A continuation of events surrounding the drug war and related social issues of Baja California and Mexico. Keeping an eye on Seig Heil Trump. We are still trying to restore all blogs from 2006 which were hacked by Linton Robinson and his team, famous for supporting the Baja Trump Towers on one of his real estate sites. Highlights of Paris-Simone's favorite music !!
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Lifeless bodies of men, some with their hands tied behind their backs lie on the ground in Bucha, Ukraine, Sunday, April 3, 2022. Associated Press journalists in Bucha, a small city northwest of Kyiv, saw the bodies of at least nine people in civilian clothes who appeared to have been killed at close range. At least two had their hands tied behind their backs. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Reports of fleeing civilians shot by snipers and the rape and murder of young girls
Daniel Boffeyin Kyiv (in conjunction with The Guardian)
"It was, said Taras Schevchenko, like a scene from a film.
At 6am on the morning of February 24th, from the vantage point of the kitchen window of his fifth-storey apartment overlooking Gostomel airport, on the northern outskirts of the Ukrainian town of Bucha, Schevchenko watched as about 20 Russian helicopters flew into vision, spilling paratroopers on to the tarmac below.
“I felt as if I was in the movies, you know, I saw all the helicopters, I even saw the faces of those paratroopers.”
This was the moment that the war began for Bucha, a town 55km north-west from the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, which is swiftly becoming synonymous with the worst atrocities of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
The events that unfolded over the following days, Schevchenko (43) said, were unimaginable.
Bodies rolled over by tanks turned into “human rugs” while Russians shot dead even the elderly who got in their way, he said.
Russian snipers shot the men who tried to escape across fields, it is claimed, and claims of the rapes and murder of young girls, which have yet to be independently verified, put terror in the hearts of those who remained.
As witnesses have come forward, however, and photographic evidence of bodies on Bucha’s roads has emerged from the newly recaptured territory, the claims of mass war crimes by the occupying Russian troops appear to be all too real.
On Saturday, AFP reported that 20 bodies, all in civilian clothing, had been found strewn across a single street, one with his hands tied behind his back and a white cloth and his Ukrainian passport left open beside his body. “All these people were shot,” Bucha’s mayor, Anatoly Fedoruk, said, adding that 280 other bodies had been buried in mass graves elsewhere in the town.
Schevchenko, a martial arts coach in a kindergarten, and his mother, Yevdokia Shevchenko (77), with whom he lived in the north of Bucha, recalls that it had gone quiet for three days after Putin’s troops landed.
They talked about what to do, whether they should escape. Those few who decided to leave on that first day were seen as overreacting by the majority of those in Schevchenko’s block.
The normality of those first 72 hours was an illusion.
“We saw them [The Russians] on the third day when there was a massive shootout by our building with Bucha’s territorial defence. At first I decided to stay because I was thinking: where to go? I had nowhere to go. There was fear, you know. Secondly, we aren’t that rich to completely change our lives in one day. On the third day, I realised that it is too late to run away somewhere or change something because the war was literally around my house, on my street. There were tanks driving down my street. It is very frightening when they shoot, it’s such a sound, a roar.”
By day four, there was panic. “Everybody was looking [FOR]some ways out of there on the internet, Telegram or Viber chats. Anyone who had their own cars just fled, risking everything. Our building has 69 apartments and there are only four families remaining.”
Schevchenko’s mother, Yevdokia, terrified by the fighting on her doorstep, moved down into the block’s damp cold basement of just 20 sq metres, lit only by candles, where she joined eight other families, including one three-year-old child and an 86-year-old woman.
Yevdokia would stay there for the next 13 days and nights, with only a bucket as a toilet. The older woman, Schevchenko said, may still be in the basement. “She hugged an icon. All the time she was there she was hugging the icon.”
On the fifth day, the gas supply to the town was cut off. “People understood that we needed to boil water somehow or cook some soup or something and by the entrance to the building we made a kind of cooking place. It was just a campfire with two bricks on the side.”
The conversations by the fire were filled with talks of the latest dead.
“Dead bodies were just laying in the streets, they didn’t let us move them,” said Schevchenko. He recounted one killing, which could not be independently verified. “There was some grandpa, he was walking with his wife, they were about to cross the street, they were stopped by some Russians. You know how these old men are, just like to talk back and stuff. So they just shot him, and to the woman they said: ‘You just keep walking.’ She rushed to her husband and started crying, and they said: ‘If you want to lay next to him, we can shoot you too.’ She told them she needed to take the body, but they said: ‘No, just keep walking.’ And she kept on walking, crying and walking. It happened next to a McDonald’s, 30-40 metres away from my home.”
That old man aggressively said something to a soldier and they shot him dead, and ordered the woman to leave
The woman, distraught, approached Yevdokia and others who were standing nearby, struggling to catch her breath and tell her story, desperate to retrieve her husband’s body.
“That old man aggressively said something to a soldier and they shot him dead, and ordered the woman to leave,” said Yevdokia. “I don’t know their names but I would see them around the town in a store, on a market, you know, familiar faces. When he got shot I was outside, I heard the gunshots. I had gone out of the basement to breathe some air.”
By March 9th, Schevchenko knew they had to get out - but they appeared to be trapped.
“I started to analyse all the possible ways to escape but I am glad I didn’t try then. Because other people who were braver than I was, fled and were shot. Some of them came back wounded but some remained in their cars forever, dead.”
The following day, the Russians agreed to establish a humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of civilians. There was an exodus - but the Russians said they would permit only women and children to leave.
“But we had neighbours one floor below and there was a man and I heard that he had managed to get out so I thought if he managed to do it, why can’t I? So, on March 11th, I woke up at 6am, and charged my phone. I found a place to charge it. Just a little though to 6-7 per cent. Then I ran to the basement to pick up my mum. I remember very clearly it was 8.45am, I ran in and shouted: ‘Mum, we are running away,’ and at that moment there was shooting.”
His mother’s first thought was for the family pet. “She said: ‘Did you get Mary?’ I said: ‘Yes, she is [in] my jacket.’ It’s a small fluffy dog, just 4 kilos. So we ran to the city hall for the green corridor. But at the city hall, they only let women and children through, so we decided that mum would go by a green corridor and I would join other men and we would walk to Romanivka, it’s about 12km away from Bucha, but you had to cross the river and peatlands and it was minus 9 degrees outside that day”.
We didn’t care about each other and didn’t pay attention to each other. Just some animal instincts took over. I felt like I was a concentration camp escapee.
At 10am, Schevchenko started to walk, not on the roads, instead on the fields, with around 20 other men. Bullets started to buzz past them. Some went down, hit and wounded. Others, including Schevchenko, ran and tried to hide from what were assumed to be snipers.
“We couldn’t even help the wounded because once you come close to someone who fell you can get shot too. There were fewer and fewer of us. I was constantly looking back and sideways. We didn’t care about each other and didn’t pay attention to each other. Just some animal instincts took over. I felt like I was a concentration camp escapee.”
