Intelligence agencies tracking Spanish-speaking Jihadists in Mexico, Central America

By Frank Levine
InterPress News Service

BULLETIN --U.S. and Mexican intelligence officials are searching for at least 300 Arab extremists reported missing earlier this year from North Africa, after eluding surveillance by local and international intelligence agencies.
Many of the missing "potential terrorists," according to the officials, are Spanish-speaking Moroccans, previously surveilled by both Spanish and Moroccan intelligence agencies following the March 11, 2004 attacks on the Madrid rail system that killed 190 and injured and estimated 2,000.
"They seemingly vanished into thin air about the same time," observed one U.S. source. "It would be an understatement to say we are not concerned that some may find their way to Central America and Mexico, blend in with the local population, learn some of the expressions and customs, then infiltrate in the U.S."
The escape of the jihadists has reportedly angered some U.S. and European intelligence officials, who are undiplomatic in blaming Moroccan agencies for their apparent "looking away" while the jihadists absconded.
Officially, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and other U.S. government agencies will neither confirm nor deny the reports.
"It was just too easy," the U.S. source said. "People simply can't disappear like that from under surveillance without someone noticing something was up."
The report coincides with another of a massive FBI hunt this week for 11 missing Egyptian students in the United States; however, preliminary interrogation reports indicate that none was involved with "terroristic activities."
Meanwhile, there have been unconfirmed reports that a small number of the North African jihadists have already been detained in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico.
Their current whereabouts, however, remain unknown.
Of great concern is their ability to utilize their language abilities and training to move through Spanish-speaking countries relatively unnoticed.
"U.S. Border Patrol agents are now being forced to take a good hard look at even the most mundane immigration arrest, as the North Africans can pretend to be of Mexican or Central American origin, especially if they stay in a country for a few months to learn some of the local expressions and accents," the source said, adding: "Therefore, the immigration authorities throughout the region must ask probing questions, far beyond the standard questions of name and country of origin."
The post Madrid bombings investigation by Spanish authorities, supported by the combined resources of U.S., French, German, Israeli and other international agencies, including INTERPOL, indicated that some of the Madrid bombing conspirators were directly linked to some of the alleged jihadists in Morocco.
The massive multi-national investigation reportedly tagged 300 and 600 individuals to be kept under moderate to tight surveillance in the aftermath of the Madrid attacks, but by June, 2005, most of those being watched had seemingly vanished, according to confidential intelligence sources.
Meanwhile, as a result of a recent series of secret intelligence meetings between Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and the United States, the exchange of information on the movement of suspected jihadists and other potential "terrorist threats" in the region has been increased to unprecedented levels. U.S. "advisers" have been strategically placed at key transportation hubs throughout the region, including airports, train and bus stations.
In a separate development, it has been reported that U.S. Special Operations Forces and heavily armed civilian intelligence elements have been sighted throughout the region, including the South American countries of Paraguay and Uruguay.

Possible US serial killer in Juarez slayings?

By Frank Levine

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico,May 18--Although Mexican law enforcement officials claim they've arrested most, if not all, of those allegedly responsible for the killing and torture of hundreds of young women in Juarez in recent years, skepticism remains among human rights activists and relatives of the victims, that the killers are actually behind bars -- preferring, instead, to believe that most recent killings indicate that at least one serial killer remains at large, possibly finding sanctuary in El Paso, Texas, just across the border.
The story of the murders is a long and grisly one. More than 400 women and girls have been killed and tortured in Juarez since 1993, with most of their bodies brutalized and dumped in shallow desert graves. An additional 70 women are missing, according to local women's rights activists and government sources.
"We have no indication that any serial killer travels to and from the United States," said one former Federal Judicial Police investigator, who prefers anonymity."But the rhythm of the killings may indicate that at least one killer may be leaving the area on a consistent basis."
The cross-border theory has been bounced around for more than a decade--ever since an unmistakable pattern of torture-killings developed in the early 1990s. Lending credence, are unconfirmed reports that at least one individual has been scrutinized as a possible suspect by investigators on the U.S. side of the border.
At first, Mexican law enforcement officials all but ignored the murders; however, after mounting public and political pressure, they began looking at co-workers, bus and taxi drivers--people who would have access to the women when they were returning home late at night after finishing their shifts at some the dozens of so-called "in-bond" factories and assembly plants in Juarez. Most of the victims were poor and uneducated. They migrated to Juarez for the dream of a decent job and better life than in the crushing poverty of Mexico's interior. Finally, after years of frustration and some questionable well-publicized arrests, local police began looking at themselves for possible suspects and clues.
According to recent published reports and North American Free Trade Agreement documents, about 80 Fortune 500 companies have facilities in the Ciudad Juarez area. Among them are, Alcoa, 3M,General Electric, Du Pont, Thomson RCA, Honeywell, Amway, Ford,TDK and Kenwood.
Meanwhile, in response to continuing tragedy, both the United States House and Senate last week passed resolutions condemning the continuing abductions, torture and murder of women in Juarez. The legislators, while commending the Mexican government for its recent actions to help stop the killings, also agreed that much more must be done.

