OAS proposes decriminalizing marijuana use in the region

La Jornada

September 28, 2013 

Original Americas Program Translation 

The secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, said yesterday in the Senate that the strategy to combat drug trafficking in the region has been wrong because it has focused solely on the repression of the supply of narcotics and not on attacking the economic power of the drug cartels, which has become increasingly violent.

He called for decriminalization of marijuana, and warned that focusing efforts only on the sale of drugs, without taking institutional actions aimed at tackling the financial structures and money laundering will lead to “a war without end”.

In the forum “From Prohibition to Regulation: New Approaches to Drug Policy” Insulza said that according to a report by experts from the OAS, the drug trade generates 154 billion dollars a year, of which 77 billion is laundered in the global financial system.

Also in the Senate but in another forum, Undersecretary of Prevention and Citizen Participation of the Ministry of the Interior, Roberto Campa said that despite the intense debate in the U.S. on the decriminalization of drugs like marijuana, the violence that the drug trade generates will not change radically in the region in the coming years.

'Not a Single Soldier, Not a Single Peso' for Syrian Misadventure!

La Jornada 
By Guillermo Almeyra
Translated By Seren Moore for WorldMeets
September 10, 2013

The United States and the former colonial powers are preparing to attack Syria militarily. However, as in the war against Serbia, the real targets are in fact elsewhere. In this case, Russia again, the great power in crisis, possessor of gas and oil in the north; and Iran, the socio-political threat to Israel and the Gulf monarchies, and the key to Persian oil. It would be a blow to these countries, and to China, which defends Iran and Syria and fundamentally agrees with Russia. All of of these nations see this as a prelude to an attack on Venezuela (protected by them and by virtue of its vast oil reserves).

The war