A message to Mexico on abuses

mySA: The United States, in the interest of bilateral harmony, has been looking the other way too long when it comes to Mexico’s human rights abuses. That the State Department found it could do so no longer says something about our southern neighbor’s continuing slide into that morass under the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto.

The U.S. is withholding only a fraction — $5 million — of the $195 million in Merida Initiative funding to aid in the fight against vicious drug cartels. This is meant to send a message that the United States will no longer take Mexico’s assurances on human rights at face value. Read more.

U.S. Cuts Off $5 Million in Security Aid to Mexico

WSJ: Signaling disapproval of recent human rights violations in Mexico, the U.S. government is withholding $5 million in funding for the country’s security and judicial system, officials have confirmed.

The money is a small fraction in funding that was to be disbursed by the State Department this year under the eight year old Merida Initiative, through which the U.S. Congress so far has appropriated more than $2.3 billion in aid earmarked to train and equip Mexico’s security forces and to improve its judicial system.

U.S. blocks some anti-drug funds for Mexico over human rights concerns

Washington Post: In a setback for its multibillion-dollar effort to help Mexico fight its drug war, the U.S. State Department has decided that Mexico failed to reach some human rights goals, triggering a cutoff of millions of dollars in aid.

The move, which has not been reported previously, affects a small portion of the annual anti-drug funds given to Mexico. But it is a clear sign of U.S. frustration. It comes as Mexico has been roiled by several cases of alleged abuses by security forces, including the disappearance of 43 students in the southern state of Guerrero last year.

Through the Merida Initiative, a major U.S. program to support Mexico’s battle against its drug cartels, Congress has appropriated $2.3 billion since 2008 for equipment such as helicopters and border sensors as well as training programs for thousands of Mexican officials. Read more.

Mexican cartels now have a 'sophisticated farm-to-arm supply chain' for the US heroin trade

Business Insider: The heroin crisis in the US is worsening as the use of heroin surpasses that of cocaine and meth, and we know where a lot of the product is coming from.

Mexican drug cartels have taken over much of the heroin market in the US, smuggling an estimated 225,000 pounds over the border last year, The Washington Post reports.

United States is Ready to Help Mexico in Michoacan: John Kerry

January 18, 2014
La Jornada - Mexico

The US Secretary of State, John Kerry, reiterated today Washington’s “concern” about the situation in the state of Michoacán, where federal forces intervened this week after the action of self-defense groups increased against local cartels.

“Yes, we are concerned,” recognized Kerry after meeting this Friday in Washington with his Mexican counterpart, José Antonio Meade, within the context of a meeting of the North American chancellors, in which Canada also participated.

“We are not afraid, but yes we are concerned and we are going to work with the government; we are ready to try to be useful if we can,” he added in response to a question from a journalist.

Their words are similar to those expressed two days ago by an important official from the State Department to a group of media in Washington, including the Dpa, who assured that the United States government gobierno was “extremely concerned” over the situation in Michoacán after the resurgence of the activities of the self-defense groups.

“We’re talking about communities that are already under pressure from the drug trafficking and criminal organizations, and now they find themselves in the midst of a battle between those that assert that they protect those communities and those that use them in their own interest,” the official said on condition of anonymity. He pointed out that the problem is that: “it is not clear if any of those actors are truly interested in what is best for their towns.”

Just like Kerry today, the source assured that the United States “is ready” to offer any kind of help to Mexico, always and when it is requested, something that, he specified, has not happened as of now.

US President Obama to discuss trade in Mexico

BBC
May 2, 2013

US President Barack Obama is travelling to Mexico on Thursday for talks expected to focus on bilateral trade.

Mexico is the third largest trade partner of the US and the president has said he is keen to discuss job creation on both sides of the border with his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto.

President Obama's planned immigration reform is also likely to feature high on the agenda.

During the three-day trip the president will also visit Costa Rica.

Policy shift

US National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said strong economic ties between Mexico and the US had been overshadowed by a focus on security in the past, but that Thursday's trip would attempt to redress the balance.

That sentiment was echoed by Sergio Alcocer, Mexico's Deputy Foreign Minister for North America, who said the two presidents would discuss "the benefits and the need to re-balance and diversify the relationship" between Mexico and the US.

