A pro-Mexican Republican!
Via Mi Blog es tu blog:
If you thought you had seen (and heard) it all about politics and immigration, consider Rod Jetton, a Missouri politician who is offering to trade lazy locals for hardworking Mexican immigrants.
“I think there are some lazy Missourians in this state who really don’t want to work, and I think there’s a lot of hardworking Mexicans who would love to come up here and make a little money to support their families,” he told the Associated Press. “And by golly, if we could find a way to trade them, I would trade them in a heartbeat.”
Mi Blog missed one interesting fact. Rod isn’t just any politio, he’s the Speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives. Rod is from the bootheel, which is more Arkansas than Missouri, so he may have a point… though I don’t think this will go over well with his constituents.
The Nazi, The Green Phantom and The Mother of Satan
I’ve noticed that the foreign news about the bombing ten days ago in the Zona Rosa has quietly disappeared. No terrorists, and nobody was terrified… a few windows were broken, but neighbors said they thought it was a propane tank explosion (in a city where everyone has a propane tank in their kitchen or on the roof, this isn’t an unheard of incident); no big time cartel attack on the establishment (the otherwise sensible “bloggings by boz” — depending too much on the usual wire service and established media reports — speculated on the “drug war”, downplaying the obvious fact that the bomber meant to attack a local prosecutor’s office, which had to do with local crimes, not a Federal installation involved in the government’s “war on drugs”); just a couple small-time Tepito gangsters pissed off by the District’s never-ending crackdown on illicit activities in Tepito, and their seizure of criminal assets (and properties).
The “Tepito Cartel” (and I never heard them described as a “cartel” before. A “Mafia” yeah — but then I suppose even Tepito’s traditional criminals are likely to go for the new management style) are just ordinary, decent criminals, no more in cahoots with THE CARTELS than your local diner is connected with Archer-Daniels-Midland just because they retail what the major suppliers wholesale. Tepitanos are the Cocknies of Mexico City. Like the Cocknies, they speak their own argot to protect themselves from the outside forces of control, and survive on grit, determination, humor… and crime. With the forces of bourgeois respectability threatening their usos y costumbres — and fighting a losing battle on their home turf — it’s perfectly logical they take the fight to the enemy … the Zona Rosa. Logical, but stupid.
Not that it hasn’t been entertaining, what with “Mother of Satan”, el Nazi and the mysterious green Phantom all making the news. For a couple of days, there were reports that the explosive was the same type used by suicide bombers in Iraq… well… yeah. It’s easy to make, and the bombers’ life-expectancy isn’t all that great (which isn’t a concern, I guess, with suicide bombers). “Mother of Satan” is a much more colorful name than acetone peroxide — basically stuff you can whip up in your basement, a bit of acetone, some hydrogen peroxice (the bomber’s accomplice, who may or may not recover enough from her third-degree burns to face charges, was a hairdresser) and a bit of hydrochloric acid. Easy enough to whip up, if you don’t mind the possiblity of blowing up your house, and it stinks to high heaven. Still, easy to do.
El Nazi — along with el Chilango and el Gordo (“Fats”) — are various evil geniuses behind the plot. All are connected in some way for the search for the green Phantom — that’s a Dodge by the way — seen either leaving the scene of the explosion, or dropping off the soon to be de-parted (literally — the guy’s arm was still attached to the remnants of the bomb, while the rest of him was elsewhere) bomber… and owned by the bomber’s girlfriend’s dad… or stolen from him, or not seen in weeks or something (the excuses change from day to day and it’s hard to keep up).
Mexicans love tradition. Fireworks have always been popular, ever since Hernan Cortes and company first fired off their archibuses when entering Tenotichlan. And while burning up evil-doers went out with the inquisition, combining the two has certainly proved popular. Not that I’d want to watch, but geeze… this isn’t a crime for CSI-DF, but — given the wonderful names of the villains — it’s not a CSI-type crime anyway. Time to call in serious Mexican crime fighters…
Back to school special…
Civics seems to have dropped out of the curriculum in U.S. schools over the last couple of generations. I think it used to be in the 9th grade curriculum in New York State, but for some reason I’ve never understood, the year I was in 9th grade (never mind what year that was), the State was experimenting, and we had in-depth African and Indian history (being in a Catholic school with Italians and Irish, it made no sense, but to this day I can find African countries on a map, and spell Nehru correctly).
When I taught — thankfully very briefly — junior high in Morelos State, there was a state course called Cívica y Ética,which besides giving the students the theoretical basis of the Mexican State, pumped for things like honesty and not cheating any more than necessary. All good things. Whether it made any impression on the rich little brats at the school I was working at is another story, but it kept them quiet for an hour or so two or three days a week (the teacher was very good at giving them a lot of busy work).
