the waters of those islands and was retrieved by his military and brought ashore on Grand Turk.
…Now, one would think that with all of these privileges afforded America and the West … it would have allowed them a special place in the hearts and mind of these beneficiaries. Not a chance! As of right now the US and Europe, in the form of the OECD, are … making outrageous demands of Caribbean tax haven territories, including those they continue to benefit from to this day. What hypocrisy and ungratefulness!
Right here
James Tipton (MexConnect.com):
Gods, Gachupines and Gringos no more resembles the typical “history of Mexico” book than a rushing river resembles a dried-up arroyo.
I was reading the book at the Lake Chapala Society in Ajijic this morning when a couple of buddies joined me. I told them about the book, and read them a few of the passages above as a little sampler. When I finished I looked up. They responded in unison, “Where can I buy a copy?”
Well… the nearest place to Lake Chapala is probably Sandi Bookstore (Av. Tepeyac # 718, Col. Chapalita, Guadalajara, Jalisco), though it can be bought by mail either direct from the publisher.
Adult Education Friday Night Video
Spanish you can use …courtesy of Jason Dormady’s “Secret History: Reflections on Latin America“.
Another sign of recovery?
In January, Chrysler announced it was closing the Toluca plant (and six others in the United States and Canada) indefinitely. The Toluca plant has been producing the Journey SUV and PT Cruiser, which was expected to be discontinued this summer.
This may not be completely good news, given that Chrysler’s plans are to finish up existing orders for 2009 models, then retool and — if necessary — go to a staggered work schedule for the 2010 Chrysler models.
However, as the subscriber-only Wardsauto.com reported on 2 March 2006 Chrysler was investing a billion U.S. dollars in upgrading the Toluca plant to allow for flexible manufacturing, meaning it has a better chance of remaining in operation than some other plants… and could, if necessary, be retooled to produce FIATs.
Hungry for recovery
According to Jose Angel Gurria Treviño, the current Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Mexico has seen the worst of the present economic downturn.
Gurria (a Mexican economist and official in the Zedillo administration) is quoted as saying “The strongest, the most important, the most negative of growth or deceleration of the economy, of exports, of industrial production, of employment, etcetera, the most severe has already been seen.” In other words, all the export income that could have been lost, has been lost, and there’s nowhere to go but up. People still have to eat.
Bimbo — one of the few Mexican multinationals around — paid off a 600 million dollar “bridge loan” ahead of schedule… something unheard of in this financial climate. Bimbo paid 2.38 BILLION dollars in January to purchase the baking unit of Canadian food conglomerate George Wesson, Ltd. While many financial analysts thought the purchase made strategic sense in expanding Bimbo’s global market in the baked goods business, borrowing a huge amount of money in a recession seemed dubious. However, Bimbo — betting on the continued relative stability of the Mexican Peso — was able to issue peso-denominated bonds last week that raised more than enough cash to pay off the loan. Not all Bimbos are bimbos.
Add SuKarne Beef to the roster of Mexican firms that are growing — in spite of the recession — in the United States… and even creating jobs. As James Flannigan writes in the New York Times about SuKarne’s U.S. division, Vit Cattle Corporation
… handles exports of Mexican beef to Japan and South Korea, through contracts made in Compton, Calif. The beef originates in SuKarne’s home base in Culiacán, Sinaloa, in northwest Mexico. “Japanese and Korean executives buy here, and they go to inspect the ranches in Mexico, too,” said Jesus Tarriba, manager of Viz Cattle’s warehouse operation in Compton, in southeast Los Angeles County. “Last year we sold $40 million of beef to Japan and Korea and $80 million here in the U.S.”
Viz Cattle has grown rapidly, from less than $10 million in revenue five years ago to $120 million in 2008. And it is doing well this year despite the downturn, Mr. Tarriba said. Its main business is importing beef from Mexico for American restaurants and retailers. “We specialize in smaller cuts of rib-eye and strip steaks because Mexican ranches slaughter livestock at younger ages than American ranches,” Mr. Tarriba said. “Restaurants like those cuts.”
I like those cuts too, for what it’s worth. I am not buying the export quality steaks, but just the regular domestic SuKarne beef — so lean I have to add a little oil to cook it — trucked in every morning to my neighborhood butcher shop. I have Iowa visitors this week who are raving about the good beef… and well they should.
