I am still not sure what I think about President Donald Trump. He is quite an enigma. However, it does not matter what I think, or anyone else thinks about the man Donald Trump. He is OUR DULY ELECTED PRESIDENT. And I believe the vessel GOD has chosen to use for HIS PURPOSE. We all owe him the respect due the office. I will say loud and clear that though I am in no position to judge him personally, what I have seen during both of his terms in office shows HE IS GOOD FOR AMERICA. The decisions he has made have been tough. Not easily palatable to the general public, but they are 100% in the best interest of our NATION. Even though he is technically one of the elites, they hate him. I used to think that was all for show. You know, Good Cop-Bad Cop. But now I feel much more strongly that President Trump is TRYING to pull us out of the UN AGENDA and bring America back. America will NEVER be the same as it once was…but he is trying to get us back to some sense of stability.
The sad thing is, the cards are stacked against him. The entire World has gotten so far out of hand that it will take a Miracle of GOD to save us now. And not because of Climate Change/Global warming. If you don’t know by now that The Environmental Agenda is BS… I don’t know what to tell you.
Anyway, there are much bigger problems. With the help of characters like George Soros, Klaus Schwab, Barack Hussein Obuma, George Bush both senior and junior and of others of their ilk and their predecessors we are in a fine mess. A REAL PICKLE! And not just here in the USA but every nation around the World. The issue we are faing are GLOBAL ISSUES. Because the problems were CREATED by those who want a GLOBAL DICTATORSHIP. They are created a situation so horribying that the entire world will be begging for someone to rescue them.
The War on Terror is the campaign launched by the United States of America in response to the September 11 attacks against organizations designated as terrorists.[1][2] The campaign’s, stated objective was to eliminate international terrorism, it began in 2001.[3] SOURCE
HOW GOES THE WAR? View this post and you be the Judge.
2016 While he was President Obama refused to use the term “radical Islamic terrorist” to describe the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations that have organized attacks against Americans. source
Obama’s War on the Christian ‘Extremist’ Threat
A concerted campaign to portray Christians as domestic enemies comes to light.
Obama proclaimed to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2012: “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” He never had any problem mocking the Word of God/Jesus or making fun of Christians who believe. He had no problem offending Christians by removing or covering up anything that might symbolize or bring to mind the work of the Cross.
In keeping with this sentiment, his administration decided to scrub all federal law enforcement training materials in order to eliminate the use of such words or phrases as jihadists or Islamic terrorists, since the use of such terms could be viewed by Muslims as evidence of Islamophobia.
By contrast, the Obama administration, including the military over which Obama presided as commander-in-chief, is engaging in a pattern of behavior targeting traditional Christian believers and their groups as extremists and mocking their beliefs.
For example, according to an October 23, 2013 report by Fox News, “Soldiers attending a pre-deployment briefing at Fort Hood say they were told that evangelical Christians and members of the Tea Party were a threat to the nation and that any soldier donating to those groups would be subjected to punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”
Fort Hood, let’s not forget, was the site of the massacre committed by the radicalized Muslim soldier Nidal Hasan, shouting “God is great” in Arabic (Allahu Akhbar) as he proceeded with the slaughter of his unarmed fellow soldiers.
Yet, during the pre-deployment briefing at Fort Hood, barely a word was said about Islamic extremism. As one soldier put it, “Our community is still healing from the act of terrorism brought on by Nidal Hasan – who really is a terrorist. This is a slap in the face. The military is supposed to defend freedom and to classify the vast majority of the military that claim to be Christian as terrorists is sick.”
Fox News’ Todd Starnes reported last April that, while briefing an Army Reserve unit in Pennsylvania, an instructor said that Evangelical Christianity and Catholicism were examples of religious extremism, equating followers with the KKK, al Qaeda and Hamas. The training materials also listed “Islamophobia” as a form of religious extremism.
In yet another example, Todd Starnes reported last January that “the U.S. military ordered soldiers to remove a cross and a steeple from atop a chapel and to board up cross-shaped windows at a remote American forward operating base in Afghanistan.” Whatever justification might be given for removing the very visible Christian cross symbol from atop the chapel, boarding up windows that happen to be cross-shaped is a step too far to rationalize on grounds that the design of windows in an American facility might offend Afghan Muslims whom our soldiers are risking their lives to defend.
Breitbart News has recounted still other examples of anti-Christian bias in the military under Obama’s watch. These are not isolated examples. A Defense Department training document entitled “Extremism” was cited by Breitbart News to demonstrate the document’s reliance on an organization as an approved source of information – the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) – that has an anti-Christian, anti-Tea Party bias. For example, SPLC has labeled such traditional Christian groups as the American Family Association and the Traditional Values Coalition as domestic hate groups.
This bias appears to reflect the Obama administration’s thinking at the highest levels. Indeed, as reported by Breitbart News, rather than embrace an amendment passed last June in the House Armed Services Committee protecting religious speech of service members in the military, the White House released a Statement of Administration Policy with a threat to veto the bill if it passes the full House and Senate. “In other words,” Breitbart News concluded, “Obama says he will veto any bill that forbids his appointees or officers from telling a soldier that he cannot mention Jesus during prayer or have a Bible on his desk, or that keeps those appointees from telling a chaplain (who is an ordained clergyman) what religious teachings he is allowed to give in worship services, or what spiritual counseling he can give to another soldier.”
The Obama administration bends over backwards to avoid hurting the sensibilities of Muslims, even referring to Hasan’s jihadist attack at Fort Hood as merely “workplace violence.” But traditional Christians are a subject of mockery and disrespect by this administration.
| Have you considered what that statement means? The FUTURE then would belong ONLY TO MUSLIMS... Not Muslims in general but ONLY those Muslims who are ISLAMISTS!
Islamism can be best described as an “anti-” ideology, in the sense that it defines itself only in opposition to things. That is, Islamism stands not for but against. For starters, Islamism is anti-Semitic in promoting the view that Jews are evil. Because Jews live in Israel, it is also anti-Israeli, and it is also anti-American due to its distorted view of Jews’ role in the United States. “Jews are evil, they run America, therefore America is evil” — this is the mantra of Islamist thinking. Islamism is also anti-Christian, having a perverted view of the religion as well. And since Jews and Christians live in the West, many Islamists are anti-Western. They likewise oppose liberal democracy and secularism, as these institutions originated in the West. What is more, Islamists tend to be anti-capitalist because — now you follow the logic — capitalism originates from the West. Many also believe that “Jews invented capitalism” and therefore see capitalism as doubly evil. When they make money, however, Islamists often soften their negative attitude toward capitalism, anti-capitalism being ever the corruptible link in the Islamists’ “anti-” ideology. The future of many countries in the world, and the future of the West, will be determined by this battle between Muslims and Islamists. Islamists want to convert Muslims to their hateful ideology. source |
The White House acknowledged… that it asked Georgetown University, a Catholic institution, to cover up prominent Christian symbols for President Obama’s economic speech there in 2010. Is it any wonder that the military followed the example of its commander-in-chief in going overboard to remove anything that looked like a Christian symbol in the chapel at the Afghan base?
President Obama sets the tone for his administration’s dismissive attitude towards traditional Christians. Indeed, he came into office with a snide view of traditional Christian believers.
During the presidential campaign for his first term, Obama condescendingly dismissed those persons of faith whom he said “cling” to their “religion.”
Moreover, as the Christian evangelist James Dobson reminded us back in 2008, Senator Obama had delivered a speech mocking the Bible a couple of years earlier.
“I think he’s deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own world view, his own confused theology,” Dobson said, adding that Obama is “dragging biblical understanding through the gutter.”
Once Barack Obama became president, Dobson no doubt had a target on his back. In fact, the Obama Internal Revenue Service went after the radio ministry, Family Talk, run by Dobson. His ministry was given the run around in its application for a tax-exempt status, including having to deal with burdensome paperwork requirements and demands for disclosure of Dobson’s political views. Only after a threat to bring the IRS to court did the tax agency relent and approve the application.
Sadly, the Obama Administration is evidently waging a concerted campaign to cast traditional Christians as extremists, while ignoring the real extremist threat to our way of life posed by jihadists.
Homeland Security’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism in January released a report entitled Hot Spots of Terrorism and Other Crimes in the United States. According to the report’s introduction, “The goal of this program is to sponsor research that will aid the intelligence and law enforcement communities in identifying potential terrorist threats and support policy makers in developing prevention efforts.” The report, paid for by taxpayers-that’s We The People-ostensibly studied terrorist attacks in the United States from 1970 through 2008. If you are patriotic to America, Christian, pro-life, believe in national sovereignty, are reverent of individual liberty, you are a terrorist threat.
The report claims that there have been 98,000 terrorist attacks worldwide since 1970 “committed by more than 2,000 terrorist organizations around the world.” It defines terrorism as “the threatened or actual use of illegal force by non-state actors, in order to attain a political, economic, religious or social goal, through fear, coercion or intimidation.” There is only one reference to Islam in the entire 37 page report. There is no mention of the 9/11 attack. There is no mention of how many of the global terrorist attacks were related to Islam. The report spends considerable time explaining that illegal immigration does not lead to increased crime or terrorism.
The report categorizes the Aryan Nations-a racist hate group-as part of the “Christian Identity Movement.” Extreme Right Wing terrorist groups are defined as those who “believe in the need to be prepared for an attack either by participating in paramilitary preparations and training or survivalism. Groups may also be fiercely nationalistic (as opposed to universal and international in orientation), anti-global, suspicious of centralized federal authority, reverent of individual liberty, and believe in conspiracy theories that involve grave threat to national sovereignty and/or personal liberty.” Groups opposing abortion are also considered a terrorist threat.
Homeland Security is actually profiling true Americans and classifying them as potential terrorists, essentially ignoring those who near exclusively commit the most and deadliest terror attacks-Islamists. The report’s conclusion: “Counter to recent empirical findings, language diversity evidences a strong and significant positive relationship with terrorist attacks and ordinary crime.” Speaking another language makes you more likely to be a terrorist or criminal. But being Islamist, doesn’t? And if you are a pro-American, pro-life, fundamental Christian, you are likely to be a terrorist. What did Yeshua say in Luke 21:17? “And you shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.” Now your government is acting on it.
Resources:
To read the report: http://start.umd.edu/start/publications/research_briefs/LaFree_Bersani_HotSpotsOfUSTerroris
 According to the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security, evangelical Christians are now a national security threat. I’m talkin’ at the top of the list
Yes my brethren, your love for God and country has caused thou to be deemed a menace to our national progress at least as the Leftists’ deem progress. Congratulations. On April 4th 2013 we found out that an Army Reserve Training Brief put Evangelicals on the top of the danger list as religious extremists above Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. To these wizards, Christians and Patriots are way scarier than Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his ubiquitous murderous ilk. Indeed, according to the document we must forget the fact that it’s been nutty Muslims that have terrorized us for the last couple of decades and that it’s been radical leftists that have aggressively eroded our constitutional liberties. Parts of our armed forces and police departments have been told to just white all that stuff out and believe that it’s guys like Chuck Norris who are the real hazard that our cops and our military need to be concerned about. Welcome to the jungle. source |
Ex: http://xandernieuws.punt.nl
Direct support Obama and Erdogan to promoters of Al-Qaeda and Sharia Islam
New evidence has emerged of the close ties between the Muslim Brotherhood, the Syrian opposition, Turkey and the US Obama administration. The Syrian imam Bassam Estwani, the former leader of the Dar al-Hijrah mosque -a notorious breeding ground for terrorists- who was allowed to say a prayer to Allah in the House of Representatives in February 2001, receives the full political support of powerful politicians such as former President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, former speaker of the House of Representatives Dennis Hasters and Nancy Pelosi. They support Estwani, despite his friendship with Muslim Brotherhood leader and Al-Qaeda and Sharia promoter Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib Alhassani, who was chosen by the Obama administration to lead Syria after the intended fall of President Assad.
Obama’s support for al-Khatib – who was arrested several times for sedition – is all the more shocking because the president started doing so only 2 months after the terror attack on the American consulate in Benghazi (Libya, September 11, 2012). In that attack, Ambassador Christopher Stevens, among others, was killed. Al-Khatib was explicitly put forward by Robert Ford, the American ambassador to Syria.
