Word: crackdowns
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...group has claimed responsibility for the bombing, which sent shock waves through the heart of the Mexican capital. But officials on the case have said they are investigating whether it could be the work of drug cartels reeling from a crackdown by President Felipe Calderon. Leftist guerrilla groups also have a history of bombing in Mexico, but they have normally hit political or commercial buildings at night without leaving casualties...
While the Mexican crime families do not have a history of using bombs, explosive devices used to be a favored tactic of their associates in Colombia. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Medellin cartel responded to a government crackdown with bombs on street corners, cars and even one passenger jet, killing hundreds. Colombian gangsters have long been selling cocaine to the Mexican cartels, who smuggle it into the United States. "The cartels could be turning to this Colombian tactic of using terror to pressure the government to back off," said Mexican drug expert Jorge Chabat. "They may be trying...
...Along with a financial crackdown, an international arms embargo against the generals would have an impact without causing wider pain. Without new weaponry provided at discount rates, the junta would have to spend vastly more of its own money equipping the second largest army in Southeast Asia. This would leave far less to support the military's vast parallel social-welfare system, including separate health care and schools for soldiers, which is vital to ensuring the average grunt's loyalty to the generals rather than to the Burmese people...
...After last fall's crackdown, India promised to stop arms sales to Rangoon. China could be persuaded to go along. Beijing has already cut off non-humanitarian aid to other rogue nations like Zimbabwe. As with Burma, Robert Mugabe's regime stained China's international image; Beijing also fretted that unrest against the Mugabe government might spark local anger at Chinese interests. Chinese diplomats privately admit that Beijing fears that violent instability in Burma might threaten Beijing's investments - in October, with Burmese resentment of China soaring, gunmen fired on the Chinese consulate in Mandalay. Embargo commitments by those Asian...
...attack as a pretext to arrest the leaders of Chad's civil opposition. They are alive - for now. On Feb. 4, Paris won the U.N. Security Council's authorization to send weapons to Chad. France is fast becoming a belligerent in Chad's war, and an accomplice to a crackdown on the faint hope of a democratic future...