Report: LPGA Drops Mexico Tournament

Report: LPGA Drops Mexico Tournament

msn.foxsports.com

Updated Feb 2, 2011 1:37 PM ET

"The LPGA has canceled the $1.3 million Tres Marias Championship in Mexico due to concerns over drug violence, the Orlando Sentinel reported Wednesday."

"Though no official announcement was made by the women's golf tour, the tournament — which was to be held April 21-24 in Morelia — is no longer listed on the schedule."

(visit the link for the full news article)


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First the colleges started dropping Mexico visits/study programs from their regular schedules, then some of the cruise lines started avoiding parts of Mexico, and now the LPGA.

Wondering who will be next, to just say "no" to Mexico?

Also from the article:

"Morelia is located in the state of Michoacan, in north-central Mexico, where violence linked to drug cartels is routine. One of the country's most vicious cartels, The La Familia, is based in Michoacan."



msn.foxsports.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

We had the "Wimbledon of Chess" tournaments here in Morelia until after Calderon's War got into full-swing. Morelia is still a nice place to live but such international events could become "targets" if someone was trying to make a statement.

The annual Linares chess tournament, usually played around the end of February, takes its name from the city of Linares in the Jaén province of Andalusia, Spain, in which it is held. It is sometimes described as the Wimbledon of chess, being one of the strongest annual tournaments held on the chess tour, along with the "Tata Steel" Wijk aan Zee and Dortmund events.

From 2006 through 2008, the first half of the tournament took place in the Mexican city of Morelia. The second half took place in Linares. Consequently the event is sometimes referred to as Morelia - Linares in databases and the like.

In 2009 and 2010 the event took place entirely in Linares.

Mexico is losing tourism in their attempt to carry out US policies. I hope they look at what is happening and make the right choices.

The Mote In One's Eye

Although the drug war violence in Mexico is horrifying, it's hard not to see a great deal of irony behind all the attention it's getting, because there's been no shortage of similar violence north of the border, and it's by no means a new phenomenon.

Indeed, gang violence is now a well-established and pervasive aspect of American culture to the point of being a stereotype. What is considered shocking in Mexico is glorified in the U.S., a part of life to be celebrated and cherished rather than an aberration to be reviled.

If the true extent of gang violence in the U.S. was more widely and accurately reported, tourism and international events would dry up here as well.

reply to post by Erongaricuaro

Mexico is losing tourism in their attempt to carry out US policies. I hope they look at what is happening and make the right choices.

No...Mexico is losing tourism because it is a war zone right now, as the Mexican Government tries to battle the criminal elements in their society who have gone blood-lust-crazy in their attempts to gain "market share" of the drug trade into the USA.

Headless bodies left on the streets, mine-shaft graves, entire police forces resigning en masse because they are out manned and out gunned...yeah, great place to take the wife and kids right now.

Which US policies are you referring to here?

The more the Mexican Government drives their population north, the more of the pie in US cash brought back into Mexico there is to divvy up among the elite classes in Mexico. Anyone who thinks these Mexican drug lords are sitting with piles of dollars sitting around in the villa's is wrong. Banks in Mexico City are busy investing that cash and making dividends on it for themselves. That's including Calderones own family. The gangs that get attacked by government forces are the ones NOT paying enough tribute to the elites in Mexico or the PTB here in the US.

Zindo

More here on the continued drug cartel violence in Mexico:

"Mexico's Fearsome La Familia: Eerily Quiet"
By Tim Padgett Monday, Jan. 31, 2011
From the article:

"If Mexico really is seeing the demise of La Familia, an especially violent and bizarre gang that made its muscle trafficking methamphetamine, or crystal meth, to a voracious U.S. market, it's an advance that Calderón sorely needed. That's because Mexico's latest drug-war death statistics are a step backward: 15,273 drug-related killings last year — a 59% rise over 2009 — bringing the total since Calderón took office in December 2006 to 34,612. If his antinarco campaign has actually knocked one of Mexico's seven strongest cartels off the battlefield, and if that helps reduce the body count in 2011, it means he can finally claim progress for a military-based strategy that even stalwart allies like the U.S. have begun to question. "The government seems to have achieved something positive in Michoacán," says Luis Astorga, a drug-war expert at the National Autonomous University in Mexico City."

Read more: www.time.com...



and an older article on La Familia:

"Mexico's Meth Warriors"
By Tim Padgett / Apatzingan; Ioan Grillo / Apatzingan Monday, Jun. 28, 2010


From the article:

"Few in Mexico doubt who was responsible: a bizarre gang of Christian-fundamentalist narcotraffickers known as La Familia Michoacana, which is busting out of its Tierra Caliente base. Its leader, Nazario Moreno — a.k.a. El Más Loco (the Craziest One) — has written a bible, and his 1,500 minions hold prayer meetings before going to work. Their grisly calling card is the severed head of an enemy. There have been at least 20 decapitations this this year in their stronghold of Apatzingán, a colonial city of 100,000 inhabitants who live in perpetual fear of the gang. Recently, four severed, blindfolded heads — one belonging to a federal cop — were left on its main monument with a sign warning folks to "take a good look" at what happens to those who cross the Michoacán mob. "It's gotten to the point," says Andrés Larios, a local Roman Catholic priest, "that we've had to consult our bishop about whether there's a proper way to say funeral Masses for heads without bodies."

Read more: www.time.com...

Originally posted by ZindoDoone
The more the Mexican Government drives their population north, the more of the pie in US cash brought back into Mexico there is to divvy up among the elite classes in Mexico. Anyone who thinks these Mexican drug lords are sitting with piles of dollars sitting around in the villa's is wrong. Banks in Mexico City are busy investing that cash and making dividends on it for themselves. That's including Calderones own family. The gangs that get attacked by government forces are the ones NOT paying enough tribute to the elites in Mexico or the PTB here in the US.

Zindo

You seem to grasp a key element to all the razzmatazz about this issue. This does not cease at our northern border, however. Elites from around the globe have a share of this. A primary motivator for the Drug War is that none of these elites wish to tolerate new "upstarts" in this game who gain power and economic advantage if left unchecked.

Other giant interests have a stake in this "war" as well. The alcohol industry would like to maintain their monopoly on the recreational drug business. Big Pharma also sees a threat to permitting a homegrown panacea that costs virtually nothing invade their profits.

I think governments are pleased with the unrest created by this prohibition war. Peoples' cries for more security and protection invites government agencies into their homes and erodes their expectations of privacies. Many rights and privileges have been surrendered in this war.