Mexico, News Briefs
Mexico: Soldiers Head To Nuevo León After Casino Royale Massacre
August 27, 2011 By Roque Planas
Federal police and soldiers began arriving in the Mexican state of Nuevo León Saturday, following the torching of the Casino Royale on Thursday in the capital of Monterrey, a massacre that left 52 people dead and caused public outcry.
During a visit to the state Friday, Mexican President Felipe Calderón ordered federal police and soldiers into the state to reinforce security.
The additional security forces will amount to 1,500 federal police officers and 1,500 army soldiers, according to security spokesman Jorge Domene.
Authorities have also confiscated some 1,500 slot machines from 11 casinos, according to the Associated Press, in an attempt to crack down on illegal gambling operations.
The violence at the Casino Royale this week has pressured authorities to address the issue of illegal gambling.
Deputy Lizbeth Coronado García said she had filed legal complaints with the federal District Attorney against 200 casinos in May — including the Casino Royale — for skirting regulations, but her actions did not lead to the closing of any of the establishments.
“I would have hoped that the District Attorney’s office, during that time, would have visited the casinos to investigate what we denounced, but they didn’t do anything,” Coronado García said, according to Animal Político.
Coronado García says that unregulated casinos serve as propitious environments for money laundering.
At a press conference Saturday, the Casino Royale’s attorney Juan Gómez denied allegations that the establishment operated illegally.
The motive for the attack on the Casino Royale remains unclear. A group of armed men entered the building and set fire to it, killing 52 people, including a pregnant woman. Seven of the victims have yet to be identified.
The government says the death toll from Mexico’s drug war has reached 35,000 since Calderón launched a major offensive against the country’s cartels in 2006. Some independent estimates place the figure as high as 40,000.
Image: Gobierno Federal @ Flickr.
2 Comments
Not only the Casino was burned down. The casino had no emergency exits. People that would have been saved could not due to the negligence of the casino owners.
They have been protected by the Mexican government.
Please also publish the negligence of the authorities.
Prohibition does nothing but bankroll dangerous criminals, corrupt whole law enforcement agencies and generously arm international terrorists. Alcohol prohibition (1919-1933) was a casebook example of such dangerous folly. Today, alcohol is taxed and regulated and the shoot-outs over turf and the killing of innocent bystanders are no longer a daily part of the alcohol trade. So how come so many of us lack the simple ability to learn from such an important historical lesson, and are instead intent on perpetuating the madness and misery that prohibition has always invariably engendered?
It is clearly our always-doomed-to-fail policy of prohibition that is causing this intense misery. We need to fix ourselves (start thinking clearly) and in doing so, we will not only help rid ourselves of this terrible self-inflicted curse but also help to heal the whole planet.
Are we really such an adolescent nation that we can expect neither maturity nor cognitive thought from either our leaders or our populace? This is not a war on drugs; it’s an outright war on sanity!
Colombia, Peru, Mexico or Afghanistan, with their coca leaves, marijuana buds or their poppy sap, are not igniting temptation in the minds of poor weak American citizens. These countries are merely responding to the enormous demand that comes from within our own borders. Invading or destroying those countries, creating more hate, violence, instability, injustice and corruption, will not fix this problem. We need to admit that It is ourselves who are sick. Prohibition is neither a sane nor a safe approach. Left unabated, it’s devouring inferno will surely engulf every last one of us!
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