It will be the second meeting between the US leader and Mr Pena Nieto, who was invited to the White House even before he was sworn in on 1 December 2012.  Read more. 

President Obama's Mexico visit comes with backdrop of uncertainty

Los Angeles Times
By Shashank Bengali and Tracy Wilkinson
April 28, 2013

WASHINGTON — President Obama travels to Mexico this week amid signs that the relationship between the United States and its southern neighbor's new government faces a new period of uncertainty after years of unprecedented closeness forged by the deadly war against Mexican drug cartels.

The government of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto is said to be wary of the level of U.S. involvement in security affairs that characterized the administration of his predecessor, Felipe Calderon. As a result, the Mexican government is expected to narrow U.S. involvement in its attorney general's office and Interior Ministry, the agencies that oversee police and intelligence, current and former U.S. and Mexican officials say.

Instead, Peña Nieto and officials from his Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, want to concentrate U.S. participation in less sensitive but potentially profitable areas such as the economy.  Read more. 

U.S. role at a crossroads in Mexico’s intelligence war on the cartels

The Washington Post 
By Dana Priest, Published: April 27

MEXICO CITY — For the past seven years, Mexico and the United States have put aside their tension-filled history on security matters to forge an unparalleled alliance against Mexico’s drug cartels, one based on sharing sensitive intelligence, U.S. training and joint operational planning.

But now, much of that hard-earned cooperation may be in jeopardy.

The December inauguration of President Enrique Peña Nieto brought the nationalistic Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) back to power after 13 years, and with it a whiff of resentment over the deep U.S. involvement in Mexico’s fight against narco-traffickers.

The new administration has shifted priorities away from the U.S.-backed strategy of arresting kingpins, which sparked an unprecedented level of violence among the cartels, and toward an emphasis on prevention and keeping Mexico’s streets safe and calm, Mexican authorities said.  Read more. 

U.S. cities become hubs for Mexican drug cartels’ distribution networks

The Washington Post By Sari Horwitz, Published: November 3

CHICAGO — A few miles west of downtown, past a terra-cotta-tiled gateway emblazoned with “Bienvenidos,” the smells and sights of Mexico spill onto 26th Street. The Mexican tricolor waves from brick storefronts. Vendors offer authentic churros, chorizo and tamales.

Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood is home to more than 500,000 residents of Mexican descent and is known for its Cinco de Mayo festival and bustling Mexican Independence Day parade. But federal authorities say that Little Village is also home to something else: an American branch of the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel.

Members of Mexico’s most powerful cartel are selling a record amount of heroin and methamphetamine from Little Village, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. From there, the drugs are moving onto the streets of south and west Chicago, where they are sold in assembly-line fashion in mostly African American neighborhoods.

“Chicago, with 100,000 gang members to put the dope on the street, is a logistical winner for the Sinaloa cartel,” Jack Riley, the DEA’s special agent in charge of the Chicago field division, said after a tour through Little Village. “We have to operate now as if we’re on the Mexican border.”  Read more. 

Mothers Bond to Heal as Baltimore's Drug War Meets Mexico's

Kimberly Armstrong of Baltimore shares a hug with a caravan mother

As the peace caravan arrived in Baltimore yesterday morning, many of the 100-some people on board still slept, hunched over their seats or slumped on the shoulders of their bus mates. With a light summer rain falling, we began to pass row after row of abandoned houses. A member of a Baltimore host organization explained the background of a city that has been bombed out--not by aerial strikes, but by economic crisis. The results were strikingly similar.

Along North Avenue and Fulton Avenue, entire blocks of houses were boarded up and abandoned. Some have been gutted by time or rehab speculators. Others stand as they have for more than a hundred years, ready to house families behind their strong brick walls. Except that money, racism and the perversion of the financial system have blocked their doors. Families are on the street while houses remain empty.

We drove up to Irvington Park where a coalition of Baltimore groups hosted a picnic with the theme "Keep Them Home". Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS), a community organization that works with imprisoned and recently released youth, greeted the caravan, along with the NAACP, Casa Maryland and others.

Two women rappers/singers performed works protesting the construction of yet another prison in a community that lacks basic services. Local groups like LBS have managed to block the prison so far and are working to have the multi-million dollar project cancelled altogether.

Kimberly Armstrong, a community organizer, took the stage.

