Americas MexicoBlog

Immigration Politics: Debating Amnesty and Immigration Policy

2012-01-27T12:07:00.000-06:00

From the blog of Shannon O'Neil of the Council on Foreign Relations

Latin America's Moment: " Mexican migrants--given the combination of absolute number caps on legal visas combined with the large number of Mexican family members here, parents, kids, and siblings--have to make the choice of growing up (for years potentially) apart, waiting for a legal family visas, or coming illegally. So do you want to wait and do the paper work and hope you get to see your 4 year old when he/she is 8-9 years old? Or do you bring them illegally? That is an inhumane law, and should be changed." read more

Week's Top Articles on Mexico: Jan. 20-26, 2012

2012-01-27T11:03:00.000-06:00

Human rights and the rule of law dominated the news this week in Mexico. Human Rights Watch reported that, in fighting the drug war, security forces in Mexico have committed numerous human rights violations and that soldiers enjoy impunity in these cases.

The Mexican government initially issued a detailed critique of the report. But by the end of the week, it was making more conciliatory statements about its "openness" to the work of human rights organizations such as HRW.

Mexican human rights organizations welcomed the report for linking the government's strategy to worsening violence and reinforcing their demand for a change in security policy.

At the same time, the Nobel Women's Peace Initiative began a ten-day investigative tour of Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras to focus on femicides, other abuses of women and government impunity regarding these human rights violations. Indigenous women of Guerrero presented particularly powerful testimonies.

Drug war news brings a new year's assessment of shifts in drug cartel power. The Stratfor security group concluded that the Sinaloa and Zeta cartels have consolidated their control of the drug trade and territory, each dominating about half of Mexico's 31 states. Possibly related to this, the army announced that it was adding five new bases in northern states ravaged by battles with and between cartels.

Meanwhile, data obtained by the Mexican Institute for Access to Information showed that less than 50% of those arrested on federal charges--including organized crime and drug trafficking--in the past five years were actually held for trial. (Murder is a state, not a federal, offense.)

Finally, there is the powerful and poignant story, as told by the local priest, of how the drug trade is devastating the youth in the Tarahumara Mountains of Chihuahua state.

Immigration and border news centered on the Obama administration's pilot review of deportation cases, with a goal of closing those of migrants who pose "no security risk". Some 16% qualified. However, this is no relief for undocumented migrants who are not in deportation proceedings.

Meanwhile, the Applied Research Center reports on the sorry fate of children who are placed in foster care when their parents are detained or deported for lack of valid visas. And data released by the government reveals that fewer undocumented immigrants are crossing the border multiple times in a single year.

And lastly, anthropologist Jason De Leon collects worn sneakers, dirty backpacks and empty water bottles in the Sonoran desert to document the stories of migrants' struggles, hopes and determination in crossing the desert into the U.S..

The Articles

Human Rights and Rule of Law

Violence has increased horribly in Mexico, says Human Rights Watch
Milenio: ""We have evidence that violence has increased in Mexico horribly in recent years and that there is no system for judging the military so that there is justice." " read more

HRW report does not reflect real situation in Mexico: Interior Ministry
Milenio: "The federal government said that the report by Human Rights Watch (HRW)... contains categorical and generalized statements about the country that do not reflect the real situation in Mexico." read more

Mexico open to public scrutiny on human rights: Secretary of Interior Poiré
Milenio: "Mexico is open to public scrutiny on the matter of human rights and will attend to the recommendations, criticisms and concerns of the various organizations on the basis of solid, consistent and verifiable information." read more

Mexican human rights groups demand change in anti-crime policy
La Jornada: The report, (civic organization leaders) said, is important because "it indicates that the strategy has exacerbated the violence in the country, and we insist that the liability is Calderón's, because his policies foster a climate of serious human rights violations." read more

Nobel Prize winner Jody Williams denounces impunity for femicides in Mexico
EFE/CNN Mexico: "The Nobel Peace Prize winner, Jody Williams, denounced impunity regarding crimes against women in Mexico... Her visit is part of an investigation being carried out by the Nobel Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú regarding murders of women in Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala." read more

Nobel Women´s Initiative hears testimony of indigenous women of Guerrero
La Jornada: "Militarization, organized crime, rape by soldiers and police and impunity, neglectful bureaucracy and abuse of authority, plunder, murder and extreme labor exploitation, and the customary assumption that women, or "the old women"--to put it in their terms--are useless. These are the themes of stories told to the Nobel Women's Initiative by indigenous women of Guerrero. read more

Drug War

Polarization and Sustained Violence in Mexico's Cartel War
Stratfor: "Over the past year it has ... become evident that a polarization is under way among (Mexican) cartels. Most smaller groups (or remnants of groups) have been subsumed by the Sinaloa Federation, which controls much of western Mexico, and Los Zetas, who control much of eastern Mexico. ... these two groups have solidified themselves as the country's predominant forces. " read more

Mexico Plans 5 New Military Bases in Zeta Territory
InSight Crime: "Mexico's government upped its offensive against the Zetas with the announcement that five new military bases will be installed in the group's primary areas of operation. Four bases will be located in Tamaulipas and another one in Nuevo Leon, which are both among the northern border states most affected by drug violence." read more

Of 463,000 arrested in 5 years, only 215,000 were charged with crimes
La Jornada: "Since December 2006... 463,000 suspects were arrested on federal charges, of which 163,000 were considered members of organized crime, 17,000 were allegedly drug dealers and 6,500 were allegedly members of gangs of kidnappers. However, on average only four in 10, i.e., 215,000, were detained and the rest were released by the Federal Public Ministry." Spanish original

Drug trade, not a lack of food, the biggest problem in the mountains of Chihuahua
La Jornada: "Though it is very serious, the greatest crisis in this part of the Tarahumara Mountains in Chihuahua is not the food shortage, but the presence of narcotrafficking and its quota of violence: “the Rarámuri communities are being crucified by organized crime.” read more

Immigration and the Border

In Test of Deportation Policy, 1 in 6 Offered Reprieve
NYTimes.com: "A review of virtually all 7,900 deportation cases before the immigration court (in Denver) has identified about 1,300 foreigners — 16 percent — who pose no security risk and will be allowed to remain in the United States, although with no new legal status...The Department of Homeland Security plans to extend the review to 300,000 deportation cases before the courts nationwide." read more

Mixed feelings about deportation reviews, even from ‘low priority’ immigrants
scpr.org.Multi-American: "Immigration officials reviewing deportation case files ... in Denver and Baltimore indicated that 1,600 people will be spared deportation, allowing them to stay in the country. ... Stuck in the middle are people who fit the low-priority criteria but are not in deportation proceedings." read more

Immigrant Children Face Uncertain Futures, Foster Care
Huffington Post: "More than 5,000 children of immigrants are ... in state foster care nationwide because their parents ... were detained or deported by federal immigration authorities. ... A report by the Applied Research Center (ARC) found that when immigration enforcement methods intersect with the child welfare system, consequences for immigrant families can be devastating and long-lasting." read more

Captured crossers returning less often
azstarnet.com: "Fewer illegal immigrants are crossing the border multiple times in a single year.... The percentage of people apprehended two or more times by the Border Patrol within the same fiscal year ... has declined each of the last four years, according to a new report from the Congressional Research Service. The rate was 20 percent in fiscal 2011, down from 28 percent in fiscal 2007, the report says." read more

Researcher Documents Belongings Left Behind While Crossing The Border
Huffington Post: "Not many people consider the human side of immigration, let alone document the belongings left behind by the migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. ... Each object tells a story of struggle, hope and determination. Recently, anthropologists began to collect them "to provide insight into the realities" of migration." read more

Border Control: New Fences Block Access To U.S.-Mexico Border Monuments

2012-01-27T10:39:00.000-06:00

An interesting article about another unforeseen consequence of barricading the border with Mexico.

Fronteras Desk: "Before there was a fence, all that marked the border between Mexico and the United States were stone and steel monuments, 276 of them dotting the southwestern landscape. They were installed by Mexican and American surveyors starting in 1850, after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War and the two countries agreed to define their shared border.

But as the U.S. Border Patrol has reinforced the boundary with a new fence, many of these bi-national monuments have been left entirely on the Mexican side of the barriers." read more

Drug Violence in Mexico--Graphs of the data

2012-01-27T10:19:00.000-06:00

Rehab International:

This link, provided via Global Post, is to a very clear, graphic presentation of data about the drug war in Mexico--number of deaths per year, distribution across the 31 Mexican states--and main facts about the various cartels.

Drug War Bloodshed: In Mexico, eight men are executed in downtown Monterrey

2012-01-27T09:12:00.001-06:00

latimes.com: "Eight men were executed and left on the street early Thursday in downtown Monterrey, in the latest outburst of violence to buffet the industrial northern city." read more

Drug War Militarization: Security contractors see opportunities, and limits, in Mexico

2012-01-27T09:09:00.000-06:00

The Washington Post: "With the Iraq war over and the American presence waning in Afghanistan, U.S. security contractors are looking for new prospects in Mexico, where spreading criminal violence has created a growing demand for battle-ready professionals." read more

Human Rights and Rule of Law: Mexico open to public scrutiny on human rights: Secretary of Interior Poiré

2012-01-26T13:21:00.000-06:00

Milenio: "Mexico is open to public scrutiny on the matter of human rights and will attend to the recommendations, criticisms and concerns of the various organizations on the basis of solid, consistent and verifiable information, Interior Minister Alejandro Poire affirmed.

At the opening of the annual National Meeting of Directors of Civil Protection, he acknowledged and supported the efforts made in this regard by the National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH), and assured his respect for the efforts of international organizations of all kinds, such as Human Rights Watch (HRW).

... Poire said that through the security strategy that the federal government is leading to reduce crime rates "we are sowing the seeds of a more just, prosperous and secure Mexico." Precisely in the pursuit of that justice, he explained, "the Mexican state and the government of President Felipe Calderon shares, has made its own and has so demonstrated, the primary and essential goal of protecting, promoting and defending human rights."

He said that there is no doubt that Mexico has complete conviction that human rights is a task for all, that is, for authorities, civil society organizations and autonomous bodies specializing in the field, both within the country and abroad. Poire said it is a responsibility to so be, "and we remain open to criticism, because that way we can move forward faster in the protection of the rights of our citizens."" Spanish original

Drug War Strategy: Mexico Plans 5 New Military Bases in Zeta Territory

2012-01-26T11:55:00.000-06:00

InSight Crime: "Mexico's government upped its offensive against the Zetas with the announcement that five new military bases will be installed in the group's primary areas of operation ... according to the newspaper Excelsior. Four bases will be located in Tamaulipas and another one in Nuevo Leon, which are both among the northern border states most affected by drug violence, ...

The initiative comes as part of the government's drive to reinstate control in areas where criminal groups have, in some cases, overrun local authorities The Mexican Department of Defense stated that installing greater military presence in these areas will help return the rule of law, reports Excelsior." read more

Human Rights Violations: Nuevo Leon government demands that police who claim they were tortured present their accusations

2012-01-26T11:47:00.000-06:00

CNN Mexico: "The government of the northern state of Nuevo Leon demanded that the Monterrey municipal police who, on Tuesday night made accusations of torture by the State Investigation Agency (IEA), present their evidence to prove or clarify responsibility, the government spokesman for state security, Jorge Domene Zambrano, said at a press conference.

On Tuesday night, three presumed municipal police, wearing hoods, appeared at police headquarters in Monterrey, the state capital, where they held a press conference to make accusations that they were tortured by elements of the State Investigation Agency (IEA).

The complainants say they were tortured during an operation by the State and the Army on January 21 as part of the police security purification process at municipal police headquarters. The state spokesman said that a total of 109 policemen had been retained that day, of which 60 were released the same day.

Five policemen continue to be held in the facilities of the AEI "because they appear to have links to some previous investigatons," while another 44 were taken that day to the University for Security Sciences, where they are being evaluated, explained Domene Zambrano.

"We reiterate the official position of the state government is to attend to this and, if necessary, punish those responsible, if this is true, or (determine) if it is a falsehood, which the statements of these individuals can turn out to be," he added. ... The spokesman stated that identity of the persons who publicly made accusations of alleged human rights violations is unknown and demanded that the municipal police department provide their identity.

... The State Ombudsman, Minerva Martinez announced that the Human Rights Commission (CEDHNL) has opened an inquiry to investigate these events, and invited the police to file a complaint with the agency. "I guarantee the safety of these people and their privacy," she said. The attorney general of Nuevo Leon, Adrian de la Garza Santos, reiterated that "total protection" will be provided to the alleged victims and he invited them to approach the authorities to file their complaint." Spanish original

Drug War: Prosecutor says 5 police officers shot dead outside Mexico City tried to extort suspects

2012-01-26T09:50:00.002-06:00

Note: this prosecutor´s statement is based on the statements of supposed members of a drug cartel as to why they called in an attack on the police.

AP/Washington Post: "Mexican authorities say five police officers fatally shot near Mexico City after stopping a car were trying to extort money when they were attacked.

Mexico State prosecutor Alfredo Castillo says the officers from the town of Ixtapaluca (Ees-tah-pah-lu-ca) asked the four La Familia Michoacana cartel members in the vehicle for 6,000 pesos (about $460) to let them go." read more

Immigration Politics: Romney, Gingrich fireworks over immigration

2012-01-26T09:41:00.001-06:00

CBS News: "With Florida's Republican presidential primary just days away ... the campaign took an ugly turn Wednesday, as sparks flew between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich over the issue of immigration.

Gingrich started the day's slug-fest --- sounding incredulous that Romney would say illegal immigrants should -- in Romney's words -- self-deport. In other words, leave on their own. "I think," Gingrich said, "you have to live in worlds of Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island accounts and automatic $20 million a year income with no work to have some fantasy this far from reality."

