Puerto Vallarta warning

[+ glutes]

Last month, three Mexican university students were filming a school project when they disappeared. The last time they were seen alive they were being forced into a car by two armed men dressed as police officers in Guadalajara, Mexico’s second largest city, in the western state of Jalisco.

 

The disappearance of the three film students, 25-year-old Javier Salomón Aceves Gastélum and 20-year-olds Marco Garcia Francisco Avalos and Jesús Daniel Díaz, prompted protests across Mexico and drew outrage from the international filmmaking industry, including Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro. Thousands of enraged college students and others marched the streets of Guadalajara and Mexico City, demanding that officials bring the three young men home safely. “We’re students, not criminals,” they shouted. “Will I be next?”

 

The students’ deaths became the latest example of the lives upended by violence in a country that just marked its deadliest year in modern history, with more than 25,300 homicides.

 

“There are no words to comprehend the magnitude of this madness,” del Toro, a Guadalajara native, tweeted early Tuesday. “3 students are killed and dissolved in acid. The ‘why’ is unthinkable, the ‘how’ is terrifying.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/04/24/three-mexican-film-students-were-killed-their-bodies-dissolved-in-acid-authorities-say/?

[bigvalboy]

Last month, three Mexican university students were filming a school project when they disappeared. The last time they were seen alive they were being forced into a car by two armed men dressed as police officers in Guadalajara, Mexico’s second largest city, in the western state of Jalisco.

 

The disappearance of the three film students, 25-year-old Javier Salomón Aceves Gastélum and 20-year-olds Marco Garcia Francisco Avalos and Jesús Daniel Díaz, prompted protests across Mexico and drew outrage from the international filmmaking industry, including Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro. Thousands of enraged college students and others marched the streets of Guadalajara and Mexico City, demanding that officials bring the three young men home safely. “We’re students, not criminals,” they shouted. “Will I be next?”

 

The students’ deaths became the latest example of the lives upended by violence in a country that just marked its deadliest year in modern history, with more than 25,300 homicides.

 

“There are no words to comprehend the magnitude of this madness,” del Toro, a Guadalajara native, tweeted early Tuesday. “3 students are killed and dissolved in acid. The ‘why’ is unthinkable, the ‘how’ is terrifying.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/04/24/three-mexican-film-students-were-killed-their-bodies-dissolved-in-acid-authorities-say/?

 

[+ stevenkesslar]

The students’ deaths became the latest example of the lives upended by violence in a country that just marked its deadliest year in modern history, with more than 25,300 homicides.

 

If your goal is just to bash Mexico because they have about the same rate of gun violence or gun death as the US, per 100,000 people, go ahead. In fairness, you might want to warn people to stay out of Black neighborhoods in New Orleans, St. Louis, or Baltimore. We all know those Blacks are animals that breed violence and just kill each other. And that's not racism, any more than it's bigoted to say some Mexicans are animals who dissolve each other in acid. Whites would never do shit like that.

 

Three Mexican film students are tortured, killed and their bodies are dissolved in acid by cartel after being mistaken for members of a rival gang

 

"Javier Salomón Aceves Gastélum, 25, Marco Garcia Francisco Avalos, 20, and Jesús Daniel Díaz, 20, went missing last month, authorities say they were confused for a rival gang of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel."

 

In your direct citation, you left the part out about the students being mistaken for cartel members. That's important. I spent a really enjoyable week in Guadalajara and Tlaquepaque and I'd love to go back. I felt very safe there, just like I do in Puerto Vallarta. I've been told I look like a whore, but I don't worry about being mistaken for a cartel member.

 

The rate of gun death in the US and Mexico is about the same - but that includes a a lot of gun deaths in the US that are not homicides. If you just want to go for homicides, Mexico wins the prize, sadly. But the rate of homicides is higher in many US cities, like the ones I named above. And the rate of homicide in many Mexican cities, like Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta, is a lot lower than in many US cities.

 

Mexico specializes in grisly cartel deaths that are often meant to either terrorize, like chopping you into pieces and leaving you on the street, or to hide the evidence, like by dissolving you in acid. America specializes in letting lunatic White men who are animals with guns carry out mass slaughters, like in Las Vegas and Florida. The way that works is your brain or liver are blown up like overripe fruit and spattered all over your body and you die quickly. You decide what's more horrific.