At any rate, Cívica y Ética seems to have disappeared from the Federal curriculum, though it is being returned to the high school curriculum next year. This being the 21st century, a few basic finance courses are also being added. I suppose a few reminders to act civilized can’t hurt teenagers, and I’m not sure they need to find Ghana on a map.
In other educational news, bureaucrats in Mexico City are going to start taking Nahautl lessons next year. Although English is unofficially Mexico’s second language, Nahuatl is still the official second language, and Mexico City schools are also starting to offer the traditional language in their curriculum.
Half-measures in Colorado
While the U.S. is going to continue to argue about immigration over the next several years, there is still a need for temporary workers. Down where I live, it’s sheep shearers who are in short supply. Under the old system — or non-system — skilled shearers would come across the Rio Grande for the few weeks they were needed, pocket their cash and go home. These guys (a lot of them Mexican Mennonites) had no intention of abandoning their homes and families in Mexico, nor of moving their families to the U.S., but just wanted to earn a bit of cash during the season to help them make it through the year.
What drives at least some of the present Mexican migration is the inability of workers to cross easily and securely both borders. Making it harder to enter the U.S., the worker cannot go home to support his family once the seasonal job is finished, and has to move on to a second and third and fourth… job. He has to stay. And, if he’s a stand-up guy, make arrangements to bring his family here.
I’ve argued for some time that a neo-bracero program could work. The World War II program, that lingered on into the 1960s, had more than a few problems. Workers were supposed to elect their own union representatives, but the representatives were hand-picked by the employers, or — in California — by the state. Workers were threatened with deportation for not playing ball or complaining about labor violations. Worse, the workers were supposed to have ten percent of their paychecks set aside to be paid in Mexico. What happened to the money is anyone’s guess. Some was stolen by Mexican or U.S. banks (or employers) — Wells Fargo assumed responsiblity for much of these debts several years ago when it bought out regional banks that had been involved in the program. And record keeping — both because the program was originally set up overnight as an emergency war measure (U.S. military needs left both agriculture and the railroads desperately short of workers, and had to be replaced with Mexican workers within a matter of months) and because the technology needed to keep track of financial operations was still primitive paper and pencil records… and local farmers often didn’t understand that Jose Garcia Garcia and Jose Garcia Valdez and Juan Garcia Valdez were three different people. Or the farmers just didn’t bother with the right papers, and the banks never said a word and …
Banking technology is now advanced enough to transfer funds easily between the U.S. and Mexico… and several banks operate in both countries. Mexicans have an equivalent to the U.S. Social Security Number that eliminates the problem of not identifying the right individual payee, and — with debit cards — no actual cash need change hands. The biggest problem I see if recruiting (I’d prefer it be done by the unions, though the States — like Colorado or Arizona, in these proposals — through their labor departments, might be in a good position to work as honest brokers. The second biggest problem is assuring workers their contracts will be honored. How the states, or the unions, would do this is something I don’t know.
What Colorado is proposing is far from perfect (it depends on punishments for overstaying visas, rather than rewards for returning home, and the record keeping seems more for tracking the workers’ movements than protecting his or her paycheck and safeguarding his labor and human rights), but it’s a reasonable first step to resolving the serious labor problem we’ve gotten ourselves into because of our short-sighted focus on “illegals” as a threat, and not a necessary spot labor pool.
From the 22 February 2008 Denver Post:
Frustrated with the federal bureaucracy and Congress’ failure to pass immigration reform, two Colorado lawmakers have proposed taking over a large part of the application process and opening offices in Mexico to find people who can arrive in time to pick the state’s crops and run cattle. Arizona is considering setting up its own temporary worker program to help all kinds of businesses suffering labor shortages.Colorado’s bipartisan bill essentially mirrors the federal H2-A program — including requirements that employers pay for food, housing and transportation and pay a set wage. But it puts the state in charge of recruiting and selecting workers.
Lawmakers see the first office possibly opening in Guadalajara, where Colorado already has an economic development office. The new office would give workers medical screenings and check to make sure they return home.
The change would require approval from the federal government, which isn’t commenting on the plan.
Supporters stress that it’s not a new path to U.S. citizenship or amnesty for undocumented immigrants. Workers who don’t return home on time would be punished by losing 20 percent of their pay, money which would be withheld by the state during their stay in Colorado.
The Wall Nuts
Inconvenient truths, on the front page of yesterday’s ultra conservative Washington Times
“The fence is a way for the politicians in Washington to convince the American people that they’re doing something about illegal immigration,” [Maverick County Judge Jose A.] Aranda said. “But it’s simply an illusion.”
….
“They came in here from Washington like storm troopers, dictating what we were going to do and how we were going to do it,” said [Eagle Pass Mayor Chad] Foster in describing Homeland Security efforts to explain its fence project. “They steamrolled us. We tried telling them that in building a fence on this border, one size does not fit all.“Instead, we found out they had no idea of what life is like on the border, and many couldn’t find the Rio Grande with a map,” he said.
