Transcript

Century of Lies / August 26, 2012

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DEAN BECKER: This is Century of Lies on the Drug Truth Network on Pacifica Radio. I am Dean Becker reporting on the Caravan for Peace, Justice and Dignity.

I’m with Senor Javier Sicilia. We are in Laredo, Texas. Senor, what is your thoughts at the reaction here in America?

JAVIER SICILIA: [via interpreter] This is a group or gathering that is self-referential. We haven’t been in U.S. media. There are very few people from the U.S. in the plazas and the places that we are gathering and that worries us.

The people in the U.S. are very generous but they don’t know what’s happening outside and we want them to see us because we have to work together in order to achieve peace for Mexico which is suffering so much.

DEAN BECKER: Yes, sir. I agree with you. There needs to be a bigger turnout – more people recognizing this problem.

The fact is the media around this country is carrying video, is recognizing this effort but I feel the people are reluctant to speak for this need for change and you have brought this truth to America. Tell the listeners, once again, what is happening in Mexico, the extreme violence and how they need to recognize it. Tell them what is going on.

JAVIER SICILIA: [via interpreter] They have to recognize that Mexico is a very corrupt state and those who govern it are very corrupt - 98% impunity rate.

Drug trafficking has historically been in Mexico but it’s been controlled. Nevertheless, the war that Calderon has declared on drug trafficking has generated this huge problem. We don’t have exact statistics but there are approximately 70,000 people who have been killed, about 20,000 people who have been disappeared and about 150,000 people who have been displaced from their homes.

But we have to recognize that the other side of the war, the dark side, is here in the U.S. This is where the drug war was born and the weapons that are feeding the drug traffickers and organized crime are coming from here.

It’s a bilateral issue. It’s an international issue and the drug war has to be at the center of discussion and the control of the unlimited, uncontrolled of traffic and weapons and a final attack on money laundering and a humane immigration policy because this policy is criminalizing them just like it’s criminalized African-Americans.

DEAN BECKER: You mentioned money laundering. Week after week we learn of more banks laundering billions, hundreds of billions and yet no one is arrested, no one goes to jail and yet drug users are penalized by years, by tens of years. Your response, please.

JAVIER SICILIA: [via interpreter] That’s exactly the seriousness of the problem. This is designed to benefit those who are controlling or the capitalists who are benefiting from the violence of the war.

It’s as if the governments have advocated their functions to serve people but instead have decided to serve capital and the worst of capital, the worst of the money for violence and for war.

DEAN BECKER: Last week we were in Albuquerque. We went to a gun show. What were your perceptions of that show?

JAVIER SICILIA: [via interpreter] It was terrible. I don’t come from a culture of weapons. I’ve never owned a weapon or a gun.

It seems like an instrument that just humiliates. And it was really disagreeable to see these high-powered weapons, assault weapons that are being sold like candy.

To see families bring their children to see these guns as if were like a jewelry shop.

It’s not a problem with the 2nd amendment. It seems to me that the gun dealers are spitting on and abusing the 2nd amendment in order to destroy it. The 2nd amendment is very clear. It deals with the right to weapons for defense and not weapons to exterminate.

You saw this very clearly recently in Colorado. That young guy would not have been able to kill all those people if he had not been able to buy these weapons of extermination.

If had bought a pistol or a rifle or something to defend himself he would not have been able to kill so many people. That should worry us and lead us to attempt to regulate what is in the 2 nd amendment.

I think there’s something like 75 million guns in the United States. Just imagine what would happen if those guns were turned on you all or if they were turned on the government. That’s what’s happening to us because of the illegal smuggling of guns into Mexico.

DEAN BECKER: Senor Javier, I mourn for the loss of your son. I hear the stories each day of the families who travel with you. My heart bleeds each day and I only wish that other Americans would have the respect to listen to your story.

