Introducing Our Next President

For John, BLUF:  This post is designed to explore the out edges of what is possible in the next two months.  It is not a prediction, but rather a scenario for exploring possibilities.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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After Peru’s New President Resigns, Lawmakers Search for New Leader

Here is the sub-headline:

Sunday resignation adds fuel to a political crisis that started with a surprise impeachment of previous president

From The Wall Street Journal, by Reporters Ryan Dube and Juan Forero, 15 November 2020.

Here is the lede plus two:

Peru was without a president Sunday night, after its latest leader resigned just six days after taking power and lawmakers were unable to agree on a new head of state to end a constitutional crisis that exposed deep popular anger over corruption in the country’s political class.

A country that before the coronavirus pandemic was considered a shining economic star, Peru is now flailing in uncharted waters.  There is no president at the helm, and a fractured and deeply unpopular congress is trying to decide who should lead the country while people protest in the streets.  With two presidents gone in less than a week—Martín Vizcarra was impeached Monday and then Manuel Merino, who engineered his predecessor’s ouster, resigned Sunday—Peru has been teetering with anarchy.

On Sunday night, the same lawmakers whose impeachment of Mr. Vizcarra touched off six days of protests were debating who among them would be chosen to replace Mr. Merino, who had no vice president.  They had at one point been considering a left-wing lawmaker, Rocio Silva, who had broken with most lawmakers to vote against impeachment.  Media reports said the lawmakers also were considering members of the centrist Purple Party, which overwhelmingly opposed removing Mr. Vizcarra.

Yes, this is so last month.  Also, Pewru doesn't have the Constitutionally mandated path of Preasidential success we have.  But, yet, we seem to be slipping into a bit of a succession crisis.

Look at what is happening.  The media, from NPR to Twitter suppressed the Hunter Biden story.  Now it is out in the open.

Why?

My guess is they♠ no longer need Mr Biden, and like Vice President Spiro T Agnew, he will be given a chance to go quietly, clearing the way for Sen Kamala Harris.♥

And, did anyone catch Michael Savage saying, on NewsMax that it is over?  (My Wife has abandoned Fox and moved to NewsMax.  I still try †o catch Tucker.)

It is, after all, 2020, and all things are possible.  Here is hoping she learned some things from Willie Brown, a very smart Assembly Speaker and San Francisco Mayor.

Hat tip to Kermit's Key West Key Lime Shoppe.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Who are they?  Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and Tom Perez.  Besides, while Joe Biden is a China fan, Nancy Pelosi is for Taiwan.
♥  If Senator President Harris should Not make it until we have a new Vice President, then Speaker Pelosi is ready to step up.

Empires Come and Empires Go

For John, BLUF:  How did the Inca Empire replace the Tiwanaku Empire?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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A Mystery Religion Pre-Dated The Incas by 500 Years, Stunning Lake Discovery Reveals

From Science Alert, by Mr Peter Dockrill, 2 April 2019.

The Tiwanaku Empire (550-1000 AD) was replaced by the Inca Empire.

Hat tip to the Drudge Report.

Regards  —  Cliff

Immigration

For John, BLUF:  Secure borders aren't important?  How much of Central America and Northern South America should we import to the US, and if we are going to do it, shouldn't there be an organized process?  I will say the current system does reward those with grit and determination, and that is a good thing.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Democrats Come Out in Support of Taking Down Existing Border Barriers

Here is the sub-headline:

“Yes, absolutely.  I’d take the wall down.”

Former Congressman from El Paso, Texas, Beto O'Rourke

Other Thoughs on Illegal Immigrants

For John, BLUF:  It is not clear that we have moved from compassion to serious thinking about the implications of mass migration from Latin America to these United States.  The linked Blogger below appears to have.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Musings on Illegal Aliens

Here is the sub-headline:

From the blog Baldilocks, by Ms Juliette Ochieng, 12 January 2019

Here is the lede plus one:

Since I have one parent who was a legal immigrant to the US and another who is the descendant of African slaves brought to America, people sometimes think they can figure out what I think about illegal aliens.

