ATF; Puppets, Pawns, Patsies, All the Above?

Two corrupt presidents 

The people of the United States and the House  Oversight Committee debate the Fast and Furious gun walking scandal there is a much larger scandal going on. Just two doors down to the south. The lovely banana republic of Guatemala there is deep seated government corruption at the highest level.

July 3, 2011. the Mexican Federal Police arrested “Zeta 7” Jesús Enrique Rejón Aguilar of the Los Zeta drug cartel. During interrogation “Zeta 7” was asked about about the cartel’s cocaine connection and he replied that they do business with the Guatemalans not the Colombians. Seems that the Zetas do not trust the Colombians, he sad that the accountants handled the drug distribution and he was not part of that operation. This makes sense that the organisation is compartmentalized the US military and CIA does the same thing for security purposes.

Mexican law enforcement also reveled on June 22, 2011 that they have arrested  Jose de Jesus Mendez Vargas the once top dog in the  La Familia Michoacana drug cartel “El Chango”  

In both cases the Mexicans released information garnered during the supposed interrogations. Both El Chango and Zeta 7 allegedly implicated the US in there procurement of weapons by saying the exact same thing. We buy our guns from the US sometimes from the “US government itself.” By leaking this information is the Mexican Government (President Calderon) attempting to build a case against the US in retaliation for condoning the illegal gun activity (Fast and Furious)?

The Los Zetas and other drug trafficking organisations “DTO” are the most active in Guatemala, where they seek to exploit the nation’s weakly guarded border with Mexico. Guatemala is struggling with entrenched corruption between DTOs and state officials skimming millions in US funding dollars Mexico hardly has an ally in Guatemala. In 2005, Guatemala’s head of the drug enforcement agency, his deputy and another senior official were arrested in the United States on charges of drug trafficking. Four years later President Alvaro Colom fired several of Guatemala’s top law enforcement officials including the the director general of the national police, his deputy and both the heads of investigations and operations, after a significant amount of drugs and cash went missing. Former combatants in Guatemala’s civil war a U.S. funded venture that resulted in the death of more than 200,000 people and the genocidal targeting of indigenous groups are increasingly offering their skills to the DTOs.

The Former President Alfonso Portillo was arrested last year  after U.S. prosecutors indicted him on charges of laundering money stolen from foreign donations meant to buy children's books. After finishing his term in 2004 and losing his immunity from prosecution. Portillo fled to El Salvador and then to Mexico in order to avoid charges.· Following a long legal battle, he was finally extradited to Guatemala in October 2008.An indictment unsealed in  New York federal court alleges that in a four-year scheme starting in 2000, Portillo embezzled $1.5 million in donations from Taiwan. the money was intended to buy school library books. Portillo is accused of endorsing checks drawn from a New York bank and depositing them in a Miami account; the money then was transferred to a Paris account in the name of his ex-wife and daughter. When Alfonso Portillo and two of his former ministers were first indicted by a federal court on embezzlement. Many hailed it as an opportunity to test the effectiveness of recent reforms to the Guatemalan justice system. However Guatemala failed that test. A three-judge panel dismissed two of the prosecution's key witnesses, claiming that they had lied under oath.

The failure is all the more frustrating for prosecutors because simply bringing the former president to trial took a herculean effort on the part of prosecutors but in Guatemala money talks an justice walks.

In May of this year President Alvaro Colom declared a state of emergency in the northern Guatemalan province of Peten, which borders Mexico and Belize, in response to the killing of 27 farm workers  of which 26 were beheaded by Mexico’s Los Zetas drug cartel. In  a radio interview the president was quoted as saying that “We are willing to work with these people.” Interesting???

New reports of collaboration between the DTOs and the GOG military are now coming to light and may explain the proliferation of weapons in  Mexico’s black market.

The  editor of el Periodico’s Guatemala's largest news paper, Jose Ruben Zamora, broke the story of the “Sleeper Cartel.” Zamora’s story shines the light on a network involving ex government ministers and military officials, who have “their own mafia organization of protection and silence.” This in fact is a shadow government operating simultaneously and for the sole benefit of the participants. The Sleeper Cartel as Zamora describes them dates back to president Fernando Romeo Lucas Garcia, who was in power from 1978 to 1982, The Sleeper Cartel  again gained power during the Alfonso Portillo administration (2000 to 2004).

Current President Alvaro Colom is no exception to this line of illicit power, which became clear from his radio statement that appeared to be bazaar at the time. Zamora states in his article that  army General Mauro Jacinto (who was later murdered) told him that, as a candidate, Colom had received large sums from local trafficking groups and from the Mexican based Zetas.

For the Los Zetas Guatemala is a candy store of goodies and the corrupt officials are the sales clerks. Brokering cocaine from Columbia, Peru, and Bolivia. As a result of the Civil war that lasted from 1960 to 1996 the country is chock full of military hardware that was Supplied by the U.S. Government through the CIA

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As a result of the CIA’s involvement surplus WWII armament including air and watercraft was covertly funneled to the right wing factions in the country from as early as 1953. During the 35 year period of civil war and successive coups the US government continuously upgraded the weaponry flowing into the country. (E. Howard Hunt of Watergate fame was one of the key players in the Anticommunist efforts in Guatemala. End comment)

As a result of continuous political instability the GOGs military being the only stable institution the the country infiltrated every sector of society. As a result officers from the top to the bottom acted with impunity and corruption was unimpeded. The Los Zetas and the Guatemalan military have formed an alliance of sorts. The Zetas buy cocaine and weapons such as machine guns fragmentation grenades land mines LAW rockets and ammunition, In return the military allows the DTOs such as the Zetas safe haven and travel across the frontier borders.

What the House Oversight Committee is doing with regards to Operation Fast and Furious is very important but by no means is it the real source of Mexico's black market weaponry. Fast and furious may even be a red herring in order to draw attention away from Mexico’s southern border. There is more going on hear! Those ATF pukes  could not organize a pantie raid in a whore house!