Archive for the ‘Iran’ Category

Blogger call on tomorrow’s CSP conference

Wednesday, May 8th, 2013

Earlier today I listened to a blogger call on tomorrow’s Center for Security Policy’s conference, Chavismo without Chavez

Frank Gaffney, Michael Braun, Former Assistant Administrator and Chief of Operations, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and Jon Perdue, Director of Latin American Programs at the Fund for American Studies, talked about tomorrow’s topics, particularly the collective threat Venezuela, Hezbollah, the FARC and Iran present to the Western Hemisphere and the US homeland.

I had the opportunity to ask Jon Perdue is it would be correct to assume that Timothy Tracy‘s detention in Venezuela (like Alan Gross‘ in Cuba) on espionage charges is orchestrated by Cuba. Perdue’s reply was yes, and both men are now political pawns of Cuba, which not only controls all of Venezuela’s intelligence services, but also the issuing of passports and ingress and egress into Venezuela.

My other question was to Michael Braun, are the direct flights from Iran to Venezuela still continuing after Hugo Chavez’s death? He replied yes.

After the CSP presentation, the call had Col. Alan West, who talked about tomorrow’s 9:30 AM-11:30 AM press conference by three families of Navy SEAL Team VI special forces servicemen,

The areas of inquiry at the press conference will include but not be limited to:

1. How President Obama and Vice President Biden, having disclosed on May 4, 2011, that Navy Seal Team Six carried out the successful raid on Bin Laden’s compound resulting in the master terrorist’s death, put a retaliatory target on the backs of the fallen heroes.
2. How and why high-level military officials sent these Navy SEAL Team VI heroes into battle without special operations aviation and proper air support.
3. How and why the military brass carries out too many ill-prepared missions to boost their standing with top-level military brass and the Commander-in-Chief in order that they can be promoted.
4. How the military restricts special operations servicemen and others from engaging in timely return fire when fired upon by the Taliban and other terrorist groups and interests, thus jeopardizing the servicemen’s lives.
5. How and why the denial of requested pre-assault fire may have contributed to the shoot down of the Navy SEAL Team VI helicopter and the death of these special operations servicemen.
6. How Afghani forces accompanying the Navy SEAL Team VI servicemen on the helicopter were not properly vetted and how they possibly disclosed classified information to the Taliban about the mission, resulting in the shoot down of the helicopter.
7. How military brass, while prohibiting any mention of a Judeo-Christian God, invited a Muslim cleric to the funeral for the fallen Navy SEAL Team VI heroes who disparaged in Arabic the memory of these servicemen by damning them as infidels to Allah. A video of the Muslim cleric’s “prayer” will be shown with a certified translation.

The press conference will be livestreamed. I’ll post a link on it tomorrow.

The remaining blogger call discussed True The Vote’s settlement agreement

“True the Vote can now begin reconstruction and review of the 18th Congressional District election race between Colonel Allen West and Patrick Murphy,” True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht said. “We must stop this scandalous cycle of ignoring failures in our electoral process when the campaigns and cameras go home. Understanding how failures in administration can effect elections, as we saw in St. Lucie County, will help prevent them from occurring in the future. We cannot allow slipshod standards to become pandemic across our country’s election processes – citizens can and will stand up in defense of election integrity.”

If you can make it to the CSP conference tomorrow, here’s the information.

The rigged Venezuelan election Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Monday, April 15th, 2013

In Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, at least according to the chavista-controlled board of election, won last night. Henrique Capriles Radonski demanded a recount, asserting that electoral fraud had taken place. Here’s his speech last night (in Spanish),

Watch live streaming video from venezuelasomostodos at livestream.com

In his speech, Capriles said he wants the Cuban military out of Venezuela’s government and institutions. As Mary O’Grady said, The Castro regime wasn’t going to allow an easy victory for the opposition candidate who has pledged to stop sending oil to Havana.

By now, ballot boxes are turning up,

Maduro’s acceptance speech was a double dose of crazy.

ARGENTINA
Argentina’s economy
Gaucho blues
A dollar shortage bites

Via The Argentine Post, a link I missed when it was first posted,
Argentina’s Plan for Iran

BRAZIL
Brazilian state of Acre in illegal immigration alert
The Brazilian state of Acre has declared a state of emergency after a surge of illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bolivia and Peru.