Romney fired back -- saying Gingrich is also on the record for supporting the idea that illegal immigrants will leave the country if they're denied work. Said Romney, "I recognize that it's very tempting to come out to an audience like this and pander to the audience. ... I think that's unbecoming of a presidential candidate."" read more

Immigration Crackdown: Immigrant Children Face Uncertain Futures, Foster Care

2012-01-26T09:37:00.001-06:00

Huffington Post: "More than 5,000 children of immigrants are languishing in state foster care nationwide because their parents were living in the United States illegally and were detained or deported by federal immigration authorities.

These children can spend years in foster homes, and some are put up for adoption after termination of their parents' custody rights.With neither state nor federal officials addressing the problem, thousands more are poised to enter the child welfare system every year.

... A recent report by the Applied Research Center (ARC), a national racial-justice think thank, found that when immigration enforcement methods intersect with the child welfare system, consequences for immigrant families can be devastating and long-lasting." read more

Immigration: Mexican actor hopes Oscar nod will help migrants

2012-01-26T09:31:00.000-06:00

AFP: "Mexican actor Demian Bichir hopes his surprise Oscar nod for "A Better Life" will raise awareness about the 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States. ... Bichir told reporters in Mexico City on Wednesday that "now more people will know who I am," -- but drawing attention to the difficulties faced by undocumented workers in the United States would be the "real prize", he added.

He expressed hope that "A Better Life" -- the story of a father trying to protect his son from the gang culture and immigration policing of Los Angeles -- would do for illegal migrants what "Philadelphia", the 1993 AIDS drama starring Tom Hanks, did for the gay community in America" read more

Mexico Rule of Law: Relative of victim says fear hinders reconstruction of the facts of Casino Royal attack

2012-01-26T08:50:00.000-06:00

CNN Mexico: Fear inhibits the reconstruction of the facts of the tragedy in the Casino Royal in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, where, on August 25, 2011, 52 people were killed. So stated Edmundo Jimenez Ramirez, a relative of one of the victims of the attack, to the press during a meeting of families of the victims.

"The problem is the issue of witnesses. We are hopeful. There are people who were present who took notice of everything bad about (the establishment)," he said. "People don't want to get into trouble, because there is fear, which we all have."

This Wednesday afternoon, five months after the attack, a dozen mourners gathered outside the casino to pray for the victims and demand punishment of the authorities for crimes of omission or commission and to require changes to the law to provide more security in this type of establishment.

Without specifying whether the fear is of the authorities or organized crime, Jimenez Ramirez said that, so far, there are three people who are willing to give their statements for the reconstruction of events, including two who lost relatives in the attack.

Samara Pérez Muñiz, a survivor of the attack, estimated that at least 10 people are necessary for a comprehensive reconstruction of the event and to refute the results of the official investigation of the casino fire, which concluded that the tragedy was inevitable." Spanish original

Drug War: Polarization and Sustained Violence in Mexico's Cartel War

2012-01-25T09:59:00.001-06:00

Stratfor security group's assessment of the results of the drug war in Mexico in 2011. The main conclusions: even more deaths than 2010 and two cartels consolidate their control of the drug trade and territory.

Stratfor: "Over the past year it has ... become evident that a polarization is under way among (Mexican) cartels. Most smaller groups (or remnants of groups) have been subsumed by the Sinaloa Federation, which controls much of western Mexico, and Los Zetas, who control much of eastern Mexico. While a great deal has been said about the fluidity of the Mexican cartel landscape, these two groups have solidified themselves as the country's predominant forces. " read more

Border Crackdown: Captured crossers returning less often

2012-01-25T09:28:00.004-06:00

azstarnet.com: "Fewer illegal immigrants are crossing the border multiple times in a single year, never-before-released government numbers show. The percentage of people apprehended two or more times by the Border Patrol within the same fiscal year - known as the recidivism rate - has declined each of the last four years, shows a new report from the Congressional Research Service. The rate was 20 percent in fiscal 2011, down from 28 percent in fiscal 2007, the report says.

... The report also reveals that nearly 60 percent of apprehended border crossers are being sent home through programs intended to make it tougher for them to cross again, and that fewer than 1 percent of all people apprehended by the Border Patrol have been convicted of major crimes. The report is the latest metric indicating that the flow of illegal immigrants, especially from Mexico, has slowed." read more

Immigration Crackdown: Companies pay millions for hiring illegal immigrants

2012-01-25T09:22:00.000-06:00

Houston Chronicle: "When U.S. immigration agents scoured the hiring paperwork on file at Advanced Containment System Inc. last year, they found identification cards supposedly issued by the "Texas Department of Safety." Words including "identification" and "department" were misspelled. One ID card even had the words "novelty item" typed on the back. Some 44 percent of the company's Houston workforce from 2005 to 2009 was in the country illegally and was paid an estimated $2 million during that time, the audit showed.

On Tuesday, U.S. immigration officials and federal prosecutors announced they had reached a $2 million settlement with ACSI in exchange for avoiding criminal prosecution." read more

Drug War Money Laundering: Bus passengers get prison in Texas cash smuggling case

2012-01-25T09:11:00.000-06:00

Another inventive attempt to smuggle money across the border.

Reuters: "A federal judge sentenced a busload of passengers to prison terms of up to three years for their role in a foiled smuggling operation to ferry more than $3.1 million in cash into Mexico, U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson said on Tuesday.

The sentences came after federal agents stopped a southbound commercial bus at the Hidalgo, Texas international bridge, about 240 miles south of San Antonio, in September 2010. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers searched 17 pieces of luggage on the bus and found cash stuffed inside deflated Coleman air mattresses packed in each bag, a criminal complaint said. Agents seized $3.19 million in cash from the bags and arrested all 13 passengers aboard the bus.

The passengers all admitted to their role in the smuggling ring, saying they were recruited to move the cash into Mexico. They expected to be paid as much as $8,000 to courier the currency across the border." read more

Drug War Weapons Traffic: First Convictions From Fast And Furious Gun Probe

2012-01-25T09:04:00.000-06:00

First Convictions From Fast And Furious Gun Probe | Fox News: "Two men pleaded guilty to buying guns that were destined to be smuggled into Mexico, the first convictions in the federal government's botched Operation Fast and Furious. The men were so-called "straw buyers" who acknowledged purchasing guns that they knew were headed to Mexican drug gangs.

... Jacob Wayne Chambers and Jacob Anthony Montelongo each pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to a conspiracy charge. Montelongo also pleaded guilty to dealing guns without a license. The pair admitted being part of a 20-person smuggling ring that is accused of running guns into Mexico for use by the Sinaloa drug cartel." read more

Drug War Bloodshed: 5 Police Officers Killed in Mexico

2012-01-24T21:23:00.000-06:00

AP/NYTimes.com: "Officials said that five police officers had been fatally shot after they stopped a vehicle in a town outside Mexico City. A prosecutor, Alfredo Castillo Cervantes of Mexico State, said the police officers from the town of Ixtapaluca had stopped the vehicle on Monday when a taxi and a van pulled up and a group of attackers opened fire with high-powered weapons." read more

The Rarámuri Crisis: Extreme Poverty (Briefly) to the Fore in Mexico

2012-01-24T18:14:00.000-06:00

A clear look at the crisis brought on by the combination of drought and poverty for the Rarámuri indigenous peoples of Chihuahua. See also AMB's translation of an interview with a local priest.

upsidedownworld.org: "In the midst of Mexico’s senseless “Drug War” and the erroneous belief that drug-trafficking is the root of the country’s evils, Mexicans were given a powerful reminder last week of the deeper crisis affecting their fellow citizens. A video posted on social media sites concerning a severe drought in the state of Chihuahua saw the extreme poverty and malnutrition afflicting the region’s indigenous population highlighted in the media for a brief few days.

Chihuahua, a vast, dry and mountainous state bordering Texas and New Mexico, is home to several indigenous groups, the largest of which, the Rarámuri (or Tarahumara), inhabit the region surrounding one of Mexico’s most spectacular natural wonders, the Barranca del Cobre, or Copper Canyon. " read more

Drug War: Mexico Officials report 'El Chapo' Aide Killed In Gunfight

2012-01-24T11:38:00.000-06:00

AP/NPR: "Members of a Mexican army special forces unit fatally shot a high-ranking aide to the country's most-wanted drug dealer in a gunfight in the northern state of Durango, officials said Monday. Luis Alberto Cabrera Sarabia was responsible for the operations of Guzman's Sinaloa Cartel in Durango and part of the neighboring state of Chihuahua." read more

Human Rights Violations: Nobel Women´s Initiative hears testimony of indigenous women of Guerrero

2012-01-24T11:31:00.000-06:00

La Jornada: "Militarization, organized crime, rape by soldiers and police and impunity, neglectful bureaucracy and abuse of authority, plunder, murder and extreme labor exploitation, and--as background--the custom that assumes that women, or "the old women"-to put it on their terms, are useless. Dozens of women's stories from Mepha (Tlapanecas), Na Savi (Mixteco), Sul Jaá (Amuzgo) and Nahua (Nahuatl) tumbled out in this morning's meeting of indigenous women of Guerrero with the international delegation of the Nobel Women's Initiative, organized by the Tlachinollan organization, based in the Tlapa Mountain region.

In the dialogue, which seeks to enhance the visibility of these struggles in North America, narratives of historical cases were shared.

One such is the decades-long pilgrimage of Tita Radilla to determine the whereabouts of her father, Rosendo Radilla, who disappeared in the seventies, one among more than 500 victims of the dirty war. Since their first complaint to the Attorney General's Office (PGR), then the fraudulent transfer to the military courts (where, despite the case for responsibility built against a general, he went free), contiuing with a failed Special Prosecutor for Social and Political Movements (FEMOSPP), not a single case was clarified until presented to the Interamerican Human Rights Commission. And although there is a conviction against the Mexican state from that court, there has not been compliance with any of the actions required by the government, as there is no political will to enforce it, Tita concludes

... The widows of the two leaders of the Mixteco People's Organization in Ayutla, also testified, Margarita Martin de las Nieves, wife of Manuel Ponce, and Guadalupe Castro, wife of Raul Lopez, murdered in 2009. They spoke not only of the repressive situation behind the killings, but also of their condition as widows, so lonely, so abandoned, in a social environment that does not give them any right to govern their own lives, harassed and discriminated against by their in-laws.

Also, from Ayutla de los Libres came the story of Obdulia Eugenio Manuel. She tells how in 1994, along with the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas and a measles epidemic that filled the church in their community, Guadalupe Canyon, with piled corpses, the military arrived. Years later, in 2002, that same military violently raped the indigenous women, Valentina Rosendo and Ines Fernandez, which led to another landmark ruling of the Interamerican Court against the Mexican government. ... Being a defender of human rights in that community, such as Obdulia is, is seen as a threat to local authorities, and therefore makes one the target of systematic threats of death.

"I go and tell the Attorney General the names of those that threaten me and all they do is send me to testify again and again. And send me insulting means of security, which are nothing more than video cameras that monitor the office that we have--she is president of the organization Mepha Women--and they don't work. The last time I spoke to them, I told them to take their fucking stuff, " she says without embarrassment.

Then there are the shared experiences of personal resilience, such as the women who come from Metlatónoc and Cochoapa, considered the two of the poorest municipalities in the country. There young girls, in order to go to middle school have had to overcome the ancestral resistance of their parents and siblings, and who, to express their identity, embroider huipiles (traditional blouses). They recognize, as does Martina Sierra, head of the civil association Savi Yoko, that "we love our roots, but we also see that our ancestors had discriminatory practices against women and we rebel against it."" Spanish original

Human Rights Violations: HRW demands that the next Mexican government review anti-crime strategy

2012-01-24T10:19:00.000-06:00

La Jornada: "The organization Human Rights Watch (HRW), on Monday, called on the next government of Mexico to review its strategy against organized crime and drug cartels, which, in its view, increased violence and human rights abuses in the country. "It appears that the current strategy is not working," the Americas director for the organization ... José Miguel Vivanco, told a news conference in Washington.

The future government, which will be elected ... in July, has to ask itself if it should continue using the Army, currently deployed within the strategy of the government of Felipe Calderón, "against a problem which is political and judicial." Is the Army in a position ready to continue this fight? Or is it an entity that is not subordinate to civil authority? My opinion is the latter, said Vivanco.

In its global report released on Sunday, HRW reported serious human rights violations by Mexican military, along with great impunity in the face of these facts. The Military Attorney opened 3,671 cases regarding possible abuses between 2007 and 2011, but there have been only 15 convictions, the organization highlighted .

Mexico's government, on Monday, rejected the accusations, assuring that the 50,000 soldiers deployed to combat organized crime do their work in strict compliance with the requirements of public safety.

Vivanco regretted that Mexico continues a general attitude of inflexibility, blindly going forward with a policy that pays off according to them, but according to all the figures shows that there is increasing violence and abuse at the same time.

He issued a challenge to the government of Mexico to explain how it can say that 95 percent of the nearly 50,000 people who have died from the violence of organized crime in the past five years are drug dealers, even though it has opened investigations in less than a thousand cases. The figure is minimal in relation to the severity and number of violations or abuses or murders that have occurred in the context of the fight against drug trafficking.

Nevertheless, he acknowledged that Mexico is a country open to human rights organizations, and related that recently he had a positive meeting with Calderon, who said he expects real and concrete changes in regard to human rights in the time that remains for his government." Spanish original

Human Rights Violations: The Army adheres to the law in the fight against crime: military prosecutor responds to HRW

2012-01-24T09:50:00.000-06:00

La Jornada: "The Army's commitment to strictly adhere to the law in the war on drugs has cost soldiers and the institution itself, as more than 100 soldiers have been "disappeared or seized" after appearing in federal or local courts to testify regarding their intervention in matters which resulted in criminal proceedings in civil matters, according to the military prosecutor, Gen. Jesus Gabriel López Benítez.