Given some of the comments the Mex Files receives, and what I read in other venues when the Great Wall is dicsussed, I honesty don’t think a lot of people DO know where the border is. Or what it looks like. They think it’s a line across the desert (which it is, is California, not here). This is what it looks like just outside Del Rio, above — and this surprises people — Lake Amistad, a very large reservoir (and recreation area) that provides the water for most of the Rio Grande Valley…
That’s the mouth of the Pecos River… where exactly are the going to put the fence. On the bluffs on the U.S. side, cutting off access to the Union Pacific Railroad and U.S. 90? Or to the National Recreation Area?
How about on existing Federal property, like the Santa Elena Canyon?
Besides the obviously geographically challenged commentators, there are those who claim we should willingly give up our land for national security reasons. OK, but why do they say nothing about the rich, well connected landowners whose land is not being proposed for taking.
Along the border, preliminary plans for fencing seem to target landowners of modest means and cities and public institutions such as the University of Texas at Brownsville, which rely on the federal government to pay their bills.
A visit to the River Bend Resort in late January reveals row after row of RVs and trailers with license plates from chilly northern U.S. states and Canadian provinces. At the edge of a lush, green golf course, a Winter Texan from Canada enjoys the mild, South Texas winter and the landscaped ponds, where white egrets pause to contemplate golf carts whizzing past. The woman, who declines to give her name, recounts that illegal immigrants had crossed the golf course once while she was teeing off. They were promptly detained by Border Patrol agents, she says, adding that agents often park their SUVs at the edge of the golf course.
River Bend Resort is owned by John Allburg, who incorporated the business in 1983 as River Bend Resort, Inc. Allburg refused to comment for this article. A scan of the Federal Election Commission and Texas Ethics Commission databases did not find any political contributions linked to Allburg.
And, finally, there are those pathetic folks who try to appeal to our patriotism. I know my American history very well.. it wasn’t the Battle of the Alamo (which was lost by the Texas Independence fighters, but served as a rallying cry for the establishment of that short-lived republic) that was important to making Texas — and New Mexico and Arizona and California — part of the United States, it was the Battle of Fort Brown.
When Texas was annexed by the United States, the border was not well defined. According to Mexico it was the Rio Nueces, according to the United States, the Rio Grande/Bravo del Norte.
Fort Brown was built on the North shore of the Rio Grande to establish U.S. claims… and the remains of the fort still sit on grounds now owned by the University of Texas at Brownsville… or will, until the Wall effectively cedes them back to Mexico.
UTB President Dr. Juliet V. García and the UTB Trustees — in fighting this idiotic boondoggle — are the ones protecting national heritage and U.S. territory. What are the Wall-nuts doing?
Do we want to be a colony? AMLO
For a backgrounder on PEMEX, I was forwarded a rough machine translation of an interview with Raúl Muñoz Leos posted on Catholic.net. That seems an odd place to read about the workings of a major oil company, but remember, that PEMEX was nationalized back in 1938, among other reasons, to fund social development. The Church-connected website is a natural for this.
More surprising, in a way, is finding Andrés Manuel López Obrador in the pages of the conservative daily Reforma. Reforma is paid-subscription only.
¿Qué Queremos Ser los Mexicanos, País o Colonia?: AMLO (Diario Reforma, 18-Feb-2008,) was reprinted in the lively “legitimate government” virtual resistance movement — Blogotitlan
Unlike the right wing and their technocrats, we think that we can move the country forward, while cutting out the corruption which nourishes the political and economic power in this country.
Furthermore, we think it indispensable for the transformation of the nation, that we develop an economic model that is based on the advantages of our own people’s abilities and the rational use of our natural resources – especially our energy resources
I will not deal at this time with the problem of political corruption and the benefits that we would obtain by with eradicating it. Nor will I speak of the substantial business interests presently favored by the state, such as the sale of gas to the Spanish company Repsol for 15 billion dollars, sold without bids, or of the gas extracted by that company in Peru, and resold to the Federal Electrical Commission at the highest possible price.
Nor, will I talk about how much we would benefit by liberating Mexican workers from their oppression, the cancellation of their future in this country, which has forced them to emigrate, sending their talents and labor abroad.
Instead, my intention in this article is to emphasize the strategic importance of petroleum and to discuss ways we can turn it to our advantage for our national development. The energy sector’s relevance extends from the extraction of crude oil and gas to refining, petrochemicals and electrical generation. The products of these industries are engines that drive yet other industries, and of great economic value. In addition to the energy generating industries are massive amounts of goods and services depending on them, all serving to fortify internal markets.
On the other hand, all projections indicate that energy demand will continue to grow regardless of anything else. Estimates for the year 2020 show a 50 percent increase over this year. That is to say, even as we continue to investigate other sources of energy, for the next several decades, hydrocarbons will sustain world-wide economic development.