You mentioned corruption in Mexico and the fact of the matter is there is grand corruption in these United States as well. I have been reporting for 10 years on this drug war and recently Fox television and other major players have begun to recognize this corruption with the “Fast and Furious” and point out that starting with the Bush administration into the Obama administration there has been an agreement that the Sinia Loa cartel has been given preference, has been allowed to smuggle their drugs easier if they will only be snitches on the other cartels. Your response to that, please, sir.

JAVIER SICILIA: [via interpreter] I don’t know. I imagine that behind the political parties both in the U.S. and in Mexico there are individuals that are colluding with narco-traffickers. I don’t know if there is a preference for one or the other but the issue is that if it weren’t for collusion between people within the government and the cartels then it would be more controlled.

DEAN BECKER: Senor, I am a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. When I give speeches I begin with the thought that the drug war is based in fear. That without the fear the population could not be frightened into believing it necessary. Your thoughts, sir.

JAVIER SICILIA: [via interpreter] Yes, there is propaganda that has been constructed and built generating fear – a fear that leads to violence and ultimately feeds into this war. It’s terrible. Fear is the worst of vices.

DEAN BECKER: I want to thank you, sir. I will be traveling with you to Washington, D.C. And let’s hope we can awaken your president, our president and the populace to this need for change.

Your closing thoughts, please.

JAVIER SICILIA: [via interpreter] I’m honored to accompanied by Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. To see the accompaniment and support you’ve given to help make this caravan possible is an example of citizen diplomacy between the United States and Mexico to build peace. A citizen diplomacy that is constructing an agenda that takes us beyond where we are and is really based on love which is how we should be constructing our relations.

DEAN BECKER: Senor Javier, thank you very much. Muchas gracias.

And our interpreter?

JOHN LINDSY POLLAND: John Lindsey Polland.

DEAN BECKER: Thank you.

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DEAN BECKER: For more than 10 years I have been reporting similar news but perhaps now you will listen and understand.

The following courtesy of FOX television.

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ANCHOR: Well, the ATF “Gun-runner” and “Fast and Furious” operations which spanned both the Bush and the Obama administrations are two of the most stunning government operations to have come unraveled in years.

Tonight new and stunning accusations about “Fast and Furious” and why one high-ranking drug cartel official says Americans have it all wrong.

Ben has a Reality Check you won’t see anywhere else.

BEN SWANN: We told you before that Justice Department memos obtained by CBS proved that the feds planned to use the numbers from “Fast and Furious” to push for stricter gun laws in the U.S.

The attempt was to claim that the majority of guns headed into Mexico and being used by drug cartels were coming from the United States but that is simply not true.

Well, today theblaze.com began reporting excerpts from a soon to be released book titled, “The Weed That Just Won’t Die” by Reed Williams. Williams looks into federal documents surrounding the case of Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla known as the Sinaloa Cartel’s logistics coordinator.

This guy was extradited to Chicago last year to face federal drug charges. Before we get into all that we should explain how the drug trade in Mexico works prior to the start of this drug war.

For decades Mexican drug cartels existed independently of each other. They didn’t work together but they did stay out of each other’s regions. So to understand take a look at this map.

These are the major cartels in Mexico. We’ll start over here in this top corner. This is the Arellano Felix organization up here in orange. It has trade routes into California through Tijuana. It’s a very profitable group.

The Beltrán Leyva Cartel organization is a less large cartel but still pretty powerful. There’s Los Zetas - that’s this whole pink area right here. They’re actually a paramilitary group created by our government. They were actually trained to take out cartel leaders but went into Mexico and became a cartel of their own.

Then you have the Gulf cartel who has been heavily at war with the Los Zetas. Down here in the dark green you have La Familia Michoacana. You have the Carrillo Fuentes organization – that’s up here in this little purple one. They’re actually look like they would be the smallest territory and land wise they are but they’re actually one of the most powerful drug cartels in many ways because their routes go up through west Texas, through El Paso and Ciudad Juarez.

And, finally, and this is very important to the story, is this light green right here. That is the territory of the Sinaloa cartel.