The route took them through Irpin, another town where alleged atrocities have been recorded since the Russians have withdrawn. Schevchenko made his way to the town’s central cemetery, through a forest there and then turned towards the village of Stoyanka leading to his destination of Romanivka.
Lots of them were laying on the sidewalks, there were a lot of them squashed by tanks. Like those animal skin rugs and the smell was unbearable.
“The mayor of Irpin said the other day that they have collected 17 dead bodies,” said Schevchenko. “I can’t say there were only 17. There were way more. Lots of them were just sitting in their cars. Lots of them were laying on the sidewalks, there were a lot of them squashed by tanks. Like those animal skin rugs and the smell was unbearable. They were laying like that for 10 days or so.”
For seven hours, Schevchenko ran, walked and hid, in the hope of reaching relative safety. “Then we saw our soldiers. They knew we were refugees, they just asked us to show them our passports and showed us the way. Buses were waiting for us.”
Today, he has no idea how many of the 20 or so men who set off made it. “You know, not only did I not look, I forgot how to breathe. I literally forgot you could breathe through your nose. I was breathing through my mouth, my heart jumping out of my chest. My dog, in my jacket, was nervous and stressed.”
He was taken by bus to Kyiv’s main railway station where he was reunited with his mother.
“You know when I got to safety and some time passed, I felt like it was a prank,” Schevchenko said. “It just can’t be 15km away and it’s quiet. I felt like I was in the movie [The] Matrix. Like someone dragged me by my hair and threw me into this Matrix for 16 days and have been watching how I act. And later they felt sorry for me, pulled me out of there back to the peaceful world, patted me on my head and told me: ‘Good, you survived.’”
- Guardian
~~~~~
~ From UATV: Apr 3, 2022
"Russia’s occupiers left dozens and, in some cities, hundreds of civilians killed. The Ukrainian satellite towns of Kyiv - Bucha, Irpin, and Hostomel - are a living museum of the most horrible war crimes - the streets of the towns are strewn with the bodies of civilians shot by the occupiers. Residents said their neighbours had been killed under fire from Russian troops during the month-long occupation. People were just walking and they shot them without any reason. Invaders tied people's hands, put them on their knees and faced the wall. International community is shocked over the massacre in Bucha. Ministers of Foreign affair of the EU countries called on the European Union to strengthen sanctions against Russia due of Russian occupiers’ war crimes."
"Lviv, Ukraine (CNN)The lifeless bodies of at least 20 civilian men line a single street in the town of Bucha near the Ukrainian capital. Some lie face down on the pavement while others are collapsed on their backs, mouths open in a tragic testament to the horrors of Russian occupation.
The hands of one man are tied behind his back with a piece of white cloth. Another man lies alone, tangled up in a bicycle by a grassy bank. A third man lies in the middle of the road, near the charred remains of a burned-out car.
The shocking images of the carnage in Bucha were captured by Agence France-Presse on Saturday, the same day Ukraine declared the town liberated from Russian troops. Accounts of alleged Russian atrocities are emerging as its forces retreat from areas near Kyiv following a failed bid to encircle the capital.
The town of Bucha has endured five weeks of near-constant firefights. Now officials and human rights groups are blaming the civilian deaths on the departed Russian forces.
"Corpses of executed people still line the Yabluska street in Bucha. Their hands are tied behind their backs with white 'civilian' rags, they were shot in the back of their heads. So you can imagine what kind of lawlessness they perpetrated here," Bucha mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk told Reuters on Saturday.
Ukrainian soldiers are pictured in Bucha on Saturday, after Russian troops retreated from the area.
Asked during an appearance Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation" if Russia was carrying out genocide in his country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: "Indeed. This is genocide."
"The elimination of the whole nation, and the people. We are the citizens of Ukraine. We have more than 100 nationalities. This is about the destruction and extermination of all these nationalities," he said.
The alleged atrocities have drawn international outrage, with Western leaders, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, calling for war crimes investigations and increasing sanctions on Russia.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed the extensive footage was "fake," saying "not a single local resident suffered from any violent actions" during Russia's occupation of Bucha. "In the settlements of the Kiev region, Russian military personnel delivered and issued 452 tons of humanitarian aid to civilians," it said in a statement.
A separate statement claimed the footage was staged. "Stories about Bucha appeared in several foreign media outlets at once, which looks like a planned media campaign," the statement said. "Taking into account that the troops left the city on March 30, where was the footage for four days? Their absence only confirms the fake."
The Russian government has consistently responded to allegations of civilian casualties inflicted by Russian forces with blanket denials. After the Russian air force bombed a maternity hospital on March 9, Russian officials attempted to cast doubt on widespread media reports, with one Russian diplomat accusing a victim of the bombing -- a woman who escaped from the bombing, bloodied and still pregnant -- of being an actor and not a real victim.
Mass grave
The toll of the Russian invasion was apparent at a mass grave in Bucha. People cried as they attempted to locate the bodies of lost loved ones at a grave located in the grounds of the Church of St. Andrew and Pyervozvannoho All Saints on Sunday, according to a CNN team at the scene.
Bucha residents told CNN that bodies were first buried in the grave in the first few days of the war. They believe 150 people are buried in the site, many of whom were civilians killed in the fighting around Bucha.
CNN saw at least a dozen bodies in body bags piled inside the grave. Some were already partially covered.
The mayor of Bucha said in public remarks Saturday that up to 300 victims could be buried at the site.
CNN was unable to independently verify those numbers or the identities and nationalities of those buried in the grave.
The earth on the church grounds appeared to have been recently moved so it is feasible that more bodies could be buried there.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said Sunday that reports emerging from towns in the Kyiv region revealed a "post-apocalyptic picture" of life under Russian occupation.
"This is a special appeal aimed at drawing the world's attention to those war crimes, crimes against humanity, which were committed by Russian troops in Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel," Arestovych said. "These are liberated cities, a picture from horror movies, a post-apocalyptic picture."
"Victims of these war crimes have already been found, including raped women who they tried to burn, local government officials killed, children killed, elderly people killed, men killed, many of them with tied hands, traces of torture and shot in the back of the head. Robberies, attempts to take gold, valuables, carpets, washing machines. It, of course, will be taken into account by the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine and law enforcement agencies and international criminal courts."
The evidence of apparent atrocities in Bucha came as Human Rights Watch (HRW) announced it had documented allegations of war crimes in the occupied areas of the Kyiv, Chernihiv and Kharkiv regions.
HRW said Sunday that the allegations include "a case of repeated rape; two cases of summary execution, one of six men, the other of one man; and other cases of unlawful violence and threats against civilians between February 27 and March 14, 2022."
In Bucha, Russian forces "rounded up five men and summarily executed one of them" on March 4, HRW wrote. A witness told the group that soldiers forced the men to kneel on the road and pulled their shirts over their heads, before shooting one of the men in the back of the head.