CHILE
Chile poet Pablo Neruda’s remains to be tested in US
The family of the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda has agreed to send his remains to a laboratory in the United States for toxicology tests.

COLOMBIA
FARC links with Al-Qaeda?

Evidence has emerged of a link between the FARC and Islamist terrorist groups in the North African Maghreb after two Colombian nationals were arrested in Algeria last month by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Spanish intelligence services.

Colombian authorities row over Farc jail terms
Colombia’s attorney-general has said members of the rebel group Farc could escape jail terms should a peace deal be struck.

Colombia’s emerald king
Death of a tsar

COSTA RICA
Via DP, National holiday turns violent as families blocked from president’s speech
Costa Ricans outraged that they weren’t allowed to attend the annual Juan Santamaría Day festivities in an Alajuela park.

CUBA
In Spanish: Jaime Bayly entrevista al bloguero cubano Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo,

Time to Occupy Beyonce and Jay-Z

US Treasury OFAC: Send Beyoncé and Jay-Z an Anniversary Present

Rosa Maria Payá denounces death threats against her and her family.
Rosa Maria Payá holds the Cuban government responsible for whatever may happen to her and her family.

ECUADOR
Quito’s new airport
A tight fit

HONDURAS
Smoke from nearby forest fires forces 4-hour closure of airport for Honduras’ capital

JAMAICA
Puerto Rican jury rejects death sentence in police killing

MEXICO

Mexico Is Picking Up the Peso
Reforms, Search for Risk Are Boosting the Currency; ‘a Cultish Characteristic’

Mexican Proposal to Allow Foreigners to Own Coastal Property

PERU
Rural development in Peru
The Andean connection
Diminishing distance, falling poverty

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico protects top US turtle nesting site long eyed by developers

Puerto Rico Agrees To Pay More Than $35 Million In Back Wages To Thousands Of Workers

SURINAME
Politics in Suriname
Guerrilla, rapper, gold miner…president?

URUGUAY
Uruguay president ‘sorry’ for Fernandez ‘old hag’ quip
The President of Uruguay, Jose Mujica, has apologised for apparently referring to Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner as an “old hag”.

Luis Alberto Lacalle, abogado y presidente de la Republica Oriental del Uruguay de 1990 a 1995 envia un afectuoso saludo a la Fundacion HACER de Washington DC desde el 25 Aniversario de la Fundacion Libertad de Rosario

VENEZUELA
Maduro and Capriles: tale of two Venezuelan presidential candidates

Venezuela’s presidential election
Voting in St Hugo’s shadow
In his search for a popular mandate, Nicolás Maduro ascribes divine powers to his predecessor but offers few earthly policies

Venezuelan blogs for their complete coverage:
Caracas chronicles
Devil’s excrement
Venezuela Nr=ews and Views

The week’s posts and podcast,
Venezuela: Maduro wins

Venezuela: two election day live feeds

A word on elected Latin American dictators

Venezuela: How important is tomorrow’s election? UPDATED

If you are in Hialeah tonight: Rosa María Payá event

OLPL en el show de Bayly

G-r-o-s-s: Bolivarian “sanitary” towels

Venezuela: Capriles Campaign Chief killed

Venezuela: The meaning of April 14 UPDATED

Cuba this morning

Venezuela: Violent deaths per 100,000

Podcast:
Talking with Silvio Canto.

Hezbollah agent issued Venezuelan diplomatic passport

Tuesday, March 26th, 2013

El Nuevo Herald reports (link in Spanish) that Ghazi Nasr al Din, in charge of all Hezbollah operations in Venezuela, served as business attache in the Venezuelan embassy in Syria. Nicolas Maduro, now president of Venezuela, was his contact, and allegedly provided Nasr al Din’s cover.

A 2008 US Treasury report stated that Nasr al Din was a Hezbollah agent who used his post as a Venezuelan diplomat to carry out essential fundraising efforts for Hezbollah.