 

Whether it's gangs in Black neighborhoods in the US or cartels in Mexico, the #1 driver of all this is the drug trade, which the US is the #1 market for. And the #1 weapon of choice to kill people is usually guns made in the US. I don't know where the acid came from.

 

The students’ deaths became the latest example of the lives upended by violence in a country that just marked its deadliest year in modern history, with more than 25,300 homicides.

 

If you follow the hyperlink in your citation, look on Page 3 of a 200 page government report and you'll note a breakdown by month and year of homicides and other types of crimes over a two decade period. There were 16,866 homicides in Mexico in 1997. That number went down to 10,253 in 2007, before Calderon ramped up his war against cartels, which didn't work. Homicides ramped up pretty much every year of Calderon's Presidency, to a high of about 22,000. After he left office in 2012 it ramped down. Now it's ramping up again. It's obviously cartel-related, as is the case in the murder of these students.

 

If you look at the number of robberies of vehicles without violence - the last column in that report - that crime numbered 116,086 in 1997 and 123,717 in 2017 - not a big increase. And 2017 was not the worst year for these kinds of robberies. My point is that you're 10 times more likely to experience crime in Mexico this way that you are to be killed. Most American tourists don't look or speak Spanish like cartel members. Socalguy mentioned he was robbed in Mexico - by the Mexican cops, when they stopped his car to do a search if I recall right. That doesn't shock me. And I don't blame him if that's the kind of thing that turns him off going to Mexico. I've gone there dozens of times, and nothing like that has ever happened to me. I love the people there.

 

I actually wonder if this has some relationship to The Wall. Probably not. But it's not unlike FOSTA. We're playing whack a mole, whether it's prostitution websites or drug cartels. And Prohibition doesn't seem to work. We did get cartels out of Columbia, and then cartels moved to Mexico. When Mexico cracked down it created more violence and disorder. Some of it moved to Guatemala and Honduras and El Salvador, where gun death and homicide rates are far higher than in either Mexico or the US. I'm not even sure Trump's rhetoric has really disrupted the coyote networks that traffick undocumented immigrants into the US. But that would be one explanation for why they've focused on other things - like importing opioids - as revenues from human trafficking declined.

 

But whether it's prostitutes or drugs, demand never really seems to go away, and efforts to crack down can just backfire and actually make things worse.

Edited April 24, 2018 by stevenkesslar

[+ stevenkesslar]

And by the way, if you live in California, GET OUT!

 

People in California are animals. People in California kill each other. If you live in California, GO TO THE AIRPORT NOW. DO NOT THINK. TAKE YOUR BELONGINGS AND LOVED ONES AND LEAVE. NOW.

 

California is the kind of place where a White male animal will go into a gun store, buy an AR-17, and slaughter you while you are enjoying an outdoor concert or taking a class at a high school or community college. Your heart or brain or kidney will look like a rotten apple somebody stepped on when he gets done with you. You will die a horrible, painful, slow death. The "why" of your death will be unthinkable. The "how" of your death will be terrifying.

 

California is brimming with rapists and murderers and lunatics. IF YOU LIVE IN CALIFORNIA, LEAVE IMMEDIATELY. YOUR LIFE IS AT STAKE!

 

Fortunately, I'm following noted Mexican Director Guillermo del Toro's words. There are no words to comprehend the magnitude of this madness.

 

del Toro is a native of Guadalajara, in the state of Jalisco, in Mexico. I'm moving there. It's a hell of a lot safer in Jalisco than it is in California, where lunatic murdering White animals run free.

 

If you don't believe me, it's probably because you are an ignorant White animal yourself.

 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/195331/number-of-murders-in-the-us-by-state/

 

In California in 2016, there were 1,930 homicides - the most recent year I could find data for. It was the most murderous state in the country. It is a shit hole of White animals who kill.

 

The students’ deaths became the latest example of the lives upended by violence in a country that just marked its deadliest year in modern history, with more than 25,300 homicides.

