THE DRUG CRISIS ISN'T JUST IN MEXICO

Baja's traffickers are well-known, but their peers in California are
invisible; why does the press ignore them?

From Crescent City to San Ysidro, Californians have had preferential
seating to watch the murder and drug trafficking thrillers being played out
in Tijuana and Ensenada. But what the people from California don't know,
and maybe cannot even imagine, is that seated next to them may be some of
the criminals whose job it is to come down to Baja California to execute
people.

A few days ago at a gathering with journalists in San Diego, I commented
that we all seem to know every single detail on the lives of Mexican drug
traffickers, yet no American or Mexican newspapers are publishing anything
about the American criminals who control drug trafficking in America. Not
even one name.

As far as I can tell, those who traffic in drugs in California are neither
angels nor ghosts. They are real people who distribute pot, cocaine,
heroin and crystal methamphetamines in California, somehow without being
bothered. They are achieving "the American dream" of success.

But they are poisoning youths and adults and, in many cases, driving them
to a premature deaths. They are making young people turn to a life of
vice, only to then be used to commit crimes and robberies. They are hurting
society. Yet the cops don't arrest them and the journalists don't report
about them with the same zeal with which they report on Mexican drug lords.

American journalists seem to know everything there is to know, and then
some, about south-of-the-border thugs like Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo,
Juan Garcia Abrego, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Ernesto "Don Neto" Fonseca,
Jose Contreras Subias, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, Javier Munoz Talavera,
Hector "El Guero" Palma, Angel Esparragoza and the Arellano Felix brothers.
But I never see the names of American drug lords in any of their
newspapers. It would seem that by the time the vehicles loaded with drugs
cross the Mexican border into the United States, they become invisible,
thus untouchable. Not to mention what seems to be a pretty obvious
conclusion: As long as Americans demand drugs, there will be a supply from
Mexico. But that's not all.

Most Californians are not aware of the existence of an informal army of
American youngsters who cross the border at Tijuana or other parts of
Mexico on orders to kill. Sometimes they make their living.

I know this firsthand because one of them died last Thanksgiving trying to
kill me. Instead, he and his four companions, who were from San Diego,
ended up killing my bodyguard, Luis Valero Elizalde, with their machine
guns. While one died of a gunshot from his gang, the other four, who
escaped after the shooting, have been identified but not captured; they are
believed to be in the United States. They wanted to kill me to stop me
from writing about drug trafficking in my newspaper.

The border crossings of these hired guns is a good example of why what is
happening in Baja should not be only the concern of the people in Baja.
This is a binational army of killers working in both Mexico and America,
and it will take a binational effort to control it.

The Sept. 17 execution-style massacre in Ensenada of 18 people in what was
believed to be a drug-related incident is still fresh in the collective
memory of people in both Californias. This mass murder of two families,
including babies, goes beyond the norm even for the drug criminals. The
unwritten law that governs the behavior of the drug lords is to kill the
enemy, the person who is making one's life uncomfortable. So they usually
kill their enemies, not their enemies' families.

It can't be denied that some of the victims of the Ensenada massacre were
dealing drugs, but the way they were victimized is an extreme type of
revenge. If it was indeed drug-connected, both Mexicans and Americans
should be concerned because we would be witnessing a chilling escalation on
the business of drug-related executions.

During the recent long Labor Day weekend, thousands of Californians came
south and did not kill or attack anybody. They came to have fun and enjoy
a nice weekend with their families. That's the way it ought to be.

In Baja, we are not agonizing. We are going through a crisis we must
solve. But we should also remember that in this crisis the people from
California also play an important part.

Checked-by: Richard Lake