If you by some chance ARE using Sinaloa’s best known agricultural export you may experience an unusual side effect known to science as “the munchies.” The best cure is a Sinaloan beef hamburger… on a Bimbo bun.
Data dump
Government reports these days seem to fall into three categories. “No shit!”, “out shit don’t stinkt” and… bullshit.
NO SHIT!:
Josh Meyers (L.A. Times) reports the United States General Accounting Office is belaboring the obvious:
The United States lacks a coordinated strategy to stem the flow of weapons across its southern border, a failure that has fueled the rise of powerful criminal cartels and violence in Mexico, according to a government watchdog agency report being released Thursday.
The report by the congressional Government Accountability Office … confirms that a growing number of increasingly lethal, U.S.-made weapons are being smuggled into Mexico and comprise more than 90% of firearms seized by authorities there.
The report also cites recent U.S. intelligence indicating that most of the weapons are being smuggled in specifically for the syndicates, and are being used not only against the Mexican government but also to help the cartels in their efforts to control drug distribution in U.S. cities.
OUR SHIT DON’T STINK:
The United States Department of State “Trafficking in Persons Report” ranks the countries of the Americas in terms of their compliance with U.S. law regarding efforts to reduce certain labor practices — child prostitution among the more pressing violations. When it comes to the nations of the Americas, only Colombia (where there have been on-going death squad campaigns against organized labor and U.S. companies have admitted in court to aiding and abetting the murder of labor organizers… and just coincidentally, the largest recipient of U.S. “aid” in Latin America) receives a clean bill of health. As Inka Kola News noticed, one country is left off the report:
… the biggest guilty party on human trafficking is left off the list completely. The country where many labour and sex slaves are sent by their paymasters and blind eyes are turned.
But he who pays the piper writes the report.
BULLSHIT:
BoRev.net reports on the Peruvian government’s response to the tragic turn in the Amazonian protests:
… the Garcia administration published a very special message to the American public Friday about the Bagua massacre. Turns out the only reason the government sold off the Amazon to multinational industries in the first place was to protect it from the stupid Indians, who were BREAKING IT with all their “timber smuggling” and “coca growing”. But then:
“… extremist political movements have convinced some of the indigenous population that they would be robbed of their land. This led to the blockading of roads and the interruption of production plants. As required by law, the police proceeded to clear the roads and were attacked with firearms, with the result of 24 casualties. The elevated number of civilian deaths reported by sensationalists is thus inexact.”
Did you get that? There can’t be more dead people, because the police cleared the roads or whatever, beforehand, “as required by law,” “thus,” anyway shut the fuck up, sensationalists.
Shawna Forde… the plot thickens
The attempts at damage control at the anti-immigration groups in the United States following the arrest of Shawna Forde and her gang is on going, but as more and more information becomes available, it’s clear that Forde was not an unknown outsider within the anti-immigrant (and… more to the point… anti-Mexican) movement.
Philadelphia attorney David Bennion first noticed that Forde took part in a 2006 debate on immigration, sponsored by the Public Broadcasting System. Others have since picked up on the story and presented the video, in which Forde is identified as a spokesperson for FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform)… supposedly a “mainstream” organization, though it has attracted enough overt racists to be labeled a “hate group” by the American Civil Liberties Organization.
Bennion, and others, have been cautious in pointing out that Forde — who has a history of lying in public (and lying outrageously) — may have claimed to be a spokesperson for FAIR, while not a member. But… if so… why did FAIR never complain, or even correct the record?
Definitely a member of FAIR, and another of Forde’s gang, Jason Bush, had done time for is accused of* murdering a homeless Mexican immigrant, and had lived in a neo-Nazi compound in Idaho for a time.
This is clearly a right-wing terrorist group, but even those who are writing on it in the United States are missing a few essential points. Despite saying the gang was targeting “drug dealers”, they’re overlooking that these people killed children. Not too many nine-year olds are in the narcotics trade, and it’s a disservice to the victim to make this claim.
If I am right, that Forde’s gang, or a similar rightist gang was behind other attacks like those in southern Arizona in January 2007. Either the anti-immigration groups are “corrupted by gangsters” or they are gangsters. Either way, they’re as dangerous to the United States as any “spillover violence” from Mexico.