After rejecting categorically the contents of the report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), which states that there is impunity for soldiers who violate human rights, General López Benítez said yesterday in an interview with La Jornada that the situation is so delicate that he has requested the Judiciary of the Federation to allow military personnel involved in criminal proceedings--because of their being involved in shootings, arrests and searches involving organized crime--to appear via video conference or to testify before judges in their own locality.

He revealed that soldiers who took part in high-impact operations, such as in Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon and Chihuahua, ... are cited then to appear as witnesses after they returned to their headquarters in other states. Months later, when trials are underway, federal judges subpoena them and the Ministry of National Defense (SEDENA), in accordance with the law, sends the soldiers to their court appearance.

However, he said, is that the vast majority of the 123 soldiers "disappeared or seized" so far in this administration, never returned home after testifying or afer they had left their barracks. There is evidence that when the soldiers were heading to the bus station, after having testified, they were loaded onto trucks by armed men and, after that, nothing was heard of them. Organized crime solicits the appearance of soldiers who served in operations against organized crime and make them appear for revenge. That would not happen if soldiers acted with impunity, he said.

After disqualifying the latest HRW report, the military regretted that for the preparation of that document the organization did not take into account even the data that the Department of Defense publishes at its website.

The prosecutor also said that in every incident involving civilians, two criminal investigations are immediately opened, one by the Military Office, and one by the local attorney General's Office, as appropriate. Once the process is moving forward, the military judge decides whether to decline jurisdiction, but that does not mean impunity.

The officer reiterated the military's interest in demonstrating its commitment to legality and respect for human rights." Spanish original

Human Rights Violations: HRW report does not reflect real situation in Mexico: Interior Ministry

2012-01-24T09:17:00.000-06:00

Milenio: "The federal government said that the report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on the status of Human Rights in the World, contains categorical and generalized statements about the country that do not reflect the real situation in Mexico. The Secretary of the Interior (Interior Ministry) said in a statement that "the number of complaints (in the HRW annual report) does not represent in any way the number of acts that violate human rights."

In response to the HRW report content, the agency said that of the 98 recommendations issued by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) and the Ministry of National Defense (SEDENA), 266 soldiers have been indicted or subject to legal process and 29 convictions have been issued.

The statement further highlighted that on December 9, 2011, President Felipe Calderón instructed the Federal Executive Counsel and Secretary of the Interior, Alejandro Poire, to coordinate efforts with the legislature to move forward an initiative by the President that seeks to amend the Code of Military Justice, in order to meet the criteria of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) and the Mexican Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN).

In addition, both the armed forces and the Attorney General's Office (PGR) are exploring mechanisms for find ing a way--without violating the law--to transfer jurisdiction from military prosecutors in favor the Public Ministry and civil judges when military personnel participate in human rights violations.

... The statement clarified that Alejandro Poire sent a formal response to the HRW report regarding Mexico, which was presented on the November 9, 2011, and that "for various methodological reasons discussed at length there, (the report) does not reflect the real situation in Mexico."

He said that only in this administration, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) has received 6,065 complaints about operations of the Department of Defense, of which only 98, i.e., 1.61 percent of the total resulted in recommendations. One hundred percent of the recommendations have been adopted by the National Defense and are in process of being fulfilled.

The statement also referred to the President´s commitment to freedom of expression and ensuring protection of journalists who have reported threats to the Committee to Protect Journalists. He said that in 100 percent of the cases of which the Committee is aware, security measures have been implemented that ensure the security and integrity of journalists." Spanish original

Drug trade, not a lack of food, the biggest problem in the mountains of Chihuahua: local priest

2012-01-23T15:31:00.001-06:00

A powerfull and poignant story of how the drug trade is devastating the youth in the Tarahumara Mountains of Chihuahua state, as told by the local priest. Translated by Michael Kane, CIP intern.

La Jornada: "Though it is very serious, the greatest crisis in this part of the Tarahumara Mountains in Chihuahua is not the food shortage, but the presence of narcotrafficking and its quota of violence: “the Rarámuri communities are being crucified by organized crime.”

In an interview, the pastor of the village of Creel and general vicar of the diocese, Hector Fernando Martinez, who has worked in the area for 17 years tending to 39 communities, vehemently repeats himself. This past Wednesday he reminded Governor Cesar Duarte of that fact at a public event in the community of San Ignacio organized to distribute emergency food that the state government had delivered to respond to the food shortage in Tarahumara.

The presence of narcotrafficking – explains Martinez – has devastating results for the community’s social structure, “because it uproots people from their land, displaces them from their houses, and--out of fear--they stop farming or altogether abandon their towns.” At the same time, in the face of unemployment and a lack of options, “it attracts young Rarámuri people and teenagers because it offers them work, encourages them to join; it provides an income.” Seduced by this life, teenagers and young people, who range between ages 16 and 20, end up rejecting their identity.

The middle-aged priest, a jovial character who translated the Hebrew Bible into Rarámuri, doesn’t speak of rumors; he knows it, he’s seen it, he’s lived it. Today, many of those who pass through Creel and the surrounding towns in trucks with tinted windows, music turned all the way up, and “armed to the teeth,” attended catechism with him when they were children.

He admits that the situation hurts and frustrates him: “I grieve for them, because I know sooner or later they are going to be killed, and it frustrates me because life in the Tarahumara Mountains, the expectations it gives them, it’s very little. For them, the gun, the truck, the money is more important in order to feel powerful.”

“Bless our weapons, father.”

He tells of this past December 12, when a group of them stopped him when he was travelling from one town to another. They asked him to bless their weapons: “I refused outright; I told them: ‘I will bless you, if you’d like, that God may care for you and so that you don’t use them, but I will not bless them.’” They insisted, “Come on, father. In the movie ‘El Infierno’ they bless guns. Plus we’re not the ones who are extorting money; we’re just in it for the work!

They let him go, but later on stopped him again: “They told me ‘Get out (of your car), we want you to try our weapons.’” They weren’t AK-47’s, they were grenades launchers: “I told them, I am on my way out of the community; people are gathered in my church, if you shoot they’re going to get scared, it’s not worth it, guys. Then it occurred to me to tell them that it was the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe and that I still had people to baptize. So they let me go.”

Those kinds of experiences don’t make Hector Fernando Martinez feel threatened or fearful: “the truth is I’ve never been threatened; I’ve told them that we’re not going to refuse them access to the church when one of them passes on, but we’re not going to hold a mass, because we don’t want to be part of the narcocorrido (ballad).” He said, “One time an important narco from here was killed and they brought him to the church; they made a narcocorrido about him and the town cried and they rang the bells; you become part of it. We don’t want to let that happen.”

The problem of insecurity in Creel can’t be attributed solely to the presence of armed groups. The more difficult problem is that the town finds itself in the middle of a fight: on one side is the La Línea cartel and on the other the Sinaloa cartel. Creel is, as it’s always been, the battlefield.

One of the few remedies the priest has devised to respond to the situation is sports, particularly soccer (the locals root for C.D. Guadalajara). However, Creel has nothing more than a hard court for fast soccer: “we’ve gone door to door, we’ve told the government that we urgently need places for the kids because they don’t have anything to do and, obviously, the hitmen come into Creel with their guns and the kids look up to them, and despite that, there’s no official program, no strategy to counter it.”

Outsiders can only note the obvious: the furtive glances in the passenger busses that make the four and a half hour trip from the capital of Chihuahua to Creel; the stories of the burrito street vendor in a small town who – without anyone asking – admits that he once sold pirated goods on the street until the organized crime syndicates started to charge high protection fees; the truck drivers with tinted glass who slow down and ride along next to those who seem like strangers or out-of-towners.

Against this background, the pastor of Creel has a conviction that he calmly expresses: we’re not going to let them intimidate us.” Spanish original

Drug Trafficking: 'Blind mules' unknowingly ferry drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border

2012-01-23T12:17:00.001-06:00

CNN.com: "Juan Andres was one of at least five so-called "blind mules" identified in a 20-page federal complaint who were used by cartels to traffic drugs.

Others include a fourth-grade teacher and a sports medicine doctor. The blind mules had a few things in common: The bags were all secured the same way, each contained roughly the same amount of marijuana, and most of those caught drove a Ford. " read more

Human Rights Violations: Nobel Prize winner Jody Williams denounces impunity for femicides in Mexico

2012-01-23T10:53:00.002-06:00

EFE/CNN Mexico: The Nobel Peace Prize winner, Jody Williams, denounced impunity regarding crimes against women in Mexico and the lack of political will to find solutions.

After meeting with a group of 50 activists who fight for collective rights of women, the American criticized the "nice words" from the government and demanded "real" solutions to a problem that she said affects the entire population. "There is no time for excuses. Families who are suffering in this country want to see action and women who have been raped by the police and military want to see justice," she said.

According to her, joint action by civil society that demands responses from the government is necessary to reverse this situation. "No one person can change society; it has to be a whole community that goes into action," she said. Therefore, the unity that associations of victims have been showning in reporting cases of disappearances, rapes and murders across the country she considers to be a positive sign.

She also stated that one of the main obstacles to achieving justice and an end to impunity in Mexico is the high number of people involved in these crimes.

Accompanied by Lisa VeneKlasen, director of Just Associates, an international feminist organization, and Imelda Marrufo, of the Women's Network in Ciudad Juarez, Williams stated that, despite the oppression and dangers, there is hope. "This problem requires a constant struggle if we want to see a society in which we can live without fear," she said.

Her visit is part of an investigation being carried out by the Nobel Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú regarding murders of women in Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. It began Saturday and ends on January 31. The activists are scheduled to go tomorrow to the state of Guerrero for a meeting with women and on Tuesday to meet with diplomats and women who hold high positions in Mexican political life and the judicial system.

The objectives of the visit is to make visible the role, contribution and actions that women have taken to eradicate violence and insecurity in the country and to urge the Mexican government to ensure the protection of human rights defenders.

During 2010, in Mexico about 3,100 women were killed, while in Honduras it amounted to about 1,500 between 2008 and 201, and in Guatemala over 5,000 women died in the last 10 years in a violent way.

Activist Williams won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her intense struggle for the prohibition and removal of landmines." Spanish original

Human Rights Violations: Mexican human rights groups demand change in anti-crime policy

2012-01-23T10:03:00.000-06:00

La Jornada: "Fabian Sanchez, executive director of the organization Strategic Litigation for Civil Rights (Idheas), and Adrian Ramirez, president of the Mexican League for the Defense of Human Rights (Limeddh) stated that the 2012 World Report of Human Rights Watch (HRW) strengthens the call of international and national organizations that the policy to combat crime be modified.

Despite repeated calls that have been made by international organizations such as Amnesty International (AI), HRW, the United Nations (UN) and the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), as well as national human rights defense groups, Calderón persists in his position of not changing his policy to combat organized crime. "There is no human power or national or international instrument that can make the President change his strategy."

The report, Ramirez said, is important because "it indicates that the strategy has exacerbated the violence in the country, and we insist that the liability is Calderón's, because his policies foster a climate of serious human rights violations." Fabian Sanchez added: "Although the report does not state anything that is not known, it links the government's strategy to worsening violence and reinforces the demand for a change in security policy."" Spanish original

Human Rights Violations: Mexican government replies to charges made by Human Rights Watch

2012-01-23T09:38:00.001-06:00

La Jornada: The federal government, through the Interior Ministry, responded last night to the accusations made by Human Rights Watch World Report - 2012, presented Sunday in Cairo. "The government rejects the accusations of HRW regarding human rights violations and impunity of federal security forces. ....the work of the personnel of the Army, Air Force and Navy of Mexico--in combating drug trafficking and organized crime--is carried out in strict accordance with the framework of public safety, attending to the particular problems that threaten the physical integrity of the population and limit the carrying-out of the daily activities of society."

In its press release, the Government argues that "the actions of personnel adhers to the law, with full respect for human rights, always putting first the security and integrity of the population, strengthening the transparency and openness of the armed forces to report detailed and reliable information regarding the completion of their assigned missions."" Spanish original

Human Rights Violations: Violence has increased horribly in Mexico, says Human Rights Watch

2012-01-23T09:17:00.001-06:00

Milenio: "The organization Human Rights Watch reported that security forces in Mexico have committed human rights violations and that the soldiers enjoy impunity in these cases. This was stated during the presentation of its world report in Cairo.

The communications director for HRW, Emma Daly, said President Felipe Calderon is using the military to fight drug traffickers and organized crime, but the military are not well trained to carry out policing and go unpunished when there are abuses. "We have evidence that violence has increased in Mexico horribly in recent years and that there is no system for judging the military so that there is justice," Daly said at the headquarters of the Union of Journalists of the Egyptian capital.

In her opinion, "there is total impunity for the military in Mexico," who are never prosecuted within the military justice system, which encourages the continuation of "the abuse because there is no way to stop it."

According to the NGO report, the efforts of the authorities to combat organized crime have led to a significant rise in killings, torture and other abuses by security forces, which only make the "climate of disorder and fear worse in some areas of the country." Among the violations of human rights by the Armed Forces are murder, torture and forced disappearances.

A demonstration that soldiers who have committed human rights violations against civilians are never brought to justice is, according to HRW, that the military prosecutor's office opened over 3,600 investigations of cases between 2007 and June 2011 and only 15 soldiers were convicted in that period.

The main victims of these attacks are journalists, human rights defenders and migrants. Regarding journalists, the report stresses that this group is "more and more often targeted for violence and intimidation" and records that between 2000 and September 2011, 74 journalists were killed, eight of them last year. In addition, HRW notes that hundreds of thousands of migrants who cross Mexico each year suffer serious abuses, including sexual and physical assault.

The document also emphasizes that the Mexican judicial system "fails to do justice to these victims of violent crimes or violations of human rights." One of the major violations, according to the report, is the torture of detainees, a problem that is perpetuated because some judges accept confessions extracted under pressure.

