Contempo Magazine Blog

The internet has been full of baseless speculation since the Mexican newspaper, El Universal, leaked out that the Obama administration is considering naming Carlos Pascual as the next U.S. Ambassador to Mexico.

Some Mexican pundits have had their feathers ruffled by recent reports from various foreign policy think tanks and media that Mexico was either a “falling state” or close to it. The original newspaper article translated into English said “ Pascual was a State Department expert in designing plans to stabilize and reconstruct societies that have experienced civil conflicts or clashes.” Accordingly, these pundits have surmised and complained that an appointment of someone with Mr. Pascual’s expertise implicitly means that the United States believes Mexico is really a falling state. The New York Times reported the next day that Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, in an effort to counter that opinion said that no official from the Obama administration had ever described Mexico as a failed state and called the current situation in Mexico a public safety challenge.

There are some who are complaining that Mr. Pascual is not Mexican-American (Cuban-American) and that the Obama administration did not get enough input from various American oriented Latino interest groups like La Raza Unida. No one complained that Mr. Pascual was not Ukrainian-American when he functioned as the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine 2000 to 2003 for the Bush Administration. After finishing his term as Ambassador, Pascual served in the State Department as Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization and now serves as the Vice President and Director of Foreign Policy at the highly held centrist Brookings Institution.

The American mainstream media has been slow to cover the Mexican situation which is has been ongoing since 2006. However it has been a prime source of wild speculation and misinformation on the internet. Mexican tabloids enjoyed record sales by selling gruesome pictures of drug related murders in the cartel to cartel feuds which portrayed hellish mayhem in Mexico’s poorest neighborhoods while Mexico’s elite ignored the violence for too long. Mexican authorities only began to take the situation seriously when the law enforcement security apparatus in the border cities and in certain areas of central Mexico had collapsed. Much of Mexico has been relatively untouched by the violence. While it is true that many sectors of the Mexican economy have been hard hit some of the sectors like auto manufacturing may be about to leap forward. Thus although in considerable difficulty, calling Mexico a “failed state”was at least exaggeration.

On the American side of the border, bloggers misportrayed violence as an all out terrorist assaults on the public instead of mostly gang to gang violence. Mayors of Texas border towns like McAllen and El Paso which still maintain lower risks of violent crime than just about any other American cities suddenly found themselves responding to national news reporters from cities like Atlanta where sometimes someone is murdered every hour asking questions like “Why are you not begging for the national guard?”. This stupid attempt at sensationalism for attention’s sake threatened one of the few bright spots in the American economy the billions of dollars of trade between Texas based companies and Mexico.

The violence in Mexico is real and the potential threat to the United States is real. However, spreading anything but the truth helps no one. Mexico is not a failed state but has very significant problems including the drug cartels which must be addressed. The U.S. Ambassador to Mexico should be an experienced professional with proven experience in foreign relations. Mr. Pascual clearly has the type of experience in foreign policy that is required for the position of U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. His qualifications come not specifically because he is Hispanic or has any type of political interest group endorsement but because his experience and credentials have earned him the opportunity.

The Mexican situation has been enshrouded in shadow. Too often in the past the position of Ambassador to Mexico has been a token political pay-off or pandering. Just being Mexican-American or being involved in civil rights interests of Latinos in the United States does not authenticate expertise into foreign relations with Mexico. Political bickering from either the Mexican or the American mainstream media about about possible hidden meanings or affiliations more than borders on the ridiculous.

The Mexican fight against drug cartels and United States-Mexican relations cannot move forward without clarity on both sides of the border. Appointing Carlos Pascual would be a welcome start that should be readily accepted by the all of the American public and the Mexican government.

Thanks for reading Contempo Magazine blog which discusses issues for McAllen, the Rio Grande Valley, and America from a conservative Hispanic point of view. Tony Magaña grew up in McAllen Texas, attended Texas A&M University, served as an officer in Army Reserve, and holds a doctorate from Harvard University. The co-founder of Contempo Magazine has participated in Valley business for over 20 years. He is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and also writes for the American Daily Revew

The false view of unregulated illicit drug use being without consequence to society and improper responses to sentencing disparities of minority groups for possession created an opening for the Mexican drug cartels to grow and thrive.

