Laura's Blog: March Against Drug War rejects "National Security Law", Calls for "Citizen Security"

Hundreds of people streamed onto Avenida Reforma from Mexico City's Museum of Anthropology --proof that Mexico's peace and justice movement still has the capacity to draw citizens out to protest the drug war. Protesters demanded that the Mexican Congress throw out proposed reforms to the National Security Law that would provide the legal underpinning for continuing the war on drugs strategy launched by President Felipe Calderon in December of 2006.

Movement leader, poet Javier Sicilia, marched alongside the relatives of victims in white t-shirts, followed by university students, indigenous groups, an especially lively group of jaraneros (playing a traditional, guitar-like instrument called a jarana), citizens and press. The trail of several thousand marchers snaked up the downtown avenues to the gates of the Presidential residence, Los Pinos. Several veterans of Mexico City demonstrations commented that security forces had never allowed them to approach the entry to Los Pinos, let alone with so little security.

But this is a movement that has defined itself as a interlocutor, rather than an adversary, to power. The congregation listened quietly to Julian LeBaron's warning against complacency, in his now-familiar, lilting Chihuahua accent. He recounted the events leading up to the kidnapping of his little brother, and the murder of his brother and his friend, addressing the crowd from atop a truck. His speech was followed by the customary moment of silence led by Sicilia. The usual jeers and anti-government slogans were absent.

The march then wound back down the hill and came to a stop in front of the Senate building, after being joined by hundreds of marchers from the "No Mas Sangre" movement. Both houses of Congress have approved the reforms "in general" (meaning specifics will still be debated). Since the reforms were the main subject of the dialogue with the movement, initial approval of the measures in the midst of dialogue was viewed as a betrayal of terms. However, Sicilia announced that a liaison committee will renew dialogue with the legislature this Wednesday.

The Movement stated its objections to the law in a flier:

1) It legalizes presidential decisions to attack insecurity with repressive measures that react to symptoms rather than address causes;
2) It is unconstitutional since it redistributes public security and national security functions among the Armed Forces and the police without adequately defining both.
3) The Armed Forces would be allowed to coordinate public safety activities when the constitution clearly only allows them to participate as auxiliaries in crisis situations.
4) The incorporation of military personnel in public safety opens the door to substitute local and state authorities for federal Armed Forces and security personnel, which affects states' rights and sovereignty.
5) Federal security officials can declare states of exception, which permit authoritarian government.
7) Military personnel could be tried in civil courts only when the the military decides it is appropriate.

My analysis of the National Security Law coincides with this analysis. I believe there are very serious flaws not just in the particulars of the reforms but in the entire framework. Experts within Mexico, including the National Autonomous University (UNAM), have been working on models of a law of citizen and human security that replaces the Bushian concept of national security, and takes a look at the causes of insecurity in communities and long-lasting solutions. By promoting Calderón's out-dated and repressive National Security law, with its obvious similarities to the Patriot Act in the suspension of civil liberties, the Congress has pre-empted the valuable efforts of the citizenry and academic experts to devise a more democratic alternative.

Most of the event in front of the Senate didn't focus on the legal reforms to the National Security Law, but told the stories of the victims, by the victims. This has come to be the hallmark and the moral strength of the movement. The cases of assassinations, disappearances and abuses reflect an almost even split between suspected cartel involvement and security forces' involvement, among a large number of unknown causes since most cases have never been investigated. The common denominators are pain and frustration with "a bunch of corrupt judges", a legislature that "doesn't know what it's like to lose a son or daughter to this absurd violence" and government negligence "that is just the new way to cover up corruption".

Diana Gomez, an analyst with the Americas Program and a victim whose father, Jaime Gomez, was disappeared and murdered in Colombia, spoke of the links between Plan Colombia and Plan Mexico, or the Merida Initiative, imposed by the U.S. government. Her father, she noted, was killed in the context of the "Democratic Security" plan of the U.S. and Colombian  governments.

