Saturday, June 15, 2013
Mexican JUSTICE Vs American Justice
Mexican JUSTICE Vs American Justice
Just because I am gringo living in Mexico (by choice) does not mean I do not love my country, nor does it mean I am as blind as justice is supposed to be. Lets look at two examples involving Mexicans and Americans to illustrate the inequity that exists. The first example, is one that you may recognize it is the case of the Arizona citizen who traveled by bus across the border into Mexico for a relative's funeral. While returning on a bus at the routine checkpoint 13 miles from the US border she was arrested for 12 pounds of marijuana discovered under her seat. Here is my friend CNN's Rafael Romo's emotional story and a video you can revisit. The point is that justice worked inside of a week in Mexico. Indeed it was helped along by international media coverage, fast tracked by pleas from US diplomats, but in the end it was the evidence that freed her.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/31/
The second example is from October 10th of last year, eight months ago and a sixteen year old Mexican boy in the same town, Nogales, where inside of a week Yanira Maldonado was released from jail.The boy José Antonio Elena Rodríguez was shot eight times by a US border patrol, not in the US, but in Nogales, Mexico. Today, we'll revisit this little reported story, provide some quotes, photos and look at the evidence and you can decide if justice is blind and administered fairly in the mighty USA. Lets start with the photos so you can picture the scene of the incident, however it was night, yet this is not a factor with the evidence. I could have used the gruesome photo of the young man lying in a pool of blood, but I am more interested in justice than shock value. You will notice the steep grade of the hill,the marked photo showing the approximate location where the shots were fired from. You'll see the trajectory and how close to the 20 feet high metal fence that sits on the thirty foot hill the border patrol agent had to be to make such a kill. You'll notice the additional bullet holes in the building that based on the angle of entry establish where the shots were fired from. Notice how narrow the slits are in the fence are and how difficult it would be to throw rocks through, let alone accurately or with force if the alleged throwers were on top of the hill at the bottom of the fence. This suggests that the Border Patrol is claiming the rocks were thrown over the 20 feet high fence, the 30 feet high hill, and presumably across the two lane street with space for vertical parking, to targets that were not visible.Finally, notice the raised guard tower that has multiple cameras and video filming the location 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Justice might be the U S government releasing the video feed to its Mexican counterparts to prove the voracity of its case. Justice might be not stonewalling the boys family and friends who insist he was a good boy, an alter boy, a boy with no prior arrests in a border town with plenty of local police, the state military, the national military, and mexican drug and customs agents. Justice certainly would be seeing and admitting the visual evidence is what makes this across border shooting different from all the others. Justice perhaps is the media recognizing that this is a unique story that reeks of inequities and cover up.
Now for the U S version. Provided by the local US paper The Nogales International :A Border Patrol agent shot and killed a teenager in Nogales, Sonora late Wednesday night after being shelled with rocks near the border fence.The Sonora State Investigative Police, or PEI, said 16-year-old José Antonio Elena Rodríguez of Nogales, Sonora was found dead of gunshot wounds on the sidewalk on the south side of Calle Internacional, which faces the border fence on the west side of downtown.Lt. Carlos Jimenez of the Nogales, (Arizona) Police Department said the incident began when NPD officers responded to a report of suspicious activity on West International Street. The report involved males carrying bundles, he said."Our guys got there, they encountered some people who started fleeing south,” Jimenez said.Then Border Patrol agents arrived on the scene. According to Border Patrol spokesman Shelton McKenzie, the agents responded to reports of two suspected drug smugglers near West International Street and Hereford Drive at approximately 11:30 p.m.“Preliminary reports indicate that the agents observed the smugglers drop a narcotics load on the U.S. side of the international boundary and flee back to Mexico,” McKenzie said in an emailed statement. “Subjects at the scene then began assaulting the agents with rocks. After verbal commands from agents to cease were ignored, one agent then discharged his service firearm. One of the subjects appeared to have been hit.”
In a report Thursday (October 11th) afternoon on Radio XENY of Nogales, Sonora, reporter Cesar Barron said that according to an eyewitness, two males were climbing on the border fence, apparently on their way back from the U.S. side, when the Border Patrol agents arrived. According to the witness, the agents told the suspects that they were going to be arrested, and that they were better off behind bars in the United States than in Mexico. The suspects reportedly responded with an obscenity.At that point, four more males arrived on the Mexican side and began to throw rocks toward the fence in an apparent effort to help the two suspects escape. That's when an agent began firing, the witness told Barron.