Mexico braces for wave of political violence

By Frank Levine

MEXICO CITY (May 10,2006)--There are rumors of war drifting across the Mexican landscape, like tiny wisps of smoke from a long-dormant volcano. It may not be war in the true sense of the word, as there are yet no massive armies in the field, no bombs bursting, cities burning, or streams of terrified refugees.
But the country is facing an unparalleled seismic political, social, and economic upheaval for the first time since the Revolution. Such an upheaval could push the nation into utter chaos, while further threatening the vunerable southern flank of the United States.
Some believe Mexico will elect a Left-leaning populist president in July, overtly hostile to American interests and foreign policy. Such an election, according to U.S. analysts, could result in widespread civil unrest and international conflict, similar to what occurred recently in Venezuela, with the United States supporting the political opposition--the wealthy oligarchy and business interests--while subverting a democratically elected government.
The consequences for U.S.-Mexico relations could be grave.
Although President George W. Bush is ready to announce the deployment of National Guard troops along the border in a "supportive role" to stem the tide of undocumented workers, Mexican analysts see this further militarization of the border as a strong message that the United States will protect its interests in Mexico; while at the same time stemming the flow of unchecked immigration.
In a way, a real line has been drawn in the sand along the Rio Grande.
The move is seen as politically expedient for a U.S. president on thin ice; while at the same time serving as a warning to the Mexican people that any radicalization of Mexican politics and threats to "business as usual" between the countries, would surely have severe consequences.
"If Mexico elects Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a populist candidate in the mold of Venezuela's Chavez, rest assured the United States will not stand idly by while Mexico becomes one more oil-producing country hostile to American interests," one analyst observed.
In a world where true friends of the United States can be counted on one's fingers, it is unlikely the United States will stand by, while a government hostile to American interests is at its border.
Already, there are rumors of assassination plots and U.S. intelligence operations directed at undermining Lopez Obrador's campaign. If he does win, many believe his administration would be severely undermined by a host of domestic and international enemies.
A Lopez Obrador victory, however, is not assured, even without the foreign and domestic conspiracies and plots.
Historically, the Mexican electorate, when confronted with a choice between a relatively progressive candidate "outsider," and a known moderate or conservative--regardless of their history of malfeasance and corruption-- the progressive invariably loses...At least in most of the elections since 1940, or since the imposition of presidential candidate Avila Comacho by the country's ruling oligarchy, with the unbridled support of covert U.S. operations.
"The United States has a long history of corrupting the Mexican political process," said Roberto Zaragoza, a political analyst in Mexico City. " If they can't buy influence, then they simply take it through brutal force."
Sure, often the losses are attributed to electoral fraud, but even in Mexico, consistent fraud on such a wide scale is virtually impossible. The fault, more often than not, rests with the defeated, many of whom have never learned that most of the electorate would rather eat today, than dream of tomorrow. There is little time or energy left among the masses to contemplate and debate lofty ideological principles.
"Although it is distasteful, most Mexicans will vote for someone they can count on being who they are, even if they are crooks and liars," said one newspaper executive. "The problem with many candidates on the Left is that they are often perceived hiding personal agendas and greed behind a flimsy wall of progressive rhetoric; whereas the more conservative candidates -- equally corrupt and hypocritical--seem to present their corruption and hypocrisy openly, almost as a given."