Western governments and mass media (including the British BBC, the French AFP) then gave Al-Khatib a ‘softer’ and more acceptable face. Great Britain, France, the US and Turkey are all NATO countries. However, support for Al-Khatib and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood will benefit only one member: Turkey.
Muruna
Turkey sees Al-Khatib as an important pawn, because he is a Sufi Muslim. The West is being told the big lie that the Sufis can bridge the gap between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims. In front of Western microphones and cameras, Al-Khatib talks about multiculturalism, interfaith dialogue and building bridges.
However, this is all part of his muruna, which is actually the same as taqiyya, which is lying to the enemy in order to promote Islam. For his own audience, Al-Khatib promotes racist and oppressive Sharia Islam. As early as 1981, he condemned the Syrian government for abolishing the compulsory hijab (headscarf) for women.
Stealth Jihad for the restoration of the Ottoman Empire
The Sufi Muslims see the Muslim Brotherhood as an instrument to restore the Ottoman Empire. Al-Khatib and Estwani are also striving for this. Here is a photo of both men in Cairo, when Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Mursi still held sway there (left), with Estwani next to him, years earlier in his own Dar al-Hijrah mosque, with none other than the extremely anti-Semitic Egyptian Brotherhood leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi next to him:
Like Qaradawi, Al-Khatib is a virulent Jew-hater, who he says are the “enemies of Allah.” He called the Shi’ite Muslims ‘apostates’, which contradicts his image as a bridge-builder created in the West. On his Facebook he praised the death of 10,000 female martyrs, and also the arrest of just as many Muslim jihadists, who are sowing death and destruction in Egypt after the fall of Mursi.
On the same Facebook page, there is a link to an Arabic article discussing the history of the Muslim Brotherhood, the organization’s arrival in Syria, and the use of “modern” techniques — such as the ‘stealth jihad’ also used by Qaradawi and Estwani — to spread fundamentalist Islam around the world.
Erdogan and Al-Khatib share the same dream
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan shares the same Islamist dream as Al-Khatib. After President Mursi was deposed, Erdogan cried openly on national TV. In this video, the Turks can be seen launching a propaganda campaign to portray the Egyptian Brotherhood terrorists as innocent Muslims who are being executed solely for their faith, a narrative that was only too happy to be taken up by the left-liberal Western establishment.
Although Al-Khatib stepped down in March 2013, he is still seen by both American politicians and intelligence services as an ideal candidate to lead Syria after the intended fall of Assad.
‘Charitable’ support for terror
Al-Khatib’s partner-in-crime Estwani is also on the board of both the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF) and Mercy Without Borders (MWB), tax-exempt organizations that raise funds for Islamic terror groups under the guise of “charity.” On the same board is also his good friend Rateb al-Nabulsi, also an anti-Semite who promotes jihad and suicide bombings. Nevertheless, he received a visa from the Obama administration to raise money throughout the US for his extremist causes.
Estwani and Al-Nablusi attended the Muslim and Christian Perspectives interfaith conference in Istanbul just days before the attack in Benghazi, where they took a walk with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
Ankara and Washington behind jihadists
In March 2013, Estwani, Al-Khatib and SETF director Mouaz Moustafa met again with Davutoglu in Cairo. The Turkish government had put forward Al-Khatib as the leader of the Syrian jihadists (the ‘Syrian National Coalition’). Davutoglu, however, denied that he had made a secret deal with the Syrian opposition in November 2012 (2).
Al-Khatib resigned his position in March 2013 out of dissatisfaction with the developments. However, this does not detract from the fact that the Obama administration and the Erdogan administration provide political, diplomatic and military support to radical Islamists, who are declared enemies of the West – just as the Brotherhood, which is also known to be supported by the EU, explicitly stated in this document as early as 1991:
“The Ikwhan (Muslim Brotherhood) must understand that their work in America is a form of greatest jihad to eliminate and destroy Western civilization from within, and to ‘sabotage’ their miserable system by their own hand and the hand of the believers, so that it is eliminated, and Allah’s religion conquers all other religions.“
Xander
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Well, you might quip why all the focus on The Obama Administration. He lost the Office of President years ago. That is very true. Howeer, he has NEVER relinquished his power over the entire political process in Washington. He has never even left Washington, DC.
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2025 – The Obamas didn’t stray far from the White House when Barack left office — they rented a Tudor-inspired mansion in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, D.C., just a few miles from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. They purchased the home in 2017 for a cool $8.1 million. The neighborhood caters to Washington’s movers and shakers, with homes belonging to Jeff Bezos as well as Jared Kushner and former First Daughter Ivanka Trump. According to reporting by Curbed D.C., the 8,200-square-foot home, which boasts eight bedrooms and nine-and-a-half-baths, was previously owned by Bill Clinton’s press secretary Joe Lockhart. Once the purchase was complete, the Obamas got to work adding an in-ground pool to the grounds. The beautiful brick home, built in 1920, underwent an extensive reno and expansion in 2011, and some security modifications were made in 2017 — namely, a brick wall around the property. They also converted the garage into an office. source |
Not only did Obama not leave Washington, D.C. he has not relinquished any public politicking or international conferencing, or any opportunity to showboat, self-promote and undermine and overshadow the President Trump. Obama was holding meetings with heads of state and behaving as if he were still President. There has never been an out-going President that behaved in such a manner. They all respectively stepped away to allow their successor the opportunity to establish themself in the office.
It went far beyond that with Obama. He has been running the democratic party, pulling the strings in the Biden Whitehouse from his armchair, and traveling around the country rabblerousing and stirring up racial tensions and training radical rebels of all ages.
You must understand that Obama’s sudden burst into US Politics was not an accident, not even an organic phenomenon. He was raised, groomed, educated, coached, financed and promoted into office by those who rule. His purpose was to bring CHANGE to the USA. His primary purpose was to bring about gun confiscation to prepare the ground for the UN take over. Failing that has not meant that he is still not laboring for the UN AGENDA. His charismatic persona provides him with tremendous support from the masses. But, remember, so it was with HITLER.
I know that no one wants to hear what I am telling you, let alone believe it. I am not popular. But, I must do what I was called to do which is speak the truth as it is revealed to me.
Our nation will soon be thrown into chaos! Violence and suffering will be the name of the game. People, I am trying to prepare you so that you will not be taken unaware. There just is no way to stop it now. It is coming. RECOGNIZE that though you may think that President Trumps policies might hurt you, they are necessary. More importantly, if they can be accomplished properly, they may save a lot of people some unnecessary pain and suffering. We have no one to blame for our situation but ourselves. We have not been vigilant. We have not stood in Faith on the Word of God. We have preferred what tickled our ears, made us comfortable and did not demand much from us. THAT IS HOW OUR NATION GOT IN THIS MESS.
Understand that their is a conspiracy that is working against us. The elite have been relentlessly and systematically laboring to spread terrorist violence around the world. They have been using psychology, pleasantries, trickeries and manipulation to convince you that they were working in your best interest and conspiracy theorists were trying to scre you. Well, let me tell you they know full well that when things get hard FEAR AND FORCE have historically been successful methods of taking control over the general public. We have reached that level.
I hope that you will study this post seriously and thoroughly. What you find here is what is coming to YOU very soon. It is frightening, even terrifying. Remember that God’s Word says these last days will be perilous, and the worst days that have ever been or ever will be again.
Lately, I have been looking at the following scripture a little differently. I am not saying GOD has shown me a new revelation on it. But, I have been pondering it, and I find that it may mean something completely different than what we have been taught.
For when they shall call/cry/say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape
This warning is found in the Bible, specifically in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-5. This scripture is set within a message about the Day of the LORD. Most often it is interpreted to mean when a peace has been negotiated and the people feel safe. However, what if that is not what it is saying at all. what if the people are crying out for peace and safety because they are being tormented, terrorized, tortured and killed by the millions, with no one to help and no relief in sight?
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Mexican authorities said 20 dead bodies, including five decapitated corpses, were discovered in the cartel-plagued city of Culiacan on Monday.
Four decapitated corpses were found hanging from a highway bridge leading out of the city. The bodies’ heads were discovered nearby in a plastic bag, authorities said, according to the Associated Press.
That same day, 16 additional dead bodies with gunshot wounds were found stuffed into a white van on the same freeway. Along with the corpses – one of which had also been decapitated – authorities found a note seemingly from one of the cartel groups. The contents of that note were not immediately disclosed, AP reported.
Culiacan, which has around 1 million residents and is the capital of western Mexico’s Sinaloa state, has been wrought by a war for control between two rival drug trafficking groups of the Sinaloa cartel – Los Chapitos and La Mayiza.
HUNDREDS OF ANIMALS FLEE CARTEL CHAOS, VIOLENCE AFTER WILDLIFE REFUGE FACED WITH THREATS
Mexican authorities condemned the deadly acts on Monday. However, many Sinaloa residents say authorities no longer have control of the violence, according to AP.
“Military and police forces are working together to reestablish total peace in Sinaloa,” Feliciano Castro, Sinaloa government spokesperson, said in a statement on Monday.
TIKTOK INFLUENCER IN MEXICO SHOT AND KILLED ON LIVESTREAM
Last month, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Los Chapitos and designated it a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. In a statement at the time, the U.S. Treasury Department said the group facilitates the production and trafficking of fentanyl.
“Los Chapitos is a powerful, hyperviolent faction of the Sinaloa cartel at the forefront of fentanyl trafficking in the United States,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last month. “At the Department of the Treasury, we are executing on President Trump’s mandate to completely eliminate drug cartels and take on violent leaders like ‘El Chapo’s’ children.”
Gunmen linked to the Sinaloa cartel were also involved in the Oct. 18, 2024, killing of U.S. Marine veteran Nicholas Quets in Sonora, Mexico.
The Attorney General’s Office of the State of Sinaloa did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Original article source: Twenty dead bodies discovered in Mexico, including corpses hanging from bridge
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Mexico faces a crisis of kidnappings, disappearances, and other criminal violence that has left over thirty-thousand people dead each year since 2018. Gangs and drug cartels largely perpetrate this violence, but the state has also committed human rights violations in its war against these groups. Civilians bear the most significant impact, which drives migrants to the U.S. border. Drugs from the cartels also flow over the border, fueling a drug overdose epidemic in the United States.
In the 1980s, Mexico’s criminal groups and drug traffickers became organized [PDF], assigning distinct regional areas of control for each group and establishing networks and trafficking routes. However, as production and distribution increased, the groups began fighting for territorial control and access to markets, leading to an increase in violence across Mexico.
The Mexican government officially declared war on criminal organizations in 2006 when former President Felipe Calderon launched an initiative to combat cartels using military force. In 2012, President Enrique Peña Nieto revised the Calderon government’s strategy, shifting efforts away from violent exchanges and toward improving law enforcement capacity and supporting public safety.
However, after the Sinaloa Cartel’s Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was arrested in 2014, re-arrested in 2016, and finally extradited to the United States in 2017, a power vacuum was created within the Sinaloa Cartel, resulting in an accompanying increase in violence between rival factions seeking new territory and influence. Moreover, despite an initial decrease in homicides following Peña Nieto’s reforms, Mexico continued to struggle with corruption and crime-related violence. By 2016, drug-related homicides had increased by 22 percent, with more than twenty thousand killed. In 2017, a mass grave containing the remains of more than 250 victims of crime-related violence was uncovered in Veracruz State. The violence rapidly intensified to a peak of 33,341 homicides in 2018, and the murder rate has dropped only slightly since then. Additionally, from 2017 to 2020, a journalist was killed [PDF] every week on average.
Recognizing widespread assertions that the use of military force had only increased the level of crime-related violence in Mexico—and accusations that the military had committed human rights abuses and carried out extrajudicial killings—then-presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, popularly known as AMLO, promised on his campaign trail to revolutionize the fight against cartels and revert to a civilian-led police force. As part of his amorphous “hugs, not bullets” policy, AMLO suggested poverty alleviation programs, the legalization of marijuana, and new sentencing guidelines for drug traffickers. After winning the election and assuming office in December 2018, AMLO announced the creation of a new National Guard (a hybrid civilian police and military force) to fight cartels. In 2019, under a deal with the United States, AMLO deployed much of this force to the southern border with Guatemala to stem migration.