The latest national statistics on drug use in the United States are from the National Survey on Drug Use done in 2007. In general nearly 20% of the population older than 12 used illicit drugs. About 14% used marijuana, 6.9% psychotherapeutics, and 2.1% cocaine. The most prevalent age of drug users was in the 18 to 20 year old group however there was an increasing rate of use for those over age 50 that has occurred since 2002. Unemployment, low education, and living in a large city were, not surprisingly, significant risk factors. However this study and others show that drug use and the trafficking are penetrating more into suburban American . Almost ten percent of blacks over the age of twelve use drugs with the incidence of whites coming in second at 9% and Hispanics at 6%. This amounts to millions of Americans whose payments to Mexican cartels annually rack in profits in excess of $ 30 billion dollars

In the 1980’s in response to the widespread epidemic of cocaine usage both Federal and state government passed stiff enforcement laws calling for long incarceration for possession of cocaine. At that time as remains contemporaneously, most of those prosecuted where African American. Although the cartels supply the drugs into the United States most of those arrested as the final retailer are African American.

The laws were very unequal between the states and justice was applied very irregularly. Many times whites convicted of using cocaine powder received treatment programs while African Americans received sentences up to 30 years for possessing crack cocaine. This inequity of justice created a dilemma. Instead of focusing on equity in the application of justice and refining the enforcement model a new direction towards decriminalization was taken.

Efforts to determine who was selling and who just possessed became very complicated. Setting a minimum amount of grams in possession as stand alone proof of cocaine dealing was not well accepted in the courts. To convict a dealer a prosecutor had to rely on the often incredible witness of a drug addict or associate of the dealer who got a reduced sentence for his cooperation. The damaged view of the police by minority communities especially African American made undercover work very dangerous for police and disengendered them further from the public. Thus gradually prosecution efforts moved away from prosecuting small dealers as different from possession.

Most recently laws began to change with special drug courts and treatment programs being ordered for those who were thought to be addicted to drugs but not selling them. Still 24% of all inmates in prison were there for drug related offenses. The cost of constantly building and staffing prisons to house mostly African Americans created create social back pressure as well to push for alternatives to incarceration.

Many voices began to argue that these inmates even they were drug dealers were not a violent threat to society. Senator Leahy of Vermont said on the Senate floor even said we should not worry about small drug dealers. Society lapsed into believing that drug dealers were a benign group. Even now President Obama had implied in the past that young men who sell drugs in the ghetto might be seen as making a reasonable decision because society did not offer them other job opportunities. He purposed that drug dealing offenders not be criminalized but instead put into job training programs.

President Bush was heavily criticized when the federal government began to run commercials that said buying drugs was giving money to terrorism even though more than 70% of the time that was a true fact. The powerful domestic marijuana underground in concert with those who looked for any excuse to attack the President ridiculed the idea as preposterous while the Mexican cartels were rising to power in Mexico.

The first thing America has to do is to admit that viewing illicit drug sales as a victimless crime was a mistake. Millions of dollars of taxpayer expenditures in the form of Medicaid payments, food stamps, aid to well fare mothers, and social security are being exchanged for drugs initially to the local dealer but eventually to the Mexican cartels. To be fair not all drug users are poor, at the same time, middle class and above are also giving dollars to the cartels for their cocaine, heroin, amphetamine, and marijuana. Contrary to popular belief much of the marijuana sold in the United States is not being supplied by independent non-violent producers but by the cartel. Heroin once the scourge of the ghetto has now become in the “in-drug” for Hollywood.

America must develop a competent strategy for dealing with the small drug dealers to get them off the street. Currently in much of the United States those selling smaller amounts of cocaine even if for a third time are rarely sentenced for more than a year. Frequently they get released much earlier in return for work done while in jail. These drug dealers develop criminal associations and learn techniques to avoid prosecution from fellow inmates while in jail so that the recidivism many police believe is about 90% for small time dealers.

In my previous article in Contempo Magazine we outlined measures against the cartels the administration needs to bolster including criminal gang injunction, conspiracy, and new criminal illegal alien policies. But taking measures against the cartel and not the local dealers will be ignoring half of the problem. New strategies to successfully identify, prosecute, and incarcerate these offenders is necessary to take the drugs off the street and ultimately cut-off the flow of money to the cartels. This is now a matter of national security.

Law enforcement and the courts must endeavor to build community support for developing programs that clearly identify and differentiate those who are using and those who are selling. Society must once again recognize that although an act such as using drugs may arguably be a matter of free will, the illegal activity of trafficking these substances has created murder and chaos. The current drug program is an abortion of proper justice. Either the United States legalizes drugs and heavily regulates them or they must deliberately bring more effort against both the cartels and the small drug dealers.

Thanks for reading Contempo Magazine blog which discusses issues for McAllen, the Rio Grande Valley, and America from a conservative Hispanic point of view. Tony Magaña grew up in McAllen Texas, attended Texas A&M University, served as an officer in Army Reserve, and holds a doctorate from Harvard University. The co-founder of Contempo Magazine has participated in Valley business for over 20 years. He is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and also writes for the American Daily Revew

Will President Obama and Attorney General Holder bring three important enforcement and prosecution weapons to bear against the Mexican drug cartels?