U.S. keeps a blind eye on Latin America

By Frank Levine


Former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon reportedly advised a much younger and supposedly naïve Donald Rumsfeld, now U.S. defense secretary, that “Latin America doesn’t matter…people don’t give one damn about Latin America…it’s just a waste of time.”

More than 30 years since his somewhat cynical observation, little has changed. Rumsfeld is Rumsfeld, and Latin America is as alien and confusing a political and economic landscape as ever to the United States.
The prevailing view among Latin American intellectuals then was that the great sea of poverty extending from the U.S. border to Tierra de Fuego, resulted from centuries of exploitation and injustice by powerful foreign interests, supported by complacent local oligarchies, with often miserable consequences for the masses.

It was nearly 500 years of dominant foreign technology and brutality, combined with a mixture of localized racism and ignorance, that laid the foundation and fate of modern Latin America — now sealed with the blood and bones mortar of millions.
This perception, however, changed in the early 1980s, when the Reagan Administration’s “Great Capitalist Leap Forward,” along with its hordes of evangelical Christian crusaders, viewed the demands for social and economic change in Latin America as a form of mass hysteria— mind control emanating from the great “evil God-less empires of Communist Russia and China.”

Cuba, of course, was the diabolical agent provocateur and the demand for human rights was just a communist conspiracy to stir up trouble.
Anyway, they reasoned, why would people want change? Not only was capitalism good for all the Americas, but poverty and misery was just a station in life on the way to a better life—usually, on the other side of death. If you were poor and miserable, they reasoned, it was probably you own fault, if not God’s will.

It is a convincing argument if you are uneducated, unemployed, and live in a cardboard box or under a pile of garbage.
The first question in response, of course, is: “When do we eat.”
Latin Americans often tried to respond, but no one seemed to listen to their pleas for social and economic justice. Latin America wanted its own ideology. If nothing new, certainly an ideology reflective of the region’s 20th and 21st Century reality, rather than an one imported from, at the very latest, 19th Century Europe. Many reasoned that it should be a socialist-democratic ideology, modeled, in part, on the post-World War II Western European experiments, and not on the , Cuban, Russian or Chinese models.
After nearly five centuries of church-supported colonial and neo-colonial rule, there had to be something better in the offing.

But over the next 25 years, the revolutionary social and political ideologies that threatened business as usual where either routed on the field of battle, compromised through infiltration, or showered with the political and economic currencies of betrayal. Revolutionaries and opposition leaders were bought, sold and traded like baseball cards by local security forces, financed and trained by the U.S. intelligence apparatus. Most were eventually killed or imprisoned if they failed to “see the light.”

Religious groups, meanwhile, infiltrated indigenous populations recruiting millions of believers with a promise of a better life…if they “rendered unto Caesar.” They claimed that any attempt to change their fate played into the hands of the diabolical communists, or subversivos.
People were murdered for asking for medical care in their villages, schools for their children, or simply drinking water. They were murdered for asking for a livable wage or adequate housing. Any demand for a change was considered a threat, even if the change would address the simplest of human needs.
God forbid you should organize.

The Catholic Church, meanwhile, positioned itself, as always, both in front and behind the rifles. By the early 80s, it finally decided that “Liberation Theology” conflicted with its own relationships and institutions. The poor give only chickens and pigs. The rich gave money and power. In a sense, the Catholic Church once again assumed its traditional role as a force used to smother and misdirect dissent against the region’s elites and their political and social injustices.

Soon, bearded revolutionaries, who once roamed the hills with the Mao’s “Little Red Book,” or “Guerrilla Warfare,” by Che Guevara, were now “born again” politicians, business leaders, or even worse, well-paid writers and journalists.

