Mexican Candidate and His Family Killed

[Octafish]

Source: The New York Times

By MARC LACEY
Published: September 6, 2009

MEXICO CITY — A state legislative candidate, his wife and their two children were killed in their home Saturday in the southeastern state of Tabasco, in what authorities described as a probable hit by drug traffickers upset by recent drug arrests.

The quadruple homicide took place in Villahermosa, the state capital, just one day after the candidate, José Francisco Fuentes Esperón, 43, a former university dean, had begun his campaign. The bodies were found after he failed to show up at an event for candidates and his friends went to his home to look for him.

Mr. Fuentes Esperón was shot in the neck, local news media reported, while his wife, Lilián Argüelles Beltrán, was shot in the head. Their two sons, ages 8 and 10, were asphyxiated.

“There are no words to express these events,” said Rafael González Lastra, the state attorney general, according to The Associated Press. “We are deeply moved and at the same time indignant.”


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/07/world/americas/07mexico.html?ref=world

---

The candidate was a former university dean.

It's way past time for a new way of doing things.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Horrific!

[rurallib]

2. Just discussing this with some friends.

A mutual friend of ours was thinking of returning to Mexico to work in the election.

[Gman2]

3. The price they pay, for our drug war. And cheap labor.

[jasi2006]

27. The price they pay for our drug USE! nt

[varelse]

4. Time to boycott drugs

This is disgusting :(

[merwin]

6. Except boycotting drugs makes the problem worse.

The reason there are druglords killing people is because they are illegal. Make the drugs legal, get rid of the source of income for said druglords.

The more you make things illegal, the higher value they have.

[AlphaCentauri]

7. if there were no market for drugs there were no drug lords

Its all about the addiction and consumption of drugs in the US.
Why there is no drugs war in the US?
Why those countries have to put up with the murders?

[merwin]

10. There is a drug war in the US.

You just don't see it because it takes place in the poor areas of the large cities between gangs. Granted, it's on a smaller scale than these other countries, mainly because the drug supply comes from these other countries into the USA. Legalize it in the USA and there's nothing left to fight over.

Right now, the hard drugs that aren't imported are mainly controlled by smaller groups who mainly kill each other, occasionally picking off someone who is completely unrelated (at which point it makes the news). Other than that, it's basically ignored.

The imports into the USA are a huge business for the drug cartels in other countries. Again, cut off their imports by making it available here legally and you drastically cut off their supply of money.

Of course, this will never happen because we have the assumption in this country that if drugs are legalized then everyone will become an addict. While there may be an initial rise in drug use (expected with a huge shift like this) it will taper off relatively quickly.

You are right about it being about addiction. However, you are wrong about it being about consumption. Right now we do ZERO to treat addiction in this country. Unless you have money, if you become an addict you are shoved to the side and end up on the streets or in jail. If the focus was shifted to education and treating addiction (real eduction, not the farce that is the DARE program) then the problem is solved.

FACT: If someone wants drugs, they can get it... illegal or not... VERY easily
FACT: Alcohol is more physically and mentally addictive than many of the drugs that are currently banned
FACT: Drugs that are currently used illegally would be safer if legalized. As it stands, when you buy LSD, cocaine, etc, you really have no clue what you are getting, how potent it is, and whether or not it is laced with anything. You have to take the dealer's word on it... and he's taking the word of his supplier, who may or may not even be the one producing it.

Why do we have the assumption as a country that if drugs are made legal more people would use them? Right now, anyone who wants cocaine can get it VERY easily. Anyone who wants marijuana can get it even easier than cocaine. Ecstasy? Easy to get as a shot of vodka at any nightclub. Yet somehow we assume that making it legal will somehow make people want it more, when the exact opposite is true... The more forbidden an item is, the more people become curious about it. And since there is no real honest drug education or addiction treatment in this country, people who do try it are far more likely to become addicts for life.

[AlphaCentauri]

17. Those countries have their armies on the streets

in the US there is no indication that anyone want to disturb the free flow of drugs, since they catch some loads from time to time but drugs are available all the time regardless of the neighborhood.

[merwin]

23. Really? Is that why over a quarter of our prison population are there for drug related offenders?

I would say that's a blatent attempt at trying to disturb the free flow of drugs.

You just don't see it because it's not in your neighborhood.

[Doctor_J]

20. Yeesh, Alpha. Remember Gary Webb?

Of course there is a drug war in the US

[IDFbunny]

24. So just say 'no'.

How well has that worked?

[Dreamer Tatum]

9. Unless we tax it

If we legalize and tax it, the cartels compete to supply the black market, and the same violence occurs.

[merwin]

11. It would have to be taxed at an insane rate to make any black market feasable.

Even cigarettes, which have an insane tax rate of something like 80%, isn't enough to fuel a black market. You should understand that for most of these drugs, the raw materials are relatively inexpensive. The reason the costs are so high is due to the risk involved in producing and distributing them.

[Dreamer Tatum]

15. The political sensitivity of drug legalization implies high taxation

...to make the effort worth it. And the cartels have spent billions building and defending their supply lines. I don't see all that going away just because we legalize drugs.

