Note: AZ also having some major fires thanks to our narco friends.
As they continue to trash our habitat. Locals usually keep the
forests pretty clear of deadwood, etc. and it use for heat and
cooking. But the narcos have really curtailed these practices. So
more fires. This over toward the Sonora state line.
Note "Wilderness areas: made to order for drug cartels, along with
National Monuments, Reservations, etc. Series of articles assembled
by Holub of the Tucson Citizen
Wilderness Areas on the border? What a great idea if you are a cartel
drug smuggler
http://tucsoncitizen.com/view-from-baja-arizona/2011/05/21/wilderness-
areas-on-the-border-what-a-great-idea-if-you-are-a-cartel-drug-smuggler/
Narco threat to fire-fighting brigade in the Sierra Tarahumara
Agencies | 12:39
http://eldiariodechihuahua.mx/notas.php?
f=2011/05/24&id=74b23b671f2502ad3648887f0df0ed27
Chihuahua .- Besides the danger of fighting a wildfire in the Sierra
Tarahumara of Chihuahua, the brigade must confront drug trafficking
groups with powerful firearms who scared the fire fighters away from
areas where they plant drugs.
Even some people in several mountain towns like Madera, Bocoyna,
Guachochi and Guadalupe y Calvo, have complained publicly that drug
traffickers are precisely those that generate some wildfires to keep
them away from certain areas, or because the fire destroyed regions
where they have planted marijuana and poppy.
In this regard, the delegate of Conafor in Chihuahua, Jose Trevino,
said the brigade certainly endanger their lives to address these
conflagrations, so that everyone has a major medical expense
insurance for 100 thousand dollars and a life insurance by 200 thousand.
However, he ignored the threats made by drug traffickers to the
brigade, but also denied that it has submitted several such incidents.
Unconfirmed allegations of note that even a brigade of helicopters
being used to transport personnel to the site of the fire was shot
from the ground on his way to the Sierra Tarahumara to face a forest
conflagration.
Derived from the drought of more than eight months in the state, in
Chihuahua the number of fires increased to 300 percent, to be
counted, until May 17, 912 blazes, said the delegate of the Conafor,
José Treviño.
Last year 358 fires were recorded, whereas in the five months of this
cycle are already 912 events, most municipalities given in the Sierra
Tarahumara.
Involvement is 22 thousand hectares have been scorched by fire, most
grasslands and shrubs, so the economic sector most affected has been
the farmer.
Chihuahua ranks third nationally in number of fires and acres affected.
Note: Mexican people will fight back, especially if they can get arms.
Cheran, about to shout "to arms"
Francisco Castellanos and José Gil Olmos
http://www.proceso.com.mx/rv/modHome/detalleExclusiva/91569
CHER Mich., May 23 (Process) .- The village looks like a battlefield:
350 barricades, fires, piles of stones and wood, sand bags and cars
act as trenches that people use to defend against illegal loggers
supported by armed gangs of organized crime.
For more than a month remains in this place a self-imposed siege. The
residents watch the clock and inputs and outputs of the village.
Each day that passes the situation becomes more critical in the
Purépecha region of Michoacán. In addition to blockade the
inhabitants of this village, access to the entire area were also
closed on Thursday 12th by loggers, backed by organized crime gangs.
This dual blockade affects the entire Meseta Purépecha, consisting of
eight towns where the gangs destroyed 12,000 hectares of forest, said
a committee of Cheran.
One villager said: "Schools and businesses remain closed as well.
Many people who work elsewhere, even in Morelia, can not leave. The
municipal police left the village but no one trusts them because they
protect the loggers. On Monday 9, Undersecretary for Legal Affairs
and Human Rights Department of the Interior, Felipe de Jesus Zamora
Castro, told us that federal police arrive and the Army, but there is
nothing. "
For almost a month, residents of the region were abandoned to their
fate. It was not until they arrived on Thursday, 19 members of the
Joint Operating Bases (BOM), formed by municipal police, state and
federal soldiers. Asked them land to settle and to form a group to
coordinate surveillance efforts. The villagers say that the BOM are
not operating and remain in their posts without doing anything.
"We complied immediately. Please be advised that the land already and
coordination of people, but the situation remains tense because they
are still clearing the forest and are armed, "said a farmer who
requested anonymity because of death threats received since the last
15 April formed the citizen self-defense and imposed a state of siege
in Cheran.
That day people decided Purépecha react timber fellers, they say, are
protected by organized crime, presumably by members of the family who
are still operating in the region.
According to some community members of this group of drug traffickers
Cheran has undergone dozens of men, forcing them to work felling
trees and only pay them 150 pesos per day.
A representative of the villagers said that precisely on April 15,
several residents stopped 10 trucks loaded with timber and clashed
with armed men in them:
"They tried to rescue them and put together the shooting. Eugenio
Sánchez Rendón injured who are hospitalized. They took three
companions and fled protected by municipal police patrols working for
organized crime. "
Two days after this confrontation closed all entrances to the
village. However, the barricades could not stop the armed men on
April 27 took two community members, Pedro and Armando Juárez
Hernández Urbina Estrada, who appeared tortured and executed days later.
Stop Violence
"We are tired of so much abuse and Cheran on the verge of social
explosion. Not only this community but the entire Meseta Purépecha,
is on alert. Just expect a signal to rise up in arms against
organized crime, which we have until the mother, "said one villager
told reporters, his face covered.