* “Charlotte” (comment below) corrected an error, which doesn’t change the fact that Shawna Forde and Jason Bush are now accused of this multiple homicide. What William Gheen or ALIPIC has to do with whether Ms. Forde held herself out as a spokesperson for “FAIR” is irrelevant. (14-July-2009)
Your tragic loss is our gain
With “negative advertising” officially banned in Mexico, political parties have had to come up with new and creative ways of mud-slinging. Most of the attention so far has been on PAN’s attempts to pin drug-dealing on PRI (and PRI’s attempts to restrain their glee that a PAN candidate was caught on a wire-tap negotiating with the Beltran Leyva gang), but with the suspicion that narcotics gangsters are equal opportunity corrupters of politicians, perhaps there’s a need to refine the tactic. PAN has found a suprisingly gruesome opportunity in trying to associate their opponents with dead children.
I suppose the call by PAN Senate leader, Gustavo Madero, to launch a Senate investigation into the role of Sonora Governor Eduardo Bours in awarding contracts for federal day care centers in that state isn’t that out of line. The Fifth of this month, a fire at a federally-run Hermosillo day care fire, killed 35 children outright, with several more dying from burns and others maimed for life. Although some of President Calderon’s relations are involved in the business that ran the center, Madero is singling out PRI political influence for investigation. Naturally, Manlio Fabio Beltrones, speaking for the PRI, claims the investigation is political, and shows a lack of respect for the families who are still mourning their loss (the equivalent of “invades the privacy” excuse used in the United States for making political points off recent deaths).
Last year this month, there was a another senseless loss of young lives, during the botched police raid on the “News Divine” club in Mexico City. A promised crack-down on clubs that served alcohol to minors led to a massive police operation on the over-crowded club, which resulted in a stampede for the exits. Three minors, six other patrons between the ages of 18 and 22, and three police officers died as a result. In this instance, as this El Universal video reports, PAN is “assisting” the families in remembering the event… mostly as a way of blaming PRD political leaders for the disaster.
Tacky, tacky, tacky… though I’m sure some at PRI and PRD headquarters are already looking for “appropriate” (or, inappropriate) mud-slinging opportunities of their own.
AMLO: J’accuse!
You didn’t think he was going to just dry up and disappear, did you?
(My translation of a short item by Alfredo Valadez, in yesterday’s Jornada)
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced today that he has lodged formal denunciations (criminal complaints) before Federal Prosecutor Jose Agustín Ortiz Pincheti, in Mexico City against ten people Lopez Obrador said were reponsible for a number of crimes: corruption, influence peddling and misappropriation of public funds.
“I am presenting a denunciation against [Felipe] Calderón, because Calderón is a bandit” adding that the chief executive’s practices and actions are “lamentable double-talk.”
On tour in Zacatecas, Lopez Obrador said that over the last two decades, the persons named in the complaint have commited the crimes listed in the denunciation, and that he believes he has submitted sufficient proof.
Those listed in the complaint are: Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Vicente Fox Quesada, Ernesto Zedillo, Jose Luis Barraza, Elbe Esther Gordillo, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, Diego Fernandez de Ceballos, Claudio X. González, Roberto Hernandez and Gastón Azcárraga.
Salinas, Fox and Zedillo are all former presidents. Calderón, of course, is the sitting president, though his election was viewed as fraudulant by a significant proportion of the electorate, which believed Lopez Obrador was actually elected.
Diego Fernandez de Ceballos, PAN leader and former presidential candidate, led attempts in the Senate to have Lopez Obrador removed from office (and barred from running for public office) during AMLO”s tenure as head of the Federal District goverment. Elbe Esther Gordillo is the widely despised head of the powerful teachers’ union, often referred to (even by her admirers) as “Sra. Hoffa.”
Barraza, González, Hernandez and Azcárraga are all business executives.
All are connected to parties opposed to those which support him, or he supports.
Lopez Obrador is often seen as grand-standing (with good reason), but I’ve never thought of him as Quixotic, and never seen him as stupid, crazy or seeking martyrdom. The chances of a serious criminal investigation don’t seem particularly good, but the timing is interesting… federal elections are less than a month away.
