But cases like the brutal murder of Dr. Maria Del Rosario Fuentes Rubio leave me so stricken with horror and pity that the lighter notes seem inappropriate.
Over at Townhall, Katie Pavlich has the goods:
"Mexico is the most dangerous place in the world for journalists to operate, beating out Iraq, Afghanistan and other dangerous parts of the world according to the International Press Institute.
Earlier this week citizen journalist Maria Del Rosario was kidnapped, tortured and killed. She had been working anonymously in the border town of Reynosa, Mexico to expose cartel activity. Thursday morning her social media account was taken over by her killers who announced her death and sent tweets warning other citizen journalists to back off on cartel reporting. Ildefonso Ortiz has the story:
- Social media postings on Thursday morning mourned the passing of Maria Del Rosario Fuentes Rubio, a Reynosa doctor better known by her Twitter handle @Miut3.
- Law enforcement sources in Tamaulipas, Mexico confirmed her kidnapping Wednesday afternoon and found her body overnight. Due to the early stages of her investigation authorities didn’t release details of the murder. Officials who spoke with Breitbart Texas said they are not only looking at social media but also at her work as a doctor and acquaintances before determining the motive for the murder.
- On Thursday early morning the twitter handle @miut3 posted a farewell message identifying Fuentes by name, posting her picture and telling the community to remain quiet about Reynosa and not make her mistakes “you won’t get anything out of it” as well as warning other citizen journalists that criminals were on to them. The profile image of @Miut3 was changed from the Catwoman photo she always used to a photograph of Fuentes’ bloodied body."
This was actually the second time this week I was alerted to a horror story coming out of Mexico. Fox News Latino ran an article claiming that at least some of the 43 missing students were burned alive:
"One eyewitness to the Sept. 26 abduction of 43 students in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero has recounted that at least some of the youths were burned alive, a prominent priest and human rights activist said Friday.
The Rev. Alejandro Solalinde, known for his advocacy on behalf of undocumented Central American migrants, cited concerns for the witness' safety in declining to provide any details about his source.
On the night of Sept. 26, police in the town of Iguala fired shots at a group of students from Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School, a nearby teacher-training facility.
Six people were killed and 25 others wounded, while 43 students remain missing.
Several people arrested for the 26 incident told investigators Iguala deputy police chief Francisco Salgado Valladares had his men intercept the Ayotzinapa students and that while a boss from the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel identified only as "Chucky" ordered the young people seized and killed.
Solalinde said at a press conference that he had the opportunity to talk to several people who "directly" witnessed the events in Iguala and that one of them told him that Ayotzinapa students were burned.
Asked whether the witness was referring to all 43 students, the priest replied, "the information is fragmented."
"The person who told me that is very shaken and afraid," Solalinde said.
"If the Ayotzinapa Normal students were alive, do you think they would let this entire problem go on and grow, knowing the national and international reaction we have," the priest said to reporters. "That is the best evidence that they are no longer living."
Criticizing the government's "poor handling" of the tragedy, Solalinde that Mexico needs to be re-founded in the face of violence extending "from border to border and from coast to coast."
"Bodies turn up everywhere," the priest said.
Conflict among rival drug cartels and between the criminals and security forces has claimed more than 130,000 lives in Mexico since December 2006, when then-President Felipe Calderon decided to militarize the struggle against the drug trade."
Can somebody tell me what the hell is going on in Mexico??!!?
To be sure, the most frightening geopolitical evolution today is and remains the rise of militant islam with all that it encompasses: the conflicts in the ME, the islamization of Europe as a result of muslim immigration and demography, West Africa falling prey to AQ offshoots, nukes in Iran and Pakistan, sharia law in Brunei, islamic terror groups in the Philippines, the south of Thailand, China's western provinces etc etc etc.
Islam tout court truly poses a Global Threat.
By contrast, the violence waged by the drug cartels against the Mexican citizenry remains a "local" phenomenon. But as for sheer ruthlesness, barbarity and stone-cold inhumanity, the cartels don't have to yield an inch vis-à-vis the very worst IS, Taliban or Boko Haram terrorists.
I would even wager that it's an even worse kind of terrorism, because the actions of muslim fanatics are still dictated by some kind of logic. A sick and evil logic, for sure, but a logic nevertheless. Their "holy book" states that non-muslims have to be converted, made to pay jizya or killed. As improbable though it may seem, faced with a muslim fanatic you might still have an infinitesimal chance to enter in a discussion with him and point to the flaws in his reasoning. As despicable as the possibility is, you might even have a slight shot at saving your ass by converting at the last moment.
No such thing is possible in a confrontation with Mexico's drug cartel operatives. The way in which they kill has a rather machinelike 'quality', as if the beasts pulling the trigger or thrusting the knives are robots straight out of a Terminator movie.
There's estimates circulating of 80,000 deadly victims in Mexico's drug wars since 2008, or, see above, 130,000 since 2006! In view of the fact that this death toll is "confined" to only one country (soon two, if US border control remains as lax as it is), the numbers defy description and would, if extrapolated to the same geographical area in which muslim terrorism is manifesting itself, actually dwarf the best 'efforts' of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Khalid Meshaal, al Nusra et al. The lack of interest of the world can only be explained by the fact that unlike islamic terrorists, drug warlords and their accomplices do not seek publicity.
That the state of Mexico finds itself in a conundrum is to put it mildly, and there is mounting evidence that the cartels have infiltrated in both the police and the military. Try to imagine how to get out of that!
There do not seem to be easy solutions for Mexico's predicament. But I foresee a future, not so far off, when the problems may become so bad that the US military will have to step in, in order to establish law and order in Mexico's north.
In the meantime it should be clear to each and everyone that with so much mayhem in the US's southern neighbor, the Obama Administration's open border policy is sheer insanity. The Rio Grande should actually be shielded by combat troops. That, and an immediate crackdown on drug users and dealers in the US itself: for it is the DEMAND FOR NARCOTICS in America which is directly responsible for the drug cartels' growth.
However, with a 'president' in the White House who is very much content with a border that's as leak as a sieve, AND who is publicly advocating marijuana use, none of the above steps are likely to happen.
Let us go back to this incredibly brave woman, Dr. Maria Del Rosario Fuentes Rubio. Apparently she was a beautiful person in all aspects. The grisly photograph below was posted as a warning to other citizen journalists:
The wretched remains of this outstanding Human Being help me to put my own efforts in the correct perspective: there is NO WAY they can be compared to the task Maria Del Rosario committed herself to. Next to this incredibly brave woman who knew she was risking her life on a daily basis, who probably knew that her killers were just around the corner and snooping on her, I am but a pathetic wanker.
Pray for Maria and her loved ones. Pray for those missing students. Pray for all the victims.
And may justice soon find the perpetrators of these horrible crimes.
MFBB.