Who Answers to the Juarez Violence?

The Mexican Senate requests Galván and García Luna to answer to the massacre in Juarez.

The senators also call the Attorney General of the Republic, Arturo Chavez to explain what is the strategy for fighting organized crime after the massacre that occurred in Ciudad Juárez over the weekend.

Mexico City - The Standing Committee of the Congress observed a minute of silence in memory of the teenagers who were killed Sunday in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, by a group of armed commandos during a reunion to celebrate a football victory.

In response to the recent massacre in Ciudad Juárez and the deaths in Torreon, the Senate requested the immediate appearance before the committees of the Secretary of Defense General Guillermo Galván Galván, Navy Adm. Francisco Mariano Saynez Mendoza, the head of the PGR Arturo Chavez and Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna, to explain the strategy in the fight against organized crime and to provide an assessment of their results.

The points of agreement that were approved but rejected by the political party PAN, were made by Senator Arturo Escobar, of the PVEM and the coordinator of the PT Ricardo Monreal.

As part of the points of agreement, the Senate condemned the massacre in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, and the deaths in Torreon, Coahuila, and called on the federal, state and municipal governments to carry out complete investigations to solve these crimes, as well as to implement preventive programs.

Mexican Senator Ramón Galindo Noriega.

"The blood of Ciudad Juarez, runs through here, passes through these aisles and seats," said PAN Senator Ramon Galindo Noriega the former mayor of that city.

And right before the adoption of the points if agreement, they opened a round of discussion for each fraction to provide their own position.



Ramon Galindo regretted the resignation of former Secretary of Public Safety of Chihuahua, Victor Valencia de los Santos, who resigned to run for mayor of Ciudad Juarez, without giving any news or alternative strategy to fight the violence from organized crime.

Monreal questioned the government's strategy to confront organized crime and accused President Felipe Calderón of having "Breakfast with the Emperor of Japan while the country sinks in disgrace."

The coordinator of the PVEM, Escobar, reminded everyone that his party had proposed the death penalty.

Plan Merida is merely "atole" with the finger of the U.S.

Senator Guillermo Tamborrel (PAN) argued that Plan Merida (Merida Initiative) is a slow and weak process from the U.S. government against organized crime, which has tints of being a joke.

The U.S. must take its responsibility for the fight against organized crime, one which Mexico is fighting a decisive war, said the congressman from the ruling party.

On Monday, the media outlet "El Universal" reported that it is the U.S. companies that are profiting from the funds under Plan Merida, as suppliers of equipment and technology that are supposed to improve performance from Mexico and the United States in combating crime.

Guillermo Tamborrel, interviewed in the Legislative Palace, where he was attending the closing session of the Standing Committee of which he is a member, noted that in the steps of Plan Mérida "I do not see America's conviction in fighting crime."

The support of this initiative to Mexico is minimal, in respect to the capacity that could be realized, said Panista Tamborrel.

Categories: juarez student massacre, Merida Initiative, politics, video, war on drugs