HuffPost Blog
Irene Mia
March 28, 2013
A long-awaited telecommunications reform, presented to Congress on March 11 by Enrique Peña Nieto, was passed swiftly by the lower house with relative few modifications to its ambitious scope and is now set to be approved by the upper house in an unthinkable development just a few months ago when, in the run up to the presidential election (in July 2012), social protests, loosely coordinated by the #YoSoy132 student movement, erupted against media bias in favor of the now ruling Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI). More in general, the telecommunications reform, coupled with other significant steps made by Peña Nieto's administration to advance its reform agenda in just a few months may reassure those who were skeptical of the president's willingness and ability to challenge powerful interest groups (including unions, state government and business lobbies) which had historically been part of the PRI support base. The president has proven a master in pragmatic politics, as many other PRI leaders in the past, reaching out to the opposition and brokering deals outside and before presenting bills in Congress. Read more.
The MexicoBlog of the CIP Americas Program monitors and analyzes international press on Mexico with a focus on the US-backed War on Drugs in Mexico and the struggle in Mexico to strengthen the rule of law, justice and protection of human rights. Relevant political developments in both countries are also covered.
Mar 29, 2013
Body-snatchers in Mexico?
I've been hearing a lot of off-the-record reports from journalist friends about a editorial board pressures to stop reporting on deaths. The general line is that government wants to show some progress (although Peña Nieto has now asked for a year to decrease the violence) and so the easiest way to reduce the figures is to stop counting.
This article could be part of that new tendency. The disappearance of bodies, suppression of the press, local officials encouraged to under-count-all; this bodes ill for those of us trying to track the drug war.
Miami Herald
By Christopher Sherman
Associated Press
Reynosa, Mexico -- Heavy gunfire echoed along the main thoroughfare and across several neighborhoods in a firefight that lasted for hours, leaving perforated and burned vehicles scattered across the border city.
Social media exploded with reports of dozens dead. Witnesses saw at least 12.
But the hours of intense gun battles in Reynosa on March 10 gave way to an official body count the next day of a head-scratching two.
The men who handle the city's dead insist the real figure is upward of 35, likely even more than 50. Ask where those bodies are and they avert their eyes and shift in their seats.
Cartel members, they say, are retrieving and burying their own casualties.
"Physically, there are no bodies," said Ramon Martinez, director of Funerales San Jose in Reynosa, who put the toll at between 40 and 50. "It's very delicate."
If Reynosa is an example, even the government can't count how many are dying from drug violence. The Felipe Calderon government stopped counting in September 2011. Since President Enrique Pena Nieto took office Dec. 1, the government has issued monthly statistics, saying that January killings were down slightly from December, and that February saw the lowest number of killings in 40 months - without providing numbers for the other 39 months.
This article could be part of that new tendency. The disappearance of bodies, suppression of the press, local officials encouraged to under-count-all; this bodes ill for those of us trying to track the drug war.
Miami Herald
By Christopher Sherman
Associated Press
Reynosa, Mexico -- Heavy gunfire echoed along the main thoroughfare and across several neighborhoods in a firefight that lasted for hours, leaving perforated and burned vehicles scattered across the border city.
Social media exploded with reports of dozens dead. Witnesses saw at least 12.
But the hours of intense gun battles in Reynosa on March 10 gave way to an official body count the next day of a head-scratching two.
The men who handle the city's dead insist the real figure is upward of 35, likely even more than 50. Ask where those bodies are and they avert their eyes and shift in their seats.
Cartel members, they say, are retrieving and burying their own casualties.
"Physically, there are no bodies," said Ramon Martinez, director of Funerales San Jose in Reynosa, who put the toll at between 40 and 50. "It's very delicate."
If Reynosa is an example, even the government can't count how many are dying from drug violence. The Felipe Calderon government stopped counting in September 2011. Since President Enrique Pena Nieto took office Dec. 1, the government has issued monthly statistics, saying that January killings were down slightly from December, and that February saw the lowest number of killings in 40 months - without providing numbers for the other 39 months.
