Smuggling, drug cartels and the Pan American highway.

 Michael Yon has another great post that gives the background on the drug cartels trying to take over Ecuador, whose recently elected president is trying to stop them.

The background? Drug and people smuggling.

Ecuador --this is the well-established route established by Chinese through Colombia, Darien, CA -- to future American suburban rape and murder victims.

We have no time for soft language or lies.

Share if you care: pic.twitter.com/tZ9TQC8NTL

— Michael Yon: Callsign BIG HONEY 6 (@Michael_Yon) January 10, 2024

 

I have family in Pasto, which is on the Pan American highway near the Ecuador border.

The last time I was there was 30 years ago, but my son was there last year and said that the area is now dangerous.

Drugs are not produced in Pasto: it is too high in altitude. But it is on the Pan American highway, and the communist FARC was around back then, and used to hide in Ecuador.  

Now that Colombia has a leftist president who has ties with that group, they are back in business.

I last visited in the 1990s, when FARC was still around. Pasto had low crime at the time, and yes FARC was busy but my son's brother in law was in  FARC at the time so we figured we were safe.

The border is a bridge, but usually buses with shoppers stop and let people out. The cars are checked but those on foot were not inspected. (Colombians would shop there for cheap stuff, Ecuadorians shop in Colombia for higher quality stuff).

and when the local airport got fogged in, we took a taxi up the highway to the next city, about an eight hour ride, to catch our flight.

But now Yon is reporting on about a lot of Chinese visitors in Pasto who are planning to go to the USA.

other reports can be found here and here.

Secret Chinese Hotel Exposed - MILITARY AGED US-BOUND CHINESE STAGING AT COLOMBIAN HOTEL, CHINESE POLICE IN AMERICA

In Pasto, Colombia, Muckraker found a hotel packed to the brim with military-aged Chinese nationals who were headed to the United States.,

https://insightcrime.org/news/analysis/colombia-farc-peace-deal-amnesty-for-organized-crime/

Secret Chinese Hotel Exposed - MILITARY AGED US-BOUND CHINESE STAGING AT COLOMBIAN HOTEL, CHINESE POLICE IN AMERICA

In Pasto, Colombia, Muckraker found a hotel packed to the brim with military-aged Chinese nationals who were headed to the United States.

During our stay at the… pic.twitter.com/1cWS1otfkZ

— Muckraker.com (@realmuckraker) December 5, 2023

I don't know if this is being reported in the USA, but the drug gangs are attacking the press and the government in Ecuador:  the story has reached the Phil Inquirer, although the story didn't have a lot of details.

What is happening in Ecuador? https://t.co/5VNtRhhNCJ

— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) January 11, 2024

=======================

LegalInsurrection has a report pm Ecuadore here. LINK.

more here:

Your mama wears combat boots

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DvXo_MQVsAAxxLa.jpg:large via Freerepublic

so after an NBC story was trumpeted all over the airways to criticize the US president for not visiting the troops on Christmas, he shows up in Iraq, and Melania, whose use of high heels was a big issue for the press when they visited the hurricane zones, is wearing combat boots.

actually they are Timberline boots, mocks the press, who don't know how to google...if they did, they might find that the US military allows non military boots to be worn, including a very similar one from Timberline.

expect more negative stories about her costume, because the press is biased and not ashamed to make a fool of themselves to mock those they dislike.

nothing new about this: The Queen Mum was criticized for visiting the bombed out areas and survivors during the Blitz, because she was wearing very feminine clothing and her signature hat.

Her answer: I always wear my best when I visit people.

and the petty criticism is not political: I have defended Mrs. Obama from similar snarky articles.

this is why people dislike the press, and don't trust it.

Similarly,This similar to how the very dangerous Bush visit quickly morphed into ridicule of a "plastic turkey" which he held as he joked with the troops that he was going to serve it to them. (joke usually ignored in the ridicule).

the point not being stressed: Such trips are dangerous. Mrs. Clinton was shot at when she visited the  Balkans, and Anbar is in the middle of the ISIS/Sunni area of Iraq.

But nothing new about distorting the story from heroism to trivia.

when Bush visited Iraq, the Freepers got wind of it, and Jimrob removed their post until it was officially announced for security reasons.

This time, Avgeek spotters in Europe saw AF1 and posted it on line, but apparently the press didn't suspect a thing, or else they were too busy posting their meme to actually wonder what was going on (I would like to say that they were keeping mum for security reasons, but pushing a negative story to cover security is a bit over the top.)

in other news, a lot of tears shed over two kids who "died in custody" after crossing the border. Since both died within hours of what seemed to be sepsis, one does suspect they were sick when they were illegally brought across the border by their fathers even though they were sick.

But the CDC has been asked to check and Mexican public health authorities have been asked to check too.

