Mexico Loses over 56,000 Soldiers to Desertion in Six Years

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Fox News Latino

Mexico Loses over 56,000 Soldiers to Desertion in Six Years
Published April 18, 2012
Fox News Latino

Mexican civilians aren’t the only ones who have had enough of the country’s drug war.

Over 56,000 soldiers have deserted the Mexican military since President Felipe Calderón took office and launched an offensive against the country’s powerful drug cartels six years ago, according to documents obtained by news website Animal Político.

That figure amounts to 28 percent of the soldiers stationed in the country, according to Animal Político.

Deserting from the military is a crime in Mexico carrying punishments of up to six years in prison, though the offense often goes unpunished. The National Defense Secretariat, or SEDENA, says it has only convicted some 10,154,000 cases.

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/04/18/mexico-loses-over-56000-soldiers-to-desertion-in-six-years/#ixzz1sW3rsYkA

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. And I think many of them went over to the dark side.

I was in Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo in 2008, and the Zetas had actually hung banners urging soldiers to desert and go to work for them. They offered better pay and working conditions and had a cell phone number to call.

The Zetas, of course, were formed by former elite Mexican anti-drug soldiers trained in the US.

[Snake Alchemist]

3. They had a house right on campus when I was in college where they would recruit young women. nt

[Taylor Smite]

20. Oooh

Zetas.... I get it now.

Took me way too long. Nice.

[Snake Alchemist]

2. And the deserts in Mexico are brutal. nt

[hack89]

4. If you ever wondered where the cartels get their automatic weapons from .... nt

[Snake Alchemist]

6. I thought they came from gun shops in the US. nt

[hack89]

7. You can't buy automatic weapons in US gun shops. nt

[panzerfaust]

12. But you can buy guns which, by drilling a single hole in the

right place, become fully automatic machine guns.

Generally the gunshop owner can tell you where to drill.

Then there are those which need even less intervention.

The AK-47, for example (the same American solider killing gun offered by a "patriotic" Florida gun dealer as a premium for buying a truck), can be made fully auto with a twist-tie. A little file work on the firing pin makes it more reliable (but is not required).

Want to know where the twist-tie goes - I'm not telling! Your gun-dealer will likely be able to help you. Or any of the local gun-nuts.

Most semi-autos are more complicated to convert - but kits can be had.

Again, the gunshop owner likely knows a source.

Just ask.

[hack89]

14. No you can't

guns that can be easily converted are regulated like fully automatic weapons. To sell in America the manufacturers had to redesign the internal mechanism to prevent such modification.

Additionally, as automatic weapons are regulated at the component level any kits to convert guns to full auto are tightly regulated.

There is a reason it is almost impossible to find any examples of converted rifles being used in violent crime in.America.

[PavePusher]

18. R-r-r-r-i-i-i-i-g-g-h-h-h-h-t.........

Am I on Candid Camera?!

[Remmah2]

21. Very interesting.

But fictional.

Several buzz words were missed, but I won't tell you what they are.

[Comrade Grumpy]

8. The cartels also use lots of other guns, many of which do come from the US.

What about converting semi-autos? I'm sure the cartels have guys with the technical capabilities, and they have the resources.

To pretend that weapons bought in the wide open US aren't streaming into Mexico is silly. AFT had traced 63,000 of them, and that was a couple of years ago.

[hack89]

9. Why spend the time and money to convert a $1500 semi-automatic

when South and Central America are awash with cheap fully automatic M-16s and AK-47s left over from decades of civil war? Venezuela also has a factory making AK-47s - how many of those do you think have been diverted?

Besides - converting semi-automatic rifles to full auto is not easy. By US law such guns must be designed to make conversion very difficult or they are regulated as automatic weapons.

[Moondog]

10. There is also the not so small matter of getting

the parts to make the conversion from semi to full auto.

[dizbukhapeter]

11. Not to mention

that when those soldiers desert, they take their service weapon to sell on the market. Also, I wonder how secure Mexican military armories are.

[Remmah2]

22. Also worth mentioning.

The vast quantity of explosives and grenades that show up at Mexican crime scenes.

[4th law of robotics]

16. I think it makes perfect sense to send someone to the US

illegal crossing the border and risking incarceration, to purchase thousands of expensive semi-autos, risking incarceration, transporting them back over the border, risking incarceration, and then going to the onerous task of making them automatic.

It's not as if they had some vast reserve of military deserters and corrupt officials to get arms from.


Oh . . .

[panzerfaust]

13. Ruger 10/22 Full-Auto Conversion (ILLEGAL)

3 parts, 35 bucks.

Illegal, Illegal, Illegal!!


But don't think that it is really difficult to make a semi into a full (and illegal) auto.


American Gun Nut

[PavePusher]

19. Are you claiming that is a full-auto 10/22?

Which parts made it full-auto? Why would someone do that to a .22 rifle of already not-stellar accuracy?

[Posteritatis]

23. To be fair, sometimes people will do stuff just for the screwball art factor

Same sort of thing that results in, say, chainsaw bayonets, or laser sights on fencing weapons...

[Remmah2]

24. A folding stock is not a part of an alleged full automatic rifle.

Everyone knows you need a barrel shroud.

Is that from the Wile E Coyote School of Gunsmithing?

[Uncle Joe]

5. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Judi Lynn.

[newspeak]

15. yeah, well the violence has escalated since the president has been in office

remember the elections, and how many protested against a dirty election?

[BadtotheboneBob]

17. The Mexican Naval Infantry (their Marines) are the only reliable force they have...

... They've been very involved and effective in their internal narco war against the cartels.

[Vehl]

25. Some cool "Artsy" weapons captured from the drug cartels

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]


[IMG][/IMG]

[christx30]

26. Those are strangely beautiful

But the top one looks like chocolate. Which makes it the most beautiful of them all.
So with so many soldiers defecting, one has to ask: What happens to a government program when no one is willing to do it any more?