The Hotel Zone is jammed with troops today for its entire length. At around 10:30 AM a number of troops with loaded weapons ringed the mall around the flag pole in front of Casa Maya. These were not your average boys in uniform. These were serious looking men with seriously maintained machine guns with clips inserted. Shortly thereafter two Navy helis landed on the mall and about a dozen officers in dress whites climbed out. Lot of salutes and handshakes all around with the bunch of guys in starched camos who had been waiting on the ground. I didn't see much else because the traffic jam had crawled past where I could see anything. And speaking of traffic, there wasn't a transito to be seen assisting in the overall mess. Does anyone know what's going on?
Apparently Calderon is going to Isla Mujeres, at least that's what the Isla blogger says, check out his link here.... http://bnwisla.blogspot.com/2008/05/whats-all-fuss-about.html
I have already seen them yesterday around Casa Maya. Is it possible to drive there, I have to go to the HZ tonight?
My airport spy says "it's all weird here", Calderon is coming but no one there seems quite sure exactly when.
In light of the carnage on the northwest coast and the California, Texas and Arizona borders, were I running El Presidente's security, I'd want things confused as well. I would suspect that Calderone has more bullseyes painted on him than any president in Mexico's history. There have been about 6,500 murders in the past 2.5 years in the anti-drug war instigated by Calderone. In a month when the acting chief of the Federales is killed in front of his own home, the idea of the country's chief executive acting like a rapidly moving target is a good one.
I spoke with our Diputada Yolanda Garmendia yesterday She just arrived from the airport from DF and was picking up her Daughter fro swim practice. We were talking about the cancelled anual Cruce to Isla Mujeres . I commented that its too bad that the cruce was cancelled as it is a Cancun tradition to swim it on El Dia De La Marina. She said that she had tried to convince the Estado Major not to cancle but that the safety of Calderon was already very complicated and with 300 swimmers in the water it would just make things way to difficult and also that they would not have enough resources to protect both swimmers and Calderon. Too bad the "Cruce" would have had great publicity with all the national media here.
drug war I was recently in Mexico city for a conference. They had a speaker that was quite unusual. The first half hour was about Lopez Obrador and how they thought he had a great chance at the next election. The second part was about the drug war. Basically this reporter implied that the govt was attempting to force the cocaine smugglers out of Mexico and were ignorning the marijuana and meth smugglers as they did not create violence. Very interesting but, I felt sad as the entire violence is built upon the need/addiction of my countryment.
Oh my.....that meth is KILLER. That stuff will ruin a persons life in no time flat! It is hands down the worst drug I have ever seen someone get hooked on. It TOTALLY changes them in record setting time! Ive even seen a couple of models go from fab to WTF!!! Michelle
Here's an article someone sent me a link to recently: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0528/p08s01-comv.html The reporter is of the opinion that all those mafia-related murders are a sign that Calderon's little war on drugs is effective. I'm not sure if lots of dead cops and mafiosos is a sign of success or not, but I don't like the idea that it is. If people are dying it seems to me that something is wrong.