The Herald’s sources indicated that Nasr al Din reported directly to then-Vice-president Maduro, bypassing the minister for Middle East affairs, and arranged travel to Iran for training.

In related news, Roger Noriega, a former United States ambassador and assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, has alleged that

Iran has illegally laundered billions of dollars through the Venezuelan financial sector and is currently stashing “hundreds of millions” of dollars in “virtually every Venezuelan bank today,”

Long-term readers of this blog may recall that in 2008 Italian newspaper La Stampa exposed how Iran was using Venezuela to bypass UN sanctions.

The dead Hugo Chavez Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Monday, March 11th, 2013

LatinAmerWelcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. The top story in our hemisphere this week: the announcement of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez’s death. While the government has announced a presidential election for April 14th, don’t expect chavismo to give up power anytime soon.

Mary O’Grady writes on Chávez ‘The Redeemer’
Even as his rule dimmed their future, Venezuela’s poor clung to the belief that he cared for them.

The cult of adoration is now under way, which fills a need peculiar to Latin America, as Enrique Krauze explains,

In Latin America the need to turn politicians into secular saints is due to the distrust many feel for the region’s weak institutions and a worship for so-called men on horseback—heroes who come to the nation’s rescue, said Mr. Krauze. The region’s deep Catholic tradition of anointing and then venerating saints is also an important factor, he said.

It could never happen here, could it?

ARGENTINA
Argentine court convicts ex-leader Menem
An appeals court in Buenos Aires convicts ex-President Carlos Menem of illegally selling 6,500 tonnes of arms to Croatia and Ecuador during the 1990s.

BRAZIL
Brazil, Where a Judge Made $361,500 in a Month, Fumes Over Pay
Exploiting generous benefits and loopholes, some public sector employees are earning more than $260,000 in a year.

When Congress finally decided in 2012 to allow people to obtain the salary information of its employees, it also required them to find the name of each employee and submit it online. In other words, if someone wanted the information on the legislature’s 25,000-strong work force, then that person had to independently identify them and submit 25,000 separate online requests.

If only it were that easy here in São Paulo. One clerk at the state’s high court, Ivete Sartório, was reportedly paid about $115,000 after convincing her superiors that she should be compensated for not taking leaves of absence. But when asked recently about her wages, a spokesman for the court, Rômulo Pordeus, said that Ms. Sartório’s “matriculation number” was needed to request the information.

When asked how any curious taxpayer could get that number, he replied that it was in Ms. Sartório’s possession, and that he did not want to bother her about it.

CHILE
World’s Largest Ground-Based Telescope Array Opens in Chile Soon: The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).

COLOMBIA
Colombian ELN rebels free held German Breuer brothers
Two German nationals held hostage in Colombia since early November have been freed, the International Committee of the Red Cross says.

CUBA
Cuba dissident ‘forced off road’ to death

How Castro Defines Gender Equality

FALKLAND ISLANDS
Land Rovers and Airplanes Ready as Falklands Votes on U.K. Ties

HONDURAS
Central America
Out of control
In the first of two reports on the threat of rampant violence to Central America’s small republics, we look at the risk of Honduras becoming a failed state

LATIN AMERICA
WATCHING THE LINE
Long Border, Endless Struggle

MEXICO
Power in Mexico
“The Teacher” in detention
Enrique Peña Nieto’s government has arrested a powerful union leader. Is this the start of something?

MEMO FROM MEXICO CITY
Unabated Violence Poses Challenge to Mexico’s New Anticrime Program
Recent violence, including gang rapes and the killing of police officers, has put pressure on Mexico’s new leader as he rolls out a less militaristic crime prevention initiative
.

PERU
Peru’s economy likely expanded 6-7 pct in January – cenbank

Peru Keeps 4.25% Rate as CPI Slows Amid Stable GrowthQ
Peru kept borrowing costs unchanged for a 22nd consecutive month as policy makers expect inflation to converge to the mid-point of their target and economic growth to exceed 6 percent.

PUERTO RICO
Ex-Governor of Puerto Rico: GOP Must Lead on Immigration Reform

VENEZUELA
What Is The U.S. Doing At Chavez’s Funeral?

