Latinos with DACA say they're being targeted in Texas, and a review of new Chicano vampire fiction by Laredo author Ito Romo, plus a rally in southern Arizona this weekend to save ancient cottonwoods from border wall destruction, and more!
With interior Border Patrol checkpoints to the north, and the border to the south, DACA recipients in border communities feel under threat by multiple layers of law enforcement, from ICE to local police. Nowhere more so than in Texas.
'Did the CIA Smuggle Cocaine? Yes, I Witnessed it Firsthand': A Podcast with Sheriff David Hathaway
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Sheriff David Hathaway is a fifth-generation rancher from the U.S.-Mexico border in Santa Cruz County, Arizona. He’s also a former supervisory agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration, and he participated in the DEA’s largest-ever homicide investigation, Operación Leyenda, to track down the killers of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in the 1980s.
Hathaway’s participation in Camarena’s murder investigation, and his discovery that the CIA was not only smuggling drugs but also involved in Camarena’s death in Mexico, led Hathaway to conclude that America’s war on drugs is a failure, which spurs government corruption on both sides of the border as illustrated (yet again) in the current trial of former Mexican anti-drug official Genaro Garcia Luna in New York.
Hathaway speaks frankly about U.S. drug policy, the investigation into Camarena’s death (which is now featured in a four-part documentary called The Last Narc on Amazon), and the restorative justice programs* that Santa Cruz County has spearheaded to reduce drug demand in its communities.
The second part of this podcast with Hathaway which delves into border militarization, the recent shipping container wall boondoggle, and “fuzzy” border statistics will air next week. Stay tuned!
This conversation, hosted by Todd Miller, about a great borderlands adobe brick building project is going great, until Jacques Servin—of the political performance artist trickster and activist troupe called the Yes Men—fails to grasp the meaning of the term "border security."
Torre Centinela, a Mexican surveillance hub that will share intelligence with U.S. and Texas law enforcement is slated to open soon. Olivares discusses his investigation on Torre Centinela and the private corporation running it.
With more than 40 percent of the U.S.-Mexico border now under military authority, we discuss our Border Chronicle/The War Horse investigation examining this unprecedented expansion of federal power and its impact on border communities.