Crime and loyal operatives part of Mexico strategy to undermine U.S.; bridges provide the path

The current of the Rio Grande drags the pebbles and water through the tale of two cities. Those who reside on the U.S. side of El Paso count their blessings to be living in the second safest small city behind Honolulu; while a hop, skip and jump across the bridge sits Mexico’s most violent city of Juarez, where murder, chaos and drug cartels are commonplace.

Juarez has become the new Nuevo Laredo of 2009 and is a throw back into the wild west, gun battles in the streets, unidentified bodies taken away by the dozen; yet one thing protects the seemingly innocence of American lifestyle – the bridges.

The bridges protect everyday life from the day to day of narcotics, bribery - corruption. However, these bridges are the center for these two nations, the center for contention and the heart of U.S. corruption.

American law enforcement officers speak in hushed tones fearing their disapproval of operational policies will result in retaliation from supervisors. Suspensions are meted out on those who don’t shut-up and go along as well as trumped up charges are used to terminate them.

Crime is a way of life in Mexico and odds are criminals will literally get away with murder. According to a report from canalsonora.com, after three years of Mexican federal combat against organized crime, 75 percent of those arrested for narco-related offenses were later released. Leading the states in captures of the most narco-criminals are Jalisco with 43,153, Baja with 32,895, and Guanajuato with 28,003.

Nevertheless, the authorities have only convicted 862 people in 36 months.

Another vital statistic that provides insight to the lawlessness throughout Juarez; the city experiences a disproportionate share of joblessness in comparison with the rest of the country.

Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics calculated that slightly more than one million jobs vanished in all of Mexico in 2008. The number in Juarez is particularly hard hit as many manufacturing companies have laid-off most of their employees pushing workers into the street without any means to earn an income.

That being said one would think it would be relatively easy to control a bridge from the U.S. standpoint because it’s a bridge. Yet bridges are the center of much disagreement and with the advent of NAFTA, ICE agents believe a “dedicated cocaine lane” is a result.

Monitoring America’s border bridges requires diligence, but unfortunately for Homeland Security (CBP/ICE) agents, morale is down and corruption is up.

“I still get sick thinking about what those idiots in D.C. have done to the outfit. The Border Patrol is just a bad dream to me,” said one retired Border Patrol Manager. “I had serious problems with a Chief, I brought problems to his attention and he ignored me, along with (name withheld).”

These are common stories within the rank and file at Customs and Border Protection and ICE. A statement repeated more than any other was the ‘screw up, move up’ and ‘to get along you have to go along.’

Representing Mexico though employed by American tax dollars

The tentacles that reach across the border into Mexico’s government and result in those infamous handshakes full of cash seem to be the only explanation as to why and how some senior American officials operate along the southern border.

“Our leader in the El Paso District who was forced into retirement had two mottos, we are customer service not law enforcement and I’m proud to work for Mexico,” says an ICE employee about Luis Garcia, who retired in late 2007 as the Director of Field Operations for the El Paso Customs Office, now under DHS.

Garcia, a former deportee born in Mexico, later became a naturalized citizen after serving in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He ran the El Paso INS office (later CBP) going back to 1995, and unexpectedly retired in November 2007 when the Senate was investigating how a Mexican citizen was able to enter the U.S. 76 times with a highly contagious form of tuberculosis. It should be noted that Garcia lost in his bid to become El Paso County Sheriff in 2008 after retiring.

The ICE agent also points out how Garcia had on display in his office a cheap U.S. flag one can buy at any K-Mart store, along with the official Mexican flag with the gold trim and ribbons, and a Mexican flag lapel pin he wore.

In 2006 El Paso station KFOX reported that local veterans along with officers from the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), the union that represents Customs officers, were unhappy that the American flag was positioned below a number of state flags at the El Paso CBP office. According to the news report, the union and veterans were most unhappy that despite informing the DHS officials about the mistake nothing had been done to correct it.

“It’s really bad when you realize that port policy supersedes American law as Garcia regularly told us,” stated the same agent.

This long-time ICE veteran wished to remain anonymous because he claims the agency retaliates against employees who speak out.

Many officers at the Ports of Entry feel like they work for the Juarez Police Department and when Garcia was in charge, the dedicated commuter lane (DCL, nicknamed by officers as the dedicated cocaine lane) was a free for all. The transponders required to use the commuter express lane are handed on a favor by favor basis – something one assumes is a Mexico method of doing business.

Fellow ICE officers often questioned the fashion in which these free passes into the U.S. were handed out. Again they were told to be quiet and just do their job and don’t question anything. This is hardly reassuring when Americans remember 9/11 and how the government failed to connect the dots.

As a result of the complaints regarding questionable individuals using the DCL the responsibility for reviewing applications for this lane were finally transferred to an office in Vermont.