Much of the media as of late has been focused on the Texas-Mexican border area of South Texas looking for carnage as manifestations of drug cartel incursions into the United States. While the reality is that McAllen, Texas has a violent crime rate incidence of 0.3% that is very low. Far away north looking at America’s major cities there is a much higher violent crime rate such as Atlanta at 1.5% which is actually five times worse than McAllen. Many of us border folk are wondering why the media is not focusing on the drug problem in America?

As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, admitted to the world today the voracious consumption of drugs in the United States especially in the urban centers is the bank paying for the violence in Mexico. Is the Obama administration giving enough attention to fighting the urban gangs in America’s cities that are getting stronger by the day?

In February 2009 the federal government released the National Gang Threat Assessment report that painted a dark picture of a growing gang infestation. Criminal gangs they said commit as much as “80 percent of all crime in many communities through out the nation”. The primary retail-level distributors of drugs like cocaine and marijuana are almost always gang members which more often than not have at least an affiliation if they are not outright members of Mexican drug cartels.

A related report called the National Drug Threat Summary 2009 said that Mexican drug trafficking organizations represent the greatest crime peril for the United States. Local ethnic gangs in many cities are forming alliances with Mexican gangs to market heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and amphetamines.

During his acceptance speech as the new Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy , Gil Kerlikowske, said the focus of the new administrations efforts would be to reduce the demand for illegal drugs. The new drug czar called for a seamless comprehensive approach requiring cooperation of prosecutors, law enforcement, courts, and treatment providers. He discussed expanding commitments to drug courts, treatment programs, and prisoner rehabilitative efforts as well as “counternarcotics initiatives”.

In the Obama panoply of action his administration has omitted mention of three of the most powerful weapons that could be used against gangs: gang injunctions,conspiracy charges, and changing the criminal illegal alien policy.

Gang injunctions were formulated in California during the 1980s. The idea is to suppress gang members from associating with each other in criminal activities. If a gang member is caught associating with other gang members which can include wearing clothing or making gestures which signal to the public or his associates he is gang member or acting as a look out he can be prosecuted. If he is in the commission of a criminal act than additional charges can be brought because he is a gang member.

The American Civil Liberties Union among others has been the main champion against this enforcement tool. In a recent opinion they filed against the Los Angeles Police Department they claim that gang injunctions were the equivalent of putting people on parole who have not been convicted of a crime.

Detractors of this approach say instead communities should be providing alternative youth programs or counseling. Further they claim such laws do violate personal liberties and do not allow due process by alleging guilt by association. Despite early legal challenges they have been proven legal if they are very specific in detail to the names of those involved, where they can go, and what they can do.

Criminal conspiracy can be brought in federal or state courts against gang members. Their use against organized crime became famous in the 1960s against the Mafia. In simple terms a conspiracy is an agreement between persons to break the law. According to defense attorney, Jeffrey Jenson, the prosecution typically has to show two things: that a conspiracy existed and that the accused was a member of the same conspiracy. For drug related offenses this means that drugs or weapons do not have to be gotten as evidence. Wiretaps, financial records, photographs, and recordings can be used a primary evidence in a criminal court to prove conspiracy whereas they might not be in proving a drug case.

The American Civil Liberties Union among others has been the main champion against these enforcement tools. Both President Barack Obama and Attorney General Holder have spoken out against the use of these types of measures when they involve young men and instead of stressed community intervention rather than law enforcement and subsequent incarceration.

As I recently wrote in the American Daily Review we need to revise the SCAAP law which currently does not allow reimbursement of local jails for illegal aliens who are charged but not convicted of a serious crime. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) along with many others in Congress is pushing for this change in the SCAAP (State Criminal Alien Assistance Program) Reimbursement Protection Act of 2009 (S.168). This is necessary because there is not enough federal beds available for these threats to our society.

These measures like every measure in laws do have the potential for abuse. Those that carry them out should be overseen by the court system as are all laws to protect the Constitution. I do not think drug treatment programs for drug users is going to stop the Mexican cartels. If the battle against the cartels is going to be won the United States needs to step to the plate and stop ignoring the problem as Gil Kerlikowske has said. For America’s benefit lets hope the President and the Attorney General support the use of these important tools.

Thanks for reading Contempo Magazine blog which discusses issues for McAllen, the Rio Grande Valley, and America from a conservative Hispanic point of view. Tony Magaña grew up in McAllen Texas, attended Texas A&M University, served as an officer in Army Reserve, and holds a doctorate from Harvard University. The co-founder of Contempo Magazine has participated in Valley business for over 20 years. He is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and also writes for the American Daily Revew