Mar 26, 2013
Immigrants Held in Solitary Cells, Often for Weeks
The NY Times
By Ian Urbina and Catherine Rentz
Published: March 23, 2013
WASHINGTON — On any given day, about 300 immigrants are held in solitary confinement at the 50 largest detention facilities that make up the sprawling patchwork of holding centers nationwide overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, according to new federal data.
Nearly half are isolated for 15 days or more, the point at which psychiatric experts say they are at risk for severe mental harm, with about 35 detainees kept for more than 75 days.
While the records do not indicate why immigrants were put in solitary, an adviser who helped the immigration agency review the numbers estimated that two-thirds of the cases involved disciplinary infractions like breaking rules, talking back to guards or getting into fights. Immigrants were also regularly isolated because they were viewed as a threat to other detainees or personnel or for protective purposes when the immigrant was gay or mentally ill. Read more.
By Ian Urbina and Catherine Rentz
Published: March 23, 2013
WASHINGTON — On any given day, about 300 immigrants are held in solitary confinement at the 50 largest detention facilities that make up the sprawling patchwork of holding centers nationwide overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, according to new federal data.
Nearly half are isolated for 15 days or more, the point at which psychiatric experts say they are at risk for severe mental harm, with about 35 detainees kept for more than 75 days.
While the records do not indicate why immigrants were put in solitary, an adviser who helped the immigration agency review the numbers estimated that two-thirds of the cases involved disciplinary infractions like breaking rules, talking back to guards or getting into fights. Immigrants were also regularly isolated because they were viewed as a threat to other detainees or personnel or for protective purposes when the immigrant was gay or mentally ill. Read more.
Mar 23, 2013
Calderon says drug war was his legal duty
San Antonio Express/Jason Buch, Staff Writer
Updated 11:19 pm, Thursday, March 21, 2013
-
Photo: Billy Calzada, San Antonio Express-News
In a speech that focused primarily on his economic and social accomplishments, former Mexican President Felipe Calderón recalled a moment of doubt he felt as a member of the country's burgeoning opposition party.
Speaking Thursday night at Trinity University, Calderón said he confronted his father, a founding member of the National Action Party, with concerns about their campaign against the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.
His father responded, “We are doing this because it is the right thing to do,” Calderón said. “It is our moral duty to our country.”
Decades later, after his father's death, Calderón became the second president from his party, known by its Spanish acronym PAN. His six-year term, filled with controversy over his decision to use Mexico's military to confront organized crime, ended in November.
He's been accused of launching an unnecessarily bloody war against the cartels and allowing his forces to commit human rights abuses, but Calderón told the crowd that it was the same moral duty his father spoke of that led him to launch his war against Mexico's drug cartels.
Calderón acknowledged that abuses had taken place, but he insisted they happened against his orders and that perpetrators were prosecuted.
He characterized the cartels as criminal organizations involved in extortion and kidnapping, not just drug smuggling. He said that when he took office, criminals controlled the police in border states, such as Tamaulipas, the home state of one audience member who questioned his use of the military. Previous administrations, Calderón said, had chosen not to enforce the law.
“Either you enforce the law, which is your duty, or change the law,” he said in a news conference before the speech. “But you cannot ignore the law. In my opinion, enforcing the law is a very difficult task, but it is absolutely necessary. And if Mexico wants to be one of the developed nations, we need, as Mexican people, to have a rule-of-law country. Otherwise we will lose a lot of opportunity.”
One audience member questioned Calderón's characterization of the social and economic situation in Mexico, and another gently chided him for moving to the United States after his term ended. He's now teaching at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass.
The former president focused largely on Mexico's economic growth, especially in the manufacturing sector, and pension reform under his administration. Calderón also touted his expansion of the nation's education and health care systems. Such efforts, which Calderón characterized as “rebuilding the social fabric” of Mexico, were part of his effort to undermine the cartels.
Calderón said the U.S shares blame as well, allowing cash and money to flow south of the Rio Grande.