However, AMLO’s tactics have largely failed to curb violence. Though homicide rates have dropped marginally, the country still reports over thirty thousand crime-related deaths per year. Mexico’s 2024 general elections were its most violent in decades, attacks on journalists have continued at record highs, and anti-corruption reforms have floundered.
Meanwhile, criminal and drug trafficking organizations threaten to undermine the strength and legitimacy of the Mexican government, an important U.S. regional partner, as well as harm civilian populations in both countries. In 2007, the George W. Bush administration and the Calderon government launched the Merida Initiative to improve U.S.-Mexico cooperation on security and rule of law issues in Mexico. It remained in place until AMLO rejected the agreement over its militarized approach and worked with the Biden administration to draft the more broadly focused Bicentennial Framework to replace it in 2021.
Despite initially advocating a less securitized approach to reducing drug trafficking and violence, AMLO has expanded the military’s role in policing. Though the military’s involvement was intended as a temporary measure, Mexico’s Congress passed a reform in August 2022 that allows the military to carry out domestic law enforcement until 2028. AMLO also promised to bring the National Guard under the army’s command despite an April 2023 Supreme Court ruling that it must remain under civilian control. Rights groups say military policing has eroded the treatment of civilians, who face arbitrary detention, rape, and extrajudicial killings. Nonetheless, the government appeared to double down on its approach, granting the navy full control of Mexico City’s busiest airport to combat smuggling in July 2023. It also transferred several other government functions to Mexico’s military, including large-scale infrastructure construction, tourism development, and customs oversight at ports of entry and exit.
President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, AMLO’s chosen successor, has said she aims to strengthen AMLO’s National Guard, hire more police investigators, and invest in more social programs for youth to address violence. Some critics argue that continuing AMLO’s militarized approach will be insufficient to tackle Mexico’s security issues.
Meanwhile, cartels have consolidated and expanded their control, battling each other with heavy weaponry and drones. Kidnappings, killings, and the targeting of journalists remain prevalent, and the state has struggled to deliver justice for victims of past crimes, particularly those committed by the military. After the kidnapping of four Americans in March 2023, some U.S. Republican lawmakers proposed sending a U.S. military force to Mexico. AMLO rejected the threat, calling it “irresponsible” and saying he would not permit an intervention.
As of May 2024, cartels controlled about one third of Mexico’s territory, according to one estimate from the U.S. military. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels are responsible for the vast majority of drug trafficking in the United States, supplying methamphetamines, cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and other drugs. An increasingly high quantity of fentanyl, the leading driver of drug overdoses in the United States, is also smuggled across the southern border by the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels and their associates.
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Anyone thinking about traveling to Mexico to enjoy the beaches ought to think again. Parents DO NOT ALLOW YOUR YOUNG PEOPLE TO TRAVEL TO MEXICO FOR QUICK TRIPS, WINTER BREAKS, SPRING BREAKS OR SUMMER VACATION. READ THE FOLLOWING AND PAY ATTENTION>
For many years now traveling to, in or through Mexico has been very risky and ill advised. But, many said the main tourist’s sights were fairly safe if you can stay on within their perimeters. NOW, EVEN the usually HIGHLY TRAVELS TOURIST SPOTS ARE DANGEROUS!
There are those who will say, “YOU Can’t Live in Fear, just enjoy life and don’t be a worry wart.” When I was growing up that was good advice. For the most part the world was a fairly safe place to live. Of course there has always been evil in the world and one should always use caution and be alert. BUT NOW! With the rise in paganism and the majority of the world turning to the darkside… YOU BETTER BE MORE THAN CAUTIOUS! YOU BETTER BE WISE AS SERPENTS! IT IS NOT WORTH RISKING YOUR LIFE OR THE LIVES OF YOUR LOVED ONES FOR A LITTLE FUN.
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18 Beaches In Mexico That Are No Longer Safe For Tourists — And 6 Traveler Mistakes That Make Them Even Riskier
Also, bear in mind that by their own admission the police, military and government of Mexico have lost all control over what is happening there. The gangs have taken over Mexico.
I pray that NO ONE fall prey to the criminal element, the drug dealers, or the Gangs while traveling for relaxation and entertainment. How horrible to think that you or someone you love might be terrorized, tortured, raped, taken into slavery, sacrificed or murdered. That is why I include this post. If I can prevent even one person from such a fate, it is worth it.
Mexico’s stunning coastlines have long been a magnet for sun-seeking tourists from around the world. However, in recent years, several once-idyllic beaches have become hotspots for crime and violence, making them risky destinations for visitors.
Beyond location-specific dangers, certain traveler behaviors can dramatically increase your vulnerability when visiting these areas.
1. Acapulco Violence Spike
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Once Mexico’s premier beach destination, Acapulco has experienced an alarming rise in violent crime. Local cartel conflicts have spilled onto the beaches, with shootings occurring even in broad daylight at popular tourist areas.
The city’s murder rate now ranks among the highest in the world. Military presence has increased, but hasn’t stemmed the violence affecting areas once considered safe havens for tourists. Even luxury resorts can’t guarantee safety, with armed robberies reported at beachfront properties. The U.S. State Department has issued its strongest travel warning for the region. |
2. Flashy Jewelry Choices (Traveler Mistake)
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Wearing expensive watches, necklaces, or diamond rings at Mexican beaches essentially transforms you into a walking target for thieves. Criminals specifically look for tourists flaunting wealth, viewing them as easy marks for quick robberies. Many tourists don’t realize their $5,000 watch might represent several months’ wages for locals in economically challenged areas. The contrast creates dangerous temptation. Theft can happen anywhere – while swimming (leaving items unattended), walking back to hotels, or even during casual beach strolls. Smart travelers wear inexpensive watches, simple wedding bands, or no jewelry at all. |
3. Zihuatanejo Crime Reports
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What was once a peaceful fishing village immortalized in ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ has transformed into a concerning hotspot for tourist-targeted crimes. Recent years have seen a disturbing pattern of armed robberies along the once-tranquil beaches, particularly after sunset. Local police struggle with limited resources to patrol the expanding tourist zones effectively. Criminals have become increasingly bold, sometimes approaching visitors directly on the beach. The downtown beach areas near the markets have become particularly problematic. Several tourists have reported being followed from ATMs near the beach to their accommodations, resulting in robbery at knifepoint. |
4. Going Out Alone at Night (Traveler Mistake)
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Nighttime solo walks along Mexican beaches might seem romantic but often lead to dangerous situations. Criminals specifically target isolated individuals who can’t call for help or effectively defend themselves. The false sense of security many tourists feel after a few days in a destination can be deadly. Alcohol consumption at beach bars further impairs judgment and awareness, making solo travelers even more vulnerable. Many attacks occur between midnight and 4 AM when beaches are deserted except for those with criminal intent. Always travel with trusted companions after dark, stay in well-lit areas, and consider using hotel transportation rather than walking, even for short distances. |
5. Puerto Escondido Incidents
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This once-hidden surfer paradise has seen a troubling rise in tourist-targeted crimes. The popular Zicatela Beach area, known for its impressive waves, has become particularly dangerous after sunset. Robberies targeting surfers returning from late afternoon sessions have increased dramatically. Criminals know these visitors often carry cash and expensive equipment. Drug-related violence has also infiltrated beach areas previously considered safe. Multiple reports describe tourists being approached aggressively by drug dealers, then robbed when they decline purchases. Local authorities acknowledge the problems but lack resources to provide adequate security throughout the extensive beach zones that attract visitors. |
6. Ignoring Local Warnings (Traveler Mistake)
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Hotel staff, restaurant workers, and taxi drivers often possess critical safety information that tourists disregard at their peril. These locals understand which beach areas have become dangerous and when problems typically occur.
Many incidents happen precisely because visitors dismiss warnings as exaggerations designed to keep them near resort areas. The stubborn “it won’t happen to me” mentality leads tourists straight into trouble spots clearly identified by residents. Some travelers even interpret red flag warnings about water conditions or beach closures as challenges rather than protection. Smart travelers develop relationships with hotel staff, ask specific safety questions, and actually follow the advice they receive about which beaches to avoid. |
7. Mazatlán Gang Activity
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Though partially rejuvenated through tourism development, Mazatlán’s beaches have experienced serious safety setbacks. Gang violence has spilled into tourist zones, particularly in the northern beach areas away from the Golden Zone.
Brazen daylight shootings between rival criminal groups have occurred directly on beaches previously considered secure. The problems intensify during holiday periods when beaches become crowded. Even the famous malecón (boardwalk) area has seen violent incidents during early morning and late evening hours. Local police have increased patrols, but their presence remains inconsistent, especially in areas just beyond the main tourist zones where many visitors stay in vacation rentals rather than traditional hotels. |
8. Trusting Unofficial Taxis (Traveler Mistake)
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Many beach crimes begin with tourists entering unmarked vehicles claiming to be taxis. These unofficial services often target visitors walking back from beaches to hotels, offering lower prices than registered transportation.
Criminals use this opportunity to drive victims to ATMs for forced withdrawals or to isolated areas for robbery. The problem is particularly acute near popular beaches where official taxi services might be limited. Some criminals even place fake taxi logos on vehicles to appear legitimate. Always arrange transportation through your hotel, use official taxi stands, or employ reputable ride-sharing apps that track your journey. Never flag down unmarked cars near beaches, regardless of how convenient or affordable they seem. |
9. Playa del Carmen Shootings
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This once-sleepy fishing village turned tourist hotspot has witnessed shocking violence in recent years. Multiple shootings have occurred along the famous Fifth Avenue and adjacent beach areas, including incidents at popular beach clubs frequented by international visitors.
Cartel territorial disputes have brought violence directly to areas packed with tourists. Even broad daylight no longer provides safety assurance in certain beach zones. The Mamitas Beach Club shooting in 2022, which left two foreign visitors dead, highlighted the deteriorating security situation. While authorities have increased police presence, problems persist, particularly in the beach areas north and south of the main tourist zone where security thins out substantially. |
10. Posting Real-Time Locations (Traveler Mistake)
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Sharing beach selfies with location tags while still at that beach creates a dangerous digital breadcrumb trail for potential criminals. Many tourists don’t realize their public social media posts essentially announce: “I’m here, unprotected, with valuable devices.”
Criminals actively monitor social media hashtags for popular beaches to identify potential targets. This practice becomes especially dangerous when posts show expensive equipment or indicate you’re traveling alone. Wait until you’ve left a location before posting about it. Adjust privacy settings to limit who sees your posts, and never share hotel information or detailed itineraries. Consider using vacation mode features that delay posting until you’ve returned home safely. |
11. Tulum Drug Conflicts
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This bohemian beach destination has transformed from peaceful paradise to crime hotspot due to territorial drug conflicts. The beaches south of the hotel zone, once known for their pristine beauty, have become battlegrounds for rival gangs competing for lucrative drug sales to tourists.
Violent incidents have occurred at popular beach clubs and restaurants directly on the sand. Two foreign tourists were killed in crossfire during a 2021 gang shootout at a beachside restaurant. The problem intensifies during high season when drug demand increases with tourist numbers. While military checkpoints have been established on roads leading to beach areas, they’ve proven ineffective at preventing violence within the beach zones themselves. |
12. Oversharing with Strangers (Traveler Mistake)
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Friendly conversations with fellow beachgoers can quickly become security liabilities when tourists reveal too much personal information. Details about where you’re staying, how long you’ll be in town, or whether you’re traveling alone provide criminals with everything needed to target you effectively.
Many tourists don’t realize that seemingly innocent beach chats with “friendly locals” or other travelers are sometimes fishing expeditions for information. The person asking about your beautiful camera equipment might be assessing whether you’re worth robbing. Maintain friendly but vague conversations. Avoid specifics about accommodations, travel plans, or possessions. Remember that true friends don’t need to know your room number or when you’ll be heading back to your hotel alone. |
13. Sayulita Safety Concerns
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This once-charming surf town has experienced a troubling transformation. Beach theft has become so common that tourists are now advised never to leave belongings unattended, even for quick swims.