He says that, from 2008 to date, nine people have been killed and
five more were missing for defending the forests and loggers face
with guards and gunmen.
"The struggle is not between communities would have us believe, but
against organized gangs and government. We are tired of exploitation,
blackmail, kidnapping, uprisings, murder, extortion, and live and die
in fear. Now we are going to face the bad guys are crafty or the
government. We're just waiting a timely manner, and if there are
answers, as to weapons, "he told reporters an indigenous Purépecha.
The people of Cheran say that for three years, loggers have ravaged
its forests to the detriment of the whole population, amounting to
about 18 thousand people.
"Do the math: 180 thousand pesos a day, nearly 35 million a month,
for three years. A fortune, right? The loggers are protected by an
individual known as El Guero, who planted marijuana in these sites
without anyone saying anything. Now engaged in cutting wood and
stripped to 13,000 hectares, "says another Indian.
Among the stones that serve as retainer, the people of Cheran raised
a Mexican flag. Women make tortillas, cooked beans, rice, and tamales
corundas. Several children carrying banners that read: "Felipe
Calderón, Michoacan, protects our forests, no more looting," "No more
dead in the Meseta Purépecha" "We thirst for justice and security"
and "Mr. Governor, we want prompt and effective solution, not more
promises. "
The men are hoes, axes, machetes, sharpened sticks, bats, scythes,
slings, stones and knives. If there is a warning signal launch a
rocket or touch the bells of the church.
A village woman yells at reporters: "Help us! We want to live in
peace! And ill finished with our forests, burned, burning medicinal
herbs, pine trees, animals of the hills. We are scared. They came
with their guns to schools and threaten the children and teachers and
took them out, so no school. We are threatened. So the people stood
up because we do not want the return of the bad. We involved the Army
or Navy, they are permanently. But look: What are police? Not one!
Nothing at all! ".
At night, guards and smoldering campfires even when reporters are
doing their journey at dawn. In the neighborhood of El Calvario still
be seen the traces of the battle of April 15, burned trucks, houses,
posts and windows shot.
On the way to the mountains, the villagers show reporters the
"cottage" of the PRI mayor of Cheran, Roberto Bautista Chapina, where
each major party eight days ago. The Indians say they are people of
Guero.
The situation is serious, say the press officers and dissemination of
movements: no food or classes and children are afraid to go to school
and get them out with bullets. The phone signal is constantly going.
A hooded media says that schools will not open until there is safety
for teachers and students, until they the Army and Federal Police
show up.
Control Committee members commented that getting food to survive are
social organizations, indigenous communities and civil society, which
are stored in the storage facility enabled in the parish of the
village parish.
The community's lawyer, David Peña, warns: "We are facing an
exceptional situation, it is the first time that an indigenous
community decides to self-imposed isolation and a real siege to
address organized crime."
And launched an appeal: "The authorities of the three levels of
government must take immediate and effective way to prevent this from
becoming a tragedy ..." l
Locals to testify before state border security committee
By Hank Stephenson
Nogales International
Published Tuesday, May 24, 2011 10:36 AM CDT
http://www.nogalesinternational.com/articles/2011/05/24/news/
doc4ddbcde795f18855550318.txt
Three local businessmen are heading to Phoenix on Wednesday to tell a
state legislative committee on border security that in order for
Arizona's economy to grow, the border ports need more attention and
more manpower.
The residents – representing the Fresh Produce Association of the
Americas, the Nogales Downtown Merchants Association and the Nogales
Santa Cruz County Port Authority – have been invited to speak to the
Joint Border Security Advisory Committee about how the state can help
facilitate legitimate trade and travel while maintaining the security
at the ports.
They say they also plan to highlight the economic impact of trade in
the border region on the state of Arizona and the country.
Jaime Chamberlain, chairman of the Fresh Produce Association of the
Americas, said he wants to explain to the committee the importance of
international trade and commerce to business and government in
Arizona – and to help facilitate that trade, he wants to ask for
assistance from state legislators in requesting more Customs and
Border Protection officers for Nogales's three ports of entry.
"We need for our ports of entry to be just as safe and secure as the
parts between our ports," he said. "I don't think they really realize
in Phoenix how important this community and this port of entry is for
the state."
Bruce Bracker, partner at Bracker's Department Store, said last week
in an interview with the Nogales International that he had been
running some numbers and found that Mexicans contribute $7 million in
sales tax alone for the city of Nogales.
"That's just sales tax," he said at the time. "That doesn't include
all the money they're spending which allows me to pay the 59
employees I have or the however many hundred employees Wal-Mart has
or JC Penney has."
Watch on line
Bracker, Chamberlain and J.B. Manson, chairman of the Nogales Santa
Cruz Port Authority, will testify at the committee's third monthly-
meeting, which starts at 9 a.m. Wednesday and can be streamed online
at http://azleg.granicus.
com/MediaPlayer.php?
publish_id=13
The Interim Border Security Advisory Committee is comprised of six
Republican lawmakers from both chambers (including Rep. David Stevens
and Sen. Gail Griffin, who represent Nogales and Rio Rico) and
representatives from the Arizona Cattle Feeders' Association, Arizona
Department of Transportation, Arizona Department of Public Safety,
Arizona Department of Homeland Security, Arizona Department of
Corrections and Arizona National Guard Adjutant.
There are no Democratic lawmakers on the committee.
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