“What is crucial is to stop the flow of money going from the United States to Mexico,” he said. “In order to do that, the American society, Congress and government, have a moral obligation to find a way in which they could prevent the flow of that money.
“I don't want to say that the way to do that is to improve the money laundering regulations or to increase the strength of the American agencies or to explore market alternatives for drugs, but the point is as long as the American government and society are not able to stop the flow of money toward Mexico, Latin America, that will imply several years of violence ahead.”
jbuch@express-news.net
Speaking Thursday night at Trinity University, Calderón said he confronted his father, a founding member of the National Action Party, with concerns about their campaign against the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.
His father responded, “We are doing this because it is the right thing to do,” Calderón said. “It is our moral duty to our country.”
Decades later, after his father's death, Calderón became the second president from his party, known by its Spanish acronym PAN. His six-year term, filled with controversy over his decision to use Mexico's military to confront organized crime, ended in November.
He's been accused of launching an unnecessarily bloody war against the cartels and allowing his forces to commit human rights abuses, but Calderón told the crowd that it was the same moral duty his father spoke of that led him to launch his war against Mexico's drug cartels.
Calderón acknowledged that abuses had taken place, but he insisted they happened against his orders and that perpetrators were prosecuted.
He characterized the cartels as criminal organizations involved in extortion and kidnapping, not just drug smuggling. He said that when he took office, criminals controlled the police in border states, such as Tamaulipas, the home state of one audience member who questioned his use of the military. Previous administrations, Calderón said, had chosen not to enforce the law.
“Either you enforce the law, which is your duty, or change the law,” he said in a news conference before the speech. “But you cannot ignore the law. In my opinion, enforcing the law is a very difficult task, but it is absolutely necessary. And if Mexico wants to be one of the developed nations, we need, as Mexican people, to have a rule-of-law country. Otherwise we will lose a lot of opportunity.”
One audience member questioned Calderón's characterization of the social and economic situation in Mexico, and another gently chided him for moving to the United States after his term ended. He's now teaching at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass.
The former president focused largely on Mexico's economic growth, especially in the manufacturing sector, and pension reform under his administration. Calderón also touted his expansion of the nation's education and health care systems. Such efforts, which Calderón characterized as “rebuilding the social fabric” of Mexico, were part of his effort to undermine the cartels.
Calderón said the U.S shares blame as well, allowing cash and money to flow south of the Rio Grande.
“What is crucial is to stop the flow of money going from the United States to Mexico,” he said. “In order to do that, the American society, Congress and government, have a moral obligation to find a way in which they could prevent the flow of that money.
“I don't want to say that the way to do that is to improve the money laundering regulations or to increase the strength of the American agencies or to explore market alternatives for drugs, but the point is as long as the American government and society are not able to stop the flow of money toward Mexico, Latin America, that will imply several years of violence ahead.”
jbuch@express-news.net
Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Calderon-says-drug-war-was-his-legal-duty-4375166.php#ixzz2ON06SdX3
Mar 22, 2013
Nobel Laureates to OAS leaders: "Vitally important to strengthen" the Inter-American Human Rights System
Ed: The OAS is meeting today to decide on measures to reform the Inter-American Human Rights System. The Nobel Women's Initiative, JASS, Movimiento Autónomo de Mujeres in Nicaragua and other Americas Program partners have been active to preserve the vital functions of the Inter-American Commission and Court on Human Rights that have been important in exposing violations and protecting human rights defenders. The Permanent Council was stuck on language about non-governmental funding to the System after a long series of meetings this week and last, but a meeting of nations that have signed the American Convention on Human Rights (San José Pact) agreed to remove proposals that would have seriously weakened the System.
A group of center-left governments led by Ecuador objected to aspects of the precautionary measures and sentences against their governments. They have accused the U.S. of exercising excessive control over the operations of the system and argued that States that have not signed the Pact should not have representation on the Commission. The U.S. and Canada, among others, have not signed the regional human rights commission and that lack of basic commitment to the System undermines regional efforts to guarantee human rights. Civil society organization and especially women's organizations that we work with have responded saying that the flaws should be addressed by strengthening, not weakening, the system. The draft resolutions call on all nations to sign the Pact and governments to fund all Rapporteurs adequately and equally.