"I don't know Spanish," she told the caravan. "But I know a lot about losing a loved one."

On Sept. 27, 2004, Armstrong's sixteen year old son Eric was shot and killed. Just this February, she said, she heard a knock on the door. "It was the police. They told me they found my son's murderer. he was shot with a 9mm rifle by a 14-year old."

"I thought to myself, 'why do we have 9mm rifles on the ground?  how can it be that we live in a neighborhood where it's easier for a 14-year old to get a gun, than it is to get a tomato.'"

Among the crowd, the many mothers and other relatives of the murdered and disappeared nodded. One woman's lost son became the brother of the other's.

"Now they are all my angels," said Araceli Rodriguez, displaying the photo of Armstrong's son alongside that of her own, kidnapped and disappeared in the state of Michoacan.

Laura Carlsen

Democrats to increase fight against drug trafficking

Americas Program Original Translation

Wednesday September 5, 2012

J. Jaime Hernandez  | The Universal

CHARLOTTE, NC. - The “dramatic expansion” in size and scope of transnational crime networks today draws its alliances with international terrorism, government officials and some state security services, "hurting people worldwide, posing a threat to stability and subverting government institutions through corruption,” according to the Democratic Party platform, approved here yesterday at the start of their national convention.

According to the document, this transnational threat is within the priorities and commitments of President Barack Obama in the fight against this global scourge. Highlighting the partnership with countries like Mexico in fighting drug cartels and gangs, the Democratic platform is a commitment to the continuation of this struggle.

"Transnational criminal organizations have accumulated wealth and unprecedented power over the drug trade, illegal arms trafficking, human trafficking and other illicit activities that have entered the financial system," says the program, which highlights Obama's priorities in security, international relations and future cooperation.

Highlighting the partnership the United States has with countries like Mexico in the fight against drug traffickers and gangs, the document advocates a greater strain on the finances of the cartels - including a look into the U.S. banking system - for Obama’s second term. According to the document, security and stability on both sides of the border depends on the continuity and improvement of the fight with Mexico against the criminal organizations. Thus, the Obama campaign is committing to the continuity and strengthening of the capacities of the two countries to hit the criminal organizations and their finances and to regionalize these efforts so that the cartels "have no place to hide."

Laura's Blog: Gag order on shooting of Embassy personnel?

A week after a van with diplomatic plates was ambushed by Mexican Federal Police members, wounding two CIA agents, neither the U.S. or Mexican governments have much to say about the incident.

State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland treated a question on the attack like the political hot potato it is. She seemed to plead for the next question, and the lack of diligence by the reporter made for an easy dodge.

QUESTION: Additionally, there’s been an increasing controversy in Mexico over the incident with the U.S. diplomatic convoy, particularly the firing on the U.S. diplomatic van. The Embassy in Mexico initially classified it as an ambush. The Mexican Government says it was an accident. Which is it? And then can you confirm some of the – what were these two individuals (inaudible) link – to what U.S. agency were they linked?
MS. NULAND: As you know, the Mexican Government is investigating this incident. Our Embassy is cooperating in that investigation and trying to assist it in any way that we can. I’m not going to get ahead of the investigation – I think we’re going to wait and see what that concludes – nor am I going to get into speculating on any of the specifics until we see what the investigation leads to.
Please.
QUESTION: Just a follow-up: Have you taken any extra steps to protect U.S. borders in Mexico after this incident?
MS. NULAND: Well, we --
QUESTION: Are you worried about this?
MS. NULAND: We always are in a strong security posture around the world as necessary, but we don’t speak about any of the details of that.
Anything else? Please.

It seems both the U.S. and Mexican governments have handed down a gag order on the strange incident. On the U.S. side the DEA came out with a statement denying that any of their agents were involved. On Tuesday, the New York Times reported what the Mexican paper La Jornada had reported earlier:

The two Americans who were wounded when gunmen fired on an American Embassy vehicle last week were Central Intelligence Agency employees sent as part of a multiagency effort to bolster Mexican efforts to fight drug traffickers, officials said on Tuesday.

What do we know and not know about the ambush?

