Thread: Mexico's cartels now targeting judges

FENCES (BIG ONES) MAKE GOOD NEIGHBORS.

Mexico's cartels now targeting judges
Cox News Service
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.02.2008

MEXICO CITY — Judges have become the latest target of Mexico's drug violence, a sign that warring drug cartels are escalating their attacks on the Mexican government, analysts warn.

The northern Mexican city of Monterrey is reeling from last week's execution of a state judge who had handled cases against several dangerous drug traffickers, and death threats against at least three fellow judges. Three days earlier, a municipal judge in the state of Sinaloa was found tortured and executed.

The violence has sparked worry that Mexico's already weak judicial system could be coming under a Colombia-like onslaught.
"Narco-traffickers are working to destroy the rule of law and it's obvious that judges, like police before them, are targets," said Michael Nunez Torres, a legal expert at the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon.

In response, Mexican lawmakers have proposed hiding the identity of judges, similar to what Colombia did during the height of that country's drug violence in the 1980s and '90s, when scores of judges were assassinated.

Jurists under-protected
Many experts say that before Mexico takes that drastic step, which has been criticized by the United Nations and human rights organizations, Mexico needs to beef up security for its woefully under-protected jurists.
Some analysts have proposed including protection of judges in wide-ranging judicial reform legislation expected to be debated by Congress this spring. "The protection for (judges) is very haphazard instead of being systematic," said Mexico City security analyst Ana Maria Salazar. "They all need bulletproof cars, work places that are safe from bombs and other attacks … and ways to get out of the country quickly and easily if they do come under threats."

In the aftermath of the execution and threats, judges in the state of Nuevo Leon, home to the country's third-largest city, Monterrey, have been granted 24-hour protection. Officials would not say what the protection consists of or which judges would receive it.

Judges in Mexico have been relatively immune from violence, especially compared to their Colombian counterparts, which some attribute to the cartels' traditional preference to bribe rather than assassinate magistrates.

The attacks against Mexican judges follow a steady progression of violence against government officials that began with the executions of police, prosecutors and politicians.

Scores have been killed in recent years and hit men have begun targeting specific officers and agents involved in large drug busts or arrests.

The government of President Felipe Calderón has embarked on an unprecedented offensive against the dueling Gulf and Sinaloa cartels, sending tens of thousands of soldiers and federal agents to challenge traffickers, mostly along the U.S. border.

http://www.azstarnet.com/news/223290

When all of this scary news about Mexico is given to us as a steady diet, I'm wondering how the US tourist trade with Mexico is doing these days? I would never take the risk of taking a trip to Mexico, and aside from that, I refuse to drop a single dollar for their benefit.

I just don't understand how on Earth these people could ever even THINK there could be any type of peaceful transition or a merging with this nation for anything. It's not just Mexico it's South America and who knows who else with their fingers in mix. It truely angers me because that mentality and way of life is here now and it's not good.

And even scarier than that if the wrong candidate gets into office in November, millions of them will be legalized and chain migration of the cultural crime wave will occur. We are in grave danger.

Hmmm, being in grave danger from our own President and his ignorance or his stubborness..or both. Who would have thought..