Over the weekend, we learned that Mexico is charging 7 over the "Fast and Furious" episode. This is the story:
Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office said Sunday it has lodged weapons trafficking charges against seven people in the more-than-decade-old case, including the country’s former top police official, Genaro García Luna, and former drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
García Luna was arrested in Texas in 2019 and currently faces trial in the U.S. for allegedly protecting a drug gang. Mexico has asked for his extradition to face charges of illegal enrichment.
García Luna served as security chief in President Felipe Calderón's 2006-2012 administration and was the leader of the government’s fight against organized crime.
Also charged was former Federal Police commander Luis Cardenas Palomino, who was considered the right-hand man of García Luna. Mexico already arrested Cardenas Palomino on charges of torture, and U.S. prosecutors have separately accused him of accepting millions in bribes from the Sinaloa cartel.
This is good, but what happens next? Furthermore, is President Andrés Manuel López Obrador using this story to go after former President Calderón? I just got back from Mexico and I hear that the current president is very vindictive and wants to distract the public from COVID, inflation and corruption. Inflation is at a 20-year high and that will put terrible pressure on the Mexican peso. Also, gasoline prices in Mexico are about $4 a gallon.
My hope is that President López Obrador uses this case to close a porous border. It's drugs and human smuggling going north, and cash and guns going south. Mexico could shut down the border and bring the chaos to an end.
The Fast and Furious scandal was a low point for the Obama administration. It blew up in their faces and the guns killed many innocent Mexicans. The López Obrador government could finally stand up to the cartels by shutting down the border to the illegal back and forth.
Will they do it? This is a good opportunity for Mexico to show the world that it is serious. Blaming the Second Amendment or filing lawsuits against gun manufacturers is just a distraction. The answer is to close the border to everything except commerce or legal movement.
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