1. The van was taking the two CIA agents to train new Navy recruits at a firing range outside Mexico City. It was clearly identified and well-known to people in the area. The U.S. government has often cited its preference for the Navy and mistrust of the Army in Mexico, so Navy war games having nothing to do with water are common in this drug war.
2. A green Chrysler drove up and blocked the way of the Toyota van. The driver immediately threw the car into reverse to escape. (First question: If this were indeed a case of mistaken identity, how did the driver immediately know this was an attack?)
3. A second car cut off passage from behind. Shots were fired but the Toyota was armored.
4,. The Toyota again tried to escape and manage to proceed to a gas station where it continued to be fired on, with some bullets penetrating the protective shields and injuring the passengers.
5. The assailants fled when police and Navy vehicles arrived on the scene. They were later captured. 6. Twelve Federal Police agents have been arrested.

What does this bizarre incident indicate?

So far both governments seem to be preparing some version of a case of "mistaken identity". The NYT quotes anonymous US government officials as stating that "no evidence had emerged so far that the Americans were targeted because of their affiliation."

However, both Reforma and La Jornada gathered detailed interviews from local residents stating that anybody could see that the vehicle had diplomatic plates and that the agents' comings and goings are common knowledge in the area. The possibility that the Federal Police did not know who they were shooting at is extremely low.

The next obvious question is: why did the Mexican police shoot the CIA agents?

Speculation has emerged that these police were in cahoots with an organized crime group. That's pretty common here. Generally speaking, when organized crime shoots a U.S. agent, it's to send a message, not just to get rid of somebody. They know that the action will have binational ramifications.

In this scenario, it's hard to say what the potential message was. I´m not going to speculate on that until we know more.

The officers' families have offered explanations that it was a simple mistake and/or that their relatives were fired on first. They were quoted as fearing a frame-up to "stay on the United States' good side".

If history is any indication, we may never know what really happened. One certainly gets the impression that this incident is not something either drug-war ally wants to talk about. Compare the response of the U.S. government to the shooting of ICE agent Jaime Zapata on Feb. 15, 2011, when it immediately demanded justice and participated in the investigation. 

Incidentally, the Mexican government also called that a case of mistaken identity, and probably will continue to claim all such cases are mistaken identity, since admitting that US agents are targeted could jeopardize the many programs that send U.S. agents to Mexico

The ambush also shows once again that U.S. funding to the Mexican federal police force, which has run in the millions since the Merida Initiative began in 2008, is funding a force that attacks U.S. agents, not to mention the massive evidence of violation of Mexicans' human rights and attacks on their lives.

The NYT article notes the evident irony:

Through programs like the $1.6 billion Merida initiative, the United States has spent millions of dollars on training and equipping the federal police.

This incident further derails the Washington argument that the police force is an acceptable option for funding the drug war since it is being "reformed".

The conservative Wall Street Journal noted the "embarrassment" to the Mexican government of having its Federal Police Force go for the jugular of the hand that feeds it:

The incident has proved an embarrassment for the Mexican government, which receives millions of dollars annually in U.S. aid for its drug war and which has touted its federal police as the most professional force.

In addition to the embarrassment of Federal Police misbehavior, there is the issue of why CIA agents are training young Mexican Navy recruits to shoot their own people.

U.S. growing involvement in Mexico has raised the eyebrows and the ire of some members of Congress here in Mexico City. Since the ambush, they have called for a hearing and demanded that the Calderon administration give out information on the extent and the activities of U.S. agents.

This is a question that many of us have had for a long time now.

Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, Mexico's Most-Wanted Drug Lord, Targeted By U.S. Kingpin Act

Reuters: WASHINGTON - The United States on Tuesday targeted three Belize-based associates of Mexico's most-wanted man, cocaine king Joaquin Guzman, by freezing their U.S. assets as well as those of five of his companies including a banana farm, grocery store and marina.

The U.S. Treasury accused John Zabaneh, his nephew Dion Zabaneh and Daniel Moreno of being key associates of Guzman, who is the head of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel. Americans and U.S. companies are now prohibited from doing business with the three Belize men and the five companies controlled by Zabaneh and Moreno. Read more.