With these developments on the horizon, Mexico enjoys an invaluable possibility for development. Our country can count of reserves of crude oil sufficient to produce gas and petrochemicals, and, furthermore, we possess great quantities of natural gay which, over time, will be used more and more for electrical generation.
Why then, given the economic potential of petroleum resources to foment industrialization, generate power and has Mexico not become an energy power? The answer, although seems incredible, has to do with an idea that has prevailed for the last 25 years, to privatize the electrical and petroleum industry. And, of course, behind this thinking are those interests who seek control of those resources which are the property of the nation and the Mexican..
The only explanation is that from 1983 onward, instead of modernizing the oil industry and driving national development, all neoliberal governments have chosen – deliberately – to ruin the industry, giving a pretext to sell it and turn it to private businesses…
During this period, our energy policy has been handled inn a perversely irresponsible way, with a suprising lack of vision and common sense. The only thing that has mattered has been a drive to sell crude oil to foreigners while neglecting the search for new deposits and abandoning the refining and petrochemical industries
Direct public investment in Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) has fallen from 2.9 percent of GNP in 1982 to 0.57 percent in 2007. Investment in electricity has gone from 1.2 percent in 1982 to 0.31 percent in 2007. That is to say, during this period, total public investment in the energy sector fell from 4.12 to 0.88 percent of GNP.
And, for the past two decades, production has depended primarily on fields opened in the seventies: mainly the Cantarell deposits in the Sea of Campeche, and Chiapas and Tabasco wells.
With respect to the gas, the technocrats have never comprehended the strategic importance of this power source. And, as to refineries and petrochemical plants, they have been starved of resources for expansion and modernization. No refineries have been built in over 25 years. As a result, we are importing 307 thousand barrels of gasoline daily, which could be produced in our own country, generating employment for Mexicans.
It is completely absurd that this year will spend 10 billion dollars to buy gasoline from abroad, exactly what it would cost to build three refineries, which would make the country self-sufficient in this fuel. The energy sector has not been a government priority, and as a result Mexico has become an exporter of crude oil, and an importer of products with an added value. .
This leaves us in a seriously dependent state. We pay dearly to foreigners for a quarter of the gas we need, and 40 percent of the gasoline we consume. buy from foreigners dear All this has taken to a very serious situation of dependency. One buys expensive in the outside the fourth part of the gas which we needed in the country and the 40 percent of the gasoline that we consumed.
Outside Mexico, gas and electricity are more expensive for both consumers and industrial users than in the United States and other countries. In December 2007, we paid 8.74 pesos for a liter of gasoline. Compare this to other oil producers. In Russia, a liter of gasoline cost 8.48; in the United States, 7.51; in China 7.16; in Nigeria, 5.28; in the Arab Emirates, 4.99; in Ecuador, 4.34; in Iraq, 3.49; in Kuwait, 2.32; in Saudi Arabia, 1.32; in Iran, 0.97 and in Venezuela 50 centavos per liter.
Facing the panorama of issues caused by lack of economic and technical resources, the usurping government [a reference to Felipe Calderón’s administration] tries to compound their misdeeds by privatizing the nation’s wealth, and to spread our oil revenue with foreign companies.
They must know that PEMEX, in spite of corruption mismanagement, generates an annual surplus of over 60 billion dollars, more than six percent of the GNP. It is the most profitable company in the country (extracting a barrel of oil for four dollars, and selling it for 80 dollars). .
In terms of cash flow, PEMEX is the second largest oil company in the world. The taxes paid last year were 60 billion dollars, equivalent to 38 percent of the federal budget and more than three times the amount of taxes paid by all other private companies in the country. If PEMEX lacks investment funding, it is because the government confiscates everything.
As far as technology goes, it is a mistake to assume that we must irremediably associate with foreign companies, and cannot contract what we need. In addition there are many experienced Mexican workers, technicians and petroleum engineers with much experience.
We have not forgotten that, despite all prognostications by foreign companies in 1938, do not forget that, against all the prognoses of the foreign companies, Petróleos Mexicanos forged ahead with operations, and can continue to do so now. We know, and they know, they can still do it. is we all know, and we know they are ready to contribute.
Only those technocrats with a neurotic need to sell out their country can argue that today’s PEMEX cannot survive, and that it’s delivery to the private sector – foreign or national – is the only way of salvation. complex and sell mother countries, can argue that today PEMEX cannot and that its delivery to the deprived sector, national or foreign, it is the only salvation.