The irony? Obama's change in regulations mean if you bring a kid with you, you were given a "get out of detention free" card, so in the first case, the father left wife and kids home and just brought one of the kids along, which doesn't make sense except to point out he figured the kid would help him stay in the USA, never mind the danger to the kid.

Sigh.

My take? Why are they making a big thing about Honduras, when there are three million Venezuelan refugees who have fled to nearby countries in the last few months? NatGeo article on one such group.

Although the region has experienced multiple population movements, this exodus is thought by some to be Latin America’s worst-ever migration crisis. Over the last four years, amid a long and dire economic downfall, Venezuela has seen the impoverishment of its citizens and a resulting mass exodus. The latest re-election of President Nicolás Maduro to a second term hasn’t helped the already tenuous situation, igniting a simmering desire of many Venezuelans to leave the struggling nation. Hyperinflation of the economy, hospitals without supplies, and the rampant spread of hunger have fueled their flight.

Sigh.

So many refugees.

I remember the Mariel Boat lift, when some of our Commissioned corps staff were sent to care for the refugees, and when they came back they said they saw diseases and neglected medical problems that they hadn't seen for years in the USA.

So how does one respond? Both prevention and first aid type help.

the USAID is sending help to Colombia to help these refugees LINK2 but short of a change in government/government policies, one does doubt much will help. 

and the US is sending money to Central America to help those countries fight the gangs who are partly the reason for many fleeing the area.

the refugee pipeline (not in the news)

the "refugee" caravan in the news is of course being spun by both sides. The interviews are with poor moms who sob about fleeing violence but the photos show a bunch of young men, presumably who want jobs.

One wag on a conservative site suggested that US businesses who want blue collar workers should go down and hire them for construction and factory work, since there is a shortage of Americans signing up for these jobs.

As I have posted before: ten percent of Filipinos work overseas or on ships, most of them with legal contracts, and so maybe Trumpie boy should tell the Saudi prince to send his job recruiters to Mexico and Guatemala... to find workers as they do in India, Pakistan, and more recently, to East Africa.

the main problem? They would have to learn English, which is the lingua franca of the workers.

I have sympathy for the "migrants": I just resent that this is being spun by some for political reasons. Build the wall, and arrange for companies to recruit and people to get into the US easier and voila, problem solved. Oh yes: And an amnesty, as Ronald Reagan did.

My daughter in law is a proud US citizen who got her papers via this amnesty: She works full time, and her three kids are college grads. Works for us.

My son immigrated the usual way, but my other son, who lost his green card in a teenaged fit of anger when he went back to his home country, is now unable to even visit his brother in the USA. When he was interviewed, they turned him down, even though he owns a small business, because they figured he's disappear and find a job. Well, his plan was actually to find a job in construction, work all summer, and make some money to expand his business, but never mind. He was turned down for a visa, and can't afford 12 thousand dollars to pay the coyotes to smuggle him across.

My husband, a doctor, got into the US for further training and then got a visa to work in an area that needed doctors. He also became a US citizen and helped his relatives, who were doctors and nurses, get jobs to move to the mid west. Then we have a Navy Vet cousin living in Chicago. The US Navy used to recruit Filipinos who spoke English, mainly to work in the kitchens of ships. So in places like San Diego you can find a lot of people from our area.

So no, I am not worried about immigration.

However, it is an open secret that for low level jobs, employers would exploit and under pay illegals, and not pay their social security etc so they were cheaper to hire: And this contributed to the high unemployment rate in both the inner city and in the rust belt: when the mines and factories shut down, they often couldn't find work because the places were already filled with illegals. The Unions knew this, so should be backing Trumpie boy on the issue (and the blacks knew this too, as did legal immigrants of all types).

But the bleeding hearts who want to let everyone in forgets about the importance of screening out the riff raff. The crime wave after the Mariel boat lift was real. And young men without women tend to get into trouble: be it American soldiers or "yutes" pretending to be children to get into Germany as refugees.

however, there is a major refugee problem right now that is getting little publicity: The huge exodus from Venezuela, whose economy collapsed due to socialism. Even the Chinese are wondering if their investments are worth it.

GlobalVoices has an article with links to Venezuealans who are blogging their flight to another country.
 a number of Venezuelan communities abroad have created Facebook groups, and use Twitter and other social networks to give support and advice in destinations like Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, and Spain — a virtual solidarity network for those who must leave their country.
Other means of help
The situation for Venezuelans leaving the country has worried some NGOs that support migrants. Among them, the Jesuit Network for Migrants and the Jesuit Service for Refugees from Latin American and the Caribbean who have designed a “virtual map” in order to help with people's safety while traveling to Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador or Peru. The project is another example of the magnitude of the Venezuelan exodus, now considered to be the largest in the region in the last 50 years.

My suggestion: send someone down to screen these people and let a couple hundred thousand of these refugee in while you are at it.