I'll make it easy for them.  I think all illegal aliens should GTFO and go fix their countries of origin.  This includes illegal aliens from my father's country.

I commend the whole thing to you.

Building on the post, I wonder if we believe people who can't make democracy work in their own country have the social, cultural and education background to become part of our democracy, or at least raise their children to become part of our way of government.  Granted, Ms Ochieng thinks some who welcome immigration (mass migration) really don't like our current approach to government and would like to see it changed to a different model.

Ms Ochieng brings up an additional cultural point, which is whether the current flow of immigrants from Latin America will displace Blacks as one of the key Demographic groups for the Democratic Party.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Interfering in the Politics of Other Nations

For John, BLUF:  In Nicaragua we have had over one hundred deaths from political violence.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Understanding the Conflict in Nicaragua:  the Long Battle Against US Imperialism

From Counter Punch, by Celina Stien-della Croce, 6 July 2018.

The paragraphs tend to be long, so no extract.  The sum of the story is that the United States is messing in elections in Latin America, especially, in this case, Nicaragua and Venezuela. I am shocked.  I thought only Putin's Russia did this sort of thing.

Perhaps the real scandal of the 2016 election is that the US Government did so little to counter Russian election meddling and then did so much to cover it up.

In the mean time, we should not underestimate the power of Socialism to damage nations and bring about the fall of governments.

Regards  —  Cliff

Comparing Trump to Paron

For John, BLUF:  The Musical, Evita, was wonderful.  The reality was awful, and what followed was worse.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Comparing Trump to South American authoritarians reveals a dangerous misunderstanding of democracy

Here is the sub-headline:

Such comparisons fundamentally misunderstand Latin American populism.

An Opinion Piece from The Wash Post, by Professor Ernesto Semán, 20 February 2018.

Here is the lede plus one:

It’s en vogue for enraged liberals to compare Trumpism to Argentine Peronism, wielding the analogy as a warning about the potential apocalypse that they fear is about to engulf us.  Most recently it was Larry Summers, a member of the Democratic establishment for decades, who took to Twitter to declare:  “I worry about the Argentinization of US government.”

Summers sent the tweet after President Trump accused Democrats of treason and the media reported on the president’s childish wishes for a military parade.  He employed a standard characterization of Peronism as an authoritarian movement, a familiar depiction that no doubt had many Americans nodding along.

The problem is, Professor Ernesto Semán then goes on to excuse the fascism of Argentine President (Dictator) Juan Paron.

This reflects poorly on The Wash Post.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff
-1, Sat 3.0

Questioning Those Who Question Trump

For John, BLUF:  President Trump's problem is that he actually blurts out what he is thinking.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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This is disappointing.

The media don't like 's***hole countries' either

My headline modification.

From The Washington Examiner, Opinion Writer Mr Eddie Scarry, 13 January 2018.

From the article:

Among the celebrities who said they would move if Trump won the election were: Chelsea Handler to Spain; Lena Dunham to Vancouver; Barbara Streisand to Australia or Canada; and Snoop Dogg to Canada.

Notice that none of them identified their final destinations as the slums of El Salvador.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Mexico's Migrant Problem

For John, BLUF:  What we lack is a consensus in the United States with regard to what we want from immigration.  What IS the American position?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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A Flawed Asylum System in Mexico, Strained Further by U.S. Changes

This is from The International New York Times, by Reporter Kirk Temple, on 5 August 2017.