The north end of the main beach, particularly during early morning and evening hours, has become notorious for confrontational robberies. Local surfers report being approached by armed individuals demanding money while returning from dawn sessions. Water quality issues compound safety concerns, with sewage contamination leading to serious illness among visitors. The beach’s growing popularity has outpaced security infrastructure. Police presence remains minimal despite increasing reports of tourist-targeted crime along the shoreline. |
14. Ensenada Tourist Targeting
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This cruise ship destination has seen alarming security deterioration along its once-safe beaches. The public beaches closest to the cruise port have become hotspots for crimes targeting day visitors with limited local knowledge.
Muggers specifically watch for tourists walking beach paths between attractions, particularly those carrying visible valuables. Several violent incidents have occurred at remote beach areas north of the main tourist zone. Criminals have adopted sophisticated approaches, including posing as tour guides offering “special beach excursions” that lead to robbery situations. Local authorities have increased patrols near the cruise terminal but lack resources to secure all beach areas frequented by visitors who venture beyond the main tourist corridor. |
15. Cancun’s Rising Risks
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Mexico’s flagship beach destination now harbors serious danger zones hidden behind its picture-perfect facade. The public beaches north of the hotel zone have experienced a disturbing rise in armed robberies targeting tourists walking back to accommodations. Even the famous Playa Delfines has seen violent incidents during early morning and late evening hours. Territorial drug disputes have led to shootings at beach clubs directly in the hotel zone. The beaches connecting to the downtown area have become particularly problematic after dark. While the Mexican government has deployed National Guard troops to patrol main beach areas, their presence remains inconsistent. Most concerning is the increasing boldness of criminals who no longer limit activities to nighttime hours. |
16. Los Cabos Armed Robberies
The dramatic beaches where desert meets sea have witnessed a troubling pattern of armed robberies. Criminals target tourists walking isolated stretches between popular beach spots, particularly along the corridor connecting Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo. Several non-swimmable beaches with spectacular views have become danger zones, as their isolation provides perfect conditions for robberies without witnesses. Tourists photographing sunrise or sunset at these locations have been specifically targeted. Even popular beaches like Chileno and Santa Maria have seen incidents during off-peak hours when fewer people are present. While resort beaches maintain security, venturing to public beaches increasingly carries risk, especially when carrying visible valuables or camera equipment. |
17. Manzanillo Travel Alerts
 This industrial port city’s beaches have experienced serious security degradation. The once-popular Miramar Beach area has become particularly problematic, with multiple reports of tourists being robbed at knifepoint while walking beach paths.
The beaches north of the main bay, previously known for their tranquility, have seen violent territorial disputes between criminal groups. Local fishermen now warn tourists against visiting certain beach areas, particularly after 5 PM. Even Santiago Bay, once considered safe, has experienced increasing incidents of theft and intimidation. The U.S. State Department specifically mentions Manzanillo’s beaches in its travel advisories, recommending tourists exercise increased caution and avoid isolated areas entirely, even during daylight hours. |
18. Huatulco Under Watch
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This planned tourist development with nine spectacular bays has seen its security situation deteriorate. While resort beaches maintain relative safety, the public beaches in the Tangolunda and Chahué areas have experienced increasing incidents of tourist-targeted theft.
Boat operators offering transportation between beaches have been implicated in several robbery schemes targeting foreign visitors. The more isolated beaches accessible only by water have become particularly risky. Drug cartel activity has increased in the region, with territorial markers appearing on beaches previously free from such influences. Government efforts to maintain Huatulco’s reputation as a safe destination have increased police visibility, but incidents continue to occur, particularly at beaches distant from the main tourist infrastructure. |
19. La Paz Warning Signs
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This Baja California Sur capital once prided itself on safety, but its beaches now show troubling signs of change. The Malecon beach areas, particularly north of the main tourist walk, have seen increasing incidents of tourist robberies during early morning and evening hours.
Beaches near La Ventana and El Sargento, popular with kitesurfers, have experienced break-ins of parked vehicles while owners are on the water. Local residents report increasing presence of individuals monitoring tourist movements at popular beaches. Balandra Beach, famous for its mushroom rock, has seen several incidents involving theft of unattended belongings. While violent crime remains lower than in other regions, the pattern of increasing targeting of tourists has prompted authorities to increase patrols, though coverage remains inconsistent. |
20. Ixtapa Recent Violence
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This purpose-built resort destination adjacent to Zihuatanejo has lost its safety reputation. The main beach strip has seen armed robberies of tourists returning to hotels after sunset. Even daytime hasn’t provided complete security, with reports of aggressive vendor schemes turning into theft opportunities. The beach areas connecting Ixtapa to Zihuatanejo have become particularly dangerous, with multiple reports of tourists being followed and robbed while walking between the two destinations. Playa Linda, once family-friendly, has seen concerning incidents during less crowded periods. Local criminal groups have established beach territories where they pressure tourists to purchase goods or services. Refusal sometimes leads to intimidation or outright theft. Police presence has increased but remains insufficient given the extensive coastline. |
21. Puerto Vallarta Issues
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This popular LGBTQ+ friendly destination has experienced security deterioration beyond its polished resort zones. The beaches south of the romantic zone, once considered extensions of safe tourist areas, have seen increasing reports of robberies and assaults, particularly against solo travelers.
North beaches beyond the marina have become particularly problematic after dark. Even the main Malecón beach area has seen incidents during late night hours when police presence thins out. Drug dealers have become increasingly aggressive at public beaches, sometimes following tourists who decline purchases. While resort beaches maintain security personnel, venturing to public beaches now carries increased risk. The contrast between secured hotel zones and public beaches has never been starker. |
22. Cabo San Lucas Extortion Schemes
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The public beaches near Puerto Paraíso mall have become particularly problematic, with organized groups monitoring tourist movements. Several visitors have reported being followed from beaches to ATMs and forced to withdraw maximum amounts.
Even popular Médano Beach has seen incidents during both day and night hours. While police presence has increased in main areas, criminals have adapted by targeting tourists at beach access points and paths connecting to hotels. The contrast between secure resort beaches and increasingly dangerous public areas grows more pronounced each season. |
23. Rosarito Beach Dangers
This weekend getaway destination for Southern Californians has experienced serious security issues. The main beach area has seen robberies targeting visitors walking back to hotels and rental properties after dark. Criminals specifically watch for intoxicated tourists leaving beach bars. The beaches south of the main hotel zone, once popular with day-trippers, have become notorious for vehicle break-ins and confrontational robberies. Local residents now advise visitors against walking northern beach stretches even during daylight hours. Road checkpoints by individuals impersonating police have been reported on routes leading to beach areas. While Mexican authorities have increased legitimate police presence, many incidents go unreported as victims rush back across the nearby U.S. border rather than navigating local police procedures. |
24. Excessive Drinking (Traveler Mistake)
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Alcohol dramatically impairs judgment and awareness, making intoxicated tourists perfect targets on Mexican beaches. Many criminals specifically watch beach bars, following patrons who’ve clearly had too much as they make their way back to accommodation. Drinking also leads to risky decisions like nighttime swimming, walking on isolated beaches, or accepting rides from strangers – all potentially deadly choices in high-risk areas. The combination of unfamiliar surroundings and impaired faculties creates perfect vulnerability. Many tourists who become victims report they’d been drinking heavily before incidents occurred. Limit alcohol consumption, never leave drinks unattended (to prevent drugging), and arrange safe transportation back to accommodations before you start drinking. Always maintain situational awareness, even in seemingly safe beach environments. |
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In Mexico, cartels are hunting down police at their homes
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The notoriously violent Jalisco cartel has responded to Mexico’s “hugs, not bullets” policy with a policy of its own: The cartel kidnapped several members of an elite police force in the state of Guanajuato, tortured them to obtain names and addresses of fellow officers and is now hunting down and killing police at their homes, on their days off, in front of their families.
It is a type of direct attack on officers seldom seen outside of the most gang-plagued nations of Central America and poses the most direct challenge yet to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s policy of avoiding violence and rejecting any war on the cartels.
But the cartel has already declared war on the government, aiming to eradicate an elite state force known as the Tactical Group which the gang accuses of treating its members unfairly.
“If you want war, you’ll get a war. We have already shown that we know where you are. We are coming for all of you,” reads a professionally printed banner signed by the cartel and hung on a building in Guanajuato in May.
“For each member of our firm (CJNG) that you arrest, we are going to kill two of your Tacticals, wherever they are, at their homes, in their patrol vehicles,” the banner read, referring to the cartel by its Spanish initials.
Officials in Guanajuato — Mexico’s most violent state, where Jalisco is fighting local gangs backed by the rival Sinaloa cartel — refused to comment on how many members of the elite group have been murdered so far.
But state police publicly acknowledged the latest case, an officer who was kidnapped from his home on Thursday, killed and his body dumped on a highway.
Guanajuato-based security analyst David Saucedo said there have been many cases.
“A lot of them (officers) have decided to desert. They took their families, abandoned their homes and they are fleeing and in hiding,” Saucedo said. “The CJNG is hunting the elite police force of Guanajuato.”
Numbers of victims are hard to come by, but Poplab, a news cooperative in Guanajuato, said at least seven police officers have been killed on their days off so far this year. In January, gunmen went to the home of a female state police officer, killed her husband, dragged her away, tortured her and dumped her bullet-ridden body.
Guanajuato has had the highest number of police killed of any Mexican state since at least 2018, according to Poplab. Between 2018 and May 12, a total of 262 police have been killed, or an average of about 75 officers each year — more than are killed by gunfire or other assaults on average each year in the entire United States, which has 50 times Guanajuato’s population.
The problem in Guanajuato has gotten so bad that the state government published a special decree on May 17 to provide an unspecified amount of funding for protection mechanisms for police and prison officials.
“Unfortunately, organized crime groups have shown up at the homes of police officers, which poses a threat and a greater risk of loss of life, not just for them, but for members of their families,” according to the decree.
“They have been forced to quickly leave their homes and move, so that organized crimes groups cannot find them,” it reads.
State officials refused to describe the protection measures, or comment on whether officers were to be paid to rent new homes, or if there were plans to construct special secure housing compounds for them and their families.
“This is an open war against the security forces of the state government,” Saucedo noted.
López Obrador campaigned on trying to deescalate the drug conflict, describing a “hugs, not bullets” approach to tackle the root causes of crime. Since taking office in late 2018, he has avoided openly confronting cartels, and even released one capo to avoid bloodshed, saying he preferred a long-range policy of addressing social problems like youth unemployment that contribute to gang membership.
But former U.S. Ambassador Christopher Landau said in April that López Obrador views the fight against drug cartels “as a distraction … So he has basically adopted an agenda of a pretty laissez-faire attitude towards them, which is pretty troubling to our government, obviously.”
SPACER
CELAYA, Mexico (AP) — A dead man lay on his back in the parking lot of a convenience store in late February when journalists rolled in to the north-central Mexico city of Celaya to interview police. A spray of bullet casings and spent projectiles lay around the corpse, a sight all too common in Guanajuato state, which has Mexico’s highest number of homicides.
A policeman had been driving his wife to work on Feb. 28 when cartel gunmen — who had apparently followed from them home — opened fire on their car. The policeman killed one attacker before dying.
His wife and 1-year-old daughter were unharmed. But a week earlier, cartel gunmen shot a police officer to death while she took her 8-year-old daughter to school. They killed the girl, too.
Welcome to Celaya, arguably the most dangerous place, per capita, to be a cop in North America. At least 34 police officers have been killed in this city of 500,000 people in the last three years. In Guanajuato state, its population just over 6 million, more police were shot to death in 2023 — about 60 — than in all of the United States.
As Mexico’s June 2 presidential election approaches, this city lies at the crossroads of a national debate about security policy.
Celaya has declined to follow President Andres Manuel López Obrador’s policy of not confronting the cartels, and ignored his policy of encouraging local people to seek out peace pacts with the gangs. When Roman Catholic bishops announced they had met with cartel bosses in February to negotiate a truce between warring gangs, López Obrador said, “I think it is very good.”
Mexico’s president dislikes police and would like to rely on the military for everything. He dissolved the old federal police, accusing them of corruption, and cut almost all federal funding for training and equipping local police.
