{"id":31386,"date":"2011-08-30T08:13:51","date_gmt":"2011-08-30T14:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=31386"},"modified":"2011-08-31T07:41:51","modified_gmt":"2011-08-31T13:41:51","slug":"corrupt-columbus-officials-enabled-killing-in-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/08\/corrupt-columbus-officials-enabled-killing-in-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"Corrupt Columbus officials enabled killing in Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

New Mexico has seen lots of government corruption exposed in recent years that involves stealing money from taxpayers. But the recent weapons-smuggling case<\/a> involving Columbus village officials takes government corruption to a more egregious level.<\/p>\n

The (now former) mayor, police chief and a city councilor were involved in a ring that helped smuggle firearms to the La Linea cartel in Mexico and also provided it with ammunition and tactical gear.<\/p>\n

In other words, public officials in a tiny border town in New Mexico used their jobs to help arm a cartel in Mexico, where the drug war and other lawlessness have claimed tens of thousands of lives in recent years.<\/p>\n

Is it a stretch to say that former Columbus Mayor Eddie Espinoza, Trustee Blas Gutierrez and Police Chief Angelo Vega enabled the killing of people in Mexico? I think not.<\/p>\n

Public corruption that enables killing, in my view, dwarfs the thefts of millions of dollars that we\u2019ve seen in some high-profile public corruption cases in recent years.<\/p>\n

As the Las Cruces Sun-News has reported<\/a>, the 15 defendants in the case allegedly bought about 200 guns \u2013 including AK-47-type pistols and 9mm pistols \u2013 from a gun store in Chaparral and smuggled them to the Ju\u00e1rez-based cartel.<\/p>\n

Dozens were intercepted by law enforcement before they crossed the border, but most apparently were not. Three were found on dead individuals in an SUV in Ju\u00e1rez.<\/p>\n

Vega, who last week became the final of the former public officials to plead guilty in the case, \u201cconducted counter-surveillance, used a village-owned Ford F150 truck to transport firearms from the country, pulled over a car of ATF agents at La Linea\u2019s request, and tried to get ATF agents to return firearms to Gutierrez after they were seized,\u201d the Sun-News reported.<\/p>\n

He also bought tactical gear, including a bulletproof vest for a La Linea leader.<\/p>\n

Situation may \u2018doom Columbus entirely\u2019<\/h3>\n

Espinoza, Gutierrez and Vega were working to arm La Linea, not manage and keep safe the Village of Columbus. Their abuse of their jobs and neglect of the city they were supposed to be serving has had serious consequences. As the New York Times reported this weekend<\/a>, the situation may \u201cdoom Columbus entirely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMs. (Nicole S.) Lawson, who was appointed to replace the arrested mayor, has found the village\u2019s books in such disarray, with hints of huge debts and reckless spending, that she fears that Columbus may soon lose its incorporation status and be taken over by Luna County.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 To save money, the village has disbanded its six-person police department, which had had eight police chiefs over the last five years, and contracted with the Luna County Sheriff\u2019s Department for law enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 The village also wiped out its code enforcement, animal control and recreation departments because it lacked the money to operate them.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re dangling on the edge,\u201d Lawson was quoted by the Times as saying. \u201cWe try not to look over. We try to climb back up. But I don\u2019t know if we can survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

These men have all but destroyed the town they were supposed to serve.<\/p>\n

Send a message<\/h3>\n

Vega\u2019s attorney, Jess Lilley of Las Cruces, said at Vega\u2019s plea hearing that his client has \u201cdone a lot for the communities he\u2019s worked in. He\u2019s obviously made a few poor choices. Those poor choices don\u2019t make somebody a bad person. He\u2019s ready to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that Vega \u201cdoesn\u2019t want to make any excuses for the poor choices they made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good. Vega, Espinoza and Gutierrez get kudos from me for manning up and pleading guilty. But that doesn\u2019t change the fact that their actions are among the most egregious I\u2019ve ever seen from public officials.<\/p>\n

In spite of their plea agreements, they should receive the maximum punishment allowed by federal law. Think Columbus is the only town whose government has been infiltrated by the Mexican drug cartels? I think not<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We need to send a message that we won\u2019t tolerate this sort of government corruption in the United States.<\/p>\n

Haussamen bio<\/a>\u00a0\u2502\u00a0Commentary page<\/a>\u00a0\u2502\u00a0Feed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Mexico has seen lots of government corruption exposed in recent years that involves stealing money from taxpayers. But the recent weapons-smuggling case involving Columbus village officials takes government corruption to a more egregious level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[140,142,195,114],"class_list":["post-31386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-crime","tag-mexicos-drug-war","tag-public-corruption"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}