Here is the press release and letter issued yesterday from Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Jody Williams and Rigoberta Menchu, from the Nobel Women's Initiative.
Nobel Women's Initiative: On the eve of a deadline for defining the future of the Inter-American human rights system, six Nobel Peace Laureates have sent an open letter to leaders in this hemisphere calling on them to strengthen both the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Tomorrow members of the Organization of American States (OAS) will be presenting proposals for reforming the regional justice system created in 1948, and which primarily oversees compliance with the American Convention on Human Rights adopted in 1969.
In their open letter to OAS leaders, the six Nobel Laureates—Jody Williams, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Shirin Ebadi, Leymah Gbowee, Mairead Maguire and Tawakkol Karman—note that the Inter-American Human Rights System has "proven to be an effective tool" for defending the basic rights of women and others threatened by rising levels of violence in some places in the region. They say the OAS mechanisms have been important in giving "voice and protection" to women and others at-risk.
The Nobel Laureates sent the letter in response to concerns from human rights groups in the region that some countries within the OAS are trying to weaken the power and effectiveness of the Inter-American Human Rights System. In 2011, Nobel Laureates Rigoberta Menchú Tum and Jody Williams led a delegation to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala to investigate rising violence against women human rights defenders. The delegation heard testimony from women and organizations that had turned to the Inter-American Human Rights System after hitting walls in their own countries.
"It was really important that the Inter-American Court took [our] case," said Imelda Marrufo, whose organization denounced rising femicides in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. "Authorities [in Mexico] were calling the femicides a 'myth'. The case led to the formal recognition that the killings existed."
Last week the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights heard the case of 11 women from Atenco, Mexico who were sexually assaulted by police in 2006 when Mexico's current President—Enrique Peña Nieto—was Governor of the state where the assaults occurred. A day after the Inter-American hearing got started in Washington, the Mexican government finally offered the women of Atenco a "friendly solution" to the case. The "solution" includes a public apology and reparations for the psychological and other damage caused by the sexual assaults.
The women of Atenco have since rejected the Mexican government's offer, instead opting to move forward with their case. "We are never going to be victims," said one of the Atenco women. "We are survivors full of hope."
Read the full text of the open letter below.
For more information, please contact:
Rachel Vincent, Media Manager
Nobel Women's Initiative
rvincent@
Mobile +1 613 276 9030
STRENGTHEN INTER-AMERICAN HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM
An Open Letter from Nobel Peace Laureates to All Member States of the Organization of American States
On the eve of the Extraordinary General Assembly on March 22, 2013, we are writing to call on all member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) to join together to strengthen the Inter-American Human Rights System.
The Inter-American Human Rights System—made up of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court on Human Rights—has proven to be an effective tool for the defense of basic rights, especially for groups that face discrimination in the justice system: women, indigenous peoples, Afro-Americans, migrants and displaced persons, members of the LGBT community, leaders of political opposition and the poor. The System also plays a critical role in cases where state actors are in complicity or directly involved in committing human rights violations.
The Inter-American Human Rights System has protected women human rights defenders and survivors of violence by making the work of such defenders visible, investigating complaints and contributing to prevention. This is vital work in a region where threats against some women and their communities are a daily fact of life.
At this juncture in history—when human rights are all too often taking a back seat to corporate and other interests—the goal should be to broaden and strengthen the System and ensure full funding for its important functions. This support should extend to all eight of the thematic Rapporteurs and the country Rapporteurs.
We urge the member states that have not ratified the Convention to do so as soon as possible to send a strong signal that human rights are a priority. We also strongly encourage the member nations to strengthen the system by fully and promptly complying with the recommendations and decisions of the Commission and the Court, and contributing to funding their operations at an adequate level.