Unlike some other cities, Celaya, a farming and industrial hub northwest of Mexico City, has refused to eliminate its local police force and then rely almost completely on soldiers and the quasi-military National Guard for policing.
That means it has had to take on the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel, a gang so unreflectively violent that any sort of truce or negotiation was probably out of the question anyway.
“The Santa Rosa de Lima cartel controlled Celaya,” said Guanajuato security analyst David Saucedo. “The current mayor, Javier Mendoza, made the decision to break the criminal control. It was a decision that cost the life of his son,” who was shot to death last year.
Now the cartel is trying to hunt Celaya’s cops into submission, or extinction. Two officers were killed in their car Sunday in Irapuato, the next town over, and the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel left a claim of responsibility.
Killings of police in Mexico rose last year even as López Obrador says overall homicide numbers have dropped under his administration.
“The safety of the public is not something you can negotiate. Never,” said Celaya police chief Jesús Rivera Peralta. “These criminals have no values … we can’t negotiate with the devil, that’s impossible.”
Rivera Peralta said he is proud of the mayor’s slogan: “With everything, come what may, without fear.”
Under the president’s approach, Mexico has both a shortage of police — there are none in some towns — and, at the same time, thousands of experienced former federal police officers who chose not to join the militarized National Guard are now unemployed.
Celaya decided to hire some of them.
Rivera Peralta, like most of his force, is a former member of the federal police. They’re almost all from outside Celaya. They live in secure barracks and go out only to patrol, earning the nickname “Fedepales,” a combination of the word “federal” and “municipal.”
Because they’re outsiders, the new cops are less likely to have ties to the cartel, Saucedo said.
Most of the locals who used to work as municipal police have resigned, and it’s easy to see why. Estefani, a Celaya policewoman who would not give her last name for security reasons, narrowly escaped an attack as she drove to work in early 2023. The cartel apparently knew her route.
“I stopped at a red light, and all I saw were two men on a motorcycle shooting at me,” Estefani said. “I was hit by three rounds. One shot went into the left side of my face … the bullet was lodged in my neck.”
As blood streamed, she walked to a clinic. Doctors managed to stabilize her.
It was all too common.
“Right now, most of the attacks are coming precisely from motorcycles. There are always two people on them, dressed in black. That seems to be a trend,” said a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
The attackers are usually young men, often carrying an AR-15 rifle with the stock removed to make it shorter.
Celaya police are now sensitive to motorcycles.
A couple of residents, who would not give their names for fear of reprisals, spoke disparagingly of the “fedepales,” accusing them of stopping motorcycles to check for stolen vehicles, and then taking the bikes.
But during a ride-along with police performing routine checks on motorcycles, other residents waved a friendly greeting.
President López Obrador would like to rely more on the military; he wants to hand over the National Guard to army control — but at the same time, he doesn’t want troops to directly confront the cartels.
That has led to strange scenes. For example, in the neighboring state of Michoacan, a National Guard or army truck may roll by a corner store on a patrol while inside the store everything costs 40% more than normal because its owner is forced to pay protection money to the local cartel.
The National Guard doesn’t arrest many suspects or investigate crimes. Like the military, it mainly follows orders and arrests criminals only if they are caught in the act.
Celaya, unusual among municipal police, does its own intelligence and investigation work.
“What good does it do to have soldiers and National Guard in the street if they don’t do anything? They only put up crime scene tape after something has already happened,” said Amadeo Hernández Barajas, a farmer in Acambaro, a town south of Celaya. He said the cartel forces many farmers to pay a tax on each ton of corn produced.
Claudia Sheinbaum, the presidential candidate for López Obrador’s Morena party in the June 2 elections, vows to stick to his approach.
“We will address public safety from a perspective of addressing the causes and not allowing impunity,” Sheinbaum said at her first campaign event. “We are not going to engage in the idea of ‘a heavy hand,’ that is not our style.”
The idea that the cartels will be left without recruits, as government scholarship and training programs provide youths with other opportunities, appears a long way off. The gangs have started recruiting younger hitmen, as well as experienced fighters from South America and northern Mexico.
Rivera Peralta says half of all the suspects arrested in Celaya are now between 14 and 24 years old. They have also caught gunmen from the Scorpions, a gang based in the border city of Matamoros, and several former guerrilla fighters from Colombia.
Opposition presidential candidate Xóchitl Gálvez is taking a different approach. She pledges to double the number of National Guard troopers but also restore training and equipment funding to local police forces.
“We can’t have police who will take care of us unless we take care of our police,” she said at her campaign launch.
For their part, police in Celaya are putting their trust in “the man in the tower,” a standing firing post welded to the bed of a pickup. The “tower” has a higher and wider range of vision for the officer to spot any attack coming — and a Galil automatic rifle.
“He is our front line. He is the spearhead to resist any attack.” said one officer.
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Mexican police ask spirits to guard them in drug war
By Lizbeth Diaz
Other police in the city of Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, tattoo their bodies with Voodoo symbols, believing they can repel bullets.
Cops are part of a messy war between rival trafficking gangs and the army as cartels infiltrate police forces, offering officers cash to work and even murder for them or a bullet if they say no. More than 150 police are among those killed in Tijuana and the surrounding Baja California state since 2007.
BLACK MAGIC
Priests and police say the animal sacrifices release life to rejuvenate spirits that will shield officers against hitmen. They believe the effects are intensified on full moon nights.
Many police see a need to shield themselves from witchcraft used by drug gangs who mix Caribbean black magic and occultism from southern Mexico using things like human bones, dead bats and snake fangs to curse enemies and unleash evil spirits.
“We know some agents use charms, saints and other methods for their protection,” said Baja California federal police chief Elias Alvarez. “They look for something to believe in.“
Writing by Robin Emmott; Editing by Catherine Bremer and Kieran Murray
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Mexicans Turn to Witchcraft to ward off Drug Cartels
By: Karla Zabludovsky
The New York Times
CATEMACO, Mexico — In the dimly lighted back room of a modest house in this tourist city now largely devoid of tourists, Luis Tomás Marthen Torres, a warlock with 50 years of experience, closes his eyes and chants as he briskly rubs a stark white egg over the arms, chest and neck of a worried customer.
The ritual is old and common here in Mexico’s dominant hub for masters of the occult — where wizardry is passed from generation to generation — but like so many things in Mexico, the requests for help have changed.
“People ask us for assistance because they’re scared of threats, of extortion. They’re full of negative energy,” says Mr. Marthen Torres.
Visitors to this middle-class town of around 67,000 people, which attributes its mysticism to the region’s ancient Olmec roots, had for decades sought wizards to cast love spells and cure physical ailments. But in the midst of the violence that has beset the state of Veracruz, new and creative forms of witchery for protection against extortion and for help finding kidnapped kin have become the leading demands from clients, local practitioners say.
Fear in Veracruz has intensified because the state is one of the newest battlefields for Mexico’s most powerful drug cartels. Jorge Chabat, an expert on security and drug trafficking at CIDE, a Mexico City research institution, said a cartel known as the Zetas and the Sinaloa cartel were squaring off in this coastal state, with the latter taking advantage of recent blows the federal government has dealt the former.
The growing drug trafficking presence here has brought with it a business that has boomed across the country in recent months: extortion. Even witches and warlocks are not being spared.
“They always say, ‘This is the leader of the Zetas speaking,’ ” Mr. Marthen Torres’s son and fellow warlock, John Joseph, said about the calls he receives from self-described organized crime members demanding money.
Some of Catemaco’s wizards have grown increasingly afraid, while others — perhaps seeking an edge in the contest for customers — claim to sense the vibes of the person on the other end of the line. When they feel a negative aura, they say, they simply do not pick up the phone. In fact, Mr. Marthen Torres said he was certain he would not become another casualty of this war because the date of his death had already been revealed to him. (It’s not for at least a decade, he said.)
Of course, less prescient people may not feel quite so equipped to confront this wave of violence.
“I’m constantly aware that my children could be picked up at any moment. It’s my biggest concern,” Julisa del Carmen said after being cleansed by a sorcerer. “You’re constantly hearing about kids being kidnapped.”
She visits both Mr. Marthen Torres and his son for a cleanse whenever she has crime-related panic attacks, she said.
Not surprisingly, the growing demand for protection has led to a new set of mystical services. For only $180, you can find a missing relative, said Alondra Martínez, 35, a witch who often makes the trip to a nearby hill to perform a ritual for the safe return of kidnapped women. She said she had received five requests just last month.
“This wasn’t a frequent thing before. Now it’s becoming fashionable,” Ms. Martínez said.
A desperate couple visited her recently, but she said she wouldn’t help the frightened parents until they had paid the full fee. “I told them they had eight days to find their daughter.”
Not only civilians are seeking help. Policemen and cartel thugs are also turning to Catemaco’s shamans for protection. Policemen are fearful of being killed in an ambush or risking harm to their families in a retaliatory act; drug traffickers worry about “being caught by the federal police or losing their territory,” explained a sorcerer in a nearby town who would go only by the name El Gato Negro, adding that he often performs animal sacrifices in a cave. Sometimes, shamans here say, the authorities and criminals cross paths in the witches’ waiting rooms, but neither side readily identifies the other.
Over all, though, business is down. Some hotel owners say occupancy has fallen as much as 80 percent in three years, which means fewer clients for wizards. Still, some new customers are turning out to be quite lucrative. One sorcerer, José Alberto Vera Cisneros, said a person claiming to be a drug trafficker imprisoned in Manzanillo, the city containing Mexico’s busiest port, had recently called and asked for a ritual to get him released. When he was let out shortly afterward, the occultist said, the man gave him a car.
While cartel figures may hand out expensive gifts, Mr. Marthen Torres is providing what he calls “social services” — free cleanses to those who have been extorted to the point of destitution.
To combat escalating crime, the state and federal governments have begun Operation Safe Veracruz. Federal forces have been deployed across the state, local and state police corruption is being cleaned up, and heavily armed checkpoints have been set up. More than 250 people have been detained since the plan was put in place early last month, but violence persists. On Oct. 20, eight bodies were dumped in the town of Paso de Ovejas, 100 miles northwest of Catemaco.
And as long as the crime continues, Catemaco’s shamans expect to remain in high demand for protective spells and clairvoyance by cops, robbers and victims alike. Mr. Marthen Torres said the bodies of bludgeoned victims were still warm when he arrived at crime scenes across the country to find out how the killings had taken place. “I can see the last image the victim saw on his eyes,” he said.
Some would surely find this hard to believe. “Crime isn’t resolved with magic,” President Felipe Calderón said during a speech in 2009 (though he almost certainly meant it in a figurative, not literal, way). Similarly, Ernesto Cordero, an aspiring candidate for the 2012 presidential election and a member of Mr. Calderón’s political party, recently pointed out that there were no magical remedies for “getting out of the problem we got ourselves in.”
Catemaco’s wizards and sorceresses beg to differ.
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Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa wants foreign armies to help crack down on gang violence in the country.
In an interview with the BBC published Tuesday night, Noboa said he wants US, European and Brazilian armies to join his “war” on gangs, telling the broadcaster that his country needs more armed forces to fight against criminal groups.
“We have a plan in place with our law enforcement agencies, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces, the Strategic Intelligence Center, and international assistance and support from special forces. That’s essential,” he told Guayaquil’s Radio City.
CNN has reached out to the Pentagon and Brazil’s defense ministry on whether sending troops to Ecuador is on the table.
Ecuador has been hit by waves of gang violence – often linked to the drug trade – prompting the government to take a series of extraordinary measures, including a nationwide crackdown last year, preemptive pardons for law enforcement officers battling the gangs, and states of emergency.
Earlier this month, Noboa took his controversial military operation a step further earlier by announcing a “strategic alliance” with Erik Prince, founder of the notorious private military contractor formerly known as Blackwater.
Noboa did not provide details on the partnership but said on X that it aims to help in the fight against narcoterrorism and illegal fishing in Ecuador. CNN has reached out to the Ecuadorian presidency, defense ministry and Prince’s office for details.
The move was met with skepticism within Ecuador, with former army commander Luis Altamirano calling the prospective partnership “deplorable.”