Not playing nice with the dead: Chavez main crimes

The Post Chávez Era Begins

WSJ timeline: Hugo Chávez: From Coup Leader to President
Born Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías on July 28, 1954, in a small farming village in Sabaneta, he was first elected president in 1998, six years after engineering a failed military coup.

Contrary To What Jimmy Carter Says, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez Was No Friend Of The Poor

Rev. Jesse Jackson Attends Hugo Chavez Funeral

The wild card in Venezuela: Armed Chavistas

PARTE 2: ¿CHÁVEZ: LA MUERTE DE UN REVOLUCIONARIO, UN SOCIALISTA…UN DICTADOR?

Iran Leader Lambasted for Tribute to Chávez

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s lionization of his Venezuelan friend Hugo Chávez caused a political firestorm in the Islamic Republic, as doubts arose over whether the two countries could carry on their tight alliance now that Mr. Chávez is dead.

Chavez failed Venezuela: Column
Given the unqualified failure of his socialist experiment, dying young was probably the best thing Hugo Chavez could have done for his country.

Venezuela after Chávez
Now for the reckoning
After 14 years of oil-fuelled autocracy, Hugo Chávez’s successors will struggle to keep the Bolivarian revolution on the road

Venezuela Opposition Faces Hurdles
Chávez’s Heir Apparent Seen Riding Late Leader’s Coattails to Victory in Election Expected Next Month

The nature of Hugo Chávez’s appeal on the American left?

Chavez: Death of a tyrant

The week’s posts and podcast:
SNL Hugo’s Candle in the Wind

What’s left of Latin America’s Left?

Hugo Chavez’s funeral

Chavez aftermath

UPDATE: CHAVEZ IS DEAD

How Bob Menendez sponsored a bill that would have benefited his biggest political donor
Podcast:
US-Latin America this week: The death of Chavez

The Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Monday, February 11th, 2013

LatinAmerARGENTINA
Argentina’s Betrayal
The Kirchner government has decided to whitewash Iranian terrorism

The IMF and Argentina
Motion of censure
The fund blows the whistle

BRAZIL
U.S. Corn-Ethanol Producers: Curb Imports From Brazil
The U.S. corn-ethanol industry is urging the Obama administration to cut down on imports of a different type of ethanol from Brazil, in a bid to reduce competition and improve its bottom line.

CHILE
Chile orders Neruda exhumation
A Chilean judge orders the exhumation of the remains of the poet Pablo Neruda, as part of an investigation into claims he was poisoned in 1973.

COLOMBIA
Colombia’s peace talks
Trying to stay the course

ECUADOR
Ecuador’s election
The man with the mighty microphone
Having mixed the good, the bad and the ugly during six years in power, Rafael Correa is heading for another term

Ecuador’s Permanent Mob-Rule Campaign
By demonizing opponents and changing voting law, President Rafael Correa assures his re-election.

LATIN AMERICA
Annals of government intervention: Pemex, Argentina, and Brazil

More Bayly, in Spanish,

MEXICO
Some good and bad news from Mexico

A Poor Decision…

NICARAGUA
Nicaragua Aims to Become New Luxury Hotspot

PARAGUAY
The last caudillo
Lino Oviedo’s death may help the Colorados return to power

PERU
Peru, Chile and Bolivia hit by floods after heavy rain

PUERTO RICO
36 Hours in San Juan, Puerto Rico

VENEZUELA
Venezuela’s economy
Out of stock
The cost of postponing an inevitable devaluation

The week’s posts & podcast:
Venezuela: Pining for the fjords?

Ecuadorian minister lies about Cory Booker

The real scandal in the Menendez story…

Podcast:
The latest from Spain & Latin America

The Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Monday, February 4th, 2013

ARGENTINA
Prepping The Next Conflict

Argentine-Iranian relations
A pact with the devil?

BAHAMAS
Gaming in the Bahamas
A bettor option
Churches and internet cafés face off in a referendum on gambling

BRAZIL
Brazil’s Tax-Cutting, High-Growth Socialists. Four years ago, Lula schooled Obama on free trade, doing away with tariffs particularly on biofuels, and job creation.

