Latin American Herald Tribune: Two foreign neurologists have examined Aldo Gutierrez, an education student who has been in a coma since he and several classmates were shot in Iguala, a city in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, in September 2014, the Executive Commission for Assisting Victims, or CEAV, said Tuesday.
Calixto Machado, of the Cuban Neurology and Neurosurgery Institute, and Costa Rican neurologist Mauricio Chinchilla examined the comatose student last Friday, the CEAV said. Read more.
The MexicoBlog of the Americas Program, a fiscally sponsored program of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), is written by Laura Carlsen. I monitor and analyze international press on Mexico, with a focus on security, immigration, human rights and social movements for peace and justice, from a feminist perspective. And sometimes I simply muse.
Showing posts with label Costa Rica. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Costa Rica. Show all posts
Apr 3, 2012
Costa Rica Police, Justice Selling Loyalty to Drug Cartels?
InSight Crime. On March 29, Costa Rican authorities arrested the head of a drug enforcement police outfit which was stationed in San Jose’s Juan Santamaria International Airport, the main international airport in the country. According to the Interior Ministry, the suspect accepted money from drug traffickers in exchange for allowing so-called “drug mules” to pass through airport security.
The Security Ministry has claimed that 27 police were arrested last year for criminal behavior, although it is unclear how many of these detainees had connections to drug trafficking. Police are not the only authorities to be arrested for collusion with drug trafficking networks in Costa Rica; drug cartels have also been able to penetrate relatively high levels of government. In February for instance, Walter Valverde Fernandez, an official in the anti-drug trafficking prosecutor’s office, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for passing on sensitive information to a Mexican drug trafficking network.
Cases like these have set off alarm bells in Costa Rica, which has long enjoyed a reputation as an outlier for its strong democratic institutions compared to other countries in Central America. With drug trafficking organizations increasingly basing their operations in the region, however, this may be set to change. Read more.
Mar 26, 2012
Guatemala seeks the legalization of drugs
CNN Mexico: "The President of Guatemala urged his Central American counterparts to sign a regional security plan that includes drug legalization.
The head of state, Otto Perez Molina, proposed several options to put a stop to narco-violence in Central America including a regional tribunal that would adjudicate drug related cases and an indemnity on behalf of the United States for drug seizures.
The leaders didn’t arrive at an agreement during the meeting on Saturday in Antigua, Guatemala, but Perez Molina described the summit as a success.
“It was a success, as we hoped it would be. The success lies in the fact that taboos and myths were dismantled, taboos and myths that the region’s leaders had held in terms of talking about or debating these ideas. For a long time these ideas couldn’t be spoken about openly,” said Perez Molina.
The presidents of Panama, Ricardo Martinelli, and of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, attended the meeting which also included representatives from other Central American countries.
Perez Molina affirmed on Saturday that the leaders are looking to start a discussion on the topic in the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, which will take place in May.
The proposal could help lay the path for an important policy change in a region where violence from drug trafficking is a brutal daily reality.
Perez Molina isn’t the first leader to propose that drug legalization could help to slow bloodshed.
In a report in 2009, three ex-presidents from Latin America, Brazilian Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Colombian Cesar Gaviria, and Mexican Ernesto Zedillo, asked that marijuana be legalized for personal use.
Mexican ex-president Vicente Fox has also said that he supports legalization.
Analysts indicate that it’s rare that the fear of political consequences hasn’t prevented these presidents from making these proposals.
“This has been an academic debate and also a scientific debate—a topic that has been studied. Putting it to a political debate is important,” said Perez Molina last month on CNN en Espanol.
The 61-year-old president is a ex-military general that promised to govern Guatemala with an iron fist when he ran for the position in 2011.
His proposal to legalize drugs took many by surprise in April of that year.
“What I have done is put the issue on the table,” Perez Molina said to CNN en Espanol shortly after making the proposal known. “I think that it’s important for us to have alternatives (…) We have to talk about decriminalizing the production, the transit, and, of course, the consumption [of drugs].”
However, some skeptics have suggested that Perez Molina is using the drug legalization debate as a strategy to pressure the United States into sending military aid to Guatemala again.
The aid has been cut for decades following human rights abuses committed during the Central American country’s civil war." Spanish original
Translation: Mikael Rojas, Americas Program
The head of state, Otto Perez Molina, proposed several options to put a stop to narco-violence in Central America including a regional tribunal that would adjudicate drug related cases and an indemnity on behalf of the United States for drug seizures.
The leaders didn’t arrive at an agreement during the meeting on Saturday in Antigua, Guatemala, but Perez Molina described the summit as a success.
“It was a success, as we hoped it would be. The success lies in the fact that taboos and myths were dismantled, taboos and myths that the region’s leaders had held in terms of talking about or debating these ideas. For a long time these ideas couldn’t be spoken about openly,” said Perez Molina.
The presidents of Panama, Ricardo Martinelli, and of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, attended the meeting which also included representatives from other Central American countries.
Perez Molina affirmed on Saturday that the leaders are looking to start a discussion on the topic in the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, which will take place in May.
The proposal could help lay the path for an important policy change in a region where violence from drug trafficking is a brutal daily reality.
Perez Molina isn’t the first leader to propose that drug legalization could help to slow bloodshed.
In a report in 2009, three ex-presidents from Latin America, Brazilian Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Colombian Cesar Gaviria, and Mexican Ernesto Zedillo, asked that marijuana be legalized for personal use.
Mexican ex-president Vicente Fox has also said that he supports legalization.
Analysts indicate that it’s rare that the fear of political consequences hasn’t prevented these presidents from making these proposals.
“This has been an academic debate and also a scientific debate—a topic that has been studied. Putting it to a political debate is important,” said Perez Molina last month on CNN en Espanol.
The 61-year-old president is a ex-military general that promised to govern Guatemala with an iron fist when he ran for the position in 2011.
His proposal to legalize drugs took many by surprise in April of that year.
“What I have done is put the issue on the table,” Perez Molina said to CNN en Espanol shortly after making the proposal known. “I think that it’s important for us to have alternatives (…) We have to talk about decriminalizing the production, the transit, and, of course, the consumption [of drugs].”
However, some skeptics have suggested that Perez Molina is using the drug legalization debate as a strategy to pressure the United States into sending military aid to Guatemala again.
The aid has been cut for decades following human rights abuses committed during the Central American country’s civil war." Spanish original
Translation: Mikael Rojas, Americas Program
Dec 29, 2011
Drug War - Central America: For Costa Rica’s ‘pura vida,’ a drug war test
The destructiveness of U.S. drug prohibition moves into paradise.
Washington Post: "...with Mexican drug cartels moving in, Costa Rican exceptionalism is being challenged by the same criminal forces dragging down the rest of Central America. Costa Rican officials and U.S. drug agents say this country ... is one more chess piece in the traffickers’ push for control of smuggling routes through the region, now the primary conveyance for billions’ worth of South American cocaine bound for the United States. " read more
Washington Post: "...with Mexican drug cartels moving in, Costa Rican exceptionalism is being challenged by the same criminal forces dragging down the rest of Central America. Costa Rican officials and U.S. drug agents say this country ... is one more chess piece in the traffickers’ push for control of smuggling routes through the region, now the primary conveyance for billions’ worth of South American cocaine bound for the United States. " read more
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)