The strengthened energy policy we propose would not require opening the energy sector to neither foreign nor domestic private capital. The first phase would be the immediate investment of 400 billion pesos for exploring new fields, developing natural gas deposits, perforating new wells, constructing three new refineries, modernizing and expanding petrochemical plants and research and technology development (including alternative energy plants) and maintaining existing oil facilities
A logical question is to ask where the money would come from. Our proposal is based on funding from two sources. First, we propose to reduce the current government operational costs by 200 billion pesos
This implies, among other things, cutting off the budget guarantees to high bureaucrats, one of the most privileged castes in the world. I would emphasize that budget cuts would not reduce investments, not reduce the salaries of lower paid workers nor public works, but only to reduce those bureaucratic operating expenses and salaries in the public sector where there have been enormous increases.
The current cost of the public sector, from 2000 to the present, has increased by 714 billion pesos to one trillion, 466 billion. That is to say, it doubled.
The second funding source we propose is that all excess profits over the actual price of petroleum approved by the Chamber of Deputies, be reserved for energy sector development.
To give an idea of the potential revenue: if the present international price for petroleum remained constant for a year, the excess revenue would be more than 200 billion pesos.
With respect to these numbers, remember that during the Fox administration, we received 10 billion dollars annually between 2004 and 2006 because of excess returns from the high price of oil. Our misfortune was – and continues to be – that this money was not destined to modernize PEMEX, nor to promote Mexican development, nor to guarantee the well-being of the people, but was wasted on benefits for the high bureaucracy or disappeared down the sewer of corruption.
So the answer is yes. Yes, there is an alternative proposal to confront the robbery of our Mexico which would leave the people without future development. Let us celebrate the 70th anniversary of oil expropriation by turning our backs on the right and their allies within the PRI who would return us to the Porfiriate and leave us a colony.
(Diario Reforma, 18-02-2008)
With oil prices today at $100.01 per barrel, it isn’t only the Mexican left looking at their natural resources in a new light. Edmundo Rocha (Xicanopwr.com) analyzes the recent dustup over ExxonMobile’s suit against Venezuala’s PDVSA (also a funding source for social programs), and reaction by Hugo Chavez, as well as a new player in the oil market, Iran’s Oil Bourse.
An enigma wrapped in a mystery inside a gay bar…
Not everything in Mexico City is earth-shaking drama, but it is a place where nothing is ever exactly as straight-forward as it seems.
Something is definitely going on, but I’m not sure what…
In 2001, the Lobohombo fire — which killed 22 mostly teenagers and young adult — was blamed on faulty wiring and exits being locked from the Zona Rosa nightclub.
Delegacíon Cuauhtémoc officials rightfully mounted inspections of all nightclubs and several were closed for violating various health and safety codes. Several gay clubs in Zona Rosa were singled out over the next year– and owner David Rangél and the gay press was claiming the closures of those clubs for seemingly minor violations had more to do with homophobia than genuine public safety concerns. Delegacíon Jefa, Virginia Jamarillo made comments in the press that seemed to back up Rangél’s allegations, and accusations that the PRD leadership was less progressive than it presented itself made for lively debate among the intelligencia. It was an odd situation — the anti-Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador groups (Jamarillo being an AMLO ally within the Party) seized on accusations of corruption within the Delegacion (Rangel also claimed inspectors were demanding kick-backs) for their own reasons. Right-wingers, not normally sympathetic to the plight of gay bar patrons and owners, suddenly found themselves bleating about human rights
I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to the dust-up until the gay bar owners mounted a protest, piggy-backing on protests by the ejitarios of San Salvador Atenco to keep their land from being expropriated for airport expansion. The resulting manifestíon included festive men… and farm animals plodding to a disco beat. The San Salvador folks all showed up with their farm animals and carts to block the Zocalo… Rangél trucked in a sound system on a flatbed truck (which is certainly a better way to block traffic than a yoke of oxen), and a bevy of male strippers. I can’t say this was the inspiration for the naked farmer protests, but it was the first protest I witnessed in Mexico City that included farmers and (not quite) naked protesters (warning: link shows naked people… doh!).
Complicating matters, Mexico City gays were torn by rumors (and obvious) pedophiliaround Rangél’s bars… foreigners especially were claiming they were targeted (something I picked up from coffee house gossip, and nothing I can confirm), though I discounted the rumors, believing some of the most complaining foreigners were either pedophiles — not the classic kiddy-porn type, but the kind who can’t get it through their thick skulls that a 17-year old is a minor in Mexican law, and are so naive to believe that a teenager finds some bald, overweight gringo sexually attractive) or that their Mexican contacts were pretty much limited to the Mexicans they met in the same bars and coffee-houses frequented by other gringos.
Given that gay rights were becoming a political issue in Mexico City at the time, arrests at Rangél’s businesses — especially “Cabritito”) mostly for minors in possession of alchohol, various drug offenses and the like) — took on a political dimension in both the “mainstream” and gay press. On the other hand, the bars were (and are) a vital part of making the Zona Rosa the defacto “gay ghetto” of Mexico City. Crackdowns on gay bars were seen as a crackdown on gays in general.