COLOMBIA
Kidnappings Imperil Talks With Rebels in Colombia

Deadly clashes before Farc talks
Fighting between Farc rebels and Colombia’s government leaves at least nine people dead, as the latest round of peace talks start in Cuba.

ECUADOR
Another Blowout in Eco Suit Against Chevron

A Fortune Mag/CNN Money article out this week reports the latest, overwhelming evidence of horrendous skullduggery in a long-running environmental case, supported by the highly corruptible Ecuadoran government, against the U.S.-based Chevron oil company. In a Manhattan federal district court, reports Fortune’s Roger Parloff, “Chevron filed the declaration of a former Ecuadorian judge, Alberto Guerra, who describes how he and a second former judge, Nicolás Zambrano, allegedly allowed the plaintiffs lawyers to ghostwrite their entire 188-page, $18.2 billion judgment against Chevron in exchange for a promise of $500,000 from the anticipated recovery.”

LATIN AMERICA
Latin American integration
Past and future
The region’s anachronistic new face

And yes, Angela Merkel did shake Raul Castro’s hand:

PERU
Relocation in the Andes: Perched in the Peruvian Andes is a new town built by a Chinese mining company to which 5,000 people will be relocated,

Peru’s roaring economy
Hold on tight
The biggest threats to Latin America’s economic star are overconfidence and complacency

PUERTO RICO
Jackson Lewis opens in Puerto Rico as gateway to Latin America
US employment firm Jackson Lewis is to open an office in Puerto Rico, marking its first base outside of mainland US.

VENEZUELA
As Chavez takes his time, Havana rules Venezuela

Hagel on Cuba: Feel the love

Monday, January 14th, 2013

Jennifer Rubin posts on Hagel’s Cuba problem

Much of the focus on Chuck Hagel’s record has been on his views on Israel, Iran and sequestration. Equally troubling to those who have taken a forceful stand against Castro’s dictatorship in Cuba, however, has been his dismissive attitude toward the Castros and his enthusiasm to end the U.S. embargo with no quid pro quo.

The Castro regime, of course, has grown increasingly close to the Iranian regime and has allied itself with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. In seizing and imprisoning an American, Alan Gross, it has advocated a swap with the so-called Cuban five spies (a position strenuously opposed by the U.S. Senate).

Val Prieto posits his low hanging fruit theory,

The Obama presidency will need a legacy and given their leadership ineptitude, they’ll most likely go for the low hanging fruit: Barrack [sic] Obama, the President who single-handedly lifted the archaic, inhumane, and ridiculous US embargo on Cuba.

Regardless of whether the Cuban regime shows any human rights and political and economic openings as well as cooperation on anti-terrorism and drug interdiction

Cuba in 2012 and now? Zero reforms and growing religious repression

Cross-posted at Liberty Unyielding.

Report: Iran’s spy network

Thursday, January 3rd, 2013

Iran Spy Network 30,000 Strong

Iran’s intelligence service includes 30,000 people who are engaged in covert and clandestine activities that range from spying to stealing technology to terrorist bombings and assassination, according to a Pentagon report.

The report is titled Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security: A Profile, and is dated December 2012. Among the highlights,

  • According to the report, Russia was active in training Iranian intelligence operations beginning in the 1990s.
  • The Russian SVR spy service, the successor to the Soviet KGB, trained hundreds of MOIS operatives despite the two agencies’ different doctrines.
  • Iranian activities in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Venezuela have raised alarm among U.S. government officials.
  • The effort appears part of “Iran’s strategy of establishing a presence in the backyard of the United States for purposes of expanding Shi’a and revolutionary ideology, establishing networks for intelligence and covert operations, and waging asymmetrical warfare against the United States,” the report said.
  • “In Latin America, Iran’s intelligence agencies—MOIS but mostly the Quds Force—use Hezbollah to achieve their goals.”

Read the 64-page report here.

Iran, McAfee, Litvinenko in the news; and don’t overdo the Gangnam

Friday, December 14th, 2012

Today’s unrelated news items:

Iran and Cuba are kissing over nuclear weapons: Cuba backs Iran’s nuclear program, vows to defy sanctions

The Cuban foreign minister has reaffirmed Havana’s determination to support Tehran’s nuclear energy program and strengthen mutual cooperation to counter Western embargos.

