Security in Ecuador has come undone as drug cartels exploit the banana industry to ship cocaine

> Ecuador is increasingly at the confluence of two global trades: bananas and cocaine.

> wedged between the world’s largest cocaine producers, Peru and Colombia, and drug traffickers find containers filled with bananas the perfect vehicle to smuggle their product.
https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-09-04/security-in-ecuador-has-come-undone-as-drug-cartels-exploit-the-banana-industry-to-ship-cocaine.html #Ecuador #cocaine #cartels

“#Meta Overhauls Controversial ‘Dangerous Organizations’ Censorship Policy: In an internal update obtained by The #Intercept, #Facebook and #Instagram’s parent company admits its rules stifled legitimate political speech.”

By Sam Biddle in @theintercept

“Meta’s ‘Dangerous Organizations and Individuals,’ or #DOI, policy is based around a secret #blacklist
of thousands of people and groups, spanning everything from #terrorists and drug #cartels to rebel armies and musical acts. For years, the policy prohibited the more than one billion people using Facebook and Instagram from engaging in ‘praise, support or representation’ of anyone on the list.

‘Changing the DOI policy is a step in the right direction, one that digital rights defenders and civil society globally have been requesting for a long time,’ Mona Shtaya, nonresident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, told The Intercept.

Observers like Shtaya have long objected to how the DOI policy has tended to disproportionately censor political discourse in places like #Palestine — where discussing a Meta-banned organization like #Hamas is unavoidable — in contrast to how Meta rapidly adjusted its rules to allow praise of the #Ukrainian #Azov #Battalion despite its neo-#Nazi sympathies.”

https://theintercept.com/2023/08/30/meta-censorship-policy-dangerous-organizations/

When they came and took the forest away... there was a civil uprising.
Pt.2
Cherán. 5 years of self-government in an indigenous community in Mexico
"Ordinary people decided to confront the criminal organizations that came down from the hill with several vans loaded with wood. That was the beginning. Its experience has inspired indigenous communities throughout Mexico, who seek respect for their rights, territory, institutions and culture."
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/cher-n-5-years-of-self-government-in-indi/

Images: Confronting the cartel: Ritual Inhabitual depict a community’s fightback against corruption in Mexico
https://www.1854.photography/2023/07/ritual-inhabitual-ones-to-watch/

Can satellite imagery fight illegal logging in Mexico?
Between 2006 and 2012, researchers estimate that about 70 percent of Cheran’s forests were ravaged by organised criminals as locals staged protests to denounce police inaction.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/26/can-satellite-imagery-fight-illegal-logging-in-mexico

#Forests #biodiversity #trees #water #Cherán #IndigenousPeoples #uprising
#Logging #violence #trucks #cartels #corruption #IndigenousSelfRule #SelfDetermination #DecisionMaking #SocialMedia #protests #democracy #activism #resistance #PoliticalParticipation #fightback
#NewryStateForest #NSWLogging #Gumbaynggirr

Mothers searching for their missing children were beaten by 70 members of the Querétaro Prosecutor's Office last night. They broke cell phones & attacked children in tents at the protest camp. 112,000 are missing in Mexico & this is the way they treat the mothers.

via @VIM_Media@twitter.com

https://twitter.com/VIM_Media/status/1694244760704155933

#mexico #Querétaro #cartels #police #malitia #killingkids #themissing #mothers #searching #beaten

#Mexico, where #cartels rule, & daily tragedies have been normalized: “No one is safe in Mexico,” wrote journalist Javier Risco in a recent column. “Neither the relatives who are looking for their disappeared, nor the public officials who are in charge” of the search for the missing. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/22/mexico-missing-person-forensics-expert-juan-carlos-tercero

Another political leader in Ecuador murdered https://politicaliq.com/2023/08/15/another-political-leader-in-ecuador-murdered/ #Ecuador #Assassination #PedroBriones #DrugTrafficking #Cartels #SpecialElection #politicaliq #news #politics

😳

#Ecuador declares state of emergency after #assassination of anti-corruption #presidential candidate

https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ecudaor-state-emergency-assassination-20230810-q3fitsmpv5cavk3trhqkmlouju-story.html

> An #Ecuadorian presidential #candidate known for speaking up against #cartels and #corruption was shot and killed Wednesday at a #political #rally in the capital, amid a startling wave of gang-driven #violence in the South American country.

Ecuadorian Presidential candidate, Fernando Villavicencio, assassinated

#Ecuador #candidate #assassinated #fernandovillavicencio #cartels #war

#Crypto #Cryptocurrencies #Cartels #Scams #PonziScheme #Decentralization: "It’s a cartel in the classic economic and business sense—OPEC, not Sinaloa—a small group of connected actors working together to dominate a market that they only recently helped create. For crypto, where money is fake, value is purely hype-based, and new tokens can be spun out of nothing, it makes perfect sense. It’s a small industry, notionally worth $3 trillion at its peak in November 2021 but now hovering around $1 trillion. Many leading crypto luminaries know each other, interact on social media, trade with each other, and hobnob at small private gatherings like the Satoshi Roundtable, an annual invite-only meeting of select crypto insiders. Last spring, I confirmed via some attendees that Jean-Louis van der Velde, Tether’s elusive Hong Kong-based CEO, was at the invite-only FTX conference in the Bahamas, alongside luminaries like Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. In a public Twitter exchange, Bankman-Fried—whose Alameda hedge fund allegedly bought at least $36 billion worth of Tether in just a few years—said he didn’t know if van der Velde was there. I didn’t believe him.