It seems that before President Trump started talking about building a Wall, Mexico was already getting tough on illegal immigrants and also refugees.  Some suggest this is from weaknesses in the Mexican immigration process and the organization executing the policy, "the National Migration Institute, Mexico’s immigration enforcement agency, and the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance, or Comar, the department that processes asylum petitions.? Here is an excerpt of two paragraphs:

These weaknesses are particularly glaring, advocates say, as some legislators in Washington push for a legal change that would require migrants to apply for asylum in Mexico if they reached the United States by traveling through it.  A bill pending in Congress “would allow the return of apprehended Central American refugees to Mexico, where they could apply for protection,” without the need for a bilateral agreement with Mexico, according to a summary from the House Judiciary Committee, which approved the bill last month.

Such changes “would undermine U.S. global leadership and violate American legal commitments, even if Mexico had a strong refugee protection system,” said a report published last month by Human Rights First.  “They are all the more dangerous because Mexico doesn’t.”

And here is Mexico's problem summed up:

Though the vast majority of northbound migrants from Central America still regard Mexico as a transit corridor to the United States, the country has increasingly become an attractive destination in its own right.

So, per The Old Gray Lady, it is all our fault here in the United States, because we are not accepting these economic refugees and also those fleeing violence and crime in their own nations.

I posted this article on another forum and did get this comment, off line, from a serving officer I know:

I'm reading your note on a wet afternoon aboard Soto Cano Airbase in Honduras.  I agree that we in the US aren't responsible for all of the crime and violence in Central America's Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador).  We are, however, responsible for some of it.  Our inability to limit the increase in demand for drugs (let alone stop or reduce it) in any meaningful way creates a massive economic incentive for criminal industry along our southern approaches.  In size, capital, and organization, the illegal drug industry dwarfs the capacity, capability, and desire of national and local governments to resist.

That is spot on.

This person then goes on:

Further, the street gang infestation that plagues these three countries (the so-called maras) was born in the US.  MS-13 and Barrio-18 were initially defensive organizations that Central American immigrants in Los Angeles' Rampart neighborhood created during the height of the 1980s gang warfare to resist the depredations of the Bloods, Crips, and Latin Kings.  We found, arrested, and deported these gang members to the Northern Triangle nations.  The effect was similar to exporting an aggressive, invasive species into an ecosystem in which it had no natural predators.

So, the immigration issue impacts the US, in many ways, big and small.  That said, taking the view that immigrants, legal and illegal, are all just universal believers in American values and should be given a driver's license, a SSAN and registered to vote seems to be both ignorant and short sighted.  While President Trump has disrupted the flow of illegal immigrants, even before the wall, more needs to be done to fix our immigration policies and laws.  And we need to work with Mexico and Canada on this.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Creeping (And Creepy) Coup

For John, BLUF:  This kind of childish behavior will stick around for a long time.  I hope we don't go the way of Latin America.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Slow Motion Coup d'Etat Picks Up Steam

Posted by William A. Jacobson, at his blog, Le•gal In•sur•rec•tion, Thursday, 3 August 2017.

Here is the sub-headline:

Leak of full transcripts of presidential conversations with foreign leaders a milestone in effort to paralyze the Trump administration.

Here is the lede plus:

Since the election there has been an unprecedented attempt to unwind the election result. Events have accelerated on several fronts lately with attempts from outside and within to paralyze the Trump administration.

What started as a collective media freakout on Election Night 2016 quickly progressed to an unprecedented attempt to intimidate Electors into changing their votes. Some Democrats announced, even before Trump took office, plans to impeach him, and Democrat politicians fed media-driven Russia collusion conspiracy theories for which they knew there was no evidence.

Chuck Schumer, for example, used the alleged fact of Donald Trump being under FBI investigation as an argument against confirming Neal Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, even though Schumer (but not the public) knew from intelligence briefings that Trump was not personally under investigation.

All the while, the permanent bureaucracy, particularly in the intelligence community, started an unending and almost daily series of leaks meant to paralyze the administration.

Here is the new steps taken Thursday:

The effort to paralyze the administration was advanced significantly today with the release by The Washington Post of leaked full transcripts of Trump’s conversations with the leaders of Mexico and Australia soon after he took office. There had been leaks about those conversations previously, but never the full transcripts.