Revolutionaries who watched many of their comrades disappear, brutalized and tortured by the thousands and hurled into unmarked mass graves in the 1970s and 80s, now sloughed off their youthful ideological indiscretions, with shrugs and uneasy smiles before the cameras.
The 1980s brought on the age of the U.S.-trained government technocrat, through which the administration and distribution of social and economic justice became linked with individual and free market responsibilities. As a result, the role of government as arbitrator between classes, and as a social and economic guiding force, was neutralized by a grand vision marketed by foreign interests to the region’s educated elite, that only through free market ideas and economies can Latin America hope to develop and compete in a complex world marketplace.

Inspired by their shopping sprees to Miami and San Antonio, the elites were now convinced that Latin America would embark on its own “Great Leap Forward,” propelled by globalization, and privatization, and if needed, democracy…as long as the democracy didn’t wander too far from the Hacienda and the right people were paid.
There is always room for another McDonalds to serve their children.
Few foresaw privatization of key infrastructures and services implied-- that along with some improved efficiencies, the burden of corporate profits and greed would fall most heavily on the poor.

In some countries, the privatization of water meant that instead of costing the poor one day’s labor for a month’s supply, it now cost more than a week’s labor. Electricity and telephone services, once dominated and strictly controlled by governments, entered into a free market frenzy under privatization, opening the door to predatory pricing and abuses.
This is nothing new, Latin America has always given much more than it received…its damnation remains its tremendous exploitive potential for wealth —in both resources and humanity.

By the end of the 1990s, it was obvious the great leap had, in most instances, failed. Although the deepening of poverty and despair in Latin America is due in large part to foreign and domestic exploitation, it was the region’s own political and economic inefficiencies, exacerbated, in part, by a changing world marketplace and a shifting geopolitical climate, that pushed the region closer to a social and economic abyss and instability..
Always present were the predators and their undeniably non-democratic international financial and regulatory institutions.

The past 30 years demonstrates that many regional economies, even with their new freedom from government monopolies over vital resources and services, still could not keep pace with exploding domestic demands and populations. Free Trade agreements proved beneficial, not to the emerging economies, but to the developed economies, where capital, production, and intellectual resources dominate the playing field.
There were exceptions, of course, for a time in Brazil and now Argentina, but overall, only the big players-- the ruling classes and their dominant business interests, benefited from such agreements.

Overall, contrary to the glowing governmental statistics, indeed Latin American nations have made more money over the past ten years than ever--the rich got richer and the poor, poorer. Sure, there are more wealthy and middle class Latin Americans, but it is only because the population has soared. The percentages of rich, poor and middle class remain roughly the same…the only difference is that instead of 200 million poor a few decades ago, there are now well over 400 million, most without meaningful work, education, or minimal access to resources.

Admittedly, there has been some progress. Military governments and dictatorships have been all but banished from the landscape. Democracy, that great American ideal, has finally reached the masses, much to the dismay of Washington, Wall St., The International Monetary Fund, The World Bank and, last but not least, The World Trade Organization.
These institutions are used to getting their way with pliable politicians and central bankers, and if democracy continues to flourish through the region—especially if the masses participate and elect so-called “populist” governments, the golden age of parasitic exploitation could end in a new non-aligned regional order, un-beholding to powerful internal and external influences.

Now, at last, while the United States is preoccupied with other parts of the world, Latin Americans are beginning to find their voices through the ballot box-- but few among the region’s rich and powerful are listening. Their failure to listen is at once tragic and opportune, as for the first time since the Conquest, Latin American can once and for all throw off the yoke of neo-colonialism and imperialism. Latin America can be truly free and non-aligned. It can finally chart its own course as a reflection of its unique cultures and views.

Of course, the consequences of such a dramatic change could be catastrophic in the near term, as reactionary elements will use any means necessary –up to and including subversion, assassination, and military intervention-- to derail regional populist democracies and the will of the masses.

Yes, the ideals of the Mexican Revolution, Sandino and Bolivar, are not dead, even if high-flying birds find their weather-beaten monuments to be good targets of opportunity.
For the United States, meanwhile, the voices from the region represent a new opportunity to correct the mistakes of the past and to develop foreign policy objectives to include the region’s collective will—even if it is against the interests of its powerful transnational corporate sponsors and their gunboat diplomacy.