[varelse]

19. Um, a boycott is when people deliberately stop buying something

legal, or not.

[merwin]

22. A boycott only works if people actually stop buying it.

Asking people to boycott drugs is exactly what DARE attempted, and failed miserably at.

What people need is education on RESPONSIBLE drug use. Fact is, drugs exist. People will use them. Teach people how to use them responsibly, just as we attempt to teach responsible alcohol use as well as responsible sex. People are going to do drugs, drink, and have sex. Somehow we've gotten the message that we need to be responsible when drinking, and be responsible during sex... but somehow drugs are placed in a different category and abstinence is the only solution.

The problem is made worse when drugs like marijuana are lumped in with drugs like meth. Marijuana is one of the most benign drugs out there, and is far less harmful then alcohol (not to mention the only reason it was made illegal was because the timber industry was afraid of hemp). On the other hand, meth is one of the most dangerous drugs in existence. Same goes for other drugs which have the potential to be somewhat more harmful than marijuana, but nowhere near meth... such as mushrooms and LSD. Both can be dangerous, but if the quality of them were controlled (ie: rat poison not included in the LSD) and responsible use was taught (ie: don't drive on it) then the level of injury and abuse involving those drugs would go down sharply, most likely less than that of alcohol.

Also, when people are told that both are equally dangerous, the lack of honesty is clear and many people inevitably ignore the message given for both of them and that is how people get addicted to drugs like meth. Honest education, not blanket abstinence is the only solution to this problem that will make a difference.

[varelse]

31. I agree with every word of this except for one thing

some "drugs" are so poisonous that there is no responsible usage level. Others are instantly addictive, or so strongly addictive that the "responsible" users would probably be about 1-5% of all users of that drug. I'm thinking meth, heroin, and crack are just too deadly to be legal, and should continue to be classed as "controlled substances" which aren't legal to sell.

Marijuana, on the other hand, is NOT physically addictive at all, is non-toxic and has valid medicinal uses. It's ironic that both nicotine and alcohol are legally sold here - both substances are far more harmful than marijuana (although I wouldn't want to be on the road with a driver who'd been using it).

[EndersDame]

26. Buy homegrown

:)

[varelse]

28. That could work too

for marijuana and possibly raw opium anyway. Not so sure about meth, cocaine, heroin, and prescription drugs.

[EndersDame]

29. Heh when I lived in Bellmead,Tx there was Jesus on every corner Meth in every bath tub

[varelse]

30. I read somewhere that people are making it in 2-litre bottles now?

I suppose in some ways that is safer than the bathtub. UGH. Meth sucks - I've seen what it does to people :(

[UpInArms]

5. I was afraid that it would be Obrador

but ... this is still way too hard to wrap my head around.

I am so sorry for these people and this is such an horrific thing

I so wish that I could believe that Mexico has a bright future ahead.

:(

I wish that Obrador had been successful in his run against Calderon



http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/31/world/americas/31mexico.html

[troubledamerican]

12. Obrador did win. He got Roved.

The evidence of election fraud in that contest is plentiful.

[formercia]

18. This has been the way in Mexico for Centuries.

Much of Latin America is the same. They are not called 'Ruling Families' for nothing.

It will take a major progressive cultural shift to change the way of doing business.

[Old Hob]

8. It's like early Iraqi Democracy right next door.

What's next I hate to wonder?

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. Que el diablo encuentre los asesinos.

[timo]

14. bueno

plata o plombo seems to be the rule of law these days, always has been always will be, things like this have been going on forever in Mexico, its just more public these days with the internet and news media, from back in the old days of the truckers union, to the extreme mismanagement of the ejido system, there wont be much backlash on this...sadly in a few weeks it will almost all but be forgotten, only the familys will remember the loss. like Jimmy Buffet sang, "people get high and people get by in the tropics they come and they go!!"

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. It says quite a bit about the disparaging power between the weakest, and

the strongest. Anyone who gets in the middle is going to be in the crossfire.

You know what makes me sick to my stomach? The only reason that I can see that they asphyxiated those poor helpless kids and shot the parents, was to torture them in front of their parents, who were still alive. It makes no sense otherwise.

[timo]

21. i must be jaded

I live just 6 miles off the border, and from one of the fields we farm you can see Mexico, i go there about 6 times a month, used to be much more often, it is a sickening crime no doubt, but it has been this way for years and years and years, so I am a little bit in wonder at why now people have decided to get so up in arms about it? The drug trade and human smuggling operations prop this area up during the hard times as well as the boom times, we have lost the last 6 sheriffs in the 5 local counties to the drug trade, and just now its a news worthy item? I think the current administration has its hands full right now, and really doesnt have a clue as to how to go about changing anything here along the border, iraq and afgahnistan (sp?) are just a preview for whats fixing to boil over here in the next few years!! and legalizing drugs wont change things a bit, it will just cause the cartels to branch out further than ever before.

[Old Studentka]

25. Sadly, nothing new!

Mexican corruption is out in the open...