The Inter-American Human Rights System has given voice to and protection to human rights defenders throughout the region, as well as at-risk populations. At this critical moment in it development, we call on all OAS countries to reaffirm their commitment and support for the important work of the Inter-American Rights System.
Respectfully,
Jody Williams
Chair, Nobel Women's Initiative
Nobel Peace Laureate, 1997
Rigoberta Menchu Tum
Nobel Women's Initiative
Nobel Peace Laureate, 1992
A group of center-left governments led by Ecuador objected to aspects of the precautionary measures and sentences against their governments. They have accused the U.S. of exercising excessive control over the operations of the system and argued that States that have not signed the Pact should not have representation on the Commission. The U.S. and Canada, among others, have not signed the regional human rights commission and that lack of basic commitment to the System undermines regional efforts to guarantee human rights. Civil society organization and especially women's organizations that we work with have responded saying that the flaws should be addressed by strengthening, not weakening, the system. The draft resolutions call on all nations to sign the Pact and governments to fund all Rapporteurs adequately and equally.
Here is the press release and letter issued yesterday from Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Jody Williams and Rigoberta Menchu, from the Nobel Women's Initiative.
Nobel Women's Initiative: On the eve of a deadline for defining the future of the Inter-American human rights system, six Nobel Peace Laureates have sent an open letter to leaders in this hemisphere calling on them to strengthen both the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Tomorrow members of the Organization of American States (OAS) will be presenting proposals for reforming the regional justice system created in 1948, and which primarily oversees compliance with the American Convention on Human Rights adopted in 1969.
In their open letter to OAS leaders, the six Nobel Laureates—Jody Williams, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Shirin Ebadi, Leymah Gbowee, Mairead Maguire and Tawakkol Karman—note that the Inter-American Human Rights System has "proven to be an effective tool" for defending the basic rights of women and others threatened by rising levels of violence in some places in the region. They say the OAS mechanisms have been important in giving "voice and protection" to women and others at-risk.
The Nobel Laureates sent the letter in response to concerns from human rights groups in the region that some countries within the OAS are trying to weaken the power and effectiveness of the Inter-American Human Rights System. In 2011, Nobel Laureates Rigoberta Menchú Tum and Jody Williams led a delegation to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala to investigate rising violence against women human rights defenders. The delegation heard testimony from women and organizations that had turned to the Inter-American Human Rights System after hitting walls in their own countries.
"It was really important that the Inter-American Court took [our] case," said Imelda Marrufo, whose organization denounced rising femicides in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. "Authorities [in Mexico] were calling the femicides a 'myth'. The case led to the formal recognition that the killings existed."
Last week the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights heard the case of 11 women from Atenco, Mexico who were sexually assaulted by police in 2006 when Mexico's current President—Enrique Peña Nieto—was Governor of the state where the assaults occurred. A day after the Inter-American hearing got started in Washington, the Mexican government finally offered the women of Atenco a "friendly solution" to the case. The "solution" includes a public apology and reparations for the psychological and other damage caused by the sexual assaults.
The women of Atenco have since rejected the Mexican government's offer, instead opting to move forward with their case. "We are never going to be victims," said one of the Atenco women. "We are survivors full of hope."
Read the full text of the open letter below.
For more information, please contact:
Rachel Vincent, Media Manager
Nobel Women's Initiative
rvincent@
Mobile +1 613 276 9030
STRENGTHEN INTER-AMERICAN HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM
An Open Letter from Nobel Peace Laureates to All Member States of the Organization of American States
On the eve of the Extraordinary General Assembly on March 22, 2013, we are writing to call on all member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) to join together to strengthen the Inter-American Human Rights System.
The Inter-American Human Rights System—made up of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court on Human Rights—has proven to be an effective tool for the defense of basic rights, especially for groups that face discrimination in the justice system: women, indigenous peoples, Afro-Americans, migrants and displaced persons, members of the LGBT community, leaders of political opposition and the poor. The System also plays a critical role in cases where state actors are in complicity or directly involved in committing human rights violations.