Mexico’s largest gay publication, Ser Gay, broke with Rangél (a major advertiser). With the District Legislature seriously considering recognizing same-sex civil unions, Ser Gay went out of its way to present gays and lesbians as “normal” people — not as barflies. Rangél was a backer of a competing gay entertainment magazine, Homopolis, which at least had the virtue of opening up venues for more minority writers (though it was crappy writing, and I think people picked up their free copies for the advertising — and to see the always popular list of advertisers who’d stiffed the ad salesmen!). The Rangél-controlled venues and Ser Gay have been at each other’s throats ever since.
For the “mainstream press”, or at least the more conservative elements (like Televisa and la Prensa), the gay bars are a tempting target… the conservatives always want to paint the Federal District as out of control, decadent and failing to live up to traditional Mexican values (sound familiar?) and — heck — sex sells. Sex and drugs sells even better. Sex, drugs and “youth at risk” is a winna! But even the “progressive” PRD includes the old socialists who only recognize economic class differences when it comes to diversity and equality. And, the PRD’s success in Mexico City has been mainly a result of its focus on middle-class and working class “quality of life” issues … which includes cleaning out minor irritants like petty drug dealers and annoyingly loud bars.
Under the circumstances, “fair and balanced coverage” is going to come from the left-wing press. Specifically, Jornada. Seven people, including David Rangél were arrested during the latest — and probably final — police raid at Cabritito. According to Jornada , the bar was permanently closed for failure to provide adequate security… and… oh yeah,… the 37 cocaine “grapas” (packages) the coppers found when the marched in.
Jornada quotes Francisco José Díaz Casillas, the bureaucrat who is in charge of “Citizen Participation in the Prevention of Crime” with saying that 161 establishments have been shut down… not all of them bars. Perhaps it’s reading between the lines to note that Díaz specifies that “table dance” establishments were also closed for having inadequate security. He seems to be saying that gay bars were not specifically the focus of these raids, though I don’t think the other establishments had a raid like this.
“Ser Gay Scouting News” — a blog that seems to be a gossip/nightclub report (or reporter… or reporters) — reports being in the bar when over a dozen officers came in at 1 in the morning to checkrIDs and arrest people for various infractions. According to Ser Gay Scouting News, there was a previous police ID check at another bar, which resulted in no arrests, and followed last week’s closing of a third Rangél establishment, for promoting prostitution (prostitution itself is legal — you just can’t promote it), drug offenses and serving alcohol to minors.
“Scouting News” — if he or she isn’t one already — makes a great “nota roja” writer — among those arrested was one of David Rangél’s business partners:
It seems an ill-wind that blows no good has blown through Corporativo Cabaretito, with Sergio Mendoza alias Belínda remanded to the Barrientos jailhouse, following his capture at a VIPS outlet [a Mexican version of Denny’s] in possession of an auto he’d robbed from a client at the bar.
An ill-wind indeed! I expect the conservative press will be all over this, with photos and ominous music on the TV reports, there will be a learned essay in Jornada about the economic inequality among patrons at gay bars, and Ser Gay Scouting News will be worth reading for the next few weeks.
That gringo accent
A very generous relative (or, rather, the relative’s boyfriend) downstreamed their laptop as a replacement for my old Dell office machine, with a monitor that took up the whole front seat of my car.
This is a load off my mind (and, potentially, a load off my car roof — I’d expected I’d have to tie some items to the car roof, given the amount of space a computer — with or without monitor — took up in the back seat. Volvo sedans aren’t nearly as roomy as you might think) — taking an old office machine across borders is dicey. It seems to be a gamble whether or not a customs’ agent will consider it a commercial item for resale, whereas laptops are obviously considered a personal use item.
The old machine was a piece of crap, but it did good work for the last year and a half… I finished my book on it (and turned out the short “Bosques War” as well), and managed to keep the Mex Files going (and growing… according to technorati, MexFiles is one of the top 100,000 websites it monitors — and moving up with a bullet! It’s almost one of the top 95,000 — hee hee).
Unfortunately, the old machine’s technology was, shall we say, retro. To carry over my data, I had to get our local computer store to download everything to a CD, and am slowly carrying over my links, data, bookmarks, etc. And, the keyboard on a laptop is different. I still haven’t figured out how to access accent marks — the recommended procedure (Fn + ALT + ASCII number) doesn’t seem to work for me. I’ll figure it out, and in the meantime, I’m going to have to use English spellings for Spanish names, even though I know they’re wrong.
While I’ve replaced the old computer, I’m having to go with the old car. I’d budgeted for a brake job (being a nice guy, I’d let my neighbor — who said she’ d lose her job if she didn’t have a car to use at least in the morning — borrow it. She drove it a couple hundred miles with the parking brake on. OUCH!) I don’t think anyone has a spare 1988 Volvo rack-and-pinion laying around, and had to go ahead and order one. With installation by the very honest (and highly recommended BAM Automotive of Alpine, Texas), it’s still going to set me back about 600 bucks.