One key reason for the many troubling issues at the ports of entry, between Juarez and El Paso, may be the extremely close relationship between Garcia, the just retired El Paso Customs director, and local Texas Congressman Sylvestre Reyes-D, a retired Border Patrol chief.

“Reyes referred to Garcia as his compadre. That is a very important relationship in Mexico. It’s similar to the Godparent title. Those two looked out for each other, always,” the ICE employee explained.

Reyes compromising national security for trade and commerce

As security was being beefed-up at airports throughout the country, America’s borders would remain porous as ever. It would be Mexico that would step in time and time again when it came to strengthening the nation’s borders and resist any DHS implementation of border technology. Something also resisted by many elected officials in Texas.

Proof of mismanagement along the bridges would be easy to prove. There were no significant dope or money seizures at the El Paso ports of entry outside the occasional ‘dog and pony show’ type of set-ups until the end of 2007. However, once Garcia retired, the canines were allowed on the bridges and seizure numbers for drugs exploded.

Coincidently, the violence in Juarez, previously non-existent, blew up out of control after this time. Customs also began checking southbound traffic heading to Mexico for guns and money, which also led to record seizures.

“We warned El Paso local authorities and Congressman Reyes’ staff about the impending violence two years ago,” said Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez (Zapata County, TX, and president of the Southwest Border Sheriffs Coalition). “At the bridge Ports of Entry, the drug cartels are loading up 10 cars to cross legally into the U.S. when the first car gains attention and personnel are busy at secondary inspection, the other nine cars slip inside the U.S. without any detection.”

It has been somewhat a mystery why the El Paso Customs Office was so reluctant to use the drug-sniffing dogs. Especially after 9/11 when U.S. security was heightened and law enforcement sought to clamp down on ineffective border policies, which ultimately led to the formation of the Department of Homeland Security. The result is a wide open door for drugs to come into the U.S. with no way, and certainly no will to stop it, which includes Reyes who is more interested in commerce, federal dollars, and wait times at the bridges as his record shows.

Another point of view as to the recklessness of the El Paso/Juarez border crossing comes from Mark Conrad, an attorney who retired as a resident agent in charge for U.S. Customs Internal Affairs. He stated, “Either the staff was incompetent, corrupt or worse- both. These actions don’t just happen in a vacuum, this happens with knowledge from management.”

Conrad also explains that people who work in these types of positions are not stupid. “In this case I’m inclined to believe that El Paso borders are controlled by corruption and for this to take place on the level it has, someone higher–up is well aware of El Paso’s dirty little secret.”

Earlier this year, January 2009, the El Paso city council voted 8-0 on a resolution to show harmony with Juarez Mexico, which has seen murder spiral out of control due to the government’s war waged on drug cartels. According to the Huffington Post, in an effort to slow violence, the resolution called for “an honest, open national debate on ending the prohibition of narcotics.”

This was enough to garner Washington's attention. “If it's still an issue (after the stimulus passes), I’m not opposed to perhaps even entertaining a hearing,” said Reyes. “I can look at that if they want to pursue it.”

According to a Huffington Post article, “John Cook (Mayor of El Paso) vetoed the resolution and Rep. Reyes, a Democrat who represents El Paso in Congress and chairman of the House Intel Committee, lobbied each councilmember, making it clear that if the resolution calling for a debate passed, El Paso would risk losing money in the upcoming stimulus legislation; Five Texas State Representatives made the same threat.”

Another concern for Reyes are the dreaded wait times to cross into the U.S. from Juarez. While striking a balance is important, national security must remain the first priority. Unfortunately commerce seems to be Reyes’ only concern, when one looks at the number of statements addressing this issue including a meeting with CBP Commissioner Ralph Basham in which he addressed wait times.

“Over the last several months, both Northern and Southern border communities have faced increased wait times at their international ports of entry,” said Congressman Reyes in a statement on his website. “Recent reports estimate times have escalated upwards of two to three hours. This problem must be solved. The federal government must create a workable system that provides security while allowing for the free flow of trade and commerce.”

A new organization was developed last year, the Border Trade Alliance, which Reyes is also a part of. The main goal of this grassroots movement is to “understand wait times and border delays that impact trade issues.”

Nobody likes to wait in line, as children you learn to endure this. However, this is where the majority of the drugs enter into the U.S. It makes more sense to focus on seizures, rather than speedier entry times.

There is also talk of U.N. Security Council peacekeepers making their way to Juarez.

Why do the Texas legislators and U.S. government oppose such an effort that would at least quell the over-the-top violence in the short term? The U.N. clearly has similar experience as they also went into Bosnia in the 1990s.

“There has been an exaggeration,” U.S. Sen. John Kerry-D MA said. “The spillover issue, from the facts and statistics I heard here today, it is very clear to me that El Paso is safe. The idea of dispatching the National Guard to the border is premature and possibly counterproductive.”

