Marines ordered to stay clear of Tijuana

[bananas]

Source: UPI

Marines ordered to stay clear of Tijuana
Published: Jan. 22, 2009 at 1:38 PM
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CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., Jan. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. Marines in Southern California must stay clear of Tijuana, Mexico, and other nearby "R&R" spots due to Mexican violence, a Marine Corps officer ordered.

Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland's order restricts travel by the 44,000 members of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Pendleton, about 50 miles north of the border city.

The limits, first put in place around Christmas, are now indefinite, a military spokesman said.

"The situation in Mexico is now more dangerous than usual," civilian public information officer Mike Alvarez told USA Today.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/01/22/Marines_ordered_to_stay_clear_of_Tijuana/UPI-41511232649515/

[lib2DaBone]

1. Whcich is worse.. the War On Drugs or a Marijuana Cigarette?

Decriminalize and Tax... let's be done with this Fundy madness.

[No Elephants]

5. Massachusetts recently de-criminalized possession of small amounts. No jjail or criminal record, but

a fine.

[DUlover2909]

7. It's a step in the right direction, but not enough.

Let people smoke weed. Or eat weed. I prefer eating it. It's a fucking plant that has no physically addictive qualities or toxicity. The same can't be said of alcohol or tobacco.

[crikkett]

8. drugs and marines shouldn't mix.

I mean, these guys have guns. And knives. And they polish and iron things for fun.

:scared:

[Fumesucker]

14. You can buy beer at the PX

Alcohol is a drug, they sell it on base.

Inactive Marine here..

BTW, Marine is always capitalized.

[crikkett]

15. Like I said - and sorry about the capitalization. n/t

[dionysus]

10. i'd see this is being done by cocaine cartels, not the dudes selling herb...

[nyy1998]

2. At Fort Bliss, troops have been banned from going to Juarez

It's quite a mess down there, and the military acted quickly to ban soldiers from crossing the border. I'm actually disappointed that barely anyone outside of the El Paso-area is even covering the mess in Juarez.

[ShortnFiery]

3. Gee, according to the right wingers here, only Muslim Terrorists cut off heads.

ERGO the Mexican Criminals who left the new Police Chief's head at the station MUST have been MUSLIM TERRORISTS. :crazy:

Why, that's enough for the NeoCons to launch a bombing campaign, aye?

[cosmicone]

4. Let's shock, awe and bring democracy to Mexico

wait ...

they already have one.

Now what?

[KamaAina]

13. Well, sort of -- on roughly the same basis we had for the past eight years

Calderon has now inherited Bush's mantle as North America's sole remaining "El Bandito de la Eleccion", with Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in the role of Al Gore.

[4lbs]

6. As if Lou Dobbs needed more reasons to be anti-Mexico.

n/t

[denverbill]

9. Idle speculation on my part, but I wonder how much of this is due to our crackdown on illegal immigr

There must have been quite a few people involved in the immigrant smuggling trade, and they made tons of money. But owing to the recession in the US and increased immigration enforcement, those smugglers probably lost 95% of their business. Those smugglers were armed and well-organized, so I doubt it would take much to go from human trafficking to drug trafficking to kidnapping. Wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that a lot of this increase is due to human traffickers find new ways to make money.

[EFerrari]

12. Immigrants are going in the other direction. It's just as likely due to

drug running enabled by border guards and DEA that grew by leaps and bounds under Bush.

This is really sad to me. In the late 80s / early 90s, Tijuana was really cleaning up and becoming a fun place for tourists again. My mom and I went there for a weekend once to a hotel that had a world class golf course and a great French restaurant -- imagine a French restaurant with great food and no mean French wait staff! We had a great time for a reasonable price and no problems whatsoever. What a shame that all that is being trashed.

[depakid]

19. "great food and no mean French wait staff!"

:rofl:

Some years ago, I had an excellent Chinese meal in Tijuana- damn near as tasty and authentic as any I've had in SF's Chinatown.

[ohio2007]

17. Mexico drug suspect says he dissolved 300 bodies

big $ in smuggling. All types of smuggling. And it is drug related, not lettuce picker related;

OJO DE AGUA, Mexico (Reuters) - A Mexican drug detainee has confessed to dissolving the bodies of 300 rivals with corrosive chemicals near the U.S. border, in a shocking claim even by the standards of Mexico's brutal drug war.

Santiago Meza, known as "The Stew Maker," told journalists he did away with bodies in industrial drums in this border village outside the violent city of Tijuana.

More than 700 people died in Tijuana last year as rival gangs battled for control of the city's lucrative drug trade. Many others are missing and believed dead after being abducted.

The suspect, who was paraded before journalists by the army on Friday, said he was paid $600 a week by a breakaway faction of the Arellano Felix cartel to dispose of slain rivals with caustic soda, a highly corrosive substance.

"They brought me the bodies and I just got rid of them," Meza said at a construction site where he claimed to have dissolved 300 corpses last year.

A high-ranking army officer told Reuters he believed Meza, who was arrested with three other people on Thursday, was telling the truth. The bodies took 24 hours to dissolve but left some remains which were dumped in a nearby pit, Meza said.

Police have previously recovered human remains burned with acid in and around the city.

The spiraling violence of Mexico's drug war has cast a pall over the country and presents a huge challenge to President Felipe Calderon, who has deployed thousands of troops to crush the cartels.

The drug war claimed 5,700 lives across Mexico last year, more than double the number of victims in 2007.


http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE50N08Y20090124

[gratuitous]

11. Well, that seems strange

Why would terrorism be spreading after all the things Chimpy did to control and contain it? It's almost like he spent billions of dollars and thousands of life for nothing. Gosh. Could teevee be lying to me about Bush's legacy?

[ohio2007]

16. * New police chief's head left at station

Grunts going across the border support the local economy. Things will spiral further down

[NashVegas]

18. All We Do Is Complain About Mexican Immigrants. Never Talk About How Mexico Is So Frackin Corrupt

I used to tutor conversational English. One of my pups was a former Mexican gov't lawyer, who left because she couldn't take the corruption anymore.

She was working at a deli for $10 per hour.