"Colombia is not the model to follow", she warned. She pointed out that militarization under the pretext of the drug war in Colombia led to the death of her father and thousands of others, including the "false positives" killed by the military, with many more disappeared and displaced.

Diana is a leader of the organization Sons and Daughters for Remembering and Against Impunity. Her words as a victim, as an academic expert and in solidarity with the Mexican movement brought into focus the larger picture of the drug war. This is a model that benefits powerful interests at the expense of the people, especially the poor and rebellious. And it is a model that is being actively promoted by the U.S. government despite evidence of its failure to achieve its stated objectives.

As the dialogue is renewed and part of the Mexican movement engages Congress in a new round of dialogue, others are organizing public education and protest events around the construction of the U.S.-funded international police academy in Puebla, a Forum Against Militarization, and student discussions.

It will be interesting to see where the many initiatives for peace lead in Mexico's unprecedented protests against the drug war.

For now, the explosion of debate in the public arena is a major victory. Giving victims a voice and a sense of collective identity and support is a major victory. Rousing people from the paralysis caused by violent images devoid of social context is a major victory. Revealing U.S. interests  in fueling a drug war that is not in the interests of the Mexican citizenry is a major victory.

As criticism of the drug war grows deeper so does the possibility to build non-violent alternatives. If the Mexican peace movement succeeds in stopping the drug war and reversing trends toward rising violence and human rights abuses, its communities wills suffer less bloodshed. And the rest of the world will have an example to point to, of how to reject military/police states in favor of security based on the guiding principles of human rights, citizen participation and strong democracy.

Mexican Peace Movement: Demonstrations on Mexico drug war offered look at Mexicans abroad

Demonstrations on Mexico drug war offered look at Mexicans abroad - latimes.com: "There are significant groups of Mexican citizens in Canada, Spain and France, all countries that saw protests on May 8 (link in Spanish). Perhaps the most significant protest against Mexico's drug war occurred in Berlin, where a Facebook group appeared early on using the movement's now-ubiquitous 'No Mas Sangre,' or 'No More Blood' logo (link in Spanish)."

Mexican Peace Movement: A poet rewrites the War on Drugs

Madhu Suri Prakash, a contributing editor to YES! Magazine, interviews Javier Sicilia on the power of poetry to confront people with reality and move them to action.


Straight Goods - A poet rewrites the War on Drugs:  (Prakash) "Javier, people in the North know that they are implicated in the violence of Mexico's drug wars. Some of them are now talking of decriminalizing drugs. What would you say in response to that suggestion?

Javier Sicilia: I believe that something like that should have been done from the very beginning. The politicians are formulating the drug problem as an issue of national security, but it is an issue of public health. If from the very beginning drugs were decriminalized, drug lords would be subjected to the iron laws of the market. That would have controlled them. That would have allowed us to discover our drug addicts and offer them our love and our support. That would not have left us with 40,000 dead, 10,000 disappeared and 120,000 displaced...

The war is caused by puritan mentalities: like those of [Mexican President Felipe] Calderón and [former US President George] Bush. In the name of abstractions — the abstraction of saving youth from drug addiction — they have brutally assassinated thousands of young people, while transforming others into delinquents."

Mexican Peace Movement: Activists want truth commission to probe drug violence in Mexico

Activists want truth commission to probe drug violence in Mexico - Fox News Latino: "Prominent Mexican poet Javier Sicilia and other activists urged President Felipe Calderon's administration to create a truth commission to examine the drug-related violence that has claimed more than 40,000 lives since December 2006.

In statements to reporters, Sicilia said that 'autonomous, citizen-based entity' could be used to 'establish the public task of bringing visibility to all the victims, innocent or guilty, and monitor fulfillment of that goal.'

He said that organization also would be responsible for monitoring criminal investigations and the process of compensating the families of innocent victims....

The poet said Thursday after a ceremony establishing a mechanism for work and dialogue between the government and citizens' groups - agreed upon at a meeting between the poet and Calderon on June 23 - that truth commissions normally are formed after a "tragic period has ended."

Human Rights: Mexico high court rules civilian courts should handle alleged military abuses

Hurrah!

