C
CRIMINAL JUSTICE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATES
22 Aug 2010
Special points of interest:
 MEXICO’S MOST
FEARED OPERATING
OUT OF LOS ANGE-
LES 1
 MURDER RATE IN
CARACAS VENE-
ZUELA ASTONISHING
1 discontent on the street-
 POLLS IN VENE-
ZUELA HOLD CHAVEZ
RESPONSIBLE FOR
RISING CRIME 1
 CUBAN DISSIDENTS
ACCUSE OFFICIALS
OF INCREASED RE-
PRESSION AND
HARASSMENT 1
ADDITIONAL READING
http://www.scribd.com/
doc/36039998/Will-
http://www.scribd.com/
doc/34907326/Venezuelan
http://www.scribd.com/
doc/31584998/War-
like-Arms-Mounting-
http://www.scribd.com/
doc/24884680/Out-And-
out-Terrorism-on-the-Border
http://www.scribd.com/
doc/31340627/LATIN-
AMERICA%E2%80%99S-
Jbrewer@cjiausa.org
Twitter: cjiausa
http://www.scribd.com/
jbrewer31
Washington, D.C. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
www.cjiausa.org 703.268.4453
LOS ANGELES
Mexico’s most feared mur-
derous drug trafficking or-
ganizations are operating in
Los Angeles. This according
to LAPD’s Head of the Nar-
cotics Division- Lieutenant
Alvin Jackson.
Los Zetas, former military
deserters from the late 1990s
who became the enforcement
arm of the Mexican Gulf Car-
tel, has emigrated from Texas
into greater Los Angeles.
According to an unnamed
informant, Los Zetas are re-
cruiting assassins from
among former prison popula-
tions. Officials admit the
Sinaloa, Gulf and Los Zetas
cartels are operating. In L.A.
Other cartels operating in the
area are the Arellano Félix,
Beltrán Leyva, Sinaloa, La
VENEZUELA
Although the government
stopped publishing data on
murders several years ago, a
recent report estimates the
murder rate in Caracas at an
astonishing 220 per 100,000
people.
That is higher even than in
Mexico’s drug-ridden Ciudad
Juárez. “I don’t have the
slightest doubt that Caracas is
the most violent city in the
A Global Threat Mitigation Firm
Familia and Carrillo Fuentes
cartels.
The informant stated, "They’re
bringing them to Mexico where
they’ll train them. That is their
army." Los Angeles FBI director
Steven Martinez stated that Los
Angeles is a strategic point for
drug cartel operations, both for
consumption and distribution
throughout the country.
VENEZUELA
President Hugo Chavez rou-
tinely speaks through the media,
but says little or nothing about
rising crime. This strategy has
worked politically. As the vio-
lence mounts, that seems to be
changing. “People are beginning
to blame the president,” says
Saúl Cabrera of Consultores 21, a change in the govern-
a pollster. Respondents now
hold Chávez directly responsible
for their most urgent problem.
world,” says Mr Briceño-
León.
Nevertheless, Roberto
Briceño-León of the Vene-
zuelan Observatory of Vio-
lence, an NGO, says that a
government report “he” has
obtained puts the national
murder rate at 75 per 100,000
people, up from 49 just four
years ago and almost twice
the rate in neighboring Co-
lombia.
LATIN AMERICA BRIEFS
CUBA
As Cuba reluctantly begins
to release political prison-
ers held for years, Cuba's
Communist government
continues to harass critics
who publicly express their
Cuban dissidents said last
week.
The number of temporary
detention of dissidents and
incidents where they are
harassed by groups of gov-
ernment supporters is on
the rise, dissidents and dip-
lomats said. "Daily repres-
sion appears harsher than
ever. There have been
more incidents reported
since the releases began,
said a European diplomat.
"The releases do not signal
ment's repressive policies."
The mother of Orlando
Zapata, an imprisoned dis-
sident who died in Febru-
ary after an 85-day hunger
strike, said government
supporters and security
agents stopped her and
other dissidents from going
to the cemetery to pay their
respects to her son.
Amnesty International this
week called on Cuban au-
thorities to stop harassing
the 61-year-old woman.
"Wherever we go we are
persecuted by state security
agents and the police," she
added.