Look. If you want to understand Mexico’s drug war then you have to understand how the Sinaloa cartel works. A man by the name of Joaquín Guzmán, also known as Chapo Guzman, is the head of this cartel.

In 2001 Guzman was being held in a Mexican prison. He actually escaped from that prison in a laundry truck. He went back and took control of the Sinaloa cartel and when Guzman did he began a war with all these other cartels across Mexico. The goal here, the attempt was to create one super cartel by wiping out all of the competition.

It has been long believed in Mexico that Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán got a lot of help. And that is the war that has been fought in Mexico, heavily, since 2006.

So back to the “Fast and Furious” allegations here. The man making those claims, again, Zambada-Niebla, is a close associate of Chapo Guzman and the Sinaloa logistics coordinator. Zambada-Niebla claims that under a “divide and conquer” strategy the U.S. helped finance and arm the Sinaloa cartel though operation “Fast and Furious” in exchange for information that allowed the DEA, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies to take down rival drug cartels.

The Sinaloa cartel was allegedly permitted to traffic massive amounts of drugs across the U.S. from 2004 to 2009 during both “Fast and Furious” and the Bush era gun running operations as long as the intel kept coming.

And there is more. Based on the alleged agreement the Sinaloa cartel, under the leadership of the defendant’s father, Ismael Zambada-Niebla, and Chapo Guzman were given carte blanche to continue smuggling tons of illicit drugs into Chicago and the rest of the United States. They were also protected by the United States government from arrest and prosecution in return for providing information against rival cartels which helped Mexican and United States authorities capture or kill thousands of rival cartel members states a motion filed for discovery in U.S. district court by Zambada-Niebla’s attorney in July of 2011.

So what you need to know is that members of congress from both parties should now say, “Look, let’s demand to see everything – every single file connected to ‘Fast and Furious’ and operation Gun Runner.”

That means Republicans should not be focused on the years when the Obama administration had control. Rather go back to the beginning during the Bush administration. And, Democrats, they should be demanding to see exactly what the ATF has been doing – not just for the nearly 50,000 Mexican citizens who have died during this drug war but for the thousands who are yet to die.

And that is Reality Check.

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MARY BELION: My name is Mary Belion(?) and I have attended the better half of the caravan. I come to pray with them and I will continue praying for them as long as God wants me to because I understand the feeling of all these families and their loved ones. One day God will have a reason for all of this.

It touches everybody’s heart. The people that do it apparently don’t know God and they don’t have a heart. They don’t have any love in their hearts. No understanding of the loss for the parents and relatives and friends.

This is everybody’s concern because we’re supposed to see the face of Jesus in every human being. Amen.

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DEAN BECKER: And for those who don’t yet get it – the following was broadcast this week by CBS news.

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REPORTER: In an afternoon drive on Chicago’s southwest side Jack Riley sees signs of what he calls the toxic drug war laying waste to this city.

JACK RILEY: Whenever there’s money and drugs in the same place that’s normally where violence occurs.

REPORTER: Riley is Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration office here and in four neighboring states.

Daily turf battles over drugs and distribution, he says, are turning parts of this Midwest city into a Mexican border town.

JACK RILEY: One of the hardest jobs that I’ve had in the last couple years is to convince our law enforcement partners that we need an enforcement mentality as if we’re on the border.

REPORTER: Jack, the money question here…is the influence of the Mexican cartels, their influence on the gangs in Chicago and soaring murder rate right now?

JACK RILEY: Well, let’s take the gloves off on that. We know that the majority of the narcotics here in Chicago the cartels are responsible for. We know that the majority of the murders are gang related. So it is very clear to see the connection and the role.

REPORTER: As it stands now at least three major Mexican cartels are battling over control of billions of dollars of marijuana, cocaine and, increasingly, heroin in this city – including the ultra-violent Zetas and the powerful Sinaloa cartel run by its shadowy leader, Chapo Guzman seen in this picture back in 1993.