Blackwater gained notoriety in 2007 during the Iraq War, when its private contractors opened fire in Baghdad’s Nisour Square, killing 17 Iraqi civilians. The company then changed its name and Prince sold it in 2010. Four contractors were convicted and later pardoned by Trump.
Noboa’s escalating tactics against the gangs come as Ecuador prepares for a run-off presidential vote next month. Noboa fell short of winning an outright majority in the country’s general election last month, and has since doubled down on his tough-on-crime approach – an approach criticized by human rights groups and slammed by his political opponent Luisa Gonzalez – an ally of former leftist president Rafael Correa – who accuses him of being a leader that “represents fear.”
Noboa has labeled several gangs in the country as terror groups. Speaking to the BBC, Noboa called for US President Donald Trump to do the same.
The State Department has given Ecuador $81 million since 2018 to help the country with its fight against organized crime and narcotics. The two countries also have an agreement that allows US military and civilian personnel to be sent to Ecuador but remain under US control if needed.
Ana María Cañizares and Angelica Franganillo Diaz contributed to this report.
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Ecuador is laying the groundwork for US forces to arrive, according to plans obtained by CNN – as its president calls on US President Donald Trump to help battle powerful gangs in a country once known as the “island of peace.”
According to a high-level Ecuadorian official familiar with the planning, construction of a new naval facility in the coastal city of Manta is part of that preparation, with barracks-style housing and administration offices designed to support sustained operations and US military personnel. The official requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
“The expectation is that these will be eventually occupied by US troops,” the official told CNN.
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has made no secret of his desire for foreign boots on the ground as gangs unleash terror across the country – a request he is expected to reiterate this weekend. Noboa is set to meet Trump in Florida on Saturday to discuss immigration, trade and “security cooperation.”
Noboa told the BBC he wants the US, Brazil and European nations to join his war on gangs. During an interview in early March, the president claimed Ecuador is dealing with “international narco-terrorist” groups and that his country needs the “help of international forces.” In a local radio interview, he said his government was “already in talks” to receive foreign military support for provinces such as Guayas, known for high crime, but did not specify which countries were involved in the talks.
“We have a plan in place with our law enforcement agencies, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defense, the armed forces, the Strategic Intelligence Center, and international assistance and support from special forces. That’s essential,” he told Guayaquil’s Radio City.
Noboa’s efforts are heavily dependent on April’s presidential runoff as he’s set off to face leftist candidate Luisa Gonzalez, who opposes the presence of any foreign force in the country.
The rapid pace of construction in Manta, the official said, reflects how soon Ecuador hopes international help might arrive.
Construction plans obtained exclusively by CNN show Ecuador’s Defense Ministry recently signed an agreement with Manta’s port authority to build a 150-meter pier and expand the existing port by more than 700 square meters.
The projects are supported by the United States, documents appear to show, and a US representative was present at the signing of the agreement, the Ecuadorian official said.
One rendering for a floating dock, dated August 2024, is labeled “Southcom Floating Dock,” an apparent reference to the US Southern Command, also known as Southcom. Another rendering, dated June 2024, has the US State Department’s International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) logo and the project name of “Equipped Containers for the Ecuador’s Antinarcotics Special Unit and the DEA” and describes the project as an “international collaboration with the US Embassy.”
Plans for these projects have continued under the Trump administration. On March 26, Ecuador’s government announced several US-backed investments “paused due to geopolitical factors” are resuming in the country, with hundreds of thousands of dollars earmarked for construction of a pier and DEA-linked base.
“President Trump is firmly committed to strengthening bilateral security cooperation with Ecuador, including through the recent agreement in Manta, and is considering expanding our combined efforts against transnational criminal organizations,” National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt told CNN, in response to questions about the plans.
There is precedent; the last time US troops operated here was from 1999 to 2009, at the now-defunct Manta Air Base. Back then, they ran surveillance flights targeting drug routes in the eastern Pacific.
Noboa has also publicly asked the Trump administration to designate Ecuadorian armed groups as terror organizations, as it has already done for several organized crime groups in the region. Such a designation could potentially empower the US government to use military force abroad in combatting the groups.
“When troops from another country come, they bring resources. And those are what we need the most,” Ecuador’s Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo told CNN during a recent visit to the country.
From ‘island of peace’ to a country on edge
Ecuador now has the highest homicide rate in Latin America, according to InSight Crime – recording nearly twice as many killings as Mexico. The surge is fueled by drug trafficking routes, turf wars, and alliances between local gangs and foreign cartels.
In cities like Guayaquil and Durán, CNN joined Ecuador’s military and police during overnight raids. Stash houses were detonated; suspects detained. In one home, there were signs of torture: blood-stained floors, Tasers, ropes. In another, an altar to Santa Muerte – the Saint of Death revered by Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel and now adopted by Ecuadorian gangs. The graffiti of Los Choneros, one of the country’s most feared gangs, marks wall after wall.
Despite the sweeping operations, many officials admit the violence feels more like it’s being managed than curtailed. Still, dozens of arrests were made.
“Cartels, gangs and other transnational criminal organizations in our part of the world are engaging in a wide array of illicit activity, from narcotics trafficking to money laundering, smuggling of illegal immigrants and human trafficking, which endanger the health, welfare and safety of everyday Americans,” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said during her testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Tuesday.
Ecuador’s location – flanked by the world’s top cocaine producers, Peru and Colombia – and its deep-water ports make it a key transit point for narcotics. But its vulnerability goes beyond geography.
Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa arrives at a ceremony to hand over 120 patrol cars to the National Police in Guayaquil, Ecuador on March 14, 2025. Marcos Pin/AFP/Getty Images
The dollarized economy and historically loose visa policies make it easy for criminal networks to move money and people. And corruption, experts say, greases the wheels.
“It’s widespread and far-reaching,” said James Bargent of InSight Crime. “Corruption is rampant from low-level police to the upper echelons of political power, and this facilitates trafficking and provides protection to the criminal groups involved.”
That reality plays out in the streets. One high-ranking gang member, speaking to CNN, admitted to multiple killings – and said bribing police is routine. “Of course we pay them,” he said. “Ecuadorian police are cheap.” He claimed payoffs ensure safe passage, bring tip-offs on raids, and even gain protection.
In Durán, one of the country’s most violent cities, Police Chief Roberto Santamaria acknowledged corruption among police. He said they sometimes employ random polygraph testing and check bank accounts for unusual activity to try to root out corrupt officers.
Seeking global backing
Noboa has framed his crackdown as both a domestic fight and a global plea for help. Ahead of the runoff election set for April 13, he has positioned himself as a hardliner on security. In January, he and his wife were seated front and center at Trump’s inauguration, applauding as the president vowed to fight cartels and restore “law and order.”
Unlike Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has firmly rejected foreign troops’ involvement against cartels in her country, Noboa is actively seeking it. His face-to-face meeting with Trump this weekend is expected to be his most direct appeal yet for US backing.
Before leaving for Florida, Noboa also addressed Ecuador’s improving ties with the US on Friday. “We’re one of the few countries where cooperation programs are being resumed,” Noboa said to Radio Centro. “We are working on security, on providing jobs so that people don’t leave. And the US has honored that relationship.”
Ecuador’s efforts aren’t limited to government partnerships. This month, Noboa announced a “strategic alliance” with Erik Prince, the founder of the private military firm formerly known as Blackwater.
The partnership – which Noboa described as part of his plan to fight narcoterrorism and illegal fishing – was met with sharp criticism inside Ecuador, including from a former Army commander who warned of turning to a “mercenary army.” Still, it signals how far Noboa is willing to go to bring in outside support.
“They’re helping with training in urban warfare … and bringing new technology,” Noboa said Friday, speaking on Prince’s involvement. “They’ve operated in a dozen countries – including the US.”
For Noboa, foreign support isn’t a distant hope – it’s a strategy already in motion. Ecuador is expanding military infrastructure, clearing political hurdles, and making its case to the region, to its citizens, and now, directly to the United States.
Whether that help arrives – or arrives soon – remains to be seen.
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It is amazing to me how the whole world hates the USA, but they all EXPECT US to come to their aid at all times, in every area, at every level. The truth is we cannot even take care of our own. WE are not only broke, we are in debt up to our ears. Our citizens are struggling to survive. Mostly because of all the money we have spent around the world taking care of every nation but our own.
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Gangs In Ecuador Are Allegedly Performing Human Sacrifices To ‘Saint Death’ As They Look For Protection
Gang members are turning to Santa Muerte to shield them from law enforcement and ensure the success of their operations.
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Ecuadorian police have increasingly encountered shrines dedicated to “Santa Muerte,” or Saint Death, a folk saint associated with death worshipped by some across Latin America, including criminal groups in the region which have adopted the figure as a source of spiritual protection. Some are even allegedly performing human sacrifices, believing it will increase their fortunes.
Local officers discovered in a recent raid an altar featuring a skeletal statue draped in a cape, holding a scythe in one hand and a globe in the other. Offerings of money, tobacco, alcohol, and religious items were placed at its feet. Authorities told AFP gang members turn to Santa Muerte to shield them from law enforcement and ensure the success of their operations.
Police colonel Roberto Santamaria stated that approximately 60% of drug-related raids in the city of Duran uncovered similar altars over the past year. The rise in Santa Muerte worship among Ecuadorian gangs is believed to have originated around six years ago, when members of the local criminal organization Los Choneros received training from Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel. The exchange seems to have also included the adoption of spiritual beliefs.
A former gang member claimed that some adherents went beyond ritual offerings, alleging that certain groups engaged in human sacrifices, including the abduction and killing of children. However, the claims remain unverified by authorities.
Santa Muerte has roots in 18th-century Mexican traditions. While many worshipers seek her protection and healing, her association with organized crime has grown.
Ecuador has seen a surge in drug-related violence over the past years, particularly in Duran and nearby Guayaquil, key hubs in the cocaine trade to the U.S. and Europe. President Daniel Noboa has declared 20 gangs terrorist organizations as his administration has made of fighting them a priority. Noboa has deployed military forces in cities and prisons, leading to a slight decline in homicides in 2024.
However, figures are much higher than five years ago. According to a report by The Economist, Ecuador had a homicide rate of 6.7 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2019, a similar rate to the U.S. (5 per 100,000) but by 2023 that number skyrocketed to 45 per 100,000, making Ecuador the deadliest country in the Americas’ mainland, only surpassed by Jamaica (49 per 100,000).
Despite its association with crime, Santa Muerte devotion has extended beyond gang circles. Statues and amulets are sold openly in markets and online. Researcher Cristina Burneo told the outlet that possession of Santa Muerte items could become another factor in the profiling of marginalized communities.
While some police officers report feeling unwell after encountering Santa Muerte altars, authorities refrain from destroying the shrines unless they contain contraband. Santamaria emphasized that Ecuadorian law guarantees freedom of worship, and simply owning a Santa Muerte statue is not a crime.
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ARE YOU NOW BEGINNING TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT WE ARE IN A SPIRITUAL WAR? YES, we are battling criminals and the elite, BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY WE ARE BATTLING THE SPRITIUAL FORCES BEHIND THEM!! THIS FIGHT CAN ONLY BE ONE IN THE SPIRIT!
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Almost every night, I get phone calls from people in areas of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, under attack by gangs. “Please ask the police to send officers,” one friend said. “Please help me. We’re going to die!” he told me.
Haiti’s emergency phone line, our 911, is pretty useless — often, no one even answers. The police are spread thin and outgunned by murderous gangs, taking over new neighborhoods and importing arms and ammunition from the United States. A Kenya-led international force, supported by the United States and the United Nations, provides help inconsistently.
If the Trump administration is serious about its goal of making the United States safer and more prosperous, with tighter control on migration, it cannot stop engaging in places like Haiti.
Since last spring, when gangs in Haiti banded together to attack the government, they have mostly stopped fighting one another for neighborhood control and instead work as a united front to rape, torture and kill. Gangs also fight the police and jointly seize territory. They have attacked hospitals, pharmacies, schools and banks. Gang leaders are finding new ways to block security forces, by digging ditches in the tracks and drilling holes into walls to sneak into buildings. They also hide weapons on donkeys’ backs, placing the ammunition inside drums used to carry water and fuel.