HRW also alleges that on February 27, six men were rounded up in the village of Staryi Bykiv in the Chernihiv region and later executed.
In Malaya Rohan, a village in the Kharkiv region, a Russian soldier repeatedly raped a woman in a school where she was sheltering with her family on March 13, the victim told HRW. "She said that he beat her and cut her face, neck, and hair with a knife," HRW wrote. The woman fled to Kharkiv the following day, "where she was able to get medical treatment and other services."
And in the village of Vorzel, 31 miles northwest of Kyiv, Russian soldiers "threw a smoke grenade into a basement, then shot a woman and a 14-year-old child as they emerged from the basement, where they had been sheltering," HRW said.
"The cases we documented amount to unspeakable, deliberate cruelty and violence against Ukrainian civilians," Hugh Williamson, HRW's Europe and Central Asia director, said in the statement. "Rape, murder, and other violent acts against people in the Russian forces' custody should be investigated as war crimes."
CNN has not independently verified the details of the HRW report and has requested comment from the Russian defense ministry.
Sunday's developments in Ukraine have hastened calls for war crimes investigations.
Blinken said the State Department would help document any atrocities the Russian military committed against Ukrainian civilians.
"Since the aggression, we've come out and said that we believe that Russian forces have committed war crimes, and we've been working to document that, to provide the information we have to the relevant institutions and organizations that will put all of this together. And there needs to be accountability for it."
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement Sunday that "indiscriminate attacks against innocent civilians during Russia's illegal and unjustified invasion of Ukraine must be investigated as war crimes."
European Union Council President Charles Michel vowed further sanctions on Russia, while United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said an "independent investigation" into the civilians killed in Bucha was "essential."
CNN's Fred Pleitgen, Vasco Cotovio, Daria Markina and Byron Blunt reported from Bucha. Tara John and Nathan Hodge reported and wrote from Lviv. Jonny Hallam reported from Atlanta. Amy Cassidy in London and James Frater reported from Brussels. Niamh Kennedy reported from London.
~~~~~
Mum's The Word
Locally in Tijuana at 5:02pm, there is no reporting on Bucha....or importantly the streams of Ukrainians waiting at the San Ysidro POE (as if they didn't even exist !). You might find this interesting though from AP. Apparently mum's the word, for sure. Scary huh ?
The last few days we've been putting together care packages for the Ukrainian Refugees - I have not been up to the POE, here is the latest:
With links within the report on how to help, through the Calgary Church or House Of Ukraine, John the Baptizer Ukrainian Catholic Church and Saint Mary Protectress Ukrainian Orthodox Church:
~ From Chanel 8: CBS 8 San Diego: (video on the link)
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Lifeless bodies of men, some with their
hands tied behind their backs lie on the ground in Bucha, Ukraine,
Sunday, April 3, 2022. Associated Press journalists in Bucha, a small
city northwest of Kyiv, saw the bodies of at least nine people in
civilian clothes who appeared to have been killed at close range. At
least two had their hands tied behind their backs. (AP Photo/Vadim
Ghirda)
Reports of fleeing civilians shot by snipers and the rape and murder of young girls
Daniel Boffeyin Kyiv (in conjunction with The Guardian)
"It was, said Taras Schevchenko, like a scene from a film.
At
6am on the morning of February 24th, from the vantage point of the
kitchen window of his fifth-storey apartment overlooking Gostomel
airport, on the northern outskirts of the Ukrainian town of Bucha, Schevchenko watched as about 20 Russian helicopters flew into vision, spilling paratroopers on to the tarmac below.
“I felt as if I was in the movies, you know, I saw all the helicopters, I even saw the faces of those paratroopers.”
This
was the moment that the war began for Bucha, a town 55km north-west
from the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, which is swiftly becoming synonymous
with the worst atrocities of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
The events that unfolded over the following days, Schevchenko (43) said, were unimaginable.
Bodies rolled over by tanks turned into “human rugs” while Russians shot dead even the elderly who got in their way, he said.
Russian
snipers shot the men who tried to escape across fields, it is claimed,
and claims of the rapes and murder of young girls, which have yet to be
independently verified, put terror in the hearts of those who remained.
As witnesses have come forward, however, and
photographic evidence of bodies on Bucha’s roads has emerged from the
newly recaptured territory, the claims of mass war crimes by the
occupying Russian troops appear to be all too real.
On
Saturday, AFP reported that 20 bodies, all in civilian clothing, had
been found strewn across a single street, one with his hands tied behind
his back and a white cloth and his Ukrainian passport left open beside
his body. “All these people were shot,” Bucha’s mayor, Anatoly Fedoruk, said, adding that 280 other bodies had been buried in mass graves elsewhere in the town.
Schevchenko, a martial arts coach in a kindergarten,
and his mother, Yevdokia Shevchenko (77), with whom he lived in the
north of Bucha, recalls that it had gone quiet for three days after
Putin’s troops landed.
They
talked about what to do, whether they should escape. Those few who
decided to leave on that first day were seen as overreacting by the
majority of those in Schevchenko’s block.
The normality of those first 72 hours was an illusion.
“We
saw them [The Russians] on the third day when there was a massive
shootout by our building with Bucha’s territorial defence. At first I
decided to stay because I was thinking: where to go? I had nowhere to
go. There was fear, you know. Secondly, we aren’t that rich to
completely change our lives in one day. On the third day, I realised
that it is too late to run away somewhere or change something because
the war was literally around my house, on my street. There were tanks
driving down my street. It is very frightening when they shoot, it’s
such a sound, a roar.”
By
day four, there was panic. “Everybody was looking [FOR]some ways out of
there on the internet, Telegram or Viber chats. Anyone who had their
own cars just fled, risking everything. Our building has 69 apartments
and there are only four families remaining.”
Schevchenko’s
mother, Yevdokia, terrified by the fighting on her doorstep, moved down
into the block’s damp cold basement of just 20 sq metres, lit only by
candles, where she joined eight other families, including one
three-year-old child and an 86-year-old woman.
Yevdokia
would stay there for the next 13 days and nights, with only a bucket as
a toilet. The older woman, Schevchenko said, may still be in the
basement. “She hugged an icon. All the time she was there she was
hugging the icon.”
On
the fifth day, the gas supply to the town was cut off. “People
understood that we needed to boil water somehow or cook some soup or
something and by the entrance to the building we made a kind of cooking
place. It was just a campfire with two bricks on the side.”
The conversations by the fire were filled with talks of the latest dead.
“Dead
bodies were just laying in the streets, they didn’t let us move them,”
said Schevchenko. He recounted one killing, which could not be
independently verified. “There was some grandpa, he was walking with his
wife, they were about to cross the street, they were stopped by some
Russians. You know how these old men are, just like to talk back and
stuff. So they just shot him, and to the woman they said: ‘You just keep
walking.’ She rushed to her husband and started crying, and they said:
‘If you want to lay next to him, we can shoot you too.’ She told them
she needed to take the body, but they said: ‘No, just keep walking.’ And
she kept on walking, crying and walking. It happened next to a
McDonald’s, 30-40 metres away from my home.”