The leak is being celebrated and the transcripts quoted (often out of context) for the purpose of scoring political points against Trump. But more than that, this represents yet another dangerous example of how leaks have been weaponized to try to paralyze the Trump administration.

The Professor then goes on to cite The Atlantic's David From, who I blogged about here.

And former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates gets discussed.  In supporting the Deep State she has displayed neither morals nor ethics.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Ranting from Univision

For John, BLUF:  Not a fair and balanced reporter, Mr Ramos.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Jorge Ramos: U.S. Is 'Our Country, Not Theirs'

From News Busters and Reporter Jorge Bonilla, back on 24 February 2017.

Further ramping up his open opposition to President Trump's immigration law enforcement policies, Univision anchor Jorge Ramos has let loose with an outrageous tirade that could best be described as equal parts nationalistic identity politics, racially-driven demagoguery, and yet another instance of the irresponsible conflation of legal and illegal immigration.

JORGE RAMOS, SENIOR NEWS ANCHOR, UNIVISION:  I am an immigrant, just like many of you.  I am a proud Latino immigrant here in the United States.  My name is Jorge Ramos, and I work at Univision and at the Fusion network.  And you know exactly what is going on here in the United States.  There are many people who do not want us to be here, and who want to create a wall in order to separate us.  But you know what?  This is also our country.  Let me repeat this:  OUR country, not theirs.  It is our country.  And we are not going to leave.  We are nearly 60 million Latinos in the United States.  And thanks to US, the United States eats, grows and, as we've seen today, sings and dances.  So when they attack us, we already know what we are going to do.  We are not going to sit down.  We will not shut up.  And we will not leave.  That is what we are going to do.

Not "Our Country too".  No.  To repeat what Reporter Jorge Ramos said:

Let me repeat this:  OUR country, not theirs.

That sounds like he is saying the country belongs to the 60 million Latinos.♠

So, does Mr Ramos wish for the United States to turn into a nation run the way many Latin American nations are run?  Is that his goal?  Did the Anglo-Saxons bring nothing of value with them when they left the British Isles?

What about those other dreaded people from Europe?  Other Caucasians from not Europe?

African Americans?

Asians and Pacific Islanders

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  When I hear things like that I always wonder if the number of Latinos includes within it the Lusitanians in this Great Nation.  You know, the people from Portugal and the Azores.

The President Suggests We Are In A Post-Ideological Age

For John, BLUF:  And he is wrong on this score.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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"The Rise Of American Socialism"

This is from The Hoover Institute, way out at Stanford.  The author is Mr Paul Gregory.  He examines a talk by President Obama, in which the President says it isn't the ideology that counts, but doing the right thing.  At some level I agree with the President, but sometimes doing the right thing now goes wrong in the end.  It is like that catch phrase amongst bridge players, "A cheap trick now will cost you later".♠

Here are the lede and two following paragraphs:

Obama’s recent impromptu remarks to a Latin American audience provide a fleeting glimpse into how the American Left is preparing mainstream America for socialism.

In his unscripted talk in a town hall meeting in Argentina, Obama downplayed the “sharp division between left and right, between capitalist and communist or socialist.”  Notably, Obama characterized such divisions as “of the past,” as if they do not exist anymore.  Per Obama, we supposedly live in a post-modern ideology-free world.  Although capitalist-socialist-communist divisions “are interesting intellectual arguments,” he advised the young people of Argentina: “You don't have to worry about whether it neatly fits into socialist theory or capitalist theory—you should just decide what works.”  As an illustration, Obama praised Cuba’s universal health care system as a “huge achievement” while regretting that Cuba is “a very poor country.” Obama’s implication:  If Cuba just picked and chose wisely, it could have both its medical care system and a prosperous growing economy—no changes in the political system necessary.