Ultimately, there’s no escaping the fact that the U.S. Government has compromised U.S. citizens through treaties and agreements and has demonstrated to be more interested in commerce than national security, something Reyes clearly supports.

In official testimony, Andy Ramirez, of Friends of the Border Patrol, during a congressional hearing in March 2007 testified, “Chief George Carpenter (a senior El Paso Customs official) issued an internal memo to CBP agents regarding documentation requirements at the El Paso Port of Entry on January 16, 2007. The critical point states as follows, ‘Anytime that an officer feels that a permit should not be granted for whatever reason, the supervisor should be advised. Again, we do not refuse a permit or send an application back for more documentation or proof. They are not required to present proof of employment, residence or solvency in Mexico.’”

“This type of memo, which I personally saw and read, is proof beyond a shadow of a doubt as to the lack of concern for public safety, and that officials at DHS are more concerned with commerce than national security. I was told that ‘this’ type of written, standing order ‘is the recipe for a Sleeper Cell to get through our Ports of Entry and leaves us vulnerable to attack,” Ramirez said.

One could conclude that members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus could be deemed as agents for a pro-Mexico policy given their fervent support of Mexico’s pro-Amnesty and open borders campaign along with their well-documented anti-border security and anti-enforcement positions.

During a troubling recession that plagues the entire globe, the only industries that remain robust in Mexico are murder and kidnapping. Another reason for increased violence at the border is attributed to the Sheriffs and Border Patrol agents’ operations at the borders, says Sheriff Gonzalez.

This extreme violence has opened the door for other criminals to run amok; kidnapping people for ransom, bank robberies, setting buildings on fire, extorting businesses, stealing cars and committing murders in unsustainable numbers.

The money remittances being sent from America to Mexico are down and that puts even more desperate Mexican people at risk. The lack of employment has resulted in struggling Mexican people falling victim to the dark underbelly industry.

In an effort to fight this disparaging situation, the task has been placed in the Mexican Military. Programs like the Merida Initiative call for the U.S. government to train different military factions inside Mexico. The problem with the lack of oversight is that this finds Americans training a new enemy – the drug cartels. Something many American officials appear to have no issue with considering they want the rest of the money released earlier than scheduled.

“There is impropriety after impropriety taking place within ICE, yet the dizzying pace hasn’t slowed, which leaves morale real low,” the ICE officer contends.

“I would equate our border policies to the destruction of our national security. Supervisors were encouraging Mexico to race bait. It was a shell game,” a source said.

It certainly seems like a grim outlook for America’s officers responsible for national security.

“Incompetent and unqualified cronies of certain leaders run the Ports of Entry and the Border Patrol. They move us to a different department, and even got rid of the agency. The reality is we’re still there, just wearing a different disguise,” a furious Customs officer explained.

This was never more apparent than in the sworn testimony given by Ramirez before the House Judiciary Committee in August 2006, in which he testified regarding Mexico’s policies with America.

Ramirez stated to the committee, “In an e-mail to FOBP dated August 15, 2006, Fredo Arias-King, former advisor to Mexican President Vicente Fox, wrote: ‘One thing that is readily noticeable is that the loudest pro-immigration advocates in Mexico were and are the loudest anti-American voices. Figures in the Fox government, such as Jorge Castaneda and Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, are seen as geopolitical geniuses by the’—and I quote him, ‘helpless Pan party officials who suffer from some kind of learned helplessness.”

“ ‘Castaneda and Zinser’, says Arias-King, ‘long advocated using the immigrants as objects, not subjects, to press Washington and the consulates to do certain things or simply for revenge. Castaneda even wrote at one point, that the Mexican government should repress the U.S. citizens living in Mexico legally’,” Ramirez concluded.

One can safely assume this includes visiting tourists from the U.S.

This is something a good neighbor may find upsets Americans to the north, who in good faith, continue funding and training Mexico’s troubled military and law enforcement officers.

Such policies do not seem very neighborly - especially at the expense of a billion- plus of U.S. taxpayer dollars appropriated so far with more money continuing to be requested.

Part three;http://www.examiner.com/x-10317-San-Diego-County-Political-Buzz-Examiner~y2009m11d19-US-gives-Mexico-keys-to-open-border-and-amnesty

Part two; http://www.examiner.com/x-10317-San-Diego-County-Political-Buzz-Examiner~y2009m11d4-House-of-Death--US-Government-coverup-unveiled

Part one; http://www.examiner.com/x-10317-San-Diego-County-Political-Buzz-Examiner~y2009m11d2-House-of-Death-in-Juarez-prelude-to-a-massive-murder-coverup

For more stories; http://www.examiner.com/x-10317-San-Diego-County-Political-Buzz-Examiner