The Tucson Sentinel reported: U.S. officials have said that Rodriguez, along with other men, threw rocks at border agents as they attempted to investigate a drug smuggling report on the U.S. side.Isidro Alvarado, a 36-year-old native of Nogales, disputes that claim,saying during a Wednesday press conference in Nogales, Sonora, that Rodriguez was hit while walking down the street. The Arizona Daily Star reported that two men rushed past Alvarado moments before Rodriguez was shot.The incident began when several agents responded to a call that drug smugglers were operating near the border fence in Nogales, Ariz. The agents watched as two men abandoned a load of narcotics and retreated over the fence.As border agents attempted to investigate along with two Nogales police officers, they were bombarded with rocks. A police dog with the NPD officers was hit as they were pelted with rocks and went for cover, officials said.At some point, two unidentified border agents walked up to the fence and fired their weapons, sending a dozen rounds into Mexico from a point at least 10 feet above Calle Internacional. A surveillance camera mounted on the border fence may have recorded the incident, but the FBI has declined to release any video of the shooting.
From the photos you can see there is no point 10 feet above the street level, because the hill that the 20 foot fence sits on is 31 feet high. The reality is that Nolan Ryan in his prime could not throw rocks accurately from the street up the 31 foot hill, over the 20 foot wall to a blind target. The other fact is this is a well kept street, that is swept daily by the city, there are no gravel lots, or loose rocks nearby and it is illogical that boys with backpacks would carry rocks, along with drugs in their backpacks. The other fact is unless the boys had rock climbing equipment and pitons it is at least a city block to where the hill slopes to street level on each side of the location where the shots were fired. What happened to these bundles? Did they drop them, or return to Mexico with them? If they dropped them, why is this not mentioned in the official statement? To understand the weakness of the US government's claim we must describe the area. The site of the killing is a mere three blocks from the main (of three) gate in Nogales, it is heavily policed on both sides of the border with armed police, military and government agencies from both countries. Therefore, it is about as unlikely of an above ground location that I could possibly pick for drug smuggling, Furthermore, on the US side it s a mere block from the employee parking lot for the US government employees that is manned and camera active.
How exactly did the boys get up the big hill and back over the massive wall to Mexico, then down the 20' wall and down the 31' hill? If they repelled they would have left equipment. The reports say all this was witnessed by the Nogales, Az. PD, and as I see it (based on the report) one can't exactly "flee" back to Mexico when faced with a substantial wall and 31' hill, unless of course they built a massive ramp, dug a tunnel under the concrete foundation, used an acetylene torch to cut a hole, or set a new pole vault record. Why was the boy shot on the Mexican side? Twelve bullet holes in a wall behind him? Logic seems to tell me that anytime there is gun fire, anyone throwing rocks "flees" rather than stays to face a bullet, so why not fire in the air? He was shot eight times? In the back an head? This is troubling to say the least. But what is even more troubling is the fact that anyone who fired a shot from the other side would need to press their nose against the twenty foot wall and fire down fifty feet to the street level to a location that would not be visible to anyone not next to the US side of the wall (compare the two slits photosand note the trajectory). A random shot from a substantial distance from the wall on the US side could not have killed the boy. Why would an officer be within five feet of the wall endangering himself for a suspect who had already fled to Mexico, when he could simply back up a few feet? Those eight shots plus the twelve holes reported at the scene make 20.Exactly what type of service revolver (side arm) fires a clip of 20 shots? From my cheap seats emptying a 20 round clip, (assuming there
is one) suggests murder, not self defense. Particularly when the only way to make those twenty shots is to have your nose against the wall,or be within five feet of it.
Sixteen year old boys deserve second chances in life, its sad and shocking this young man did not get that chance. Mexican soil is not US soil. His life is not worth two missing bundles, even if they did have drugs inside. These are the facts as this American citizen living in Mexico sees them, I wish they were different, but they just don't jive with the statements issued. The young man who lived with his grandmother won't get a second chance. Justice is not being served here, when all the US has to do is look at a video tape. Video evidence and Mexican JUSTICE released Yanira Maldonado in less than a week, why is American justice and video evidence taking this long?
Labels: border fence, Charles Spencer King, José Antonio Elena Rodríguez, Nogales, Yanira Maldonado