The Inter-American Human Rights System has protected women human rights defenders and survivors of violence by making the work of such defenders visible, investigating complaints and contributing to prevention. This is vital work in a region where threats against some women and their communities are a daily fact of life.
At this juncture in history—when human rights are all too often taking a back seat to corporate and other interests—the goal should be to broaden and strengthen the System and ensure full funding for its important functions. This support should extend to all eight of the thematic Rapporteurs and the country Rapporteurs.
We urge the member states that have not ratified the Convention to do so as soon as possible to send a strong signal that human rights are a priority. We also strongly encourage the member nations to strengthen the system by fully and promptly complying with the recommendations and decisions of the Commission and the Court, and contributing to funding their operations at an adequate level.
The Inter-American Human Rights System has given voice to and protection to human rights defenders throughout the region, as well as at-risk populations. At this critical moment in it development, we call on all OAS countries to reaffirm their commitment and support for the important work of the Inter-American Rights System.
Respectfully,
Jody Williams
Chair, Nobel Women's Initiative
Nobel Peace Laureate, 1997
Rigoberta Menchu Tum
Nobel Women's Initiative
Nobel Peace Laureate, 1992
Mexico's lower house gives general approval for telecoms bill
Reuters
By Dave Graham and Miguel Gutierrez
Mexico City, Mar 22, 2013
Mexico's lower house of Congress gave broad approval Thursday night to a telecommunications reform that threatens to loosen tycoon Carlos Slim's grip on the phone market and broadcaster Televisa's dominance of the airwaves.
The proposal attracted overwhelming support, with 414 lawmakers in favor of the reform and only 50 opposed.
Lawmakers must still vote on amendments to the bill, which has dampened confidence in Slim's prospects, though investors are hopeful the Mexican tycoon can at least partly offset curbs to his phone empire by entering the television market.
The bill, presented by the government on March 11, aims to boost competition in the telecoms sector by increasing foreign investment and giving regulators the power to force companies with a market share above 50 percent to sell assets.
"In our country there is just one territory and it is not the territory or property of any one telephone company," said Julio Cesar Moreno, a congressman and member of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, during the debate. Read more.
By Dave Graham and Miguel Gutierrez
Mexico City, Mar 22, 2013
Mexico's lower house of Congress gave broad approval Thursday night to a telecommunications reform that threatens to loosen tycoon Carlos Slim's grip on the phone market and broadcaster Televisa's dominance of the airwaves.
The proposal attracted overwhelming support, with 414 lawmakers in favor of the reform and only 50 opposed.
Lawmakers must still vote on amendments to the bill, which has dampened confidence in Slim's prospects, though investors are hopeful the Mexican tycoon can at least partly offset curbs to his phone empire by entering the television market.
The bill, presented by the government on March 11, aims to boost competition in the telecoms sector by increasing foreign investment and giving regulators the power to force companies with a market share above 50 percent to sell assets.
"In our country there is just one territory and it is not the territory or property of any one telephone company," said Julio Cesar Moreno, a congressman and member of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, during the debate. Read more.
Mar 21, 2013
Deportation, Drugs and Delinquency in Tijuana
FNS NEWS. Are U.S. and Mexican deportation and reintegration policies fomenting
delinquency in Tijuana? According to a prominent academic researcher and
immigrant rights activist, the answer is yes. Victor Clark Alfaro,
director of Tijuana’s Binational Center for Human Rights, told the local
press that the deportation of gang-affiliated individuals who are left
on their own in the Mexican border city with no resources or legitimate
employment options is exacerbating a serious problem of drug abuse and
delinquency.
Of an average of 200 deportees who arrive daily to Tijuana, Clark Alfaro estimated that at least 30 percent of them have ties with southern California gangs including Mara Salvatrucha, M-18, M-13, Florence, and the Mexican Mafia. After their arrival in Tijuana, the deportees don’t find job opportunities and confront discrimination from the local society because of their dress, style and tattoos, Clark Alfaro contended.