I wouldn’t be surprised if AMLO is using the criminal charges to pump support for the two minor parties (the Workers Party and Convergencia) that he is supporting in the elections nationally (outside the Federal District, where he is supporting the PRD) . And, I wouldn’t be suprised if there is at least some substance to his allegations… he’s been derided for claiming “plots” before, and turned out to be correct. Not to mention his “legitimate presidency” was never meant to be a game, but, both as a think-tank and a tool for developing future political strategies, may have been doing some solid opposition research.
Let he who is without sin… etc.
Last Thursday there were protests throughout Peru in support of the Amazonian Indigenous peoples’ attempts to defend their region from outside development (and against the government’s massacre of protesters last week… which were followed by President Alan Garcia’s description of Amazonian protesters as “savages” and “second-class citizens”…. and was also being protested).
If reported on outside Peru at all, news stories for the most part relied on “official sources” like that from Huancayo that claimed police officers were injured by rock-throwing students.
Uh… who was throwing those rocks? And, while this is Peru, do you see why there is a need for independent foreign news services?
(Sombrero tip to the independent wildly non-traditional financial news service, Inca Kola News)
Shawna who? Minutemen try to deny relationship
Various “minutemen” groups thoughout the United States — who had a wary relationship with Shawna Forde in the past — are attempting now to spin a narrative that they never heard of her… something rather difficult to swallow.
Forde, now the main suspect in a home invasion in Arizona that resulted in the murder of a nine-year old child and her father, as well as seriously wounding the child’s mother, ran (or runs) the miniscule “Minuteman American Defense” (MAD) organization (membership, probably around a dozen) which has received out of proportion coverage by the anti-immigration community, only recently negative.
Dan Shearer, of Arizona’s Green Valley News (a bi-weekly newspaper in what is largely a retirement community along the Arizona-Sonora border) writes sympathetically of his own community’s “Minutemen” who worry about being connected with Forde.
“I figured something like this was going to happen,” he said Friday after three people were arrested in connection with two murders in Arivaca. “We’re all going to be painted with the same broad brush.”
Anderson said he is pulling local Minuteman volunteers from the streets until about the end of the month to avoid potential confrontations.
Anybody joining the 12,000-member national Minuteman group must undergo a background check, an interview with a national officer and go through four to six hours of training, he said.
“Our rules are very strict,” he said. “We’re doing everything above-board according to the law.”
Scott Anderson may not have heard of Forde, but the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps certainly has. She is a former member of that organization, and — other than the internal disputes among various “Minuteman” groups — and some sniping that the woman was a “loose cannon” no attempts to stop her activities. On the contrary.
The Southern Poverty Law Council report on “The Nativists” detailed Forde’s connections within the overall movement, and none of the other “nativists” raised any complaint about being included with Forde on this list. Nor, when she claimed MS-13 operatives attacked her, allegedly raping her (reported by the Everett Washington Herald’s Scott North), and those claims quickly were dismissed as false, was there any attempts by these groups to claim she was dangerous… only that she was a liar and possibly unbalance. VDare.com (a racist, white-supremicist site, this is an indirect link to an equally nasty site) attacked those who questioned the rape story, but resulted in nothing from the various Minutemen groups suggesting Forde was anything worse than self-promoting.
Chuck Stonex, who vigorously defended Forde when previous accusations of her possible collusion in criminal activites, or her dubious claims of being targeted by “Mexican drug dealers” were questioned by Scott North of the Everett (Washington) Herald, who has been on Forde like white on rice.
Stonex is well-known for defending not just Forde, but the “movement” Back in January of this year, he was the subject of a post in the Immigration Clearinghouse (“Defender of Shawna Forde relies on lies, slander and racism to defend the indefensible“). The San Diego Minutemen (which is at odds with the other minutemen organizations for various reasons) considers Stonex a “Jim Gilchrist attack dog against other leaders and groups. Helps Gilly[Gilchrist] spread lies. Advocates violence and action against illegals at the border.”
Stonex himself may be more involved with Forde’s alleged crime spree (more on that in a minute) than is being reported. Most of the wire service reports merely say that Stonex responded “This is not what Minutemen do. Minutemen observe, document and report.” But, as Scott North, the Herald reporter writes:
Forde called [Stonex] on May 30 while he was visiting Arizona and asked him to bring bandages to an Arivaca home because Bush had been wounded, Stonex told the AP.