Mexico justice: Mexico high court rules civilian courts should handle alleged military abuses - latimes.com: "In a decision hailed by human rights advocates, the Mexican Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered that military officers and personnel be tried in civilian courts, not military tribunals, when accused of torture, extrajudicial killing and other abuses.

The court's unanimous ruling marks a radical change in the way human rights cases involving the military should be prosecuted. As the number of alleged violations has soared in recent years amid the Mexican drug war, advocates have increasingly and vociferously demanded that the cases be heard by civilian courts."

Human Rights: Activists Tell U.N. High Commissioner They're in Danger

MEXICO-RIGHTS: Activists Tell U.N. High Commissioner They're in Danger - IPS ipsnews.net: "Reports of extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, kidnappings and assaults are some of the heavy baggage that U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay is taking home from Mexico.

Pillay, who ended an official visit here Friday, met over the past week with human rights defenders and senior government officials, including conservative President Felipe Calderón, to gather information on the human rights situation in this Latin American country.

'We have no guarantees for carrying out our work,' Gabriela Morales, a lawyer with the Centre for Migrant Human Rights (CDHM), told IPS. 'The issue of human rights defenders has to be put on the table.' ...

"A large number of attacks committed by agents of the state have not been investigated, because there is complete impunity," Juan Gutiérrez, director of the non-governmental Mexican Commission for the Defence and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH), told IPS. The activist met this week with Pillay, a South African judge who was appointed U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in July 2008."

¡No Mas Sangre!: In Mexico, forests fall prey to crime mafias

In Mexico, forests fall prey to crime mafias - The Washington Post: "CHERAN, Mexico — When outlaw loggers with automatic weapons invaded the mountains and cut down the ancient woods — and once again the government failed to stop them — this town said enough.

Now every stranger entering Cheran is stopped at barricades made of logs, guarded by locals who cover their faces in masks. In the surrounding forest, a homegrown militia toting rifles creeps through the underbrush, signaling the way forward with bird calls, on daily patrols to protect their timber."

¡No Mas Sangre!: Where's shame? Stop drug war!

A letter to the editor of the Jackson, Mississippi Clarion Ledger

Where's shame? Stop drug war! "Where is the shame? Our hypocrisy is unbelievable. We are blaming the Mexicans for their illegal entry to the USA. But our immigration service is so tied up with narcotic traffic that it is useless.

We blame the Mexicans for the narcotic wars but it is funded by Americans every time they buy a dime bag of crack or smoke a left-handed cigarette. Not only do we fund the purchase of narcotics, we supply the guns for the war.

In 9-11, 3,000 people died and we are fighting three wars because of that attack. In Mexico more than 35,000 people have been murdered and tortured because of our actions. Where is our anger, or better, our shame?

The present drug war is causing self destruction. It is creating a prison society and various entities are getting rich. We lead the world in number of citizens incarcerated. Same thing happened with alcohol.

Legalize drugs and put a stop to this carnage

Karl Hatten, Sr."

Movement for Peace with Justice: Mass Protests Finally Incite Public Discussion About The Drug War’s Forgotten Victims

From the New Republic, a look at the personal experiences motivating the Caravan for Peace and the public dynamic that has been created as a result.

Mexico: Mass Protests Finally Incite Public Discussion About The Drug War’s Forgotten Victims | The New Republic: "“What the movement has done is open a period in which the victims have had the opportunity to recount their stories, transcending their anonymity by speaking,” argues Edgar Cortez, an investigator at the Mexican Institute of Human Rights. “[But] the crucial point is, what do you do with that?”

Yet its first step has been a huge one: breaking the public’s silence over the drug war. That alone is magnetic for the countless people in Mexico who have suffered in recent years. “What I know is that this movement has to continue and it has to be pacifistic,” said Robert Galván, (whose son disappeared in January).... “Because, when we fight violence with more violence, everything simply falls apart.”"