That old man aggressively said something to a soldier and they shot him dead, and ordered the woman to leave
The woman, distraught, approached
Yevdokia and others who were standing nearby, struggling to catch her
breath and tell her story, desperate to retrieve her husband’s body.
“That
old man aggressively said something to a soldier and they shot him
dead, and ordered the woman to leave,” said Yevdokia. “I don’t know
their names but I would see them around the town in a store, on a
market, you know, familiar faces. When he got shot I was outside, I
heard the gunshots. I had gone out of the basement to breathe some air.”
By March 9th, Schevchenko knew they had to get out - but they appeared to be trapped.
“I
started to analyse all the possible ways to escape but I am glad I
didn’t try then. Because other people who were braver than I was, fled
and were shot. Some of them came back wounded but some remained in their
cars forever, dead.”
The
following day, the Russians agreed to establish a humanitarian corridor
for the evacuation of civilians. There was an exodus - but the Russians
said they would permit only women and children to leave.
“But
we had neighbours one floor below and there was a man and I heard that
he had managed to get out so I thought if he managed to do it, why can’t
I? So, on March 11th, I woke up at 6am, and charged my phone. I found a
place to charge it. Just a little though to 6-7 per cent. Then I ran to
the basement to pick up my mum. I remember very clearly it was 8.45am, I
ran in and shouted: ‘Mum, we are running away,’ and at that moment
there was shooting.”
His
mother’s first thought was for the family pet. “She said: ‘Did you get
Mary?’ I said: ‘Yes, she is [in] my jacket.’ It’s a small fluffy dog,
just 4 kilos. So we ran to the city hall for the green corridor. But at
the city hall, they only let women and children through, so we decided
that mum would go by a green corridor and I would join other men and we
would walk to Romanivka, it’s about 12km away from Bucha, but you had to
cross the river and peatlands and it was minus 9 degrees outside that
day”.
We didn’t care about each other and didn’t pay attention to each
other. Just some animal instincts took over. I felt like I was a
concentration camp escapee.
At 10am, Schevchenko started to walk,
not on the roads, instead on the fields, with around 20 other men.
Bullets started to buzz past them. Some went down, hit and wounded.
Others, including Schevchenko, ran and tried to hide from what were
assumed to be snipers.
“We
couldn’t even help the wounded because once you come close to someone
who fell you can get shot too. There were fewer and fewer of us. I was
constantly looking back and sideways. We didn’t care about each other
and didn’t pay attention to each other. Just some animal instincts took
over. I felt like I was a concentration camp escapee.”
The
route took them through Irpin, another town where alleged atrocities
have been recorded since the Russians have withdrawn. Schevchenko made
his way to the town’s central cemetery, through a forest there and then
turned towards the village of Stoyanka leading to his destination of
Romanivka.
Lots of them were laying on the sidewalks, there were a lot of them
squashed by tanks. Like those animal skin rugs and the smell was
unbearable.
“The mayor of Irpin said the other day
that they have collected 17 dead bodies,” said Schevchenko. “I can’t say
there were only 17. There were way more. Lots of them were just sitting
in their cars. Lots of them were laying on the sidewalks, there were a
lot of them squashed by tanks. Like those animal skin rugs and the smell
was unbearable. They were laying like that for 10 days or so.”
For
seven hours, Schevchenko ran, walked and hid, in the hope of reaching
relative safety. “Then we saw our soldiers. They knew we were refugees,
they just asked us to show them our passports and showed us the way.
Buses were waiting for us.”
Today,
he has no idea how many of the 20 or so men who set off made it. “You
know, not only did I not look, I forgot how to breathe. I literally
forgot you could breathe through your nose. I was breathing through my
mouth, my heart jumping out of my chest. My dog, in my jacket, was
nervous and stressed.”
He was taken by bus to Kyiv’s main railway station where he was reunited with his mother.
“You
know when I got to safety and some time passed, I felt like it was a
prank,” Schevchenko said. “It just can’t be 15km away and it’s quiet. I
felt like I was in the movie [The] Matrix. Like someone dragged me by my
hair and threw me into this Matrix for 16 days and have been watching
how I act. And later they felt sorry for me, pulled me out of there back
to the peaceful world, patted me on my head and told me: ‘Good, you
survived.’”
- Guardian
~~~~~
~ From UATV: Apr 3, 2022
"Russia’s occupiers left dozens and, in some cities, hundreds of civilians killed. The Ukrainian satellite towns of Kyiv - Bucha, Irpin, and Hostomel - are a living museum of the most horrible war crimes - the streets of the towns are strewn with the bodies of civilians shot by the occupiers. Residents said their neighbours had been killed under fire from Russian troops during the month-long occupation. People were just walking and they shot them without any reason. Invaders tied people's hands, put them on their knees and faced the wall. International community is shocked over the massacre in Bucha. Ministers of Foreign affair of the EU countries called on the European Union to strengthen sanctions against Russia due of Russian occupiers’ war crimes."
"Lviv, Ukraine (CNN)The lifeless bodies of at least 20 civilian men line a single street in the town of Bucha near the Ukrainian capital.
Some lie face down on the pavement while others are collapsed on their
backs, mouths open in a tragic testament to the horrors of Russian occupation.
The
hands of one man are tied behind his back with a piece of white cloth.
Another man lies alone, tangled up in a bicycle by a grassy bank. A
third man lies in the middle of the road, near the charred remains of a
burned-out car.
The
shocking images of the carnage in Bucha were captured by Agence
France-Presse on Saturday, the same day Ukraine declared the town
liberated from Russian troops. Accounts of alleged Russian atrocities
are emerging as its forces retreat from areas near Kyiv following a failed bid to encircle the capital.
The
town of Bucha has endured five weeks of near-constant firefights. Now
officials and human rights groups are blaming the civilian deaths on the
departed Russian forces.
"Corpses
of executed people still line the Yabluska street in Bucha. Their hands
are tied behind their backs with white 'civilian' rags, they were shot
in the back of their heads. So you can imagine what kind of lawlessness
they perpetrated here," Bucha mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk told Reuters on
Saturday.
Ukrainian soldiers are pictured in Bucha on Saturday, after Russian troops retreated from the area.
Asked
during an appearance Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation" if Russia was
carrying out genocide in his country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelensky said: "Indeed. This is genocide."
"The
elimination of the whole nation, and the people. We are the citizens of
Ukraine. We have more than 100 nationalities. This is about the
destruction and extermination of all these nationalities," he said.
The alleged atrocities have drawn international outrage, with Western leaders, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, calling for war crimes investigations and increasing sanctions on Russia.