What could possibly go wrong?

—————————————-

A day after his deportation to Miami from Guatemala John McAfee went shopping in Miami Beach.

He used the photo op to show off some of his tats, and

McAfee also said he had nothing to do with the murder of his American neighbor in Belize — the incident that sent him on the run last month to Guatemala, where he was jailed.

How do you spell g-r-o-s-s?

—————————————-

Remember Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian guy who died of polonium-210 poisoning in London in 2006?
Lawyer Suggests Russia Orchestrated Agent’s Death

British prosecutors have charged Andrei Lugovoi, a career Russian security officer who met Mr. Litvinenko at the hotel that day, with the murder and asked for his extradition. The Russian government has declined to extradite Mr. Lugovoi.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Lugovoi said he won’t be commenting until after more hearings take place in London. Mr. Lugovoi was elected to the Russian Duma in 2007.

I estimate the odds of Putin agreeing to extradite Lugovoi at close to zero.

—————————————-

‘Gangnam Style’ death prompts warning to middle-aged men not to attempt the vigorous dance.

“Let the lady dance around you,” advises Prof Bernard Keavney, consultant cardiologist at Newcastle University. Certainly that’s what the old milongueros do.

Consider yourself warned:

OTOH, I expect more men will heed that advice than men who pay attention to the “Ask your healthcare provider if your heart is healthy enough for you to have sexual activity” warning.

UPDATE,
Linked by Dustbury. Thank you!


Mexico: No Iran or Hezbollah here

Tuesday, November 20th, 2012

Last week the US House of Representatives Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Management issued a report updating its 2006 A Line in the Sand findings.

The new report (pdf file), A LINE IN THE SAND: COUNTERING CRIME,
VIOLENCE AND TERROR AT THE SOUTHWEST BORDER
found (emphasis added):

 Although the United States tightened security at airports and land ports of entry in thewake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the U.S.-Mexico border remains an obvious weak link in the chain.

 Despite the near doubling of Border Patrol personnel, the Government Accountability Office found that only 44 percent of the Southwest border was under operational control.

 In 2012, National Guard presence on the Southwest border was reduced to 300 soldiers.

 Since October 2008, 138 Customs and Border Protection officers or agents have been arrested or indicted on corruption related charges.

 The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) reports that there have been 58 incidents of shots fired at Texas lawmen by Mexican cartel operatives since 2009.

 Experts believe the Southwest border has become the great threat of terrorist infiltration into the United States.

 Iran and Hezbollah have a growing presence in Latin America.

 Hezbollah has a significant presence in the United States that could be utilized in terror attacks intended to deter U.S. efforts to curtail Iran’s nuclear program.

 Latin America has become a money laundering and major fundraising center for Hezbollah.

Hezbollah’s relationship with Mexican drug cartels, which control secured smuggling routes into the United States, is documented as early as 2005.

If Iran’s assassination plot against the Saudi Arabian ambassador in Washington, D.C. had been successful, Iran’s Qods Force intended to use the Los Zetas drug cartel for other attacks in the future.

Long-term readers of my blog are certainly not surprised by this information, as I have been blogging on the subject for years. Neither would the readers of Jon Perdue’s excellent book, The War of All the People: The Nexus of Latin American Radicalism and Middle Eastern Terrorism.

The Mexican government, however, strongly denies the report’s findings: Mexico disputes House GOP report alleging Iran, Hezbollah are using Mexican drug cartels

A spokesman for Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, Arturo Sarukhán, told The Daily Caller his country’s government disputes a recent House GOP report alleging that Iranian and Hezbollah terror operatives are using Mexican drug cartels as a conduit to infiltrate the United States.

As Matthew Boyle points out, on October 11 last year, two men were arrested in New York and charged with taking part in an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US. You can read the full details of the plot in the Department of Justice’s report.

While its government denies these findings, Mexico is the deadliest country on earth for journalists.

Also last week, the head of Mexico’s organized crime unit stepped down on Thursday, just weeks after announcing that members of his team had been charged with having links to the Sinaloa drug cartel.

Cross-posted at Liberty Unyielding.