The organization also criticized the laws of the country which, in its opinion, do not adequately protect women and girls from domestic violence and sexual abuse." Spanish original

Drug War Blodshed: 13 killed, 8 at funeral, in Mexico’s violent southern Guerrero state

2012-01-23T08:37:00.000-06:00

AP/Washington Post: "Police say eight men were killed in an attack on a funeral in a rural area of Guerrero, part of a death toll of 13 over the weekend in the southern state plagued by drug violence." read more

Human Rights Violations - Guerrero Students: Government of Guerrero investigating 24 public employees for the death of students

2012-01-22T21:09:00.000-06:00

CNN Mexico: "At least 24 public officials in Guerrero state are being investigated for their alleged role in the confrontation on December 12 between police and students from the rural normal school in Ayotzinapa, which caused the deaths of two students and an employee of a gas station.

The investigation seeks to determine the administrative penalties "corresponding to the degree of participation" of the civil servants, said Julio Cesar Hernandez Martinez, comptroller general of Guerrero, located southwest of Mexico.

"These responsibilities are related to failing to provide assistance to those threatened by danger or who have been victims of crime, and for not having acted with the necessary determination to prevent immediate and irreparable serious harm, and having used firearms unnecessarily " said Hernandez Martinez .

... The comptroller said officials being investigated tolerated and even performed acts of torture or cruel actions, and did not use the protocol for taking detainees into custody during the dislodging of the protesters on December 12." Spanish original

Human Rights Violations: Two Nobel Peace Prize winners participate in campaign against femicides in Mexico and Central America

2012-01-22T10:33:00.000-06:00

La Jornada: "The Nobel Peace prize winners Rigoberta Menchú (1992) and Jody Williams (1997) are leading a campaign against femicides in Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala.

Menchú, Guatemalan indigenous leader, reported that she and the U.S. citizen, Williams, will participate in research beyond that carried out by authorities in each country, in order to contribute to the clarification of cases and prevent impunity. She indicated that the research will take place during a field visit from January 21 to 31 in the three countries.

... Menchu stated that human rights activists, artists and filmmakers from the United States, Canada, Mexico and Guatemala will also participate in the investigation." Spanish original

Mexico Drug War: Of 463,000 arrested in 5 years, only 215,000 were charged with crimes

2012-01-22T10:04:00.001-06:00

La Jornada: "Since December 2006--when the government of Felipe Calderon began--to July 2011, 463,000 suspects were arrested on federal charges, of which 163,000 were considered members of organized crime, 17,000 were allegedly drug dealers and 6,500 were allegedly members of gangs of kidnappers.

However, on average only four in 10, i.e., 215 000, were detained and the rest were released by the Federal Public Ministry in the same period, according to information obtained by the Federal Institute of Access to Information and Protection of Personal Information (IFAI)." Spanish original

Immigration Crackdown: Mixed feelings about deportation reviews, even from ‘low priority’ immigrants

2012-01-21T08:57:00.000-06:00

A look at the 'Catch 22' of the deportation case reviews: a person has to be in deportation proceedings in order to be exempted from deportation.

scpr.org.Multi-American: "Immigration officials began poring through (deportation) case files last month as part of a pilot program in Denver and Baltimore, and the results are in: Of some 11,682 cases reviewed, about 1,600 people will be spared deportation, allowing them to stay in the country.

... Stuck in the middle are some of the very people who fit the low-priority criteria, .... There are several catches – and undocumented people who qualify to stay don’t get legal status as part of the deal." read more

Drug War: Artists React To Mexico's Drug War With Music And Poetry

2012-01-21T08:34:00.001-06:00

NPR: "Javier Sicilia renounced poetry and became the leader of a national protest against the drug war. Yet he says poetry has been an integral part of the "Peace with Justice and Dignity" movement.

"Poetry has been present, the poets have been part of it," Sicilia says. "The problem is that the mass media don't like to cover it and don't understand that this movement was born out of poetry, and the reason why it's important is because it's filled with a poetic content that has transformed the language. And behind all of this is a profound ethics, as with all poetry." Sicilia says the poet has a moral responsibility to tell these stories.

Other artists are also reacting to the violent realities in Mexico today. " read more

Drug War: Top Sinaloa Arms Trafficker Captured

2012-01-21T08:19:00.000-06:00

Justice in Mexico: "The Mexican Secretaría de Seguridad Pública (SSP) announced today the capture of Eduardo Ávila Ojeda, 34, in Culiacán, northern Mexico. Ávila, known as “El Lalo” is one of the Sinaloa cartel’s top arms smugglers. SSP called Ávila, 34, ”one of the main introducers the country firearms, cartridges and explosives”. SSP also reported that Ávila’s capture was the result of intelligence gathered from the December arrest of “The Ramy”, Ramiro Rivera Rendon of the Sinaloa cartel." read more

Drug War - Fast and Furious: Federal prosecutor cites Fifth in 'Fast and Furious' probe

2012-01-21T08:14:00.000-06:00

Washington Times: "The chief of the criminal division in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona has cited his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination in refusing on Friday to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in its ongoing investigation into the failed “Fast and Furious” gunrunning operation." read more

Week's Top Articles on Mexico: Jan. 13-19, 2012

2012-01-20T16:05:00.000-06:00

Drug war news this week centered on the politics of the war strategy. The new president of Guatemala, former general Otto Perez Molina--following Mexico's model--ordered the army into the countryside to fight the cartels. However, a few days later, he also called for an international discussion of decriminalization of drugs.

Later in the week, President Calderón of Mexico met with U.S. CIA director, former general David Petraeus, and the U.S. ambassador in Mexico, Anthony Wayne, to discuss mutual security issues. In contrast, continuing its efforts to counter this militarized strategy, the Mexican Movement for Peace and Justice, lead by poet Javier Sicilia, announced it will organize a protest caravan to Washington, D.C. this summer.

On the U.S. side of the border, a district federal judge upheld the right of the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Agency (ATF) to require that arms sellers in the border states report to the agency multiple sales of semi-automatic rifles made to the same individual within a five day period. Meanwhile, the devastation of the war goes on. A report by a Mexican NGO reported that at least 30,000 children in Mexico are involved in some sort of organized crime,

Human rights and rule of law news brought a study from a Mexican researcher that, nationwide, 80% of murders in Mexico never lead to a trial or conviction. In some states, there is 90% impunity.

Meanwhile, investigations continue into the killing of two normal school students by police in Guerrero on Dec. 12. The Guerrero state attorney general detained two state policemen and plans to charge them with the killings, while releasing ten other police. This action seemed to conflict with information released by the federal attorney general that at least nine police, including federal as well as state police, had fired their weapons at the demonstration.

Immigration and border news includes an in-depth, personal story of the struggles of Mexican-American students who are U.S. citizens living with their families in Mexican border cities while attending U.S. public schools. And the Border Patrol announced an ostensibly new strategy for deterring undocumented border crossings, called the "Consequence Delivery System," which consists of such actions as shipping captured crossers to towns far from where they crossed or transporting them to Mexico City.

The Articles

Drug War

Guatemala president orders army to join drugs fight
BBC News: Jan. 16, "One day after his inauguration, Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina has ordered the army to join the fight against drug cartels. Mr. Perez Molina, who is a retired general, called on the military to "neutralise organised crime". Officials say the police in some areas of Guatemala have been infiltrated by drug gangs. --- President Perez Molina, who is the first military figure to lead Guatemala since the return to democracy in 1986, has promised tough action against violent crime and drug trafficking." read more

Guatemala's Otto Perez Molina Calls for Drug Decriminalization
Fox News Latino: Jan. 19, "Only days after taking office on the promise of an "iron fist" approach to security, Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina called for a discussion about decriminalizing drugs. --- The former general argued on Mexican television that a regional strategy for decriminalization should be looked into as soon as possible. “Here we are speaking from the southern area, where it occurs, through all the countries like Guatemala that are transit points to Mexico and the United States." Pérez Molina ... criticized the United States for not matching Mexico’s effort and for being the world’s largest drug consumer." read more

Calderón Meets with CIA Director to Discuss the Security Agenda
Justice in Mexico: Jan. 19, "President Felipe Calderón met in private today with Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director, General David Petraeus, U.S. ambassador in Mexico, Anthony Wayne, Nobel Prize economist, Nouriel Roubini and members of his security cabinet. The meeting ... focused on the security agenda between the two countries. --- According to a statement issued from the Office of the President, Calderón and Petraeus discussed “different topics in the bilateral agenda and agreed to continue strengthening ties in the area, driven by both governments.”" read more

Movement for Peace with Justice plans caravan to the U.S. capital
CNN Mexico: Jan. 17, In August, Mexican poet Javier Sicilia will lead a new caravan, this time to the United States, to call for the U.S. Government to put an end to the illegal arms to Mexico, which “has only left pain and many dead.” --- Sicilia announced that the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD), which he leads, will prepare a protest in the U.S. capital, in which he hopes various Mexican and U.S. civil organizations will participate. read more

US Gun Dealers on Mexico Border Must Report Multiple Sales
InSight Crime: Jan. 19, "Federal Judge Rosemary Collyer upheld an order made last year by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The ATF asked more than 8,000 gun dealers in Arizona, Texas, California and New Mexico to report sales of multiple semi-automatic rifles to one individual within five business days, reported Reuters." read more

Children in Mexico's Drug War: Criminals or victims?
CNN.com: Jan. 18, "At least 30,000 children in Mexico are involved in some sort of organized crime, according to a nationwide alliance of civic and social organizations. The Child Rights Network in Mexico says many of these children are taking part because of death threats or because of economic and social necessity. It is urging the government to start recognizing them as victims of child abuse." read more

Human Rights and the Rule of Law

Murder Impunity at 90% in Some Areas of Mexico
Justice in Mexico: Jan. 16, "According to a new study on rule of law in Mexico, impunity runs rampant throughout the country. Guillermo Zepeda, a professor at Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (ITESO), ... authored a study to measure the level of impunity for murder in Mexico. His findings were dismal. In 2010, 80% of homicides in Mexico went unpunished, without trial or conviction." read more

2 state police charged in deaths of students, 10 others released
Milenio: Jan. 16, "The attorney general of the state of Guerrero released from detention four members of the state ministerial (investigative) police and six members of the preventative police who ... had been held for 28 days. Simultaneously, the Guerrero prosecutor announced that he is filiing criminal charges against two ministerial police,... inidicating that they are probably responsible for the murders of normal school students Alexis Herrera Pino y Gabriel Echeverría de Jesús." read more

9 police that shot their guns remain free
Milenio: Jan. 17, "Studies conducted by the federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) indicate that at least nine police officers fired their guns during the confrontation with the Ayotzinapa normal school students on December 12. --- Among the list of names of those officers, from both federal and state ministerial and preventative police, the names of neither of the state police detained yesterday appear. --- The nine listed include a federal policeman who has not been summoned before authorities. In addition, four state ministerial police are named who were released from custody by the Guerrero attorney general on Saturday. Four state preventative police are also named." read more

Immigration and the Border

Young U.S. Citizens in Mexico Up Early to Learn in the U.S.
NYTimes.com: Jan. 17, "(In some areas along the border) frustration is focusing locally on border-crossers who are not illegal immigrants but young American citizens, whose families have returned to Mexico yet want their children to attend American schools. --- Called “transfronterizos,” these students migrate between two cultures, two languages and two nations every day, straining the resources of public school districts and sparking debate ... over whether it is in American interests that they be taught in the United States." read more

Border Patrol to toughen policy
The Associated Press: Jan. 17, "The U.S. Border Patrol is moving to halt a revolving-door policy of sending migrants back to Mexico without any punishment. The agency this month is overhauling its approach on migrants caught illegally crossing the 1,954-mile border that the United States shares with Mexico. --- ...The "Consequence Delivery System" — a key part of the Border Patrol's new national strategy to be announced within weeks — relies largely on tools that have been rolled out over the last decade.... It divides border crossers into seven categories, ranging from first-time offenders to people with criminal records." read more

Border Lines: Drones Hunt Immigrants and Marijuana Backpackers -- and Wind-triggered Ground Sensors

2012-01-20T16:03:00.000-06:00

Border Lines: "The Department of Homeland Security says it needs a fleet of two-dozen Predator and Guardian drones to protect the homeland adequately. Designed for military use, 10 of these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are already patrolling U.S. borders in the hunt for unauthorized immigrants and illegal drugs.

DHS is building its drone fleet at a rapid pace despite its continuing inability to demonstrate their purported cost-effectiveness. The unarmed Predator and Guardians (the maritime variant) cost about $20 million each. Yet DHS has little to show for its UAV spending spree other than stacks of seized marijuana and several thousand immigrants who crossed the border without visas." read more

Immigration Politics: Rio Grande Valley religious leaders call for humane immigration laws

2012-01-20T11:39:00.001-06:00

From a Rio Grande, Texas local paper, personal stories and grassroots organizing

TheMonitor.com: "McALLEN — One after another, they took the First United Methodist Church’s stage to tell their personal stories of immigration. A nun who cared for a family at a shelter after they fled violence in Veracruz. A grown woman, now a U.S. citizen, whose parents endured a dangerous journey in illegally crossing the border years ago. A student attending college on scholarship with no future when she graduates.

... Those personal stories were on attendees’ minds Thursday night as they pledged to support comprehensive immigration reform and develop support within their religious communities for humane laws." read more

Immigration Politics: South Carolina’s Immigration Law Weighs on Latinos’ Minds Before GOP Primary

2012-01-20T11:30:00.000-06:00

ABC News: "With the state’s Republican primary set for Saturday, the immigration issue is once again on people’s minds here. South Carolina was the state with the biggest Hispanic population growth in the past decade, a jump of nearly 150 percent, according to the 2010 census. Thus far, however, most of the GOP candidates have done little to court the Hispanic vote.