The
Russian Ministry of Defense claimed the extensive footage was "fake,"
saying "not a single local resident suffered from any violent actions"
during Russia's occupation of Bucha. "In the settlements of the Kiev
region, Russian military personnel delivered and issued 452 tons of
humanitarian aid to civilians," it said in a statement.
A
separate statement claimed the footage was staged. "Stories about Bucha
appeared in several foreign media outlets at once, which looks like a
planned media campaign," the statement said. "Taking into account that
the troops left the city on March 30, where was the footage for four
days? Their absence only confirms the fake."
The
Russian government has consistently responded to allegations of
civilian casualties inflicted by Russian forces with blanket denials.
After the Russian air force bombed a maternity hospital on March 9,
Russian officials attempted to cast doubt on widespread media reports,
with one Russian diplomat accusing a victim of the bombing -- a woman
who escaped from the bombing, bloodied and still pregnant -- of being an
actor and not a real victim.
Mass grave
The
toll of the Russian invasion was apparent at a mass grave in Bucha.
People cried as they attempted to locate the bodies of lost loved ones
at a grave located in the grounds of the Church of St. Andrew and
Pyervozvannoho All Saints on Sunday, according to a CNN team at the
scene.
Bucha
residents told CNN that bodies were first buried in the grave in the
first few days of the war. They believe 150 people are buried in the
site, many of whom were civilians killed in the fighting around Bucha.
CNN saw at least a dozen bodies in body bags piled inside the grave. Some were already partially covered.
The mayor of Bucha said in public remarks Saturday that up to 300 victims could be buried at the site.
CNN was unable to independently verify those numbers or the identities and nationalities of those buried in the grave.
The earth on the church grounds appeared to have been recently moved so it is feasible that more bodies could be buried there.
Ukrainian
presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said Sunday that reports
emerging from towns in the Kyiv region revealed a "post-apocalyptic
picture" of life under Russian occupation.
"This
is a special appeal aimed at drawing the world's attention to those war
crimes, crimes against humanity, which were committed by Russian troops
in Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel," Arestovych said. "These are liberated
cities, a picture from horror movies, a post-apocalyptic picture."
"Victims
of these war crimes have already been found, including raped women who
they tried to burn, local government officials killed, children killed,
elderly people killed, men killed, many of them with tied hands, traces
of torture and shot in the back of the head. Robberies, attempts to take
gold, valuables, carpets, washing machines. It, of course, will be
taken into account by the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine and law
enforcement agencies and international criminal courts."
The
evidence of apparent atrocities in Bucha came as Human Rights Watch
(HRW) announced it had documented allegations of war crimes in the
occupied areas of the Kyiv, Chernihiv and Kharkiv regions.
HRW
said Sunday that the allegations include "a case of repeated rape; two
cases of summary execution, one of six men, the other of one man; and
other cases of unlawful violence and threats against civilians between
February 27 and March 14, 2022."
In
Bucha, Russian forces "rounded up five men and summarily executed one
of them" on March 4, HRW wrote. A witness told the group that soldiers
forced the men to kneel on the road and pulled their shirts over their
heads, before shooting one of the men in the back of the head.
HRW
also alleges that on February 27, six men were rounded up in the
village of Staryi Bykiv in the Chernihiv region and later executed.
In
Malaya Rohan, a village in the Kharkiv region, a Russian soldier
repeatedly raped a woman in a school where she was sheltering with her
family on March 13, the victim told HRW. "She said that he beat her and
cut her face, neck, and hair with a knife," HRW wrote. The woman fled to
Kharkiv the following day, "where she was able to get medical treatment
and other services."
And
in the village of Vorzel, 31 miles northwest of Kyiv, Russian soldiers
"threw a smoke grenade into a basement, then shot a woman and a
14-year-old child as they emerged from the basement, where they had been
sheltering," HRW said.
"The
cases we documented amount to unspeakable, deliberate cruelty and
violence against Ukrainian civilians," Hugh Williamson, HRW's Europe and
Central Asia director, said in the statement. "Rape, murder, and other
violent acts against people in the Russian forces' custody should be
investigated as war crimes."
CNN has not independently verified the details of the HRW report and has requested comment from the Russian defense ministry.
Sunday's developments in Ukraine have hastened calls for war crimes investigations.
Blinken said the State Department would help document any atrocities the Russian military committed against Ukrainian civilians.
"Since
the aggression, we've come out and said that we believe that Russian
forces have committed war crimes, and we've been working to document
that, to provide the information we have to the relevant institutions
and organizations that will put all of this together. And there needs to
be accountability for it."
UK
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement Sunday that
"indiscriminate attacks against innocent civilians during Russia's
illegal and unjustified invasion of Ukraine must be investigated as war
crimes."
European
Union Council President Charles Michel vowed further sanctions on
Russia, while United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said an
"independent investigation" into the civilians killed in Bucha was
"essential."
CNN's
Fred Pleitgen, Vasco Cotovio, Daria Markina and Byron Blunt reported
from Bucha. Tara John and Nathan Hodge reported and wrote from Lviv.
Jonny Hallam reported from Atlanta. Amy Cassidy in London and James
Frater reported from Brussels. Niamh Kennedy reported from London.
~~~~~
Mum's The Word
Locally in Tijuana at 5:02pm, there is no reporting on Bucha....or importantly the streams of Ukrainians waiting at the San Ysidro POE (as if they didn't even exist !). You might find this interesting though from AP. Apparently mum's the word, for sure. Scary huh ?
The last few days we've been putting together care packages for the Ukrainian Refugees - I have not been up to the POE, here is the latest:
With links within the report on how to help, through the Calgary Church or House Of Ukraine, John the Baptizer Ukrainian Catholic Church and Saint Mary Protectress Ukrainian Orthodox Church:
~ From Chanel 8: CBS 8 San Diego: (video on the link)
We will have to be paying more attention to expert analysis and their projections on the AMLO-Putin relationship. Will it turn out to be a gigantic fumble in the long term, a complete collapse and failure? Let's take a look:
Destacados - Carlos Álvarez - miércoles, 30 marzo, 2022 11:37 AM
"President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said, this Wednesday, March 30, that he had a lot of “respect” for his Russian counterpart Vladímir Vladímirovich Putin, whom he only considered “a leader”, like any other in the world.
“He is a leader, I do not qualify anyone, it is not Mexico's policy to insult anyone, any foreign people or government. We have a lot of respect for the president of China [Xi Jinping], of Russia, for the president [Joseph] Biden of the United States,” said the Mexican president.
"Mexico is respectful of all peoples and is not a colony of Russia, or China, or the United States, it is a free, independent and sovereign country, it makes me very proud," said the head of the Federal Executive Branch.
During his morning press conference, the Tabasco politician again condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but assured that Mexico cannot assume a leading role that goes beyond the neutrality embodied in the Constitution.
"We condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as we condemn all invasions, but we cannot carry out a leading role that goes beyond what is prudent to maintain our neutrality," argued López Obrador.