So what to do in such a post-ideology world?  According to Obama, we must create “new forms that are adapted to the new conditions that we live in today.”  Although economies “rooted in market-based systems” are the most successful, “a market does not work by itself. It has to have a social and moral and ethical and community basis, and there must be inclusion.”  No system is perfect; so we must craft an economic system that uses market forces to produce results that are inclusive and socially, morally, and ethically correct.  In Obama’s value-free world, practical judgments of what “works” should replace ideological considerations.

But then Professor Gregory suggests that ideology does matter and presents these two three legged stools as a graphic example of why.

If you don't have freedom to maneuver, politically and economically, you don't have freedom.  That means you are counting on the person at the top to make all the right decisions.  It is often the case that they can't.

Free enterprise has worked to provide a better standard of living for all who enjoy it.  Socialism has tended to be a continuation of feudalism under another name.  And we remember how that worked out.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Turns out I have used that phrase before, back on 30 September 2016, about Ms Clinton's health care plans.

Venezuela in Trouble

For John, BLUF:  The problem is that collapse means more refugees Northbound.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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A friend of mine, commenting on the latest bad news out of Venezuela, commented:

It is hard to believe that democratically elected socialists could screw up a country so badly.

Or maybe it's harder to believe that there are folks who support socialists (democratically elected ones, of course!), in the belief that "democratically elected" somehow makes their policies more likely to succeed.

But, his best line was:

Perhaps democratically elected physicists can turn off gravity?

And that is the problem.  There ar some "economic rules we all have to live with.  Over the long run they punish the unbelieving.

One of which is, as Maggie Thatcher told us, "You soon run out of other peoples' money."

Regards  —  Cliff

Venezuela and a Compression Scenario

For John, BLUF:  The importance of a Constitution that guides all.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From this morning's Night Watch we have Analyst John McCreary's assessment of what is happening in Venezuela, one of our neighbors in South America.

Venezuela:  The opposition postponed its planned announcement of its strategy to oust President Maduro. The executive secretary of the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), Jesus Torrealba, said, "There will be no announcement today due to the circumstances of the past 48 hours."

Torrealba was referring to an adverse ruling by the Supreme Court on 2 March which denied that the National Assembly had any jurisdiction over the Supreme Court, including the right to review the government's appointment of Supreme Court justices.

Students protested the Court's ruling in San Cristobal and clashed with police on the 3rd.

Comment:  One of the strategies for ousting Maduro included the impeachment of Supreme Court justices for political bias and abuse of power. The outgoing pro-Maduro National Assembly used its lame duck status in December to stack the Court with pro-Maduro justices before the opposition-controlled Assembly took office.

The Maduro government with the assistance of the pro-Maduro Supreme Court continues to find ways to restrict the actions of the opposition-controlled National Assembly. Little by little, the collusion between the executive and the Court are chipping away at legislative power.

Maduro has created a compression scenario by using political machinations to reduce the authority of the parliament. Compression scenarios have a single eventual outcome: a violent political eruption.

The key lessons here are:

1. Socialism, as socialism, and not social welfare, ends badly.  And we can include under the term "Socialism" the faux revolutionary movement known as Bolivarianism.
2. The leaders of a Socialist Government, as opposed to a social welfare government, never want to admit that it isn't working and won't work, and thus carry on, by means fair and foul.
3. Having an agreed constitution, that is rock firm, and not some "living" document, provides a means for the People to bring about the change THEY want.  And, at the end of the day it is about the People and not about the Socialist Vanguard.

Regards  —  Cliff

Illegal Immigration Back Up

For John, BLUF:  I note The New York Times has used the Non-PC term "illegal" to refer to what is happening.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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On 26 November Reporter Julia Preston, of The New York Times wrote that the "Number of Migrants Illegally Crossing Rio Grande Rises Sharply"

From the beginning of the article.

The numbers of migrants crossing the Rio Grande illegally have risen sharply in recent weeks, replaying scenes from the influx of Central American children and families in South Texas last year.