The Haitian government is too compromised to confront them effectively. For years, government officials have paid off and armed gang members in exchange for protection and intimidating their rivals. International sanctions against Haitian officials show the ubiquity of government ties to gangs, corruption, and drug and arms trafficking. Sanctions from the United States and Canada have targeted some of the most powerful people in Haiti, including two former presidents, three former prime ministers and several cabinet ministers. Now even the new transition council, which took office under an agreement brokered last spring with support from the United States, includes three members who have been accused of bribery and were summoned to appear in court on those charges.
The transition council members also seem more focused on squabbling among themselves than on vanquishing the gangs. Police officials tell me they lack ammunition, tear gas, drones, armored vehicles and spare parts. They say they do not have sufficient personnel or training. The prime minister and transition council members have told me for months they are working on it — but nothing changes, except for the escalation of gang attacks.
Amid all of this, the United States has suddenly cut off aid that was keeping many Haitians alive. Few places in the world were as dependent on the United States Agency for International Development as Haiti was. The agency has spent hundreds of millions of dollars annually for years on health, food and education — including, for instance, funding about 40 percent of the primary health care Haitians receive. The Trump administration has also begun to dismantle another federal agency, the Inter-American Foundation, that aids Haiti.
I acknowledge that such aid programs have had deep problems. U.S.A.I.D. has often been wasteful and ineffective, and it has undermined Haitian farmers and businesses, as well as the government’s authority. U.S. officials have intervened in Haitian elections, helping to disqualify one candidate and advance another, and U.S.-funded infrastructure projects have failed to deliver results. The U.S.-backed international force has not quelled gang attacks.
But the impact of this lightning-fast withdrawal of U.S. foreign aid funds is brutal. Thousands of Haitians have lost access to health care. Lunch programs for children in schools have closed for lack of food. Now, when families come to my office to report gang attacks, they often haven’t eaten in days. We refer them to U.N. programs that provide food — but there’s not enough. They often need urgent medical care, after suffering rape or other injuries, and have no place to sleep. We no longer have places to send them.
The Trump administration moved to end eligibility for protected status for about half a million Haitians living in the United States and cut a humanitarian visa program for thousands more. In recent years, many Haitians fled to the United States with visas because gang members threatened their lives, killed their relatives and destroyed their homes. If their protected status is removed and they are deported to Haiti, they will have no one to receive them and no place to stay. More than a million people are already internally displaced.
The lack of stability in Haiti will affect other countries, too. More Haitians will almost certainly flee — to the United States, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere. Haitian gangs’ unchecked expansion beyond their neighborhood bases into transnational drug markets and criminal networks is already bringing illicit drugs to the United States. Some gang leaders have made political demands, announced the formation of political parties and even threatened to overthrow the government. This renders Haiti’s politics even more volatile, and makes Haitian gangs a greater threat to other Caribbean countries and the United States.
There’s a lot the United States can do. It should continue to support the vetting, training and equipping of Haiti’s struggling police force and shattered judiciary. U.S. officials should ramp up the inspection of shipments destined for Haiti to end the traffic of arms and ammunition, and prosecute anyone who breaks U.S. laws trafficking arms and drugs to and from Haiti. American officials should also press the government to create and enforce anti-corruption policies. Ya, those would all be ways the US could help…the problem is the US is in no position to do all those things. We are overwhelmed enough at home.
These days in Port-au-Prince, we are teetering on the edge of a total gang takeover. At night, as gangs go on the offensive, many parts of the city are dark because fighting has largely cut electricity. My friends and colleagues stay awake, terrified, listening to the gun battles and texting one another.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the United States will continue to fund the Kenya-led force intended to support the police. “We will help,” he told reporters at a February news conference in Santo Domingo. If Mr. Rubio really wants to help, he should make it U.S. policy to weaken gangs and strengthen Haitian institutions. In the middle of the night, people should be able to call the police and get help.
Pierre Espérance is the executive director of the National Human Rights Defense Network in Haiti.
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PEOPLE ARE YOU HEARING ALL THIS?? THIS IS WHAT IS COMING TO THE USA! THIS IS ALL BY DESIGN! THIS IS THE ELITE CREATING THE CHAOS OUT OF WHICH THEIR ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT WILL ARISE.
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Haitian gangs practice Vodou, a religion that has been shrouded in mystique and is a fundamental aspect of Haitian culture and spiritual practice. Most Haitians also practice both Vodou and Catholicism. Source
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Haiti’s ‘vodou’ murders: Why did a gang kill nearly 200 people?
Rights groups say the killings specifically targeted elderly people and Vodou practitioners.
Nearly 200 people have been killed in Haiti over claims of “witchcraft”. The killing spree in the capital’s coastal Cite Soleil over the weekend is believed to have been ordered by a gang leader who alleged that the victims had used witchcraft against his child.
Here is more about the latest bout of gang violence in the Caribbean nation:
What happened in Haiti?
At least 184 people were killed on December 6 and 7 in Cite Soleil, an impoverished, sprawling slum by the sea which has long been ravaged by gang violence in the capital city of Port-au-Prince. The killings happened in the Wharf Jeremie neighbourhood.
The spokesperson for the secretary-general of the United Nations reported on Monday that 127 of the victims were elderly. The UN added that gang members had burned the bodies and thrown them into the sea.
It has been reported that many Haitians have fled their homes in Port-au-Prince following the gang violence over the weekend.
On Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on the Haitian authorities to properly investigate the killings and make sure “that perpetrators of these and all other human rights abuses and violations are brought to justice”, according to his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric. The Haitian government, as well as the European Union, have condemned the attacks.
Residents walk past burned-out cars, set on fire by armed gangs in the Poste Marchand neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Tuesday, December 10, 2024 [Odelyn Joseph/AP]Who ordered the massacre in Haiti and why?
The massacre was “orchestrated by the leader of a powerful gang” in Cite Soleil, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk told reporters in Geneva on Monday.
On Sunday, two local human rights organisations identified that gang leader as Jean Monel Felix, who also goes by the moniker “King Micanor”, and said he ordered the killings after his child became sick and died on Saturday afternoon.
A local rights group, the National Human Rights Defence Network (RNDDH), said that Felix had reportedly sought advice from a “Vodou” priest who accused elderly people in the area of using witchcraft to harm the child.
“He decided to cruelly punish all elderly people and Vodou practitioners who, in his imagination, would be capable of sending a bad spell on his son,” Haiti-based civil organisation the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD) reported. “The gang’s soldiers were responsible for identifying victims in their homes to take them to the chief’s stronghold to be executed,” according to CPD.
Felix is also allied to a gang coalition known as Viv Ansanm (Living Together), which is led by a former policeman, Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier.
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What is Vodou?
Vodou – also commonly known as “voodoo” – is a monotheistic folk religion that originated in the 16th and 17th centuries among Africans who had been abducted and enslaved from near modern-day Nigeria and taken to Saint-Domingue, the French colony. Saint-Dominigue became the independent state of Haiti in 1804 following the successful Haitian Revolution.
The foundations of the religion are believed to be rooted in tribal religions from West Africa.
Vodou derives from the Fon language, and it translates to “spirit” or “deity”. The religion is central to Haitian culture.
Anthropologist Ira Lowenthal told the UK’s Guardian newspaper in 2015 that Vodou was a response to slavery, which treated enslaved Africans like cattle. “Vodou says ‘no, I’m not a cow. Cows cannot dance, cows do not sing. Cows cannot become God. Not only am I a human being – I’m considerably more human than you,’” Lowenthal said.
For many in the West, the first introduction to Vodou was the book, The Magic Island, written by a white journalist, William Seabrook, and published in 1929. Seabrook used racially coded language, such as “screaming, writhing Black bodies”, to describe the practice.
Vodou has historically been attacked by other religions and negative stereotypes about Vodou have long been used to pathologise Haitian culture. Earlier this year, before the presidential election in the United States, disinformation flooded the internet in the form of claims that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were stealing neighbourhood pet cats and dogs and eating them. This was popularised by Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who brought the issue up during presidential debates to support his anti-immigration campaign.
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The Vodou faithful sing, their voices rising above the gunfire erupting miles away as frantic drumbeats drown out their troubles.
They pause to swig rum out of small brown bottles, twirling in unison as they sing in Haitian Creole: “We don’t care if they hate us, because they can’t bury us.”
Shunned publicly by politicians and intellectuals for centuries, Vodou is transforming into a more powerful and accepted religion across Haiti, where its believers were once persecuted. Increasingly, they seek solace and protection from violent gangs that have killed, raped and kidnapped thousands in recent years.
The violence has left more than 360,000 people homeless, largely shut down Haiti’s biggest seaport and closed the main international airport two months ago. Basic goods including food and life-saving medication are dwindling; nearly 2 million Haitians are on the verge of famine.
From January to March alone, more than 2,500 Haitians were killed or injured, up more than 50% from the same period last year, according to the U.N.
Amid the spiraling chaos, numerous Haitians are praying more or visiting Vodou priests known as “oungans” for urgent requests ranging from locating loved ones who were kidnapped to finding critical medication needed to keep someone alive.
“The spirits help you. They’re always around,” said Sherly Norzéus, who is initiated to become a “mambo,” or Vodou priestess.
In February, she invoked Papa Ogou, god of war and iron, when 20 armed men surrounded her car as she tried to flee the community of Bon Repos.
Her three children and the two children of her sister, who died during childbirth, sat next to her.
“We are going to burn you alive!” she recalled the gunmen yelling.
Gangs had invaded their neighborhood before dawn, setting fire to homes amid relentless gunfire.
“I prayed to Papa Ogou. He helped me get out of the situation,” Norzéus said.
When she opened her eyes, the gunmen signaled that she was free to leave.
Vodou was at the root of the revolution that led Haiti to become the world’s first free Black republic in 1804, a religion born in West Africa and brought across the Atlantic by enslaved people.
The syncretic religion that melds Catholicism with animist beliefs has no official leader or creeds. It has a single God known as “Bondye,” Creole for “Good God,” and more than 1,000 spirits known as the lwa — some that aren’t always benevolent.
During Vodou ceremonies, lwa are offered treats ranging from papayas and coffee to popcorn, lollipops and cheese puffs. A ceremony is considered successful if a Vodouist is possessed by an lwa.
Some experts consider it a religion of the exploited.
“Vodou is the system that Haitians have developed to deal with the suffering of this life, a system whose object is to minimize pain, avoid disaster, soften losses, and strengthen the survivors as much as the survival instinct,” Haitian sociologist Laënnec Hurbon wrote in a recent essay.
Vodou began to take shape in the French colony of Saint-Domingue during funeral rituals for enslaved people and dances called “calendas” that they organized on Sunday evenings. It also was practiced by slaves known as Maroons who escaped to remote mountains and were led by François Mackandal, a Vodou priest.
In August 1791, some 200 slaves gathered at night in Bois-Caiman in northern Haiti for a Vodou ceremony organized by Dutty Boukman, a renowned enslaved leader and Vodou priest. They sacrificed a pig, drank its blood and swore to keep secret an imminent revolt against slavery, according to a surgeon present at the ceremony.
After a 13-year revolution, Haiti became independent, but Vodou remained oppressed.
The country’s new leaders condemned Vodou worship, as did the Catholic Church.
Catholic leaders demanded parishioners take an oath renouncing Vodou in 1941.
Thousands of Vodou followers were lynched and hundreds of symbolic spaces destroyed in what became the most violent attack in Haiti’s history against the religion, according to journalist Herbert Nerette.
But Vodou persisted. When François Duvalier became president in 1957, he politicized the religion during his dictatorship, appointing certain oungans as its representatives, Hurbon wrote.
By 2003, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a Salesian priest who became Haiti’s first democratically elected president, recognized Vodou as one of Haiti’s official religions.
Despite the formal recognition, Vodou remains shunned by some Haitians.
“When you say you are a Vodouist, they stigmatize you,” said Kadel Bazile, a 42-year-old civil engineer.
Until recently, Bazile was a practicing Catholic. But when he lost his job and his wife left him nearly two years ago, a friend suggested he try Vodou.
“What I find here is spirituality and fraternity. Being here is like being with family,” he said while attending a May 1 ceremony to honor Kouzen Zaka, the lwa of harvest.