“That an agreement be reached, that peace be achieved, that people do not suffer, that human lives are not lost, is what I wish. and if there is a way, that they reach agreements. It is not only about confrontations of the peoples, who are always oblivious to the decisions that are made in the leadership and that provoke the rules, it is a matter of being arranged upstairs, ”he added.
“Yesterday I was very pleased that it seems that the agreement between the United States and Venezuela is on the right track, after so many things that have been said. Why the fix? due to the situation in Ukraine, the increase in oil prices”, she added.
“It is convenient for the United States that it can be supplied with oil from Venezuela, and they have already authorized a US oil company, Chevron, to extract a million barrels a day from Venezuela, and this will surely help relations,” he stressed.
EU DOES NOT DICTATE LINE TO MEXICO REGARDING RUSSIA AND UKRAINE, SAYS EBRARD
Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón, head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), denied that the United States Government, headed by President Joseph Biden, dictates a line to Mexico in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“It is in his role, but it is a decision that corresponds to the Mexican Congress,” said the Mexican foreign minister, regarding the statements of the United States ambassador to Mexico, Keneth Lee Salazar, that Mexico's relationship with Russia cannot be close
"No, the line that Mexico has taken can be found in the positions in the Security Council of the United Nations Organization," replied the federal official, interviewed by the newspaper El Universal, prior to his participation in the World Summit of Governments (World Government Summit).
“Last week Mexico had an important advance with the resolution of the General Assembly of the [United Nations Organization] UN, with 140 votes. It is the Mexican diplomacy, together with France, so that there is a cessation of hostilities, between humanitarian aid and negotiations begin”, insisted the head of the SRE.
Ebrard Casaubón also pointed out that Glen D. VanHerck, commander of the US Northern Command, must present evidence that the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU, for its acronym in Russian), has deployed in Mexican territory more officials than in any other country in the world, with the aim of influencing the United States.
UNACCEPTABLE FOR THE US TO TRY TO INFLUENCE RELATIONS WITH MEXICO, SAYS RUSSIA
"We consider that it is unacceptable when the United States tries to influence the activity and decisions of the Government of Mexico," the Russian Embassy said on March 25 through its account on the social network Twitter.
The Russian embassy rejected Salazar's statement to the effect that Mexico has no friendship with any other nation like the one it has with the United States.
“Do you take into account the annexation by the United States, Mexico's 'best friend', of half of its national territory in the 19th century?”, added the Russian Embassy.
The Russian diplomatic representation added that the purpose of US propaganda is to isolate Russia and diplomats from that country from around the world, through false news, as was the case with the number of spies from that country in Mexico.
“In this context, we would like to address Mr. Salazar asking him in the most friendly way the following question: Who are the more than a thousand US diplomats who work at the US Embassy in Mexico?” they asserted.
📌 We have read the speech of the Hon. Ambassador 🇺🇸 @USAmbMex on the occasion of the installation of the United States-Mexico Friendship Group.
☝️ We would like to remind you that each sovereign country has its right to decide how to build its foreign policy
– Russian Embassy in Mexico (@EmbRusiaMexico) March 25, 2022
EU AMBASSADOR REPROACHES FRIENDSHIP GROUP OF RUSSIA AND MEXICO IN SAN LAZARO
Keneth Lee Salazar, head of the United States Embassy in Mexico, criticized, on March 24, the installation of the Mexico-Russia Friendship Group in the Chamber of Deputies of the Congress of the Union, which was attended by the Russian ambassador Víktor Koronelli .
During the installation of the United States-Mexico Friendship Group in the Lower House, the US diplomat pointed out that his Russian counterpart made "noise" about an alleged relationship between Mexico and Russia.
Likewise, Salazar reminded the Mexican federal deputies that Mexico and the United States united "for freedom" in World War II against the intentions of Adolf Hitler and the Axis Forces.
"We have to be in solidarity with Ukraine and against Russia. It seems to me that the Russian ambassador was here yesterday making a noise that Mexico and Russia were so close, and that, sorry, can never happen, can never happen," he declared. the American ambassador.
“We can no longer say that this is happening on the other side of the world because it can affect us here in Mexico. What [Vladímir] Putin and the Russians are doing is something that I thought I would never see,” Salazar stressed.
“What Russia did by attacking Ukraine is an attack on the freedom and way of life of all of us. When the family is attacked, if someone threatens it, the whole family joins. Here we are talking about a Friendship Group between Mexico and the United States, there can be no differences, we have to do the same”, emphasized the American diplomat.
Ken Salazar, ambassador of the United States in Mexico, criticized the reception given by the Chamber of Deputies to the Russian ambassador, Víktor Koronelli, before the installation of the Mexico-Russia Friendship Group in the midst of the invasion of Ukraine. He said so.
On March 23, despite the rejection of the deputies of the parliamentary groups of the National Action Party (PAN) and the Citizen Movement (MC), the Mexico-Russia Friendship Group was installed in the Chamber of Deputies of the Congress of the Union.
Alberto Anaya Gutiérrez, deputy of the Labor Party (PT) parliamentary group and who presided over the installation of the Group, reiterated that the Government of Mexico determined not to issue any sanctions against Russia and welcomed their relations.
"Due to this conflict between Ukraine and Russia, we are going to be in a situation of peace and neutrality, relations are welcome," said the deputy before Viktor Koronelli, head of the Russian Embassy in Mexico.
"Our votes are for this conflict to have a diplomatic solution, a peaceful solution, where the parties agree to end this conflict so that this region of the world finds peace again and this conflict does not escalate," insisted Anaya Gutiérrez.
At the Group's installation, the Russian ambassador in Mexico, Víktor Koronelli, maintained that Russia did not start "this war", referring to his country's invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24.
The Russian diplomat described the war as an operation to demilitarize Ukraine, and thus put an end to the "extermination" of the Russian community in Donbas by the Ukrainian Army, which, according to him, has lasted 8 years.
On the other hand, Koronelli recognized the position of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón, head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), of not joining the sanctions against Russia and rejecting Ukraine's request to send weapons.
“We greatly respect the position demonstrated, already several times, by the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador; by the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, that Mexico will never join the anti-Russian sanctions and that it will never, despite the requests of the Government of Ukraine, ever supply Ukraine with weapons, ”he said.
"I want to assure you that I have no doubt that what is happening these days is not going to affect Russia's relations with Mexico in any way, which continues to be one of our oldest and most important partners in the Latin American region," the Russian ambassador said.
“In 2021 alone, despite COVID and all restrictions, our trade more than doubled compared to 2020, reaching a record $4.8 billion,” added Koronelli.
The diplomat quoted the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who a few days ago said that: "Today in the world there are countries like China, India, Mexico that will never answer and do anything at the order of Uncle Sam."
Separately, the MC parliamentary group demonstrated for the installation of the Mexico-Russia Friendship Group, with signs that said "No to war." While the PAN caucus demanded a ceasefire and a solution to the conflict based on International Humanitarian Law.