“I don’t think the politicians – and in particular the Republicans – are doing anything to win the vote of the Latino population,” Myriam Torres, a professor at the University of South Carolina, said in an interview this week. “They have this idea or this prejudice – I don’t know which – that the Latino population in South Carolina is a group that doesn’t vote and that is wrong.”" read more

Immigration crackdown: Georgia and Alabama farmers unsure about crop size amid labor concerns

2012-01-20T11:26:00.000-06:00

AP/Washington Post: "It’s unclear whether farmers in Georgia and Alabama will face a shortage of workers due to tough new laws targeting illegal immigration, but some producers said they have begun changing their plans for planting and harvesting this year’s crops.

Some farmers said they might reduce the number of acres they plant or shift to less labor-intensive crops, while others are bracing for higher labor prices and have turned to new recruiting tools to attract workers." read more

Mexico Politics: Lopez Obrador, Mexican leftist juggles love and rage in election run

2012-01-20T11:03:00.000-06:00

Reuters: "For most of the past five years, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has journeyed far and wide across Mexico, railing against the corruption, fraud and injustice he says cost him the presidency. Seething over his wafer-thin election loss to conservative Felipe Calderon in 2006, the fiery leftist shook Mexico with some of the biggest street protests in its history, damning its institutions and declaring himself the rightful president.

Yet since recently winning the support of Mexico's main leftist parties to run again for president, Lopez Obrador has made a sharp U-turn, preaching love and forgiveness to win back voters who had been turned off by his protests and clamor." read more

Immigration Reality: University Of Michigan Researcher Documents Belongings Left Behind While Crossing The Border

2012-01-20T10:35:00.000-06:00

Huffington Post: "Not many people consider the human side of immigration, let alone take the time document the belongings of those left behind by the migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Worn sneakers, dirty backpacks and empty water bottles fill the Sonoran desert. Each object tells a story of struggle, hope and determination and it wasn't until recently that they were collected for anthropologists hoping to study the science behind migration phenomenon.

"This is not garbage" said Jason De Leon, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan, "The goal of the project is to rigorously and systematically collect data on the social phenomenon of border crossing using the lens of anthropology to provide insight into the realities of this process."" read more

Drug war: Time for an exit strategy

2012-01-20T10:02:00.001-06:00

latimes.com: "The death toll (announced last week by the Mexican government to be 47,515 people as of September) is incomprehensible and unacceptable. And to this toll must be added the thousands of people disappeared, the hundreds of thousands displaced and the hundreds of thousands of children left orphaned during this same five-year period.

This crisis will only continue unless the U.S. works with Mexico to address the root cause: drug prohibition.

These murders are not drug-related, they are prohibition-related -- committed by cartels that were spawned by drug prohibition, that derive their power from the inflated profits of prohibited but highly demanded commodities, and that operate in an underground economy in which violence is routinely employed to resolve disputes or remove business opponents. It's similar to what occurred in the U.S. during alcohol prohibition, but on a far more horrific scale." read more

Immigration: In Test of Deportation Policy, 1 in 6 Offered Reprieve

2012-01-20T08:44:00.000-06:00

NYTimes.com: "A review ordered by the Obama administration of virtually all 7,900 deportation cases before the immigration court here has identified about 1,300 foreigners — 16 percent — who pose no security risk and will be allowed to remain in the United States, although with no new legal status, immigration officials said Thursday.

It was a fast-paced test run of the first comprehensive docket review in the nation’s immigration courts. Department of Homeland Security officials plan to extend it in coming months to all of about 300,000 deportation cases before the courts nationwide." read more

Drug War: The UN Gang, and the Canada-Mexico Connection

2012-01-19T13:53:00.000-06:00

InSight Crime: "The story behind the murder of a Canadian citizen in Sinaloa, Mexico, reveals how far links between organized crime networks in Canada and Mexico have been broken up by aggressive police work.

Police sources in British Columbia, Canada, confirmed that Salih Abdulaziz Sahbaz, in his mid-thirties, was the key cartel contact for the notorious United Nations Gang, also known as Global United Nations Syndicate (GUNS), which operates out of the city of Vancouver and the surrounding area.

Sahbaz, a naturalized Canadian citizen of Iraqi origin who had spent much of the past three years in Mexico, was found dead on the street in the Country Alamo area of Culiacan, Sinaloa, around midnight on January 15. He had been shot execution-style by what appeared to be a .45 caliber firearm -- police recovered at least 8 empty .45 caliber shells at the scene." read more

Drug War Weapons Traffic: US Gun Dealers on Mexico Border Must Report Multiple Sales

2012-01-19T10:20:00.000-06:00

InSight Crime: "A ruling by a US judge on tracking the sale of high-powered firearms in states on the southern border is a step forward for authorities trying to legislate against the flow of guns into Mexico.

Federal Judge Rosemary Collyer upheld an order made last year by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The ATF asked more than 8,000 gun dealers in Arizona, Texas, California and New Mexico to report sales of multiple semi-automatic rifles to one individual within five business days, reported Reuters." read more

Drug Policy Reform: Guatemala's Otto Perez Molina Calls for Drug Decriminalization

2012-01-19T08:27:00.000-06:00

Fox News Latino: "Only days after taking office on the promise of an "iron fist" approach to security, Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina called for a discussion about decriminalizing drugs.

The former general argued on Mexican television that a regional strategy for decriminalization should be looked into as soon as possible. “Here we are speaking from the southern area, where it occurs, through all the countries like Guatemala that are transit points to Mexico and the United States," Pérez Molina said, according to El Nuevo Heradlo newspaper.

Pérez Molina added that Mexican President Felipe Calderón had made a great effort in combating drug trafficking, but criticized the United States for not matching Mexico’s effort and for being the world’s largest drug consumer." read more

U.S.-Mexico Drug War Strategy: Calderón Meets with CIA Director to Discuss the Security Agenda

2012-01-19T08:21:00.000-06:00

Justice in Mexico: "President Felipe Calderón met in private today with Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director, General David Petraeus, U.S. ambassador in Mexico, Anthony Wayne, Nobel Prize economist, Nouriel Roubini and members of his security cabinet. The meeting took place at the presidential residence in Los Pinos and focused on the security agenda between the two countries.

According to a statement issued from the Office of the President, Calderón and Petraeus discussed “different topics in the bilateral agenda and agreed to continue strengthening ties in the area, driven by both governments.”" read more

Mexico Drug War Bloodies Areas Thought Safe

2012-01-18T21:51:00.000-06:00

NYTimes.com: "The Mexican drug war that has largely been defined by violence along the border is intensifying in interior and southern areas once thought clear of the carnage, broadening a conflict that has already overwhelmed the authorities and dispirited the public, according to analysts and new government data." read more

Mexico Politics: Presidential Candidates Debate the Drug War

2012-01-18T20:15:00.000-06:00

The ITT List: "While the Republican presidential candidates try to shoot down Mitt Romney before it's too late for them, their conservative counterparts in Mexico held a relatively genteel debate on Tuesday about the future of that country, including the U.S.-backed drug war that has claimed over 40,000 victims since 2006. Three "pre-candidates," as they are called, are competing for the nomination of the right-wing National Action Party (PAN), which will hold an internal election on February 5th. The general election is July 1st."

... The PAN's candidates are holding firm... in their insistence that (the war against the cartels) continue. Josefina Vázquez Mota, a former Secretary of Education and the front-runner for the nomination, recently said that "there will be no. . .truce with organized crime" if she is elected. One of her rivals, Senator Santiago Creel, has proposed continuing the struggle under a centralized Anti-Organized Crime Agency. The third candidate, ex-Secretary of Housing Ernesto Cordero, said he wants to lengthen the prison sentences of people convicted of drug-related crimes." read more

Drug War - Merida Initiative: U.S. Ambassador to Mexico highlights Merida Initiative support for drug abuse prevention

2012-01-18T20:02:00.000-06:00

Ah, yes, good old American charity.

Milenio: "The U.S. ambassador (to Mexico), Anthony Wayne, emphasized the support of the Merida Initiative is providing to reduce the demand for drugs in Mexico by providing $18 million for the National Network Against Addictions and New Life Centers.

The diplomat met Tuesday with the first lady, Margarita Zavala, at the official residence of Los Pinos, to talk about drug policy and support for young migrants. After listening to Zavala talk about how the New Life Centers help families better cope with the problem of drug abuse, Ambassador Wayne said "there is no doubt that New Life has saved many lives and changed so many countless others. We are proud to support this campaign through the Merida Initiative. "

The New Life campaign includes prevention and education at different levels for millions of children and adolescents as well as training for more than half a million health workers, teachers, coaches, and other first responders to drug abuse." Spanish original

Drug War Culture: Inside the Homes of Mexico’s Alleged Drug Lords

2012-01-18T19:45:00.001-06:00

This look at homes of narcos comes with a slide show.

NYTimes.com: " In the public imagination, what might be called “narquitecture” or “narco style” is all gaudy excess — part “Real Housewives,” part “Scarface,” part conquistador.

In reality, only some of this is true. As a Mexico correspondent for The New York Times, I often spend my time trying to understand shadowed worlds, from illegal immigration to drugs, and the more I’ve tried to figure out how the country’s criminal networks work, the more I’ve wondered about the people who run them: where do they live, and what is their home life really like?" read more

Immigration Realities: The Modern Immigrant Rights Movement

2012-01-18T17:53:00.000-06:00

Editor’s Note: This is the third and final installment of a three-part series on migrant rights by journalist and immigration activist David Bacon. This article is taken from the report “Displaced, Unequal and Criminalized – Fighting for the Rights of Migrants in the United States” that examines the origins of the current migratory labor phenomenon, the mechanisms that maintain it, and proposals for a more equitable system.
CIP Americas: "Over the 26 years since pasage of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), a general division has marked the U.S. immigrant rights movement. On one side are well-financed advocacy organizations in Washington DC, with links to the Democratic Party and large corporations. They formulate and negotiate over immigration reform proposals that combine labor supply programs and increased enforcement against the undocumented. On the other side are organizations based in immigrant communities, and among labor and political activists, who defend undocumented migrants, and who resist proposals for greater enforcement and labor programs with diminished rights." read more

Immigration Realities: Increasing Reliance on Guest Worker Programs

2012-01-18T17:44:00.001-06:00

Editor’s Note: This is the second installment of a three-part series on migrant rights by journalist and immigration activist David Bacon. This article is taken from the report “Displaced, Unequal and Criminalized – Fighting for the Rights of Migrants in the United States” that examines the origins of the current migratory labor phenomenon, the mechanisms that maintain it, and proposals for a more equitable system.
CIP Americas: "Over the last 25 years, guest worker programs have increasingly become a vehicle for channeling the migration that has stemmed from free market reforms. Increasing numbers of guest workers are recruited each year for labor in the U.S. from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean under the H1-B, H2-A and H2-B programs. Recruiters promise high wages and charge thousands of dollars for visas, fees and transportation. By the time they leave home, the debts of guest workers are crushing." read more

Mexico Drug War: Juarez Cartel's Strength Further Undermined

2012-01-18T17:33:00.001-06:00

STRATFOR: "Operating predominantly in Juarez, El Paso and Mexican prisons, Los Aztecas have been functioning as the primary street gang for the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes cartel (VCF, also known as the Juarez cartel). Like most Latin American gangs, Los Aztecas are decentralized and are composed of various independently led cells known as "cliques." However, newly acquired information from Stratfor sources has sparked a reassessment of the relationship between Los Aztecas and the VCF." read more

Drug War and Rule of Law: Mexico Freedom of Information agency directs Army to release information on people detained

2012-01-18T13:54:00.000-06:00

Milenio: The Federal Institute for Access to Public Information (IFAI) directed the Secretary of Defense to publicize the number of people detained by that agency during armed clashes with gangs linked to organized crime from December 2006 to September 2011." Spanish original

Drug Trade: Mexican navy seizes huge haul of precursor chemicals

2012-01-18T12:04:00.002-06:00

We post this, not for the supposed "achievement" of the Mexican navy, but for what it demonstrates about the size of the drug trade and the "transnational" capacity of the Mexican cartels to move drugs around the world and to take over Central America.

BBC News: "The Mexican navy says it has seized 195 tonnes of chemicals which can be used to make the drug methamphetamine. The navy found 12 shipping containers full of the precursor chemical in the Pacific coast port of Lazaro Cardenas.

They said the chemical had been shipped from China and was destined for Guatemala and Nicaragua. The authorities said that Mexican drug cartels have been expanding their methamphetamine operations to Guatemala." read more

Human Rights Violations - Guerrero Students: Expert reports of the federal Attorney General also indicate that Guerrero police killed students

2012-01-18T11:32:00.001-06:00

La Jornada: "The federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) handed over to authorities in Guerrero some results of the expert findings regarding ballistics, physical facts, and criminal acts related to the death of two students from the Rural Normal School of Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, on 12 December, during a violent removal of the students by the police...

According to sources, the office has made clear that the shots that caused the deaths came from local police weapons, which is consistent with surveys conducted by the National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH). However, the federal prosecutor has not reached a determination of specific responsibility because of the absence of bullets that killed the students.

The authorities stated that it is the responsibility of the Attorney General of Guerrero to identify and determine the responsibility of any person or group which made the shots, as the investigation into the crime of murder is in their sphere of authority.

Similarly, respondents said the PGR has not provided all the expert reports to Guerrero's attorney general, because some stages of research are lacking." Spanish original

Drug War Bloodshed: Mexico police chief killed as Morelos violence flares

2012-01-18T10:56:00.000-06:00

BBC News: "Unidentified gunmen have killed the police chief of the central Mexican town of Zacatepec. Juan Manuel Zamudio was shot by three men who ambushed his car as he was travelling alone in Morelos state." read more

Children in Mexico's Drug War: Criminals or victims?