JACK RILEY: Chapo Guzman is the most dangerous criminal in the world.

REPORTER: So you’re saying, in essence, that the most powerful drug lord in the world is operating out of this city.

JACK RILEY: I’m saying the most dangerous criminal across all crime in the world is Chapo Guzman and this is one of his hubs.

REPORTER: For good reason – Chicago’s location and easy access to a wide variety of transportation.

JACK RILEY: Well, you’ve got to look at Chicago from really a perspective of business logistics. It’s an ideal spot to set up shop.

REPORTER: To fight back Riley has taken lessons he learned 5 years ago as Agent in Charge of the DEA’s El Paso office. He’s formed a 25 agency strike force featuring state and federal prosecutors, the FBI, ATF and local police that began operation in January. Its focus – shutting down choke points where gang leadership meets cartel lieutenants. The same strategy he says he used to make major arrests on the Texas border. Now he says there’s a new border here in Chicago that’s even a greater challenge.

JACK RILEY: I’m telling you I’m taking this personally. We’re going to do something about it. Now this is a marathon – it’s not a sprint. Our changes here with the strike force and the way that we look at drug enforcement is going to take time but it’s going to have lasting effects.

REPORTER: And more than ever Chicago’s problem is turning into a Midwest problem. The tentacles of the cartel spreading drugs and violence into Milwaukee, into Minneapolis, St. Louis and Detroit.

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DEAN BECKER: Thus far this marathon has lasted more than 40 years. 25 agents? Chapo Guzman’s cartel alone has tens of thousands of sicarios- death merchants.

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TERRY NELSON: This is Terry Nelson of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

The drug war, even though the Drug Czar does not call it that anymore, continues to fail at its very purpose.

The ONDCP first goal is to educate and enable America’s youth to reject illegal drugs and well as alcohol and tobacco and it is failing. This is an excerpt from a report released last week.

On August 22 nd Health Day News reported “90% of American high school students report that some of their classmates are using illicit drugs including alcohol and tobacco during the school day a new survey found.

When asked to estimate how many were involved these teens reported that about 17% of students or roughly 2.8 million are abusing drugs during the school day according to the survey.”

So clearly the number one goal has failed and it has failed because of prohibition. Under prohibition the drug dealer decides to whom he will sell, the purity of the product, the price of the product and he does not ask for ID.

They have not met any of their 5 strategic goals established in 2000 and they will not ever meet these goals under the present prohibitionist policy.

Once the government’s prohibitionist polices are abolished and a system of regulation and control implemented that will not be the case. The drug leaders will have to find honest work. The prisons will be better able to rehabilitate violent offenders when they are no longer so overcrowded. The police will be able to focus on real crime such as rape, robbery, theft, criminal assault, embezzlement, etc. instead of focusing so much on petty drug crimes.

Our government can start serving the people again instead of dictating what their personal behavior as long as no one else is harmed should be. The government can stop taking children from parents and stuffing them into foster homes or public institutions. Currently 25% of those going to prison come from that environment.

And another big plus is that the police can begin winning back the trust of the public that they have lost enforcing these unenforceable drug laws.

A drastic change in policy will also save our cash-strapped government as much as 79 billion dollars a year. We can stop spending millions of dollars trying to influence foreign governments on how to deal with drugs. We can increase trade through our ports since we will only be concerned with terrorism and not wasting our time on drug smuggling. Nearly all the delays at our ports of entry is due to officers searching for drugs.

This is Terry Nelson of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, http://leap.cc, signing off. Stay safe.

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DEAN BECKER: The Caravan for Peace has one more day in Houston. Then it’s New Orleans, Jackson, Montgomery, Atlanta, Louisville, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

Please share this show on Facebook. Tell your friends to attend. You can learn more at http://caravanforpeace.org.

This is Dean Becker for Century of Lies. Prohibido istac evilesco!

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Transcript provided by: Jo-D Harrison of www.DrugSense.org