Whack-a-mole Drug War: Day of the Dead

Time magazine reviews the drug war in Mexico

Day of the Dead - TIME: "The harder task is changing a culture that was centuries in the making. 'Mexico's biggest problem,' says Sicilia's lawyer, Julio Hernández, 'is still the problem that leads to all its other problems: impunity.'"

¡No Mas Sangre!: Native Community Defends Land Against Loggers, Organised Crime

Native Community Defends Land Against Loggers, Organised Crime - IPS ipsnews.net: "CHERÁN, Mexico, Jun 29, 2011 (IPS) - 'Our patience has run out,' says Mary, an indigenous woman with three children to care for on her own, since her husband was kidnapped from his home by an armed group. In this town in western Mexico, local residents have begun to defend themselves with sticks and stones against illegal loggers and organised crime groups that are their allies. ...

IPS came to Cherán with part of the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity headed by poet Javier Sicilia, although Sicilia was not present during the visit.

The contingent of four trucks and half a dozen smaller vehicles arrived on Sunday Jun 26, bringing food supplies to the community, and was greeted by the townspeople with celebrations involving traditional local music, dancing and dishes."

Movement for Peace with Justice: Mexico's Calderon agrees to reconsider drug war strategy

Another take on the meeting between Javier Sicilia and Mexican President Calderon

Mexico's Calderon agrees to reconsider drug war strategy - Fox News Latino: " Mexican President Felipe Calderon and a prominent poet who has led a campaign calling for an end to the country's bloody drug war agreed to create a tracking commission to work on the proposals presented Thursday by victims of violence.

After more than three hours of dialogue with Javier Sicilia, who heads the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity, and victims of violence, Calderon said he was open to 'reviewing' his security strategy.

He also accepted Sicilia's proposal to create a commission to 'work on behalf of the victims' as well as on a new security strategy.

The president likewise agreed to meet again in three months with the poet, whose son was murdered by gangsters in late March.

'I'm willing to make changes,' said Calderon, who added that to do so he would need to 'see clearly' the direction in which to direct his strategy to fight organized crime, an effort in which the military is playing the central role."

Movement for Peace with Justice: Calderon tells Javier Sicilia that Mexico drug war strategy will continue despite appeals

We really did not expect anything different to come from this public meeting.

Mexico drug war strategy will continue despite appeals from activists, Calderon says - latimes.com: "Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Thursday met face-to-face with activist-poet Javier Sicilia in a long and often colorful public meeting aimed at reaching a consensus on how to curb the country's rising drug-war death toll.

Sicilia demanded Calderon apologize for carnage that has left an estimated 40,000 dead, and demanded a change in the government's anti-crime strategy. But Calderon, flanked by Cabinet officials, repeated once more that it would be wrong to alter the basic thrust — a military-led campaign against the country's powerful cartels."

Movement for Peace with Justice: Can Mexico's Peace Movement Change Calderon's Strategy?

Can Mexico's Peace Movement Change Calderon's Strategy?: "The president, and some members of his cabinet, will meet with 35 representatives of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity. Many of them have lost relatives to drug violence, including poet Javier Sicilia, whose son was murdered in March by a gang. Since then the high-profile writer has led the campaign for peace, including a march across the country to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's most violent city.

The meeting was originally slated to take place on Thursday, June 23 at the National Museum of Anthropology, a location that the group had selected as symbolic of the “national re-foundation” that the country needs. However, at the last minute officials changed the location to the Chapultepec Castle, according to El Universal. Presumably the switch was made for security reasons, in an effort to limit the chances of the meeting being disturbed by protests.

Mexico’s Interior Ministry confirmed the meeting, saying that the government has been seeking input from civil society “since the beginning of the implementation of the National Security Strategy.” This has been refuted by Sicilia and others, however, who have complained that their calls for a national dialogue have fallen on"

Movement for Peace with Justice: Citizen’s Pact for Peace with Justice and Dignity

Here is the Americas Program's translation of the "Citizen's Pact for Peace and Justice" signed in Ciudad Juárez by participants at the end of the recent Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity.