2012-01-18T10:51:00.000-06:00

CNN.com: "At least 30,000 children in Mexico are involved in some sort of organized crime, according to a nationwide alliance of civic and social organizations. The Child Rights Network in Mexico says many of these children are taking part because of death threats or because of economic and social necessity. It is urging the government to start recognizing them as victims of child abuse." read more

Drug War: Street Gangs to Replace Cartels as Drivers of Mexico's Violence

2012-01-18T09:51:00.000-06:00

InSight Crime: "Major trafficking groups like the Zetas and the Sinaloa Cartel, which are responsible for most of Mexico's drug violence, will be replaced by super-powered street gangs in coming years, according to a report from Southern Pulse. Southern Pulse’s new report, "Beyond 2012," addresses a range of hemispheric security issues, and predicts that today’s big fish will no longer be the major drivers of violence in Mexico three years from now." read more

Drug War: Is Mexico City safe from drug cartel war -- or the next target?

2012-01-18T08:48:00.000-06:00

CNN takes a long, discursive look at Mexico City in the context of the drug war

CNN.com: "In this sprawling metropolis, the brutal conflicts between drug cartels and government troops are both strangely absent and omnipresent. They are nowhere to be found and everywhere you look." read more

Human Rights Violations - Guerrero Students: Members of Congressional working group agree to establish a bi-cameral committee to followup on investigations in the case of the Ayotzinapa students

2012-01-17T21:11:00.000-06:00

Milenio: "The Committee of Government, Constitutional Issues and Justice of the Standing Committee of the Mexican Congress agreed to create a bicameral commission to monitor investigations into the deaths of two students of the normal school of Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, which occurred during the police action on December 12.

After another meeting with young normal school students at the congresssional Palace of San Lázaro, the working group appointed by the Standing Committee of Congress to address this case stressed its inability to deliver findings this month and thus raised the need to plan a new mechanism to give continuity to their efforts. The approach was endorsed by representatives of the three major political parties.

The group also requested that the students of the Ayotzinapa rural normal school allow a visit of the deputies and senators to the school, but the youths made that conditional on progress in the response to their demands, including impeachment proceedings against the Guerrero governor, Angel Heladio Aguirre.

... Representatives of the various parties agreed to prepare the recommendation and vote next week, in order that the bicameral committee can be formally constituted on the eve of the opening of the regular session of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies." Spanish original

Mexico Economy: Even Educated Young Women Face Poor, Jobless Future

2012-01-17T20:19:00.000-06:00

IPS ipsnews.net: "The year 2012 started off with little promise for workers in Mexico, with analysts projecting job losses and wages below subsistence levels. Work prospects are even bleaker for young women, whose chances of finding a job are no better with a high school diploma or university degree.

Carmen Ponce, an economist specialising in gender issues, says 2012 will be a "very challenging" year for Mexico in terms of job creation, as Chinese goods begin flooding the country as a result of the implementation of a trade agreement that opens the door to imports from that country. Ponce forecasts that some 100,000 jobs will be lost this year." read more

Human Rights Violations - Guerrero Students: State Attorney General defends detaining 2 police as suspects while releasing 10 others

2012-01-17T20:12:00.000-06:00

Milenio: The head of the State Attorney General's Office (PGJE), Juan Manuel Herrera defended the extension of the detention for the two ministerial police implicated in the case of the death of two students of the Ayotzinapa Normal School on December 12 of last year.

The ten police released on Sunday are still under investigation because the case is still open. The extension granted by the judge of the first criminal court, Leoncio Molina Mercado, was because the attorney general is initiating criminal proceedings against the two policemen, Rey David Cortes Flores and Ismael Matadama Salinas.

He explained that the extension of the detention was undertaken because it was close to the expiration time of the original detention and the two police would have had to be released. So he had to act according to the provisions of the applicable legal standard. He said that if the judge granted the extension, it is because his office provided the required elements to keep Cortes Flores and Matadama Salinas in custody.

... Regarding the six state protective police and four ministerial police released on Sunday, he said they are not fully exempt, as the case remains open, and they are free at the discretion of the law.

He explained that besides the murder there are other situations that are going to be punished, because on December 12 some agents deliberately altered the crime scene, which will definitely bring legal consequences. He said that in the case there will be no impunity, which is the issue raised by the Ayotzinapa students in their recurring demonstrations.

... He admitted that the police did not act according to protocols for such matters, but noted that the responsibilities will be broken down in detail." Spanish original

Mexico Politics: Author Carlos Fuentes sees Mexico as trapped between big problems and mediocre candidates

2012-01-17T17:00:00.000-06:00

Translated by CIP intern Michael Kane

CNN Mexico: "Mexicans find themselves trapped between their grave problems and “mediocre candidates” for the presidency of their country, asserted writer Carlos Fuentes this Monday.

“What alarms me most this year (…) is that I see the problems here and the candidates over there,” said Fuentes in an interview with journalist Carmen Aristegui, on CNN en Español. “A large discrepancy between the country’s challenges and the candidates that we have,” he said.

Fuentes, winner of the Cervantes and Prince of Asturias Awards for Literature, declared that the nation needs “intelligent political media” in order to escape the “extremely grave internal and international situation” in which it finds itself almost six months away from the elections which will renew the presidency, governorships of 15 states, and the Congress.

“We are stuck with a terrible disproportion between the problems of the country and candidates who appear to me to be fairly mediocre,” he contended. Fuentes considered the violence derived from the fight against organized crime to be the main problem for Mexico and the current government of President Felipe Calderón.

“I believe that, in this sexenio, (six-year presidential term) a grave error was committed, which was immediate and, perhaps, had the purpose of legitimizing the (2006 presidential) election, which was so hotly contested. . . . I am under the impression that we have lost this war,” continued Fuentes.

Among other problems, Fuentes referred to infrastructure, education, and healthcare as issues in which “we’ve been left behind,” and that needed the attention of those who aspired to the presidency.

Fuentes reiterated his proposal to legalize drugs as an alternative form of combating narcotrafficking, of which he accused the United States as being responsible and of doing too little to eradicate it.

The author of La region más transparente and Terra Nostra dismissed the possibility of a victory for the National Action Party (PAN) in the presidential election next July due to the discontent it caused over 12 years of governance.

“It seems to me that no one wants to reelect the PAN. I sense that there is a feeling of exhaustion with the PAN governments and their style,” said Fuentes, who believes the party of President Calderón has no popular support, only opposition. “I don’t believe that one can give a PAN candidacy a second chance,” he said.

Regarding the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), whose candidate leads the latest polls, Fuentes believed that they offered a candidate of “very small character” in comparison with the “enormous” problems and challenges of the country.

Enrique Peña Nieto, ex-governor of the central state of México and the candidate of the PRI “is not prepared to be president” claimed Fuentes, who reiterated his condemnation of Peña Nieto’s “public demonstration of ignorance,” after his failure to mention his three favorite books during the the most recent Guadalajara International Book Festival.

“The only possibility of renewal, despite the candidate himself, is with López Obrador and a left which, hopefully, will achieve a degree of unity which it hasn’t yet achieved,” said Fuentes of the candidate for the coalition of leftist parties.

However, everything depends on who will support López Obrador in his quest for the presidency, said Fuentes. “If some of the best minds in Mexico associate themselves with him, there is hope,” he added, referring to people like the ex-rector of UNAM, Juan Ramón de la Fuente, or the current head of government of Mexico City, Marcelo Ebrard, whom López Obrador not long ago considered for the position of Ministry of the Interior, which is charged with domestic policymaking.

“We have a poor and quite uneven presidential race, over against a country with gigantic problems, as many internally as internationally,” contended Fuentes. “Everyone is being tested, because the country is being tested, because the problems are so large,” he added." Spanish original

Movement for Peace with Justice plans caravan to the U.S. capital

2012-01-17T16:59:00.001-06:00

Translated by CIP Intern Michael Kane

CNN Mexico: In August, Mexican poet Javier Sicilia will lead a new caravan, this time to the United States, to call for the U.S. Government to put an end to the illegal arms to Mexico, which “has only left pain and many dead.”

Sicilia announced that the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD), which he leads, will prepare a protest in the U.S. capital, in which he hopes various Mexican and U.S. civil organizations will participate.

At the event, protestors will ask the U.S. to stop aid to Mexico earmarked through the Merida Initiative, a plan devised in 2007 by the George W. Bush Administration to contribute to the fight against organized crime, since “it’s not working,” said Sicilia.

The Caravan seeks “to raise awareness within the American, Mexican, and Central American populations of the pain and suffering that this violence has caused us,” that has caused more than 47,000 deaths since December 2006, added Sicilia, who did not specify the route.

“The U.S. should take responsibility for the violence that endures in Mexico, because in a certain way it has contributed to the thousands of deaths caused by weapons which came to our territory illegally,” he said.

The United States, “the number one consumer of drugs” in the world, “has a legal industry, that of arms, which is arming the Mexican criminal,” contended the poet at the end of a press conference presenting Marcel Sisniega’s latest film based on his novel “A través del silencio” (Behind the Silence)

According to Sicilia, the wave of violence unleashed in the country as a result of the dispute between drug cartels for territorial control and their confrontation with security forces has left around “50,000 dead, 10,000 disappeared, and 120,000 displaced.” Spanish original

Mexico Politics: PRI Devises New Plan to Eliminate Corruption in Elections

2012-01-17T16:54:00.001-06:00

Justice in Mexico: "Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, PRI) announced on Monday that it has created a plan to reduce organized crime infiltration in the next elections which will be held on July 1. Political contenders will have to meet certain requirements in order to qualify to run for a position. The party has proposed having federal authorities conduct background checks on potential candidates to ensure that they do not have a record of being associated with any cartels. The national PRI president Pedro Joaquín Coldwell added that if it turns out that a candidate is associated with criminal organizations, he will be denied his right to continue in the race and his illegal doings will be reported to the proper authorities immediately. " read more

Human Rights Violations - Guerrero Students: 9 police that shot their guns remain free

2012-01-17T12:11:00.001-06:00

Milenio: "Studies conducted by the federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) indicate that at least nine police officers fired their guns during the confrontation with the Ayotzinapa normal school students on December 12.

Among the list of names of those officers, from both federal and state ministerial and preventative police, neither the name of Rey David Cortes Flores, nor that of Ismael Matadama Salinas occur. Both were detained yesterday by court order for 15 more days at the request of the Attorney General of Guerrero, Juan Manuel Herrera Campos.

The nine listed include a federal policeman who has not been summoned before authorities. In addition, four state ministerial police are named who were released from custody by the Guerrero attorney general on Saturday (for lack of evidence against them). Four state preventative police are also named.

... "The presence of lead, barium and antimony, elements from the firing of cartridges, when shots are fired with a firearm, were found on nine policemen" according to the preliminary investigation by the PGR, carried out under the leadership of the federal prosecutor, Abelard Camacho Reyes, head of the team on the case.

The survey, conducted by the Laboratory of Forensic Chemistry of the PGR, indicated that samples taken from the hands of the remaining individuals (108 more), "did not identify the presence of elements from the firing of the cartridges when shots are fired with a firearm." Spanish original

Immigration Crackdown: Border Patrol to toughen policy

2012-01-17T11:39:00.000-06:00

The Associated Press: "The U.S. Border Patrol is moving to halt a revolving-door policy of sending migrants back to Mexico without any punishment. The agency this month is overhauling its approach on migrants caught illegally crossing the 1,954-mile border that the United States shares with Mexico.

... The Border Patrol now feels it has enough of a handle to begin imposing more serious consequences on almost everyone it catches,.... The "Consequence Delivery System" — a key part of the Border Patrol's new national strategy to be announced within weeks — relies largely on tools that have been rolled out over the last decade on parts of the border and expanded. It divides border crossers into seven categories, ranging from first-time offenders to people with criminal records." read more

Human Rights Violations - Guerrero Students: Police implicated in the Guerrero student deaths say they are "scapegoats"

2012-01-17T10:06:00.003-06:00

Milenio: Chilpancingo, Guerrero, "We are scapegoats," Rey David Cortes Flores, a policeman with the Ministerial Investigative Police (PIM), said after the first criminal court (of Guerrero) granted the State Attorney General's Office (PGJE) an extension of 15 days detention for him and his partner, Ismael Matadama Salinas.

The head office of the PGJE, Juan Manuel Herrera Campos announced Sunday he would initiate criminal prosecution against (the two men), as they are found to be the probable perpetrators of the murder of Alexis Herrera Pino and Gabriel Echeverria de Jesus, students at the Rural Normal School of Ayotzinapa.

In the preliminary reading of the case, a document was released that the Guerrero prosecutor sent to different media in the state, requesting delivery of photographic and video material to strengthen the case against the two policemen. The lawyer for the accused, Antonio Nogueda Carbajal, said the prosecutor does not have sufficient evidence to support his accusation.

At the end of the hearing, Rey David Cortes Flores addressed the reporters covering the proceedings and expressed his dissatisfaction with the performance of the PGJE. "We are scapegoats, both my companion and I. We owe this to the director of criminal investigations, Nicholas Marciano Peñaloza Agama, who wants to be state attorney general, with the support of Governor Ernesto Aguirre. Many friends have told us this," he charged.

He regretted that he was being kept under arrest even though the state does not have strong evidence to bring to trial and he repeated the popular maxim: "He who owes nothing, fears nothing." He said there was a team of investigators from the federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) that tested them with negative results.

He admitted he poiinted his gun at the students but did not fire; he raised the gun only to scare the students who were hurling rocks and sticks. "If I shot, it was towards four boys who were 20 meters away and I did it with my eyes closed," he said.

He regretted that, to date, no member of the Federal Preventive Police (PFP), has been subpoened, which he said is because they have the full backing of the federal government. Instead, he said, he and his companion find themselves totally alone.

"Our attorneys are paid for by our families. We have requested help from all the government agencies; we are completely alone," he said. With red eyes and broken voice, he said that he expected that no one in the state government will be punished for the death of the normal school students. "As always, the rope always breaks at the thinnest pont, we are the rope, completely defenseless." Spanish original

The Border: Young U.S. Citizens in Mexico Up Early to Learn in the U.S.