According to the story, Stonex said it appeared Bush had a relatively minor gunshot wound, which he treated. Forde and Bush told him Bush been wounded by a smuggler who shot at him while the group were patrolling the desert. He didn’t suspect that might not be the case until was contacted by a deputy on Saturday about their alleged involvement in the crime.
Jim Gilchrist, whose Minuteman Project ignited the ire of the San Diego Minutemen organization:
… a longtime Forde ally, made it clear Saturday that his earlier support of Forde should in no way be construed as approving the actions now attributed to her.
Mike Vanderboegh, at Sipsey Street Irregulars (listing an address in Pinson Arizona) — which might be best described as a “gun-owner/survivialist/”western civilization faces disaster” kind of site) writes:
I met Shawna one weekend a couple of years ago at a Patriots Border Alliance conference in St. Louis.
Of course, now Vanderboegh claims he told several people that he thought she was “not too tightly wrapped — a potential loose cannon.” She may have been, but I find no evidence that anyone in the “Minuteman” movement did anything about it, or made any real effort to separate themselves from Forde’s group.
The point, of course, is that to claim Forde was not a part of the “Minuteman” movement, or that she was unknown to the leadership (or that the groups did anything other than attack her for poaching their potential membership and siphoning off possible contributions) did anyone raise a red flag.
While right now, with questions being raised by many about the effect of rightist propaganda on “loose cannons” (witness the terrorist attacks on George Tiller in Wichita and on the Holocaust Museum in Washington — both perpetrated by “fringe” figures within larger movements) it’s worth revisiting the probable connection between rightist movements and terrorism. But, even more, I’d suggest authorities take a second look at those troubling incidents I wrote about back in early 2007 (here, here and here) in which undocumented workers (and their drivers) were attacked (and murdered) by unknown groups.
At the time, the speculation was that the attackers were other smugglers, though the reports that three of the four attackers were “anglo” and one was “Hispanic, but appeared to speak little Spanish” (one of Forde’s alleged accomplices in the home-invasion/murder is 42-year old Albert Gaxiola from Arivaca, Arizona (the scene of the crime) whose picture (and Basque family name) suggests a “Hispanic” who may speak little Spanish.
At the time, I though “rogue” elements within the Minuteman movement was a possibility, but I’m wondering how “rogue” they really were. The same crew of bad actors in the Armay have been in Arizona during these January 2007 attacks (in which case, the authorities should re-examine those cases), or other “Minutemen” groups may also be acting as death squads. This seems likely.
Given the obvious criminal intent of Forde’s group (the claims — backed even by her parents — is that her crime spree was meant to finance anti-immigrant activities) suggests ties to other criminal organizations. Forde was being spun as someone too incompetent to carry out “Minuteman” projects and a sad “loser”… which — if true — suggests the “Viagra Vigilantes” (thanks to Mexico Trucker On-line for the appropriately dismissive moniker) may not be as toothles and comic as they seem… despite their denials, they are a breeding ground for white supremacists (and potential terrorists) at best, possibly a front for organized crime, and — it’s abundantly clear — a recruiting camp for death squads.
We don’t need no stinkin’ badgers!
How could I resist the title?
From Saturday’s Noroeste de Sinaloa (my translation, article by Karen Lule).
Mazatlan — Playa Norte fishermen have brought to the public’s attention the presence of badgers preying on gulls, terns and pelicans on the Tres Islas.
Fishermen’s Union spokesman, indicated that the mammels are destroying the native species on the islands, and it is important that the authority intervene in this matter.
“The authorities must pay attention to the islands. On the first, and the middle island, there is a pack of badgers that are feeding on the nests of the gulls, terns and pelicans,” he said.
Other fishermen say they have seen increasing numbers of the animals, and in their avidity to obtain food is affecting the bird population in the protected areas.
Saldoval presumes the badgers were introduced onto the islands thirty years ago when electrical connections were made to the mainland.
According to the fishermen, there are more than one hundred badgers, causing extensive damage on Isla de Pájaros and Isla de Chivos.
“These animal reproduce very fast, and must be removed before they wipe out the bird colonies,” they said.
The three islands are protected areas under the 2 August 1978 Gulf Island Protection Decree. According to the National Commission for Protected Areas, one of the main problems faced by island ecosystems is the introduction of non-native flora and fauna.
mexfiles.net 