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The Mexican federal government can’t rely on local or state police for, well, anything. In areas where they operate, the drugs cartels have co-opted, cowed or killed them all. And so the federales have sent thousands of soldiers to “pacify” cartel controlled areas. Nope. Not working. Next? Calderon’s mob are training a new force: the Fuerza Civil or Civil Guard. Click here for the Civil Guard’s web page and YouTube recruiting video. The Fuerza’s offering better pay than the local po-po. They get to play with full-auto American ARs (your tax money hard at work). And there’s anti-corruption training! Setting aside concerns about the death of local democracy, good luck to the newbie crime fighters. Policing within the framework of the Mexican/American “War on Drugs”—a policy that allows some cartels to do biz while targeting others—can’t be easy. In fact, the new police force is little more than window dressing before the Mexican general elections, and brings to mind the expression “lambs to the slaughter.”

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7 COMMENTS

  1. “Your tax money hard at work”
    This is a use of my tax money I don’t particularly oppose, provided there’s some chance of it actually working (which, frankly, I don’t see — sounds like the Fuerza is simply another police force, renamed, and ready to be just as corrupted as the government and existing police already are). A Mexico that’s not awash in drugs and corruption, and in the middle of a civil war, would be a good thing for the U.S.

  2. Thirty years ago I reflected upon how lucky we are that North America does not experience civil wars, potential social-economic collapse, police-states, etc. How times are changing for the worse in North America for those of us who value liberty and self-reliance. Then for others, North America is slowly and positively changing through different crisis to a nanny-police state NAU. Change you can count on.

  3. Is this a new police force, or a new channel of distribution for guns to the Sinaloas? Since Calderon came up with this idea, I’m betting on the latter since everything he does is a scam.

  4. You guys are ridiculous. I live in the State of Nuevo Leon. First off, no, your tax money is NOT paying for these guns, its MY tax money. If at all, you should be happy that we’re buying from you the guns and creating (much needed) jobs in the U.S. Second of all, the problem is not so simple, the amount of money paid by American consumers of drugs is huge compared to low wages that were historically paid to cops in Mexico. Corruption exists in the U.S. too, how do you think so much drugs not only crosses the border through legitimate entry points and is distributed EVERYWHERE in the U.S. Granted, corruption is much worse here, but it is a problem we are trying to deal with. This new police force, while not PERFECT, is trying to instill new values on new recruits and PAY THEM MUCH MORE, which will hopefully begin to decrease the problem. Now, you guys in the U.S. can do two things: turn a blind eye and wait for cartels to really run over authorities and thus use the resources of the state to wreck havoc in your border, or help with the process. We are not asking for an Afghanistan-like intervention because simply we are not Afghanistan and you need to do some “nation-building” yourself, BUT you can begin to decrease your consumption of drugs (or at least decrease their profits) and you can provide limited training and expertise so that we can defeat the criminals together. Your choice.

  5. And BTW, learn a little about Mexican Politics. Calderon is not proposing this force specifically nor paying for it. This is coming out of the State of Nuevo Leon’s money and it’s governor (which still has five years left in office). Calderon wants states to take up the responsibility (which they should have in the first place) because it is too hard to fight a drug war only with the army and federal police. So, no, it has NOTHING to do with election year 2012. The U.S. equivalent would be saying that increasing police wages in Maine is about Obama’s re-election.

  6. Maybe just maybe the Mexicans are fed up with the drug violence. As I see it, these are fresh recruits free from cartel corruption. And the setting seems to be a very controlled military style environment controlled by the state. Nuevo Leon is an industrial State. So they are not there because of a lack of jobs. And some of these recruits have college degrees. Ask yourself this, If it were happening in your state would you not want to do something too? As to the comment they are lambs to the slaughter, they captured the Zeta boss that orchestrated the bombing of the Casino Royale that killed over 50 people. And various other big boss captures. I do wish however Mexican citizens could arm themselves.

  7. this is really good to mexico this new police force is hardly corrupted since all the recruits are victims of cartel killing their families kidnappin forcing them to give them money taking down their businees protection money etc etc this victims are really fed up with cartels and corruption this people whant a change in mexico that is why this new force is called civil like people or civilians

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