Many crypto power players have histories with poker, online gambling, offshore finance, and/or other gray-market economies. A lot of them do business via so-called OTC, or over the counter, trades: person-to-person exchanges that might not leave a trace on the blockchain, crypto’s supposedly transparent public ledger. Over time, the industry, including its black-market participants, has developed its own protocols, social codes, and, as interests aligned, what amounted to an omerta. What was good for one member was often good for the rest."

https://thebaffler.com/outbursts/blowing-up-the-crypto-cartel-silverman

#GOP Obsession: Bomb the #Cartels
https://terryschwadron.medium.com/gop-obsession-bomb-the-cartels-9dca2de57b0
#mexico #terrorism

Mexico's press under siege: The rising journalist death toll – DW

>In #Mexico, journalism has become one of the deadliest professions. On Saturday, another reporter was found dead. But the public appears too intimidated to show outrage.
https://www.dw.com/en/mexicos-press-under-siege-the-rising-journalist-death-toll/a-66191408 #journalism #mexicancartels #cartels

Missing Mexican reporter found dead — newspaper

>Sanchez Iniguez’s body was found on Saturday morning in a rural area near Tepic, the capital of Nayarit. Some unconfirmed local media reports said he was found wrapped in plastic bags and had a message on his chest.
https://jordantimes.com/news/world/missing-mexican-reporter-found-dead-%E2%80%94-newspaper #Journalism #mexicancartels #mexico #cartel #cartels

https://youtu.be/zvo-yCDHeL0
#MeetThePress #Fentanyl #Cartels

Ars Technica: Deadly fungal meningitis cases nearly double as CDC rushes to find exposed https://arstechnica.com/?p=1948611 #Tech #arstechnica #IT #Technology #fungalmeningitis #Anesthesiology #medicaltourism #contamination #publichealth #anesthesia #TomChiller #infection #Maramatos #epidural #morphine #outbreak #cartels #Health #deaths #fungal #mexico #cases #spine #CDC

Deadly fungal meningitis cases nearly double as CDC rushes to find exposed - Enlarge / One of the medical clinics suspended by Mexican health author... - https://arstechnica.com/?p=1948611 #fungalmeningitis #anesthesiology #medicaltourism #contamination #publichealth #anesthesia #tomchiller #infection #maramatos #epidural #morphine #outbreak #cartels #health #deaths #fungal #mexico #cases #spine #cdc

"Chinese actors play a significant role in #laundering money for Mexican cartels through informal financial and #trade networks. Of particular note is the rise of payment in kind: in exchange for drug precursors, Mexican #cartels provide Chinese traffickers with coveted black-market products, especially timber and protected wildlife. The potential damage to economic sustainability, food security, and global #biodiversity is severe."
⸺
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/mexico/why-america-struggling-stop-fentanyl-epidemic by Vanda #FelbabBrown #fentanyl

#cartels #guns #gunpipeline #mexico
I wish I heard more of this from Dems…
https://apple.news/AO1H-xZI1RM6HoCMjYghHKw

“There is serious policy & then there’s political bluster. When it comes to the fentanyl crisis & violence in Mexico, there has lately been too much of the latter & not enough of the former. Reforming the gun industry to stop the crime gun pipeline is a serious & necessary solution to this ongoing emergency.”

Pres. Biden?
Will this self fulfilling viscous cycle…end?

El Menchito, the son and top deputy of the CJNG cartel's infamous leader, was due to plead guilty in a U.S. court. Then a new lawyer showed up.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7z8qn/el-menchos-son-plea-deal-el-menchito-lawyer
#News #worldnews #cjng #CARTELS #Drugs #Crime

Having recently returned from an extended stay in central Mexico, I can tell you this is exactly what Mexicans say about their current state of affairs. Beyond their misguided election of AMLO, who has protected criminals in an unprecedented manner, Mexicans rightfully lay the blame for the violence growing in Mexico squarely at the feet of the United States for arming cartels with war weaponry. #mexico #cartels #gop #guns

<<<The cartels need to be stopped. But this is not a problem Washington can bomb its way out of. Sending in troops won’t help stop the violence and drug trafficking. There is, however, something the United States can do that would: cut off the gun pipeline that arms the cartels.

….Seventy to 90 percent of Mexican drug cartels’ guns are trafficked from U.S. gun stores, supplied by U.S. manufacturers and distributors.>>>

How to stop the Mexican cartels? Stop supplying them with guns.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/13/mexico-cartels-gun-trafficking-violence/

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/13/mexico-cartels-gun-trafficking-violence/ How to stop the Mexican cartels? Stop supplying them with guns. #mexico #cartels