Once again, smugglers are bringing hundreds of women and children each day to the Mexican banks of the river and sending them across in rafts.  In a season when illegal crossings normally go down, “The numbers have started going the other way,” said Raul L. Ortiz, acting chief of the Border Patrol for the Rio Grande Valley. Since Oct. 1, official figures show, Border Patrol apprehensions of migrant families in this region have increased 150 percent over the same period last year, while the number of unaccompanied children caught by agents has more than doubled.

The new flows here are smaller than the surge in the summer of 2014, but come after a year of declines in illegal crossings across the southwest border.  The increases come as Americans’ concerns about border security are heightened after the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris raised fears that terrorists would try to sneak into the United States.  And they are complicating the Obama administration’s efforts to reassure the country that the border is under control.

It is basic capitalism.  You get more of what you reward.  Sometimes it is profit.  Sometimes it is Bureaucratic adjustments.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Argentina and the Iran Deal

For John, BLUF:  It isn't the agreement so much as the secret side agreements.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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This item is from the English Language Buenos Aires Herald.  "Gov't asks US, EU to confirm if sanctions against Iranian AMIA suspect will be lifted".

This involves the 18 July 1994 bombing of the office of Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) (Argentine Israelite Mutual Association), in which 85 died and hundreds were injured.  On 18 January of this year Prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found dead in his apartment, just before he was to testify before Parliament about his suspicions in the case, including high level corruption.  What a mess.

Here is the lede:

Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman has sent two letters, one to US Secretary of State John Kerry and the other one to EU Foreign Affairs representative Federica Mogherini, asking them to confirm whether sanctions against Iranian former Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi will be lifted, following the newly signed agreements with Iran.

Vahidi is charged for allegedly being one of the people responsible of planning the 1994 AMIA Jewish centre attack.

Who else is being impacted by this deal?  For sure not the four Americans being held by Iran.  But, aside from that?

Regards  —  Cliff

Shooting Down Drug Runners

For John, BLUF:  Do we need to be consistent regarding illegal drugs?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From the web magazine War on the Rocks we have "Narcotrafficking, the Shining Path, and the Strategic Importance of Peru", by Dr. R. Evan Ellis is Research Professor with the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College.

Here is the beginning:

In April 2001, the U.S. pushed the Peruvian government to suspend its aerial interdiction program against suspected drug flights after the Peruvian Air Force mistakenly fired on a flight killing a U.S. missionary and her seven-month old daughter. Peru is now on the verge of resuming its interdiction program, and it might not be a bad idea.

On March 9, the National Defense Committee of the Peruvian Congress approved legislation authorizing the nation’s armed forces to interdict aircraft transiting its airspace without authorization. The proposed law, promoted by Peruvian congressman and retired Admiral Carlos Tubino, is a response to the increasing number of “narco flights” (now 6-10 per day) carrying cocaine and associated intermediate products from the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro river valley region (the “VRAEM”), to neighboring Bolivia and Brazil.

And yet we are legalizing Mary Jane?

Regards  —  Cliff

"Rule Like Stalin"

For John, BLUF:  Unrest in many places.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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At the Day by Day Cartoon (Chris Muir as artist) is a cartoon dedicated to Fausta Wertz.  The punchline is a translation of a sign, in Spanish, from Venezuela:

They speak like Marx, rule like Stalin, live like the Rockefellers, while the People suffer.

For those actually paying attention, most of that attention is on what is going on in Ukraine,♠ where street demonstrations have emboldened Parliament to throw out the President, Viktor Yushchenko, and set new elections for May of this year.  The above quote could have referred to the opulence found when the people in the street broke into President Yushchenko's residence.

It doesn't.

It turns out that Ukraine isn't the only action.  There is Thailand, of course.  However, under reported, in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, there is unrest and lively street demonstrations.  In fact, events are moving fast enough that Wikipedia isn't keeping up.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  For older readers, yes, it used to be "The Ukraine", but apparently modern usage drops the "the".