He identifies the most with Erzulie Dantor, the divinity of love represented by a Black Madonna with scars on her right cheek.
“That is the spirit who lives in me,” he said. “She is going to protect me.”
As the ceremony started, Bazile smiled and moved to the beat of the drums while dancers twirled nearby, their long earrings swaying to the rhythm.
Vodou is attracting more believers given the surge in gang violence and government inaction, said Cecil Elien Isac, a 4th-generation oungan.
“Whenever the community has a big problem, they come here, because there is no justice in Haiti. You find it in the ancestral spirits,” he said.
When Isac opened his temple years ago in Port-au-Prince, about eight families in the area became members. Now he counts more than 4,000, in Haiti and abroad.
“We have a group of intellectuals who have joined,” he said. “Before, it was people who couldn’t read or write. Now it has more visibility.”
Credited with that turnaround are thinkers like Jean Price-Mars, whose 1928 book, “Thus Spoke the Uncle,” visualized Vodou as a religion, “without making the Haitian elites blush,” wrote sociologist Lewis Ampidu Clorméus.
“Until the 1920s, Haitian Vodou was generally regarded as a string of superstitions, witchcraft and ritual cannibalism,” Clorméus wrote. “Talking about Vodou constituted a shame for Haitian intellectuals.”
Vodou has since become a key ingredient in Haiti’s rich cultural scene, inspiring music, art, writing and dance.
It’s unknown how many people currently practice Vodou in Haiti, but there’s a popular saying: “Haiti is 70% Catholic, 30% Protestant and 100% Vodou.”
Vodou also has countless lwas, although Ogou Je Wouj — the god of red eyes — has grown more significant to Haitians given the lack of security in the country, said Erol Josué, a singer, oungan and director of Haiti’s National Bureau of Ethnology.
Ogou Je Wouj is a manifestation of the god of war and is believed to wield a machete.
“They want power in their body and in their mind,” Josué said of those who seek the god.
While spirits infuse believers with energy and hope, Vodou priests warn they don’t perform miracles.
“We’re praying, but we’re also taking precautions,” Isac said. “There are a lot of lwas to protect you from kidnapping, but if you walk through certain areas, no lwa is going to protect you.”
On a recent afternoon, hundreds of Haitians gathered on a steep hill and squeezed into a small church to celebrate St. George, a Christian martyr believed to be a Roman soldier revered by Catholics and Vodouists alike.
They offered him money and prayers in hopes they would make it through Haiti’s deepening crisis.
“It’s very important to be here,” said Hervé Hyppolite, a chef who practices Christianity and Vodou. “You find force, courage and also protection.”
Surrounding him was a sea of people clad in khaki and red, the saint’s colors. Some held candles as a handful of women danced nearby,
“St. George!” the priest leading the celebration yelled. The crowd shouted in response, “We need you!”
Josué, the singer and oungan, noted that some young people becoming Vodouists are trying to change traditional prayers or certain practices, but he said oungans and mambos are not embracing the push.
“We make them understand that those spirits are a symbol of resistance of the Haitian nation,” he said. “There’s a lot of substance in Vodou that can lead to a renaissance of Haiti.”
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REVIVED ROMAN EMPIRE – As Prophesied – Part 1
RESTORED: 8/12/22 It really is important to view this series in order. The information revealed builds on itself, so that you cannot fully appreciate the posts individually. Please view the entire Series from beginning to end. The links are listed in order at the end of each post. Thank you and God bless you. In … Click Here to Read More
THE UN IS NOT YOUR FRIEND! Part 1 of 11 – The Real Story
RESTORED: 08/28/2021 – RESTORED 3/8/22 My brother, father, grandfather and yours went willingly into battle, sacrificing everything, for many of them even their lives, for our rights. Including the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and many more. I shudder to think how we have squandered so precious a gift. May God … Click Here to Read More
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The threat of Christian nationalism in all 50 states, illustrated in eight charts
I’m pleased to share with you insights fom the largest survey of Christian nationalism ever conducted, which was released today by PRRI. The survey was fielded among a sample of more than 22,000 Americans throughout 2023. This large sample size gives us the ability, for the first time, to see levels of support for Christian nationalism in all 50 states.
I’m also including the video of the survey launch webinar, which included commentary from three experts in the field (if you don’t have their books, I highly recommend them):
- Katherine Stewart, journalist and author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism
- Jemar Tisby, professor of history at Simmons College of Kentucky and author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism
- Andrew Whitehead, associate professor of sociology at IUPUI and author of American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church
Here’s my take on the most compelling insights from this groundbreaking survey. You can read the entire report on PRRI’s website. You can also read Andrew Whitehead’s take on his Substack newsletter.
Building on the scholarship of Andrew Whitehead, Sam Perry, Phil Gorski, Paul Djupe and others, and on the PRRI/Brookings Christian Nationalism Survey conducted one year ago, PRRI developed five distinct agree/disagree questions to measure support for Christian nationalism:
- God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society.
- The U.S. government should declare America a Christian nation.
- Being Christian is important part of being truly American.
- If the U.S. moves away from our Christian foundations, we will not have a country anymore.
- S. laws should be based on Christian values.
This survey is extremely limited in scope due to the nature of the questions asked. Frankly, they are biased and insulting. Like ALL STATISTICS, the results of this survey are general, misleading and easily manipulated, and presented in a manner that renders them meaningless. Not to mention the entire experiment from beginning to end is created by and for people who are already antiChristian. Being non-believers, their values are based on antiGod and antiChristian mindsets. Anyone against GOD is for the Devil and therefor working for the dark side. There is no way they could compile an unbiased accurate study of Christian views and beliefs.
The new survey finds that three in ten Americans can be classified as Christian nationalism Adherents or Sympathizers (those who either fully or mostly agree with these five statements), while two thirds of Americans can be classified as Christian nationalism Skeptics or Rejecters (those who either mostly or fully disagree with these five sentiments). Levels of support for Christian nationalism have not significantly changed over the last year.
So most Americans, by a margin of two to one, oppose this anti-democratic worldview. But these sentiments have come to have outsize power because they have become a defining feature of Donald Trump’s MAGA movement and his takeover of the Republican Party.
A majority (55%) of Republicans and those who hold favorable view of Trump qualify as Christian nationalism Adherents or Sympathizers.
Residents of red states are nearly twice as likely as residents of blue states to be Christian nationalism Adherents or Sympathizers.
The proportion of Americans who qualify as Christian nationalism Adherents or Sympathizers differs considerably across states, ranging from lows of 17% in Oregon and 18% in Massachusetts to highs of 50% in both North Dakota and Mississippi.
At the individual state level, support for Christian nationalism is highly correlated with support for Trump. Notably, if we restrict the analysis to white Americans, that correlation is nearly textbook perfect.
There are only two major religious groups in which a majority qualify as Christian nationalism Adherents or Sympathizers: white evangelical Protestants (66%) and Hispanic Protestants (55%), a group among whom seven in 10 also identify as evangelical or born-again.
Contrary to some assertions that Christian nationalists are CINOs (Christian in name only), Christian nationalism is highly correlated with frequent church attendance. Among Americans who attend religious services weekly or more, a majority (52%) are Christian nationalism Adherents or Sympathizers, compared with 38% of those who attend a few times a year and only 18% of those who seldom or never attend.
Why should we be worried about this?
There is of course the obvious: The idea of America as a promised land for European Christians — a powerful idea that predates the founding of the country — is fundamentally anti-democratic because it establishes a de facto ethno-religious state. Beyond that, it raises the stakes of political contests exponentially, transposing political opponents into existential enemies.
Politics is no longer understood to be disagreements between fellow citizens of good will but apocalyptic battles over good and evil, fought by agents of God against agents of Satan. Political opponents should not just be defeated in fair electoral contests but should be jailed, exiled, attacked or even killed. Well, the only people who feel that political opponents should be jailed, exiled, attacked or even killed are DEMOCRATS. DEMOCRATS FEEL IF YOU DON’T VOTE THEIR WAY YOU SHOULD DIE. That is not democratic. People should all be free to thier beliefs and opinions, that is what Christians believe. But, Christians are tired of non-believers forcing their choices on us. Finally the silent majority is beginning to speak up.
Indeed, this erosion of democratic and civic norms is just what we find in this survey. Christian nationalists are more likely than other Americans to think about politics in apocalyptic terms and are about twice as likely as other Americans to believe political violence may be justified. Nearly four in 10 Christian nationalism Adherents (38%) and one-third of Sympathizers (33%) agree that “Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country,” compared with only 17% of Skeptics and 7% of Rejecters.
In my recent book, The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future, I made the case that Christian nationalism is best understood as a term describing the new incarnation of an old claim: that America is a God-ordained promised land for European Christians, where they alone occupy the highest positions of power and where laws are judged to be valid based on their particular interpretation of the Bible.
We’ve never fully resolved the contradictions between the regressive fantasy of America as a white Christian nation and the aspirational vision of America as a pluralistic democracy.
This survey illustrates how strongly white Christian nationalism is driving support for Donald Trump and the MAGA movement and how thoroughly it has established itself as an ideological keystone in today’s Republican Party. Until we fully vanquish this dangerous, authoritarian political theology, it will continue to undermine the potential for a truly democratic American future.
Robert P. Jones serves as president and founder of PRRI and is the author of The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future and White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, which won a 2021 American Book Award.
Support for Christian Nationalism in ALL 50 STATES: Findings from the 2023 American Values Atlas
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The United States of America, has throughout it’s history been a CHRISTIAN NATION. That cannot even be debated. IT IS A FACT. It has been composed of a very wide range of Christians with varying specific beliefs, traditions and practices but all sharing the common belief in ON GOD! The God of the Bible who CREATED ALL THINGS. THEREFORE, HIS RULES, LAWS, COMMANDMENTS are SUPREME.
As long as we were a CHRISTIAN NATION following God’s laws, we were prosperous and blessed. We enjoyed the best life to the point where ALL other nations were envious and people from all over the world desired to live here, or at least to live the kind of life that we enjoyed.
When our citizens began to embrace other cultures and their gods, we began to fall apart. THAT IS A FACT!
Scientists want to organize, categorize and group things together for their convenience. PEOPLE cannot be labeled! Every single person is a unique creation. NO TWO are exactly alike. God made us all to be special, wonderful and individual. You cannot CLASSIFY believers. There are as many versions of Christianity as there are Christians, because becoming a follower of Christ is unique to each person. It is not about religion, it is about RELATIONSHIP. My relationship with Christ is my own…no one else has experienced my walk but me. That is true for EVERY true believer. Yes, well all come under the umbrella of Bible Believers. As believers in the Bible there are beliefs that we share and hold dear and Commandments that bind us all together under the umbrella of the Love of God. Beyond that it is a personal faith. It is a faith based on love. The greatest commandment of all. Love GOD and Love thy neighbor.
TRUE CHRISTIANS would NEVER accept dictatorship! Those who FOLLOW CHRIST are not judgmental, vindictive, angry, unforgiving, demanding, etc. TRUE CHRISTIANS do not force their beliefs or Faith on ANYONE. GOD is not a dictator. HE is the one who gave mankind FREEWILL. He wants people who choose HIM and HIS WAYS because they LOVE HIM, not because he demands it. The problem comes when NON-CHRISTIANS wants, behaviors, activities, traditions and practices cause harm to others. Such as pedophilia, violence, rape, stealing, extortion, cursing, cannibalism, human sacrifice, abortion, etc. or When NON-CHRISTIANS want to force their beliefs on CHRISTIANS such as EVOLUTION, Globe Earth, Environmentalism, MULTIPLE GODS, SPIRITISM etc. Yes, than as Christians we MUST STAND TOGETHER and speak up for the TRUTH of the WORD OF GOD. Not in rebellious or violent ways.
The word of God tells us that when we run into opposition, we must always remember that it is not the person or persons that we are battling but the SPIRITS and Spiritual Forces behind them driving them often without their knowledge. Our battles are won in the SPIRIT and the VICTORY BELONGS TO GOD.
GOD IS NOT A MAN THAT HE SHOULD LIE. THERE IS NO FALSENESS IN HIM! SO WHEN GOD SAYS:
“If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land”. 2 Chronicles 7:14
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