The border anthropologist said the lack of papers on the U.S. side of the border is likewise a problem on the Mexican side, where it is difficult to obtain the birth certificates and federal voter cards which are routinely used for identification in Mexico. Undocumented individuals are then harassed and detained by Tijuana municipal police officers, Clark Alfaro asserted.
He said the desperate situation of the deportees coupled with the cross-border criminal backgrounds of many make them ideal recruits for organized crime. Employed as look-outs, meth cooks, street dealers and hit men, deportees wind up constituting the lower base of the pyramid of organized crime in Tijuana, Clark Alfaro added.
While the high-profile violence between warring drug gangs that shattered Tijuana a few years back has largely receded into the background, local drug consumption and the violence associated with it have not gone away. Regularly, the press reports on the detentions of street dealers, small-scale drug confiscations and killings said to be connected to the lower rung of the underworld.
This week, for example, the Baja California attorney general’s office told the media it was investigating four homicides committed in recent days. In one case, two men were found beaten and strangled in a home. In another case, Roberto Alejandro Cortes Chorta, 25, was arrested and accused of killing his friend, 26-year-old Veronica Palacios Espinoza, and then stuffing her body in a suitcase with the aid of his mother, after the young couple consumed drugs and argued.
In a third instance, 21-year-old Jessica Michele Munoz was found strangled inside a Ford Explorer with a dose of crystal meth on a breast. Reportedly, Munoz was earlier linked to small-time drug dealing. On Wednesday, March 20, 22-year-old Margarita Martinez Michel became the third woman murdered in Tijuana in a week when she was shot to death in front of her home, in a crime also linked to street dealing.
On March 19, Tijuana municipal Baja California state police authorities reported detaining 18 street dealers and confiscating small amounts of meth, heroin, cocaine and marijuana. Separately, two other men were arrested for allegedly preparing a car with California license plates with a marijuana shipment.
In an analysis published last year, Clark Alfaro, who teaches at San Diego State University, wrote that the presumed end of the Tijuana drug war and the decline in murder statistics, which registered more than 2,300 homicides during the peak years of violence between 2008 and 2010 according to the scholar-activist, has not ended insecurity but largely confined it to the working-class neighborhoods of the city and among the lower classes. A similar pattern is currently playing out in Ciudad Juarez, Acapulco and other places.
Clark Alfaro described two Tijuanas: “the modern city. ” a place where the financial and political elite reside, and the rest of the city where poor zones punctuated with islands of walled-off subdivisions proliferate.
As order has been restored for the upper echelons of society, social disintegration has taken hold on the lower end, characterized by rising drug addiction, especially to meth, and the briskness of an illicit market that easily withstands police and military seizures, according to Clark Alfaro. In this schema, the business of murder is systematic but tucked away from the larger society and done in a non-scandalous way.
Wrote the border analyst:
“The murdered, on average one a day, now are not people murdered in abhorrent ways: decapitated, dismembered or incinerated. Rather, they are shot to death…the daily murder victims are now irrelevant persons in the structure of delinquency, since according to the authorities, 80 percent of them were people linked to the sale of drugs on the streets of the other Tijuana, not the modern part of the city,”.
In his more recent comments to the Tijuana press, Clark Alfaro said not enough attention was being paid to the issue of local drug dealing/consumption. He urged giving alternatives to deportees but feared public policy was headed in the wrong direction. “All indications are that a police solution is desired for a problem that requires a humanitarian one,” Clark Alfaro contended.
Sources: Frontera.info March 19, 20 and 21, 2013. Articles by Luis Gerardo Andrade and editorial staff. El Sol de Tijuana, March 18, 20 and 21, 2013. Articles by Juan Guizar and Manuel Cordero. Proceso, August 22, 2012. Article by Victor Clark Alfaro.