2012-01-17T08:50:00.000-06:00

NYTimes.com: "In the raging debate over immigration, almost all sides have come to agree on tougher enforcement at the border. But nearly unnoticed, frustration is focusing locally on border-crossers who are not illegal immigrants but young American citizens, whose families have returned to Mexico yet want their children to attend American schools.

Called “transfronterizos,” these students migrate between two cultures, two languages and two nations every day, straining the resources of public school districts and sparking debate among educators and sociologists over whether it is in American interests that they be taught in the United States." read more

Mexico Drug War Weapons Traffic: U.S. gun industry appeals new rifle reporting rules

2012-01-17T08:24:00.000-06:00

chicagotribune.com: "The gun industry on Monday appealed a U.S. judge's decision to uphold new Obama administration regulations requiring gun dealers in four states bordering Mexico to report the sales of multiple semi-automatic rifles.

Judge Rosemary Collyer of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled on Friday the reporting requirements ordered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) last year were sufficiently narrowly tailored. Because the reporting demand "was limited to only certain sales of certain guns in certain states, ATF did not exceed its authority," she wrote in a 21-page ruling." read more

Immigration courtrooms silent during ICE review

2012-01-16T16:18:00.000-06:00

AP/Long Island Press: "In a trial of a politically divisive program, U.S. prosecutors in Denver and Baltimore are reviewing thousands of deportation cases to determine which illegal immigrants might stay in the country – perhaps indefinitely – so officials can reduce an overwhelming backlog by focusing mainly on detainees with criminal backgrounds or who are deemed threats to national security.

Federal deportation hearings for non-criminal defendants released from custody were suspended Dec. 5 for the review and resume this week. Similar reviews are planned across the country to allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to target deportations of illegal immigrants with criminal records or those who have been deported previously." read more

Money "Laundering" at the Border: Cash discovered concealed in baby wipes

2012-01-16T16:13:00.000-06:00

Speaking of laundering money...

Green Valley News: News: "Authorities discovered more than $92,000 in undeclared U.S. currency hidden in a package of baby wipes belonging to a woman who tried to enter Mexico through Nogales. U.S. Customs and Border Protection says its officers ... selected an 18-year-old female passenger for additional questioning while conducting an outbound inspection of a commercial bus Thursday night. When the officers inspected the woman’s luggage, they discovered the cash in four packages concealed among the baby wipes."

Drug War´s vanishing victims: The 'open wounds' of Mexico's drug war

2012-01-16T16:07:00.000-06:00

CNN.com: "... more than 5,300 people ... have gone missing in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon began a crackdown on cartels five years ago, according to the country's National Human Rights Commission. Officials fear the total number could be far higher, because many disappearances go unreported. The drug war's mounting death toll grabs international attention, but forced disappearances are one of the most troubling problems that Mexico faces, says Rodrigo Escobar Gil, a human rights representative for the Organization of American States.

As the number of cases grows, ... parents of the missing have become vocal members of the country's high-profile Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity, which has staged nationwide protest marches demanding a new drug war strategy, better treatment of victims and greater efforts to find the missing." read more

Human Rights Violations - Guerrero Students: State police accused of student deaths will appeal charges

2012-01-16T15:55:00.001-06:00

Milenio: "Antonio Nogueda Carvajal, the lawyer for the two state ministerial police, Rey David Cortés Flores and Ismael Matadaza Salinas, announced that if his clients are issued arrest warrents for the presumed murders of the two normal school students, he will make an appeal to federal court to stay the charges.

"We have expert evidence, carried out by the federal Attorney General's Office, that indicate that the weapons of the two ministerial police were not fired. We also have X-ray evidence taken by the Public Ministry police of the state attorney general's office that turned out negative," he stated. He added, "We have other evidence, that we will have to reveal within the legal process, that the state attorney general, Juan Manuel Herrera Campos, only wants to justify on the part of the government, before society, that he is doing his job, but it is affecting not only two people but also their families"

The lawyer said that the two ministerial police have been summoned to appear before the first criminal court of the city of Chilpancingo this Monday afternoon at 6:30 P.M." Spanish original

Human Rights Violations - Guerrero Students: 2 state police charged in deaths of students, 10 others released

2012-01-16T14:10:00.006-06:00

AMB editor's note: Mexican police forces at the federal and state levels are divided into two agencies. The preventative police function under the respective secretariates (departments) of public security. They patrol their jurisdictions and make arrests but do not investigate crimes. The ministerial police (formerly called the judicial police) function within the secretariates (departments) of the attorneys general or prosecutors offices and carry out investigations of crimes that have been committed or ongoing criminal activity. Thus, they are somewhat similar to the FBI at the federal level in the U.S..

Much of the questioning about which police where responsible for the deaths of the Guerrero students centers on whether it was preventative or ministerial police from either federal or state jurisdictions that shot them.

Milenio: "Under the discretion of the law, the attorney general of the state of Guerrero released from detention four members of the state ministerial (investigative) police and six members of the preventative police who, on Saturday afternoon, left the detention facility where they had been held for 28 days.

Their liberation occurred simultaneously with the announcement by the Guerrero prosecutor that he is making criminal charges against two ministerial police, Rey David Cortés Flores and Ismael Matadama Salinas, inidicating that they are probably responsible for the murders of normal school students Alexis Herrera Pino y Gabriel Echeverría de Jesús.

The four members of the ministerial police arrived at the scene on December 12 to verify what was happening on the federal highway between Acapulco and Mexico City. At the Attorney General´s Office shots had already been heard that were discharged by Federal Police. The six members of the Preventative Police were part of the body guard of former under-secretary of public security, Ramón Arreola Ibarría (whom the governor removed from office--along with the secretary for public security and the state attorney general--the day after the incident).

These ten police have maintained their positions and can return to their jobs, as they have not been found guilty of the deaths of the students." Spanish original

Human Rights Violations - Guerrero Students: Rights Commission reconstructs police confrontation with students

2012-01-16T12:58:00.001-06:00

La Jornada: Visitors from the National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH) undertook the reconstruction of the December 12 police action in the Highway of the Sun, which killed two students from the Rural Normal School of Ayotzinapa . Aided by members of the Federal Police (PF) and the use of mannequins that simulate the bodies of Jorge Alexis Herrera Pino and Gabriel Echeverria de Jesus, the students killed, two experts in ballistics used lasers to simulate the trajectory of the bullets that killed the two students.

The survey was conducted Thursday night by criminal investigation experts Ricardo Sandoval and Alejandro Coronado. The head visitor, Luis Garcia Lopez Guerrero, announced Friday that based on this expertise, "it is confirmed that the weapons causing the death (of the students) were fired from west to east, i.e., from where the ministerial (investigative) police were.

On Friday Lopez Guerrero led a delegation of 20 inspectors of the CNDH, lawyers and experts who heard the testimony of nine students were injured during the police action. The head visitor reported that it has not completed its investigation and does not rule out subpoenaing state and federal officials to testify, including the Secretary of Government of Guerrero, Humberto Salgado Gomez, and federal Secretary of Public Security, Genaro Garcia Luna.

He expressed regret that 32 days after the event, with 31 people aggrieved, two dead, one tortured, four with bullet wounds, the driver of a tractor-trailer wronged, an entire community offended because of this, there isn't a single public servant of the Mexican State subject to criminal prosecution.

The delegation of the National Human Rights Commission visited the school and was received by Pablo Juarez, a student leader who led a tour of the campus facilities: bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen and soccer field.

... About the statement of the former attorney general of Guerrero, Alberto Lopez Rosas, that the preliminary report of CNDH is biased, Lopez Guerrero said, " We have pointed out very forcefully that the first authority to arrive at the scene was the Federal Police. They are the ones who started the problem by launching a tear gas grenade. Although the bullet casings have not been found, among other things, and there was contamination of the scene, the expert opinions regarding the wounds of those who died leads to a primary conclusion that we may be certain that the shots came from where the ministerial police were located. With a high level of possibility, even certainty, it may have been them who shot and, at that moment, caused the death of students and injuries to others." Spanish original

Drug War in Central America: Guatemala president orders army to join drugs fight

2012-01-16T09:16:00.001-06:00

BBC News: "One day after his inauguration, Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina has ordered the army to join the fight against drug cartels. Mr Perez Molina, who is a retired general, called on the military to "neutralise organised crime". Officials say the police in some areas of Guatemala have been infiltrated by drug gangs.

Guatemala is following the example of Mexico and Honduras, where the military is also tackling the drug gangs. President Perez Molina, who is the first military figure to lead Guatemala since the return to democracy in 1986, has promised tough action against violent crime and drug trafficking." read more

Drug War: Growing Catholic divide over Mexico drug war

2012-01-16T09:12:00.000-06:00

CSMonitor.com: "Bishop José Raúl Vera López of Mexico has never shied away from controversy, defending unpopular minorities ranging from illegal migrants to prostitutes.

Now, as violence between Mexican drug traffickers and security forces pushes the drug war's five-year death toll over 45,000, the Roman Catholic bishop is taking on the government. He claims that corrupt officials are allying with criminals to skim drug profits and using the military to murder criminals who might reveal any collusion." read more

Portraying the Drug War: Gerardo Naranjo’s ‘Miss Bala’ Reflects Mexican Drug War

2012-01-16T09:05:00.000-06:00

Review of the Oscar-nominated Mexican film about the effects of the drug war on the Mexican psyche. It also discusses other Mexican films about or reflecting the devastation of the drug war.

NYTimes.com: "The (mood of the) new Mexican film “Miss Bala,” ... is a reflection of the national mood as Mexico enters the sixth year of the government’s frontal assault on drug traffickers. Estimates put the death toll around 50,000 since 2006, and the murders pile up relentlessly. What feeds despair here more than the daily violence, though, is the suspicion that nobody in charge has the ability, the will or the integrity to defeat the criminals and the corruption that supports them. The anxiety that anyone can become a victim guides “Miss Bala.” " read more

Mexico Politics: Mexico’s drug war may have impact on presidential race

2012-01-16T08:49:00.001-06:00

A series of photos introduce the major canidates for Mexico's presidency

The Washington Post:

Mexico drug war: Bodies for billions

2012-01-16T08:43:00.000-06:00

Cnn reviews the drug war in Mexico

CNN.com: "the Mexican drug war, at its core, is about two numbers: 48,000 and 39 billion." read more

Migration: A Product of Free Market Reforms

2012-01-15T19:53:00.000-06:00

CIP Americas: "Editor’s Note: This is the first installment of a three-part series on migrant rights by journalist and immigration activist David Bacon. This article is taken from the report “Displaced, Unequal and Criminalized – Fighting for the Rights of Migrants in the United States” that examines the origins of the current migratory labor phenomenon, the mechanisms that maintain it, and proposals for a more equitable system. The Americas Program is proud to publish this series in collaboration with the author.

A political alliance is developing between countries with a labor export policy and the corporations who use that labor in the global north. Many countries sending migrants to the developed world depend on remittances to finance social services and keep the lid on social discontent over poverty and joblessness, while continuing to make huge debt payments. Corporations using that displaced labor share a growing interest with those countries’ governments in regulating the system that supplies it." read more

Mexico Rule of Law: Murder Impunity at 90% in Some Areas of Mexico

2012-01-15T19:39:00.001-06:00

Justice in Mexico: "According to a new study on rule of law in Mexico, impunity runs rampant throughout the country. Guillermo Zepeda, a professor at Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (ITESO), was stirred by the lack of response to investigations of murders in Mexico. To combat the culture of acceptance to impunity, Zepeda authored a study to measure the level of impunity for murder in Mexico. His findings were dismal were that in 2010, 80% of homicides in Mexico went unpunished without trial or conviction." read more

Week's Top Articles on Mexico: Jan. 6-12, 2012

2012-01-13T08:36:00.000-06:00

Drug war news brought the announcement by the Mexican Attorney General's Office that 47,515 people had been killed in the drug war between December 2006 and September 2011. This came after much footdragging and pressure from citizens groups and the national Transparancy Commission and immediately brought criticisms as to its accuracy. Meanwhile, Mexico's Secretary of Interior, Alejandro Poire, says, "The country is not at war, nor can one speak of an armed conflict."

As for U.S. participation in the (non) war in Mexico, there were further revelations of Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) involvement with laundering cartel money. And at the same time that the (non) war is being won in Mexico, the cartels continue to expand south, including to Brazil.

Finally, there is a fascinating look at the history and expansion of 'narcocorridos,' drug songs, in Mexico and their interrelation with the realities of the drug war and Mexican popular culture.

Human Rights and the Rule of Law news in Mexico continues to center on the repercussions of the killing of two students from a normal (teachers) school in Guerrero on December 12. This week, the Mexican National Human Rights Commission issued a prelimiary report charging that federal and state police fired at students indiscriminately, tortured one to create false evidence and removed evidence from the scene.

MexicoBlog is keeping a running summary of the complexity of accusations going back and forth between the students, the state and the federal government. This evolving story vividly demonstrates the complexities of Mexican social movements, state and federal politics and the struggle to build the rule of law and a functioning democracy in Mexico.

Immigration and Border news focused on the Obama administration´s announcement of a proposed change to allow that hardship waivers, sought by some immigrants undertaking green card applications, be completed in the U.S. rather than at a U.S. consulate abroad. Of course, the political blowback from Republicans began immediately.

Then there is the reality of immigrant life: the threat of deportation, the dangers of trying to cross the border without documents and the possible rewards on the northern side. The dangers of crossing are exemplified in the poignant story of a young man who lived in the U.S. since he was three, was deported to the violence of Ciudad Juarez and is risking his life to return to his home in Washington State. And Mexicans in the U.S. keep on working to send money home. Remittances increased last year by 8% over 2010.