This is a bit more than I budgeted for car repairs, but with the computer taken care of, I’m only a few hundred short…
Yup… time to put up a “beg-a-thon” button:
DF Bombing
From Press Association:
A homemade bomb exploded near Mexico City’s police headquarters, killing one person and wounding two others.
Police said the attack could be linked to organised crime.
The explosion about 50 yards from the police compound broke windows and damaged cars in the immediate vicinity.
No group claimed responsibility for the blast, which came as Mexico’s government fights drugs gangs and small rebel groups.
“It is possible that organised crime is linked to the attack,” said Rodolfo Felix, Mexico City’s top prosecutor.
A man between the age of 25 and 30, who has not been identified, was killed in the explosion and two other people were injured, police chief Joel Ortega said.
It was not clear if the dead man was responsible for the bomb or if he simply picked up the package, which was inside a plastic bag, from the sidewalk.
“Because of the type of injuries, we suspect this man was carrying the explosive in his right hand,” Mr Ortega said.
Yesterday, there was speculation that some “terrorist” group was involved, but this just looks like fall-out from Calderon’s “War on Drugs” or, perhaps, some freelancer with a grudge or the cartel not so neatly disposing of one of their own… the bomb exploded in a field away from the Police building (and other commercial and residential properties). The two injured people were a woman who apparently was the bomber’s accomplice and a student hit by flying debris, who did not require hospitalization.
There was, however, a Mexican killed by a “terrorist” yesterday in Illinois. Not that there’s any linkage, but these kinds of things being so rare, it does make the front pages of the newspapers.
See no evil
“Out of sight, out of mind” seems to be the modus operandi when it comes to locking people up in the United States. Rural Texas is dotted with “rent-a-prisons” (I regularly pass Hudpeth County — pop. 3,350, 0.7 persons per square mile — which has a very large county jail, privately managed, and housing mostly State of Idaho prisoners) which, while providing a boost for local economies in these isolated communities, are the devil’s own bargain.
The Texas Youth Facility in Pyote (pop. 131) was — and is — the largest employer in town. For the last year, the Texas Youth Commission has been the center of a huge scandal, “thanks” to the local prosecutor’s failure to investigate sexual abuse of the boys at the center. This last week, the “acting director” (brought in to try and clean up the scandal) of the TYC was forced to resign.
The TYC scandals involved Texans abusing U.S. citizens. There is even less oversight of what goes on in immigrant detention facilities. In Nixon (a relatively large community of 2,300 people near San Antonio):
Nine immigrant children were repeatedly sexually molested and beaten last year while housed in a government-operated youth detention center near San Antonio, and their cries for help were covered up by administrators and state and federal officials, according to a lawsuit filed Friday. Texas Sheltered Care in Nixon was among about three dozen facilities across the country run by private firms under government contract to temporarily house unaccompanied immigrant minors caught trying to cross the border.
This particular scandal only came to light accidentally — and it’s a mess. Even if you are of the mindset that accepts unthinkingly the phrase “illegal alien” (is the dog I didn’t get a license for an “illegal dog”, was my car an “illegal car” when I was a month late getting it registered because I couldn’t find a rear taillight lens cap in Alpine, and had to order one by mail?), that doesn’t excuse mistreating minors:
… several of the children — identified only by their initials because they’re minors — were repeatedly fondled … while others were forced to grope her and perform oral sex on her.
The suit accused two other guards … of beating the minors. On one occasion, according to the suit, García in a drunken rage attacked a boy, throwing him against a door and walls.
Although the FBI investigated, the case was — as these things are — turned over to the local prosecutor. As a result, nothing was investigated. On the contrary:
The suit cites a 16-year-old Honduran as the “whistleblower” in the case. After rejecting Leal’s sexual advances, the boy reported her to the center’s top administrators, the suit says.
But instead of supporting him, the administrators retaliated, causing him to attempt suicide before he was transferred to more restrictive youth centers in other states while his deportation case played out in immigration court.
… Other Nixon children also said they endured similar wrath for trying to report abuse, including being kept without food and forced to sleep on the floor, the lawsuit says. One also said he was kept in an adult immigration detention center, though he was 15, before being sent to Nixon.
All the minors said that, even after asking, they were deprived of mental, medical and dental care after their complaints. Also, they alleged, in many cases officials purposely cut communication with their lawyers, who complained about the transfer of their clients to centers in other states, such as Michigan, without notice.
This particularly abuse center was run by a well-respected not for profit organization (Lutheran Childrens’ Service). Another “shelter”, run by Baptist Child and Protective Services, is also located in Nixon. The church-sponsored charities are not named in the suit —
administrators at Nixon and HHS officials in Washington and South Texas, the suit accuses state officials of negligence. Specifically named are Carey Cockerell, Dianna Spiser and Joyce James, the top bosses at the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
As the licensing agent, TDFPS didn’t appropriately monitor the Nixon center and failed to properly investigate and act on the abuse allegations, such as revoking its license, the lawsuit says.