“For no reason do we agree with being part of the recklessness and lack of sensitivity of the situation that Ukraine is going through with the invasion of Russian troops in its territory, which has resulted in 2,421 civilian victims and more than 6.5 million displaced people”, stated the PAN parliamentary group.
🟡 LIVE / Installation of the Mexico-Russian Federation Friendship Group. https://t.co/MQhxtBH41A
“WE ARE NOT A COLONY OF RUSSIA”, AMLO RESPONDS TO THE EU FOR ALLEGED RUSSIAN SPIES IN MEXICO
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador responded, on March 24, that Mexico "is not a colony of Russia", after Glen D. VanHerck, commander of the US Northern Command, stated that the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU, for its acronym in Russian), has more officers deployed in Mexican territory than in any other country in the world, with the aim of influencing the United States.
“Well, it is a declaration, we are not going to question anything, we are respectful of the free expression of ideas, Mexico is a free, independent and sovereign country, it should be known, more and more, because sometimes it seems that what is not understood is enough, you have to send them telegrams warning them that Mexico is not a colony of any foreign country,” said the national president.
"That Mexico is a free, independent and sovereign country that we are not a colony of Russia, China or the United States, because it is a declaration, we are not going to question anything, we are respectful of the free expression of ideas," he added. Tabasco politician.
“I don't know [if there are Russian spies in Mexico], we have no information about that. And we do not prevent anyone, any foreigner who wants to carry out legal activities in the country from doing so, those who are criminals, commit crimes, are arrested, neither Mexicans nor foreigners are allowed to commit crimes in our country. ”, insisted the president.
“And that it should also be understood that we have a policy of non-intervention. We are not going to Moscow to spy on anyone, nor are we going to Beijing to spy on what they are doing in China, nor are we going to Washington, not even to Los Angeles, we do not get involved in that, ”said the national president, during his morning press conference. , carried out in Cuernavaca, Morelos.
“Right now the largest portion of GRU members in the world is in Mexico. These are Russian intelligence personnel. And they keep a very close eye on their opportunities to influence opportunity and access in the United States,” Van Herck said during a hearing at the US Senate Armed Services Committee on March 24.
"There are actors like China and Russia that are very aggressive and active throughout the Northern Command's area of responsibility, including the Bahamas and Mexico," the commander said, responding to a question from Republican Senator Mike Rounds.
The also general of the US Air Force and commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, assured that the instability in Mexico created by the Mexican drug cartels, generate conditions that can be exploited by agents of Russia and China. , which would affect American national security.
“Transnational criminal organizations create an environment that is not conducive to raising a family, to economic success. And we see that happening right on our border, in Mexico,” insisted the commander of the US Northern Command.
"My concern is that such instability creates the opportunity for actors such as China, Russia and others who may have nefarious activities in mind to seek access and influence in our area of responsibility, from a US national security perspective," Gen. VanHerck.
During his audience, which was reported by the Reforma newspaper, the commander also praised the collaboration with the Mexican Secretaries of National Defense (SEDENA) and the Navy (SEMAR), applauding the deployment of military elements for security in Mexico.
The GRU was created in 1942. It survived the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and is today, together with the Federal Security Service (SVR, for its acronym in Russian), one of the two agencies in charge of espionage abroad. .
But, in addition, the GRU has its own special forces brigades. She has been accused of hacking the World Anti-Doping Agency and poisoning former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in the UK in 2018.
General VanHerck has been head of the US Northern Command since August 2020 and under this responsibility he is in charge of day-to-day cooperation relations with Mexican SEDENA and SEMAR. He previously served as Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Armed Forces MEXICANS CONTAINED RUSSIAN AND CHINESE INTRUSIONS, SAYS US NORTHERN COMM
On March 8, Glen D. VanHerck, commander of the US Northern Command, stated that the Mexican Armed Forces are "firm" allies of the United States, because they have helped contain Russian and Chinese intrusions in the South American region.
The also general of the US Air Force and commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, explained that Russia and China have managed to make intrusions of various kinds in Central and South America, but highlighted the Mexican collaboration to prevent them.
“The Secretary of National Defense [SEDENA] and the Secretary of the Navy [SEMAR] are strong partners in security and continue to be a bulwark in Mexico against the presence and influence of competing [countries] that make intrusions into Central and South America” VanHerck said during a hearing on Capitol Hill.
During his appearance before the Armed Forces Committee of the US House of Representatives, the US general described as "vital" the contributions of SEDENA and SEMAR to the security of North America, because, according to the general, they also share the commitment to contain common threats.
“Russia is the number one military threat to the homeland [the United States], and its focus on attacking the country has provided the model that other competitors are beginning to follow,” said VanHerck, who previously served as Director of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. USA, from August 2019 to the same month of 2020.
"Like Russia, China has begun to develop new capabilities to endanger our homeland across multiple domains in an attempt to complicate our decision-making and disrupt, delay and degrade the flow of force in crisis and destroy our will in conflict." VanHerck added.
In addition to the above, the US military command highlighted the Mexico-US Military Cooperation Roundtable, held in August of last year, as well as its own visit in September 2021, to the Mexico Aerospace Fair (FAMEX). ), carried out at the Santa Lucía Air Base.
Before VanHerck, the head of the US Southern Command, General Laura Richardson, detailed the incursions of the governments of Russia and China in various countries of South and Central America, both in matters of trade and investment. , technology and military cooperation.
Richardson assured that Russia "destabilizes" various countries in the Western Hemisphere, through disinformation campaigns, but also by expanding its territorial access in the region, with its military cooperation alliances with Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.
AMLO DENIES THAT THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT ONLY GOVERNS 65% OF ITS TERRITORY, AS THE EU POINTED OUT
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador denied, on March 18, 2021, the statements of General Glen David VanHerck, head of the North Command of the United States Air Force, who accused that the problems that exist on the southern border of his country, on issues of human trafficking and drug trafficking, they are due to failures of the Government of Mexico, which only governs between 70 and 65 percent of its territory.
“What is maintained is not true, but we respect everyone's opinions. We are going to continue to have good relations with the United States Government, we are not going to fight with the United States Government,” said the national president, during his morning press conference.
The head of the Federal Executive Power was questioned as to whether his counterpart Joe Biden had asked him for support on this issue, the Tabasco politician said no. “He is very respectful of us and we don't interfere. Respect for the rights of others is peace”, added the national president.
“The broader problem, when I say symptom [is] the fight against drug trafficking, migration, human trafficking, they are all symptoms of transnational criminal organizations that often operate in ungoverned areas, 30 to 35 percent of Mexico, that it's creating some of the things that we're dealing with at the border," VanHerck said on March 17, 2021.
During a press conference held at the Pentagon -headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia, near Washington DC-, the military command compared the lack of governance in some areas of Mexico, with what happens in China and Russia, where they take advantage of government failures to generate instability in these areas.