Lastly, we pass on, from a local Arizona newspaper, a delightfully told story of homespun cross-border trade in second-hand goods that starts from a Salvation Army store in Tucson and ends at swap meets in Sonora, Mexico.

The Articles

Drug War

47,512 drug war deaths during during Calderon's presidency
El Universal: Jan. 11, The Mexico Attorney General Office released statistics on the number of deaths related to "presumed criminal rivalries" from December 2006 to September 2011. The total given is 47,512. For 2011 the total reported through September is 12,903." read more

Critics Dispute Mexico's Updated Drug War Death Toll
NYTimes.com: Jan. 11, "The Mexican government updated its drug war death toll on Wednesday, reporting that 47,515 people had been killed in drug-related violence since ... late 2006. ... Wednesday’s limited data release (will not) silence the increasingly loud call for better, more transparent government record keeping. The Mexican government has failed to create the tracking system it needs to understand criminal trends and improve security, experts say, even as it has become more secretive with the limited information it has." read more

Mexico Secretary of Interior says, "The country is not at war, nor can one speak of an armed conflict"
La Jornada: Jan. 11, "Mexico is not at war and it does not meet the criteria of international law for an armed conflict.... the Interior Minister, Alejandro Poire, said. ... He said that the federal government has ... a strategy to strengthen the rule of law throughout the country, to ensure that all citizens can fully exercise their rights and freedoms and ... to bring all offenders to justice.

He rejected criticism about individual rights being violated by the armed forces in fighting organized crime, and noted that the abuses documented by the National Commission on Human Rights are minimal, ... the exception, not the rule." read more

U.S. Agents Aided Mexican Drug Trafficker to Infiltrate Ring
NYTimes.com: Jan. 9, "American drug enforcement agents posing as money launderers secretly helped a powerful Mexican drug trafficker and his principal Colombian cocaine supplier move millions in drug proceeds around the world, as part of an effort to infiltrate and dismantle the criminal organizations wreaking havoc south of the border, according to newly obtained Mexican government documents." read more

As Brazil Booms, So Do New Drug Routes
New America Media: Jan. 9, "The current economic boom is fast transforming Brazil into the new transport point for the drug trade. As Mexico’s War on Drugs takes its toll on ... the drug cartels straddling the U.S.-Mexico border, the Narcos are shifting their operations closer to the source of the cocaine that fuels the global drug trade. ..In Brazil, as the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports, seizures of illicit drugs have climbed 10 fold, from 25 tons in 2005 to more than 260 tons in 2009." read more

Death Rattle
AmericanProspect: Jan. 6, "In 2010, the collective of Mexican musicians known as Movimiento Alterado released ... a song with the title, roughly translated, “The Bloodthirsty Killers of El M1”—M1 is the nickname for Manuel Torres Félix, an infamous member of the Sinaloa drug cartel. ...The sing-alongs of Movimiento Alterado could only have been born during this blood-soaked moment of the U.S.–Mexico drug war. ... The Tijuana writer Heriberto Yépez claims that Mexico’s cartels have gone from being an economy to becoming an ideology that saturates society." read more

Human Rights and Rule of Law

Grave human rights violations by federal and state police in killing of Guerrero students
El Universal: "The Mexican National Commission on Human Rights released preliminay report on the attack on students of the Normal School of Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, on December 12. It states that federal police arrived first and shot into the air to disperse the students. ... State police arrived and for twenty-five minutes, both federal and state police fired at the students indiscriminately. Two students were killed.

... Subsequently, one student was tortured ... to create "evidence" that a student had started the shooting. The police also collected spent shells from the scene to hide evidence. The report states ... that there was no coordination between police forces at the scene and that police were not trained nor did they respect international protocols on the use of force to contain demonstrations." read more

Summary of Conflict between Guerrero Student Teachers and Numerous Government Institutions

Immigration and the Border

Obama rule would let undocumented stay in U.S. during application
latimes.com: Jan. 6, "The Obama administration announced Friday a proposed new regulation that would allow certain undocumented immigrants to remain in America while applying for legal status -- a step aimed at keeping families intact and one that may also shore up the president's support with Latino voters.

... Under the proposed rule, which would not require action by Congress, people would be allowed to file requests for hardship waivers in the United States.... They wouldn't need to go abroad, and thus could stay with their families while their requests were adjudicated." read more

Obama administration eases deportation rules
Washington Times: "The Obama administration on Friday proposed new hardship rules that would make it easier for illegal immigrants to apply for legal status and stay in the country if they have a spouse or parent already living here legally. ... Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said... the new rules wouldn’t change who ends up getting legal status, but only lets those who are applying stay in the U.S. while those applications are pending.

But House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, Texas Republican, said Mr. Obama was “bending long-established rules to put illegal immigrants ahead of the interests of American citizens and legal immigrants.”" read more

Without a country: Immigrant tries to get back to the life he knew
latimes.com: "Luis Luna, 20, was smuggled to the U.S. from Mexico when he was a toddler. Despite holding a job and being a model student, he was deported after a cop pulled him over for a broken headlight. He hopes to return on the undercarriage of a boxcar." read more

Remittances to Mexico are rebounding
chicagotribune.com: Jan. 12, "Ending a three-year slump, remittances to Mexico are finally on the upswing, thanks to an improving U.S. job market. Analysts expect that money sent home last year by Mexicans living abroad, most of them residing in the United States, will top $23 billion .... Although still below the peak of $26 billion in 2007, that would be a solid 8 percent increase over 2010." read more

Second-hand goods head down I-19 to Mexico
Green Valley (AZ) News: Jan. 11, "Like ants on an ice cream cone that has fallen on the sidewalk, a fleet of small trucks move up and down Interstate 19 carrying furniture, appliances, and other household items cast aside by Arizonans. Many of them, often with loads stacked precariously higher than the roof of the truck, are driven by Mexicans and Americans living in Sonora." read more

Drug War Weapons Traffic: Another ATF weapons operation comes under scrutiny

2012-01-13T08:27:00.001-06:00

latimes.com: "In White Gun, the ATF ran a traditional sting operation with undercover agents and confidential informants trying to snare suspects working for the Sinaloa drug cartel. According to internal ATF documents, including debriefing summaries and border task force overviews, White Gun and Fast and Furious both began in fall 2009, and the same ATF officials ran both cases.

Hope MacAllister was the lead agent. Her supervisor, David J. Voth, was head of the ATF's Group VII field office in Phoenix. His boss was William D. Newell, then the special agent in charge in Phoenix.

According to documents that the ATF sent to the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, an umbrella group of U.S. agencies that seeks to disrupt major drug trafficking and money laundering, White Gun targeted nine leaders of the Sinaloa cartel. The list included Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman, who heads the cartel and is Mexico's most wanted drug suspect." read more

Mexico Drug War Strategy: Calderon Adviser Falls Short in Defending Boss' Security Policy

2012-01-13T08:19:00.000-06:00

InSight Crime: "A lengthy defense of President Calderon's security policies has relied on wishy-washy cultural theories to explain Mexico's failure to confront highly violent drug gangs, rather than addressing the failings of the Mexican leader's administration.

The sprawling piece in Nexos magazine was written by Joaquin Villalobos, a former Salvadoran guerrilla who has emerged in recent years as one of Calderon’s security advisers. He sets out 10 "myths" of the drug war, as well as five truths that, he argues, must be accepted." read more

Drug War Bloodshed: "Macabre" toll of violence admitted by the government, says expert

2012-01-13T08:03:00.000-06:00

La Jornada: "Statistics released by the Attorney General's Office (PGR) indicating that 47,000 killings have occurred in the drug war is a "macbre number," even though it is a number that has been minimized, because there are NGOs that have counted more than 60,000 deaths. But what is most important is that the authorities do not consider the human and social damage that has been left by this conflict. This includes between 10 and 15,000 missing, and more than 120,000 offspring affected by these deaths and the thousands of wounded, said Jose Luis Pineyro, a specialist in national security and armed forces.

Javier Sicilia, leader of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity, called for the mourning of the death of any human being, because of an elementary sense of brotherhood, with regard to the numbers reported by the PGR." Spanish original

Mexico Drug War: Cartels make Santa Fe, in Mexico City, one of their hubs

2012-01-12T10:18:00.000-06:00

La Jornada: "Members of drug groups such as those of Beltrán Leyva, Edgar Valdez Villarreal, (la Barbie) and La Familia have used the commercial zone of Santa Fe, located in western Mexico City, as a meeting place, to shop or for lodgings. (Where a car was burned and two bodies and two heads were abandoned yesterday in front of a major, hi-end mall.) Several arrests have been made by federal authorities in restaurants, hotels and shops that are located in the place where, a few decades ago, there were garbage dumps and sand and gravel pits.

... for example, in October 2008, the Colombian drug kingpin, Teodoro Mauricio Restrepo, who served as liaison to the Beltran Leyva organization, used the mall parking garage to transport business partners and service providers from there to his mansion in Desierto de Los Leones, where he held his parties and had exotic animals to be maintained.

In February 2009, at the mall where the incident occurred yesterday, Gerardo Gonzalez Benavides, known as "Tony the Lie," who is Edgar Valdez Villarreal's ('la Barbie') cousin, was arrested. He allegedly controlled drug sales in Tultitlan and Cuautitlan, in the state of Mexico.

Similarly, on April 14, 2010 Hilario López Morales, 'the Cat', was captured in one of the restaurants in Santa Fe. He was identified by federal authorities as being in charge of La Familia cartel operations in Zitacuaro, Michoacan.

Also in November 2010 in the Central District hotel, federal authorities arrested five members of what is known as the Independent Acapulco Cartel, an organization that la Barbie created after the death of Arturo Beltran Leyva in December 2009. Among those arrested was Carlos Montemayor Gonzalez, father of Edgar Valdez Villarreal." Spanish original

Drug War - U.S.-Mexico Relations: Mexico Secretary of Public Safety presents achievements of Federal Police to U.S. officials during Washington visit

2012-01-12T09:43:00.000-06:00

Milenio: During his working tour of the United States, Mexico's Public Safety Secretary, Genaro Garcia Luna, pointed out to high ranking officials of the administration of Barack Obama the professionalism and international standards of research and intelligence achieved by the Federal Police under the administration of President Felipe Calderon.

He met in Washington with the United States attorney general, Eric Holder, the drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, the director of the DEA, Michele Leonhart, and FBI chief Robert Mueller, who also addressed issues such as trafficking drugs, border security and money laundering.

Garcia Luna said that at the beginning of this administration, in Mexico there were no police institutions with the capacity to deal with a complex phenomenon such as organized crime, which is now transnational. This required the design and implementation of a strategy to transform police departments that began with the building an authentic Federal Police. He gave an accounting of the achievements of the Federal Police against the drug cartels, with it results in seizures of drugs, weapons and the capture of kidnappers.

U.S. authorities stated that they recognized the progress of the Mexican government in fighting crime. They pledged to redouble efforts to improve bilateral cooperation to achieve a more effective fight against transnational organized crime, as it is a complex phenomenon not unique to Mexico." Spanish original

Drug War - U.S.-Mexico Relations: U.S. Ambassador announces program to support protection of journalists, saying U.S. shares responsibility for combating drug violence

2012-01-12T09:25:00.001-06:00

Of course, the ambassador says nothing about U.S. responsibility in creating the drug violence. The U.S. government's theme of "shared responsibility" with Mexico for solving the violence seems to imply that the responsibility is equal. It is hardly equal. Mexico's major challenge is establishing the rule of law--a functioning police and justice system. But it is the U.S.'s prohibition of regulated, legal drug sale and consumption that starts the violence ball rolling by fueling the cartels and their competition. About that, Mexico can do nothing.

La Jornada: "The U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Anthony Wayne, said that he is working with the government of Felipe Calderón and civil society groups to protect journalists and human rights defenders. In support of this effort, he will sign an agreement with Freedom House and allocate 5 million dollars over four years. ... He stressed that the goal will be to improve the skills of civil society to monitor the government's efforts in its task of providing emergency tools and support to protect journalists at risk.

... On the other hand, he stressed that neither country alone can solve the drug problem. "We must work together. We share responsibility to combat drug-related violence," he said. ..."As Americans we must be honest about that responsibility and the ways in which our consumption of drugs and the illicit flow of weapons and money into Mexico contribute to the enormous challenge we both face," he added.

... He added that last month the promise of President Barack Obama to deliver to Mexico $500 million in equipment and training was fulfilled in accord with the Merida Initiative, for a total of nearly 900 million overall. He expressed confidence that the commitment to deliver one billion, 400 million dollars would be met or exceeded." Spanish original

Immigration Economics: Remittances to Mexico are rebounding

2012-01-12T08:32:00.000-06:00

chicagotribune.com: "Ending a three-year slump, remittances to Mexico are finally on the upswing, thanks to an improving U.S. job market.

Analysts expect that money sent home last year by Mexicans living abroad, most of them residing in the United States, will top $23 billion when Mexico's central bank releases annual figures this month. Although still below the peak of $26 billion in 2007, that would be a solid 8 percent increase over 2010." read more

Drug War Central America: New Guatemala president wants to regain US military aid

2012-01-12T08:12:00.000-06:00

AP/SanFranciscoChronicle: "Former general Otto Perez Molina takes office as Guatemala's new president Saturday with a top priority of ending a long-standing U.S. ban on military aid imposed over concerns about abuses during the Central American country's 36-year civil war. Perez, who was a top military official during the war, has long insisted there were no massacres, human rights violations or genocide in a conflict that killed 200,000 civilians, mostly Mayan Indians.

But he won the presidency campaigning on a pledge to crack down on soaring crime, including one of the highest murder rates in the Western Hemisphere, and he will need U.S. help to battle the Mexican drug gangs that have overrun Guatemala. Close advisers say he supports meeting the conditions set by various U.S. congressional appropriations acts for restoring aid that was first eliminated in 1978 halfway through the civil war." read more