Of an average of 200 deportees who arrive daily to Tijuana, Clark Alfaro estimated that at least 30 percent of them have ties with southern California gangs including Mara Salvatrucha, M-18, M-13, Florence, and the Mexican Mafia. After their arrival in Tijuana, the deportees don’t find job opportunities and confront discrimination from the local society because of their dress, style and tattoos, Clark Alfaro contended.
The border anthropologist said the lack of papers on the U.S. side of the border is likewise a problem on the Mexican side, where it is difficult to obtain the birth certificates and federal voter cards which are routinely used for identification in Mexico. Undocumented individuals are then harassed and detained by Tijuana municipal police officers, Clark Alfaro asserted.
He said the desperate situation of the deportees coupled with the cross-border criminal backgrounds of many make them ideal recruits for organized crime. Employed as look-outs, meth cooks, street dealers and hit men, deportees wind up constituting the lower base of the pyramid of organized crime in Tijuana, Clark Alfaro added.
While the high-profile violence between warring drug gangs that shattered Tijuana a few years back has largely receded into the background, local drug consumption and the violence associated with it have not gone away. Regularly, the press reports on the detentions of street dealers, small-scale drug confiscations and killings said to be connected to the lower rung of the underworld.
This week, for example, the Baja California attorney general’s office told the media it was investigating four homicides committed in recent days. In one case, two men were found beaten and strangled in a home. In another case, Roberto Alejandro Cortes Chorta, 25, was arrested and accused of killing his friend, 26-year-old Veronica Palacios Espinoza, and then stuffing her body in a suitcase with the aid of his mother, after the young couple consumed drugs and argued.
In a third instance, 21-year-old Jessica Michele Munoz was found strangled inside a Ford Explorer with a dose of crystal meth on a breast. Reportedly, Munoz was earlier linked to small-time drug dealing. On Wednesday, March 20, 22-year-old Margarita Martinez Michel became the third woman murdered in Tijuana in a week when she was shot to death in front of her home, in a crime also linked to street dealing.
On March 19, Tijuana municipal Baja California state police authorities reported detaining 18 street dealers and confiscating small amounts of meth, heroin, cocaine and marijuana. Separately, two other men were arrested for allegedly preparing a car with California license plates with a marijuana shipment.
In an analysis published last year, Clark Alfaro, who teaches at San Diego State University, wrote that the presumed end of the Tijuana drug war and the decline in murder statistics, which registered more than 2,300 homicides during the peak years of violence between 2008 and 2010 according to the scholar-activist, has not ended insecurity but largely confined it to the working-class neighborhoods of the city and among the lower classes. A similar pattern is currently playing out in Ciudad Juarez, Acapulco and other places.
Clark Alfaro described two Tijuanas: “the modern city. ” a place where the financial and political elite reside, and the rest of the city where poor zones punctuated with islands of walled-off subdivisions proliferate.
As order has been restored for the upper echelons of society, social disintegration has taken hold on the lower end, characterized by rising drug addiction, especially to meth, and the briskness of an illicit market that easily withstands police and military seizures, according to Clark Alfaro. In this schema, the business of murder is systematic but tucked away from the larger society and done in a non-scandalous way.
Wrote the border analyst:
“The murdered, on average one a day, now are not people murdered in abhorrent ways: decapitated, dismembered or incinerated. Rather, they are shot to death…the daily murder victims are now irrelevant persons in the structure of delinquency, since according to the authorities, 80 percent of them were people linked to the sale of drugs on the streets of the other Tijuana, not the modern part of the city,”.
In his more recent comments to the Tijuana press, Clark Alfaro said not enough attention was being paid to the issue of local drug dealing/consumption. He urged giving alternatives to deportees but feared public policy was headed in the wrong direction. “All indications are that a police solution is desired for a problem that requires a humanitarian one,” Clark Alfaro contended.
Sources: Frontera.info March 19, 20 and 21, 2013. Articles by Luis Gerardo Andrade and editorial staff. El Sol de Tijuana, March 18, 20 and 21, 2013. Articles by Juan Guizar and Manuel Cordero. Proceso, August 22, 2012. Article by Victor Clark Alfaro.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)