 

If you read that hyperlinked report, you will note that there were only 1,153 homicides in Jalisco in 2016. In other words, California had about 67 % more homicides than Jalisco in 2016. Of course, there is no state in the US or Mexico where there are no murders. But I'd rather live in a state where my chances of surviving are better.

 

Why stay in California? Like California, Jalisco is a big state. If you like San Francisco, move to Guadalajara. It is a charming big metro area. If you like Carmel or La Jolla, move to Puerto Vallarta. It is a charming beach community. Both are a hell of a lot safer than comparable shit holes in California, if your goal is to not be killed by some White animal.

Edited April 24, 2018 by stevenkesslar

[Kenny]

I spent a really enjoyable week in Guadalajara and Tlaquepaque and I'd love to go back.

Perhaps you are confusing it with the Tlaquepaque Taqueria on Palm Canyon, which isn’t nearly as insanely trashy as the Tlaquepaque artisans markets.

Fabuloso basura!

[+ stevenkesslar]

Perhaps you are confusing it with the Tlaquepaque Taqueria on Palm Canyon, which isn’t nearly as insanely trashy as the Tlaquepaque artisans markets.

Fabuloso basura!

 

Actually, what I'd really like to check out are the Gay stripper bars in Guadalajara.

 

https://www.ellgeebe.com/en/destinations/latin-america/mexico/guadalajara/nightlife

 

https://www.ellgeebe.com/en/destinations/latin-america/mexico/guadalajara/nightlife/la-taberna-de-caudillos

 

 

I asked BVB to go down there with me, and he said no. For some reason he's all freaked out about it. No se porque.

[+ stevenkesslar]

There is something particularly tragic and poignant about this one.

 

A few years ago in Nuevo Vallarta at The Grande Luxxe (the gated community resort in Jalisco where Americans and Canadian feel safer) I ran into a waiter from Guadalajara who wanted to study film. That resort is a jobs magnet for a lot of aspirational Mexican employees, especially if they speak English and can get tip income. It's the best of all worlds. Live in your country, earn money like an American, and spend it at Mexico prices.

 

The kid wanted to be a Director, and coming from Guadalajara he of course mentioned del Toro as a role model. In a movie, it could have been del Toro that was mistakenly abducted, tortured, and dissolved into acid. It would actually make a good movie script. Like I said, it's poignant and tragic that real life aspirational del Toros were murdered in the year when real life del Toro received global recognition and Oscars.

 

There is something uniquely Mexican about all this, I suspect. And as an American I don't claim to understand what it is. I've lived with Mexican families, traveled all over Mexico, had Mexican fuck buddies and friends, and they are a sweet and loving and playful people. And then you get this shit. Somehow - like in every country - the best and worst elements of humanity seem to co-exist, right next to each other.

 

So, since the words of del Toro were being quoted about this murder, I thought it would be interesting to quote these words of his, as well. They ring equally true, and seem to come equally from deep in his heart. Except these words express his pride in his Mexican heritage, and his nationalism.

 

"Octavia Spencer is a true Del Toro fan, and when she found out that he wanted her to be in this movie, she said: “I would have been a potted plant had he asked me to.”

 

And in fact, the night he won the Golden Globe, he was asked about his “extraordinary ability to look into the shadow side, into the darker side of human nature and fantasy and terror. But you also are a really joyful and loving person. So, how do you find that balance?”

 

Del Toro’s great answer was:

 

"I’m Mexican... No one loves life more than we do, in a way because we are so conscious about death,” referring to the Day of the Dead with its cempasúchil marigolds and altars.

 

https://www.mexico.mx/en/articles/guillermo-del-toro-nominated-oscar

[+ glutes]

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican prosecutors say they are investigating the identity of five men whose bodies were stuffed into a car in the resort city of Cancun.

 

The prosecutors' office in the state of Quintana Roo said the bodies were found early Wednesday but have not yet been identified.

 

The latest case comes amid a rise in violence and drug-gang killings in the once tranquil city.

 

On Tuesday, prosecutors announced the arrest of three Cancun police officers in relation to the kidnapping of four Colombian citizens.

 

An increasing number of Colombians have been involved in loan sharking and other activities in Mexico that make them vulnerable to extortion or kidnapping.