The Deceptive Gains of the War on Drugs

World Policy: Robert Valencia.
Recently, the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske, shared what he considered great news: According to numbers from the White House, potential cocaine production in Colombia had dropped by 72 percent since 2001. This ranks the country third in production of the substance, behind neighbors Peru and Bolivia. During a conference in Washington DC on July 30, 2012, Kerlikowske explained that potential production of pure cocaine in Colombia was “down to 195 metric tons (in 2011) from 700 metrics tons in 2001,” the lowest production level since 1994. He underscored that since 1995, Colombia has been producing “less cocaine” than Peru and Bolivia. Read more.

Mexican drug cartels try to establish direct ties in Las Vegas, officials say

Las Vegas Sun: Jackie Valley. Mexican cartels are working to establish a direct foothold in Las Vegas to sell drugs here and use the region as a stepping stone to shipping large quantities of drugs to the East, law enforcement officials say.

The vast majority of drugs entering the region still come via long-established routes through Phoenix or Southern California and are overseen by middlemen. But with greater frequency, traffickers here are ordering drugs directly from cartels in Mexico, enforcement officers have found. Read more.

Mexico’s President-Elect Signals “Internationalization” of Drug War

New America Media: Louis Nevaer. MEXICO CITY – Mexicans have long grown weary of their country’s prolonged War on Drugs. Now, with President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto set to take office in December, it appears change may finally be in the offing. 

That change, however, may not be what most Mexicans were expecting.

“A transnational phenomenon requires a transnational strategy,” Óscar Naranjo, Colombia’s former director of the National Police and current advisor to Peña Nieto, told reporters last week. “No country can succeed in an insular and isolated manner if it is to achieve timely or definitive victories.” Read more. 

U.S. Drug War Expands to Africa, a Newer Hub for Cartels

NY Times: Charlie Savage and Thom Shanker. Washington - In a significant expansion of the war on drugs, the United States has begun training an elite unit of counternarcotics police in Ghana and planning similar units in Nigeria and Kenya as part of an effort to combat the Latin American cartels that are increasingly using Africa to smuggle cocaine into Europe.

The growing American involvement in Africa follows an earlier escalation of antidrug efforts in Central America, according to documents, Congressional testimony and interviews with a range of officials at the State Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Pentagon. Read more.

Honduras counts the human rights cost of America's war on drugs

The Guardian: American agents accused of illegal acts in new front line against the narco-traffickers
The deep bullet wound in Hilda Lezama's thigh is a livid pointer to Honduras's unwanted status as the latest front line in America's war on drugs.

For all of her 53 years Lezama has lived in Ahuas, a village of wooden homes built on stilts, close to the fast-flowing Patuca river in the remote Mosquitia region of eastern Honduras. For 25 years, her family have run a business ferrying locals up and down the waterways that link the isolated jungle settlements.

On such a trip two months ago, she was shot from an American helicopter in a counter-narcotics raid involving US drug enforcement agents and Honduran troops. Four other local people, including two women, were killed. Read more.

US Senate report challenges Mexico’s reliance on military to fight drug violence

US Senate Foreign Relations Committee says use of military in Mexico to combat drug violence has been largely ineffective. A report of theirs recommends Congress to provide at least $250 million a year for the next four for the Merida Initiative, which should include spending for judicial and police reform to prevent corruption and human rights violations. 

AP: WASHINGTON — Mexico’s reliance on the military to combat widespread drug violence and crime has been largely ineffective and has led to increases in human rights violations, according to a congressional report released Thursday.

The majority staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which traveled to Mexico in April for extensive interviews with U.S. and Mexican officials, said in the study that the administration of President Felipe Calderon has made progress in confronting organized crime bosses, but the stopgap use of the military to pick up the slack for the police has had limited success.

“Heavy reliance upon the military to quell lawlessness and directly confront the narcotics syndicates appears to have been largely ineffective — and in some instances to have exacerbated the violence suffered by civilians,” the report said. Read more. 

Commentary: Apologies to Mexico

A commentary for the Huffington Post, Rebecca Solnit reminds readers of the impact of the drug war not only on Mexicans, but on the drug dependent culture in the U.S. 

Huffington Post: Rebecca Solnit. 

The Drug Trade and GNP (Gross National Pain) 

Dear Mexico,
I apologize. There are so many things I could apologize for, from the way the U.S. biotech corporation Monsanto has contaminated your corn to the way Arizona and Alabama are persecuting your citizens, but right now I’d like to apologize for the drug war, the 10,000 waking nightmares that make the news and the rest that don’t. Read more.