“What we see on the southern border is a compilation of multiple things, not just one thing, that has driven what we are seeing regarding migration to this country,” VanHerck insisted, adding that the pandemic, coupled with the problems of drug trafficking in Mexico and the countries of Central America, "are indicators and reasons" why people go to the United States.
“I think it's a national security imperative that we need to consider (the problems on the border with Mexico). And the reason I see it that way, from a national defense perspective, is that it creates potential vulnerabilities and opportunities for actors around the world,” VanHerck added.
Although the general did not want to affirm that there is a crisis on the border with Mexico, he acknowledged that this problem has been going on for at least a year, that is, the last of the Administration of former President Donald Trump.
Earlier, during an appearance at the US Senate Armed Services Committee, VanHerck described the cooperation with the Mexican Armed Forces as "fantastic", but underlined the risks of instability created by the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). .
“There are two important transnational criminal organizations, Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación. We have a national security imperative given the instability they create, the tragedies they cause, and the opportunities they create for malign actors like China and Russia, directly on our southern border, to gain access and influence,” he noted.
“From the point of view [of our relationship] with the Mexicans, they are tremendous partners, we have a fantastic military-to-military relationship. They have been great partners,” VanHerck assured when questioned by Thom Thillis, a Republican senator from North Carolina, regarding said issue.
According to VanHerck, the relationship of the US Northern Command with the Mexican military has been maintained closely through virtual meetings during the pandemic, in addition to having Mexican officers stationed at its headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado."
~~~~~
Yet I am sure that the laymen amongst us (including myself) ask themselves over and over again: "How can you have respect for a war criminal? How does that work?" Theresa Margolis enlightens us on this truly sickening deep-pockets scenario and toxic relationship:
"Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) lukewarm response to Russia’s flagrant invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, Feb. 24, really shouldn’t come as any great surprise.
After all, Russia is a longtime backer of AMLO’s leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena) government, having allegedly financed at least part of López Obrador’s 2018 presidential campaign, according to some U.S. national security sources at the time.
The Russian influence in that election was so blatant that even before he became president, many Mexican political analysts were referring to López Obrador as “Andrés Manuelovich.”
And while solid evidence has remained elusive, many international political pundits have alleged that Russia used hackers, bots and fake news to boost AMLO’s campaign, especially among poorly educated, lower-income Mexicans.
Whether or not Russia indeed had a hand in AMLO’s victory, there is no question that Moscow benefited from his election.
Russia has been working to solidify its geopolitical foothold in Latin America for decades, and Mexico, with its close economic and geographic ties to the United States, made it a plum trophy for Moscow’s socialist ideological expansion.
Russia has been working to solidify its geopolitical foothold in Latin America for decades, and Mexico, with its close economic and geographic ties to the United States, made it a plum trophy for Moscow’s socialist ideological expansion.
Moscow offered AMLO the financial and media push he needed to win the election (remember John Ackerman, the U.S.-born Russia Today broadcaster who endorsed AMLO nonstop leading up to the elections and who later landed himself a juicy designation from López Obrador as a member of the technical evaluation committee of Mexico’s Federal Electoral Institute, which was later rescinded after opposition leaders pointed out that Ackerman did not meet the essential requirements for the post, and Ackerman’s wife, Irma Erénderira Sandoval, who was named head of AMLO’s Public Administration Secretariat, charged with ensuring that public servants were corruption-free, until she had to resign when it was revealed that she had accepted a plot of land from the Morena Mexico City government?).
And once he won, López Obrador paid Russia back in spades.
No sooner was AMLO in office in December 2018, than a team of Russian oil investors were welcome into the country to help the state-run Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) explore new reserves.
In the last three years, Russia’s economic and financial presence in Mexico has skyrocketed.
Last year, Russia sold more than $8.7 billion in goods and services to Mexico (up from just over $1.5 billion before AMLO took office in 2018), and there are now 108 Russian companies with capital holdings in Mexico.
Last year, Russia sold more than $8.7 billion in goods and services to Mexico (up from just over $1.5 billion before AMLO took office in 2018), and there are now 108 Russian companies with capital holdings in Mexico.
Moreover, ever since he took office, AMLO has been faithfully following the Vladimir Putin handbook: consolidating power by shamelessly working to eliminate all independent entities that could provide checks and balances to his regime, endorsing other socialist governments (Cuba, Bolivia, Venezuela), and constantly accusing his critics of unproven crimes and even imprisoning some of them.
For AMLO, the Russian affiliation has been a win-win relationship, with Putin helping López Obrador to hone his own Mexican-style “kompromat” assaults against his political and media enemies and coming to the rescue of his “Man in Mexico” at the start of the covid-19 pandemic by providing a generous stash of Sputnik vaccines.
And AMLO knows full well what side of his bread is buttered on.
On Friday, Feb. 25, just as Putin’s troops were ruthlessly grabbing control of Kiev, Russia’s second-largest oil producer, Lukoil, was signing the final acquisition papers on a 50-percent operator interest in an offshore Mexican oil project (the fruit of those aforementioned initial Russian oil dealings with AMLO immediately after he took office).
Just as Putin’s troops were ruthlessly grabbing control of Kiev, Russia’s second-largest oil producer, Lukoil, was signing the final acquisition papers on a 50-percent operator interest in a $435 million offshore Mexican oil project.
Lukoil put the transaction value of the deal at $435 million, plus expenditures of another $250 million.
The project includes two sectors of Mexican offshore oil fields located in the Gulf of Mexico, with recoverable hydrocarbon reserves amounting to 564 million barrels of oil equivalent, more than 80 percent of which is crude oil.
Production at the fields already began in the fourth quarter of 2021, with current average output exceeding 25,000 barrels a day and projected production to reach more than 115,000 barrels a day. (So much for AMLO’s promises to keep Mexico’s oil in Mexican hands.)
López Obrador’s favorite battle cry is “Primero los Pobres” (“The poor come first”). But considering his undying love for Putin and all things Russian, it probably should be “Primero los Rusos.”"
~~~~~
Meanwhile in Tijuana, we are up to over 1,000 newly arrived Mexican Soldiers in the past week, the mission is to curb the violence - we've lived through this one before.
Unfortunately, this arrival did not dissuade the violence here; at the moment TIJ is showing 145 executions this month, with a yearly total of 408.
Well at least there are some politicians with a profound sense of decency (unlike down here)...As a matter of fact there are tons of them: NATO, the EU, the UN...gosh AMLO is outgunned- I don't think Kaja Kallas or any of them will be invited anytime soon to Los Pinos for fish tacos, do you ? Well that's probably for the best - AMLO would charge them for the shitty tacos in rubles which he would put in his back pocket with a wink and a nod...knowing mucho mas de los is on the way.
Over and out for now, and BTW, I love General Glen Van Herck.....except I'm a bit uneasy over the Mexican Officers stationed at the U.S. Northern Command Headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado.