I was just mentioning to a fellow observer of life (and death) along the Rio Grande how it seems lately all the government statistics are seriously massaged to present an outcome that is often seriously at odds with reality. It’s called “cooking the books”… more and more I hate it when I’m proven right. For example:
Inflation statistics don’t include the huge rises in food and fuel. That’s conveniently left out.
Budget deficits don’t include the Social Security Funds that have been looted over the years by Congress,
Nor the Medicare funds as well. The costs of the various and sundry wars have been placed many times “off budget” through various legislative and budgetary trickery. Medical Care for wounded veterans that could run into hundreds of billions is not included in official calculations. One more thing: Soldiers that are mortally wounded in Afghanistan or Iraq are not designated as killed in combat if they can be flown out of the combat zone before they die.
Now along the Rio Grande River we have more book cooking. It seems when there is a kidnapping on the U.S side of the river and the victim is taken to Mexico, and later turns up dead, that isn’t counted. Because, it happened in Mexico. Also the pseudo cop style home invasion raids are not counted as border or “spillover” violence as well. This is where armed individuals come looking for money or drugs pretending top be police. And the vast majority of these are not reported. There are huge numbers of ransom and extortion calls to people with relatives in Mexico, demanding money or else. Many of these are scams, but sometimes they are real as well.
Unofficial reports, which sadly enough seem to be more accurate than the official ones, speak of many disappeared people. Of Americans in Mexico being targeted, of a web of official lies and deception. Now Congress is being asked to look into it. There is one thing I know for sure. It’s going to be a political football. That’s for sure.
Update; May 13, 2011
There was a congressional hearing:
WASHINGTON — Texas officials testifying in Washington say crime rates along the border underreport the extent of spillover violence from the Mexican drug war.
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw on Thursday told a congressional panel that statistics don’t reflect “what’s going on to the ground.” Crimes rates in many Texas border cities are generally low and declining, but McCraw said that doesn’t account for incidents such as extortion and attempted kidnappings.
Since January 2010, DPS has linked at least 22 murders and 24 assaults to what the agency considers spillover violence. Federal officials dispute the bleak picture. Homeland Security Department spokesman Adam Fetcher said there are now “unprecedented” levels of border personnel and resources, and pointed toward border community crime rates dropping or holding steady over the past decade.
Read more:
Janet Napolitano and her boss, President Obama both have said that the border has never been more secure. I don’t think everyone is buying that.
Update: Well listens to a local talk radio station in the Rio Grande Valley were asked if they believed that there was more “spillover violence” in the Valley than was being reported and by a 95% margin, they said yes there was.
What many fail to take into account is the basically low intrinsic level of violent crime in The Rio Grande Valley. In general rates are lower there and all along the border. But at the same time extortions, kidnappings, and other crime have been rising. Still for the average citizen the border is safer than from wherever else he or she came from.
In other news it seems that some Mexican immigration cops are working for the cartels. They deliver immigrants making their way to the border so they can be extorted by the Narco gangs, and in the process terrorized, tortured and killed.
In the past Mexican Police have been directly involved in kidnappings. They would simply go arrest the individual and turn them over to the gang, then walk off with the pay-off.
From The Associated Press:
MEXICO CITY] – Mexican officials have fired seven top officials from the national immigration agency amid allegations that agents have been involved in kidnapping migrants. The Interior Department says it has fired the heads of the Immigration Institute’s branches in seven states heavily traveled by Central Americans trying to reach the U.S.
There has been at times a diminution on illegal immigration over the last few years. It has been attributed to many factors. “The Great Recession” in the U.S. More Border enforcement and other factors. One thing overlooked is the takeover of the human smuggling business by the drug gangs. Now in addition to paying “coyotes”, or smugglers, the poor immigrants are targeted for extortion, held for ransom, or forced to make never ending payments to the gangsters, who know where their families are in Mexico and are prepared to make good on their threats. That is if they don’t end up in some narcofosa or mass grave out in the desert. Ironically, organized crime could be deterring a lot of illegal immigration.
