A Mexican militia, battling Michoacan drug cartel, has American roots

Interesting take on the spiraling violence in Michoacan...

Many were U.S. immigrants who came back, some voluntarily but most often not, to the desiccated job market in the state of Michoacan and found life under the Knights Templar drug cartel that controls the area almost unlivable. They took up arms because they were financially abused by the extortion rackets run by the Templars. Because they had family killed or wounded by their enemies. Because carrying a silver-plated handgun and collecting defeated narcos’ designer cellphones as war booty is more invigorating than packing cucumbers. Because they get to feel, for once, the sensation of being in charge.
 
“Everybody’s with us, all the people,” said Edgar Orozco, a 27-year-old American citizen who left his job at a Sacramento body shop nine months ago to join the fight after the Knights Templar killed his uncle and cousin. “We’re not going to disarm. Never.”

Read More here...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/a-mexican-militia-battling-michoacan-drug-cartel-has-american-roots/2014/01/18/30f96894-7f92-11e3-97d3-b9925ce2c57b_story.html

Also...

Vigilantes hold Mexico town, tenuously, after driving out cartel

http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-mexico-michoacan-violence-20140119,0,154127.story#axzz2qs0NL2d1

Mexican Vigilantes Prepare for All-Out War with Cartel

In my view....this is the only way to make any change in Mexico....the government and police stopped caring a long, long time ago. 

 Police being arrested by vigilantes in Michoacan. Jan/2014

 More than 100 men entered the Nueva Italia in western Michoacan state on Sunday morning and disarmed local police.

There were exchanges of fire with gang members before the vigilantes occupied the town.
The vigilante group was set up by residents who say the army and the police have failed to protect them.

 Videos...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4YEoEfOcsY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qhj02q5KUw4 

And a good article as well...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/mexico/10569202/Mexican-vigilantes-force-drugs-cartel-out-of-town.html

UPDATE:

A Quandary for Mexico as Vigilantes Rise

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/16/world/americas/a-quandary-for-mexico-as-vigilantes-rise.html?ref=americas&_r=0

The Bewildered Kingdom

Can't stay on top forever... 

The issue for the Saudis is not merely Iran’s putative nuclear capability. A deal on Iran’s nuclear program would legitimize the regime’s regional influence in a way that has not occurred in decades, thereby serving its hegemonic objectives. The deeper threat or fear is that Iran’s ultimate target is leadership of Mecca, the cradle of Islam.

That is why the Saudi royals prefer to keep Iran chained with international sanctions. True, even under economic sanctions, Iran has intruded ever more deeply into Arab politics, but it was the US that opened the door by overthrowing Saddam’s Sunni-minority regime in Iraq, which ultimately brought an Iranian-backed Shia government to power.

READ MORE HERE...
 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/mai-yamani-assesses-saudi-arabia-s-increasingly-assertive-regional-foreign-policy-since-the-start-of-the-arab-spring

The Beer Fridge

I know exactly how this guy feels...I watched the last Canadian Olympic Gold Medal game on my laptop in Mexico....All I remember is seeing Crosby going for the net and all of the sudden the Internet stopped...One minute later it came back on and the whole stadium was cheering...talk about a bitter-sweet  moment...nonetheless, I was ecstatic!

The Beer Fridge Project Indonesia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iXYTwuuLxs

Interview with Morgan...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8d_0ZmzAu4

The Beer Fridge-Scan Your Passport
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gper3YkzMg

Korea Execution Is Tied to Clash Over Businesses

Radio Free Asia, in a report last week that cited anonymous North Korean sources, reported that Mr. Kim saw North Korean soldiers malnourished during his recent visits to islands near the disputed western sea border...

Read more here...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/24/world/asia/north-korea-purge.html?hp&_r=0

also...

A Need Now to Prepare for North Korea's Collapse