Citizen’s Pact for Peace with Justice and Dignity – CIP Americas: "For more than four years now, our country has suffered a war on drugs that officially does not exist. It is really a war against the people that has cost 40,000 Mexican lives, mostly youths, and another 10,000, also mostly youths, who inhabit the terrifying limbo that authorities have coldly labeled “disappeared.”"

Movement for Peace with Justice: Poet to meet with Mexico's president, demand new drug war strategy

Poet to meet with Mexico's president, demand new drug war strategy - CNN.com: "A Mexican poet who leads a popular anti-violence movement will demand a change in the nation's crime-fighting strategy when he meets with President Felipe Calderon this week, activists said.

Poet Javier Sicilia and other members of his group will request specific responses about modifying Mexico's approach to national security, human rights advocate Emilio Alvarez Icaza told reporters Tuesday.

They will also call on the Mexican government to devote more attention to victims of violence, Alvarez said."

Movement for Peace with Justice: Video from the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity – CIP Americas

Documentary video from the Americas Program

Video from the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity – CIP Americas: On its way to Ciudad Juarez, the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity passed through some of the cities and regions most affected by President Felipe Calderon’s war against the cartels. This video features stories of hope and survival from people across Mexico living under the war.

Movement for Peace with Justice: A Photo Essay from the Caravan for Peace with Justice

Here is a powerful photo essay of the Caravan for Peace rally in Ciudad Juárez. As the saying goes, "A picture is worth ...."

KT Photography: "It’s a long and lonely walk over the Rio Grande and not knowing what I’m about to face on the other side makes it even more lonely. Juarez Mexico is now crowned the most dangerous place on earth.

I wanted to be there for the final day of Javier Sicilia’s 7 day Peace March, Sicilia is a famous poet and journalist in Mexico and his son was murdered last March by the drug cartels. He was an innocent victim; in the wrong place at the wrong time, like so many others. I managed to connect and contact the right people, got myself a media pass and booked my flights to El Paso and was promised by the rally organizers and a local journalist they would take good care of me. And so they did." read more

Movement for Peace with Justice: "An Attitude of Soul"

A view of the Caravan for Peace with Justice from a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation

"An Attitude of Soul" | Fellowship of Reconciliation: "A young man from Mexico City had a paper bowl with red paint, and offered to put a dab of it on my forehead. “What’s the symbol?” I asked him. “For the blood of the shot to the head,” he said. I said I didn’t want to give them that hint. I asked him what the caravan was like for him. “To be honest,” he said, “lots of times it was just crying. Crying.”

The stories broke open hearts, and in turn opened stories of those whose hearts were already broken. “We have seen a sea of dignity,” said one of the participants."

Movement for Peace with Justice: Sister cities unite for peace

Students at the University of Texas at El Paso participated with their neighbors from Ciudad Juárez in last weekend's Caravan for Peace with Justice rally at the border .

Sister cities unite for peace - News - The Prospector - University of Texas at El Paso: "UTEP students joined artists, writers, community members and victims of the drug violence in Ciudad Juárez as they rallied for peace and justice June 10 and 11 at the Benito Juárez monument and San Jacinto Plaza in El Paso.

'This is important for our communities and being a part of this caravan shows support and solidarity with the victims of the drug war,' said Ana Morales, one of the organizers of the event and graduate student in sociology. 'Being in El Paso makes us comfortable, but, in reality, we are all in Juárez.'

Several UTEP student organizations such as MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztlán), MASS (Mexican American Student Society) and Miners Without Borders, as well as alumni, participated in the rally.

"It was an amazing experience," said Saray Argumedo, senior print media major. "When we were crossing the bridge, a line of activists already in Juárez waiting for us, said, ‘welcome back to your home.'"

Many of the individuals attending the event said the movement is not just about protesting the drug war violence, but about injustice and the many social struggles and inequities plaguing Mexico.

"This peace movement is the first to directly criticize military involvement of the Mexican government, and it's also critiquing American policy in Mexico like the Merida Initiative, which is funding not only military injustice, but cartel injustice," said Sean Garcia, a senior English and American literature major."