It says the level of disregard also put the center in violation of the Flores Agreement, a long-standing court settlement under which the government committed to maintain certain detention standards for immigrant minors.
This is a perfect storm of what is wrong with Texas “justice”, the way we deal with “illegal immigrants” and treating incarceration as a profitable enterprise. Texas makes crime pay — there are 2,323 felonies on the books in Texas, which keeps our prisons full. On top of that, our insatiable demand for low-wage workers, coupled with the collapse of agriculture in Mexico and Central America (again, thanks to our economic policies and system) create a situation where unescorted minors are coming into the U.S. And, rather than treat them as children, we treat them as criminals.
We put our criminals (and those of other states — Hudspeth Couny has a huge jail, mostly to house State of Idaho prisoners) in jails and prisons and youth facilities… then subcontract the job to rural areas (as rural development). Prisons, being brutal places, attract brutal people — or brutalize them. Rural prosecutors are loathe to indict their neighbors for sleazy things like sexual abuse, and — besides — we’re talking about outsiders here. No one wants to say that the people we go to church with, or see at the Chew-n-Chat, or who live down the road are forcing 15 year old Honduran boys to blow them… but people do that, and the prosecutor’s turn away.
Who knows what’s going on with adult detainees at the “family” facilities at Ritmo and Taylor … and why are we locking up children in the first place?
Going courting…
Jackboots on the ground
Robert Halpern, publisher of the under-appreciated (and under-staffed and under funded!) weekly Big Bend Sentinel in Marfa, Texas, reported in the 7 February edition (not yet on line) that:
Longtime Redford resident Jesus Jose Valenzuela was expected to be released Wednesday after a five-day stay in jail following his arrest on misdemeanor charges of allegedly intimidating or interfering with a Border Patrol agent.
According to a criminal complaint filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigations special agent William S. Vanderland, an agent on duty in Redford last Thursday received a radio transmission of a possible illegal entry from Mexico…. The agent observed a man, a woman and a child walking from the foot crossing area of the river to a truck parked at Valenzuela’s home, which is near the Polvo crossing.
After watching for a few minutes, the agent pulled his vehicle into Valenzuela’s driveway. Valenzuela was standing on the front porch of his home. Valenzuela reported told the agent he was on private property and that Valenzuela was a U.S. citizen.
According to the complaint, “Valenzuela displayed signs of agitation and pointed to the agent. Valenzuela said to the agent, ‘You are on my property, this is my trailer, and if you don’t want to get hurt you need to leave right now.’”
…An arrest warrant was obtained, and Valenzuela was taken into custody on Friday…. the federal magistrate’s court in Alpine was closed. Valenzuela made his initial court apppearance on Monday at which time prosecutors, based on the “nature of the offense”… asked the court that Valenzuela be denied bond pending a review of the case…
Marfa Border Patrol Sector public information officer Bill Brooks said agents have the legal authority to enter private property to conduct an immigration inspection within close proximity to the border. The search for the three individuals was suspended after the incident with Valenzuela and the agent occurred.
This is one of those stories I’d love to follow up, but right now can’t. I work the railroad’s schedule – though paid considerably less than any railroader – and can’t plan my schedule or make appointments since I never know when I’ll be working, or how many hours I’ll be available. I took the job because I needed to eat (duh!) and – while I was working on a book – the irregular hours weren’t a handicap to getting my “real work” done. And, I’ll be leaving Texas in a little over a month, so am in no position to give this story the attention it deserves. Besides, I’ve cut my phone to all but local service (just for my internet connection) and can’t even telephone Redford right now.
A couple of things for any of you enterprising reporters (Brenda Norrell, Bill Conroy, Jack McNamara, Jay Johnson-Castro and anyone else) that may want to look at this.
Article I, Sections 9, 17 (and possibly 24) of the Texas Constitution may have been violated by the Border Patrol. Texas landowners are a prickly bunch… and even though we usually think of immigration as a “left-wing” issue, “right-of center, traditionalist” Texans have been bothered by the Federal Government’s cavalier attitude towards private property along the border.
Living in Redford, Texas, American citizen Jesus Jose Valenzuela has been fortunate in one respect. Unlike the late Ezekiel Hernandez, he’s still alive. It takes balls to take on armed federal bureaucrats down on the border.
Which leads me to the question I’d ask Bill Brooks (432-729-5200), if I wasn’t planning to get out of town in a month, and didn’t have to drive through rural far-west Texas day and night – and I thought for a minute Bill would give more than his usual non-answer answer: how proximate to the border is “close proximity”, and where exactly is the line at which the Green Shirts stop being an occupation force, and become just another set of federal employees?
mexfiles.net 