Coming to America

For John, BLUF:  People from Central America endure a lot just to have a chance to sneak into the United States.  This must be a great country, to attract such passion.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From the article linked below, it sounds like folks in the Mexican State of Tabasco have been purloining "fishplates" from the local railroad.  The results have not been pretty.

MEXICO CITY – The theft of a metal bar used to link two rails caused the train crash last weekend in the southeastern Mexican state of Tabasco that left 12 dead, the Communications and Transportation Secretariat said.

That is just terrible.  Twelve dead.  Seven of them "undocumented" Honduran immigrant, hopping a freight for Northern Mexico, where they could cross over into the United States.  They were on a scheduled run of the scrap metal hauler, “La Bestia” (The Beast).

And the last two paragraphs in the article from The Latin American Herald Tribune:

Besides the dangers inherent in hopping onto moving trains, Central American migrants must contend with criminals and corrupt Mexican officials.

Gangs kidnap, exploit and murder migrants, who are often targeted in extortion schemes, Mexican officials say.

It another news article from The Latin American Herald Tribune we have this;

Mexican authorities detained 80 undocumented migrants, most of them from Central America, in three separate operations, the National Migration Institute, or INM, said.

The migrants, 47 Guatemalans, 22 Hondurans, eight Ecuadorians and three Salvadorans, were intercepted during routine inspections of buses and in an operation to combat people trafficking in three states, according to the agency.

It may not be illegal to be illegal, but it can be dangerous to your health.♠

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Do you think she is going to run for Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, or only accept the office if it is handed to her?

Iran in the Western Hemisphere

For John, BLUF:  Ignore Iran's Nucs for a second and focus on their "special forces".  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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At the new Blog, War on the Rocks, retired Army Colonel Robert Killebrew♠ writes about "Iran's Cartel Strategy:  The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the Western Hemisphere".  From the lede and subsequent paragraph:

On October 11, 2011, Iranian nationals Manssor Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri were indicted by the Southern District Court of New York for plotting to kill the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, by bombing a Washington D.C. restaurant.  The “Saudi Ambassador Plot,” which was initially disregarded by official Washington, was the first instance (that we know of) of Iranian use of Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) to attack targets in the United States.

That the Iranian security apparatus would stage such an attack in the nation’s capital in which scores of Americans would have been killed or wounded, and that they would attempt to use a TCO to make the hit, sounds audacious and irrational – like something out of a movie that ends very poorly for Iran.  But it should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with both the scope of Iran’s penetration of the Western hemisphere and its association with TCOs at every level.  Understanding both the nature of this new combination, and American weakness in dealing with it, requires some knowledge of TCOs, the security apparatus of the Iranian state, and their links.

Read the whole thing and consider that an Iranian nuclear weapon is not the current primary threat.  The exploitation of TCOs by Iran is the present problem.

Frankly, it is past time for the United States to focus a lot of attention on this Hemisphere.  Not that we should be a bull in the china shop, but that we should be doing a lot of intelligence collection and sharing and we should be providing support to various government in terms of police and military assistance.  We should not be trying to muscle other Governments, in that such action would be counter-productive, but we do need to be aware and awake.  One of the first things we could do it make US Southern Command the top priority Combatant Command in the Department of Defense.  Another thing is the US Congress could make funds available to help the Department of State upgrade our presence South of the Border.  We can't ignore the rest of the world, but we definitely need to be looking more to the South.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Colonel Killebrew writes and consults on national defense issues as a Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

Ancient Finds in Peru

For John, BLUF:  The history of this hemisphere is pretty interesting.

Back before the Inca Civilization there was the Wari Civilization dominating parts of the area now known as Peru.  The BBC has an article on recent archeology discoveries, including the tombs of queens.

Back when Rome was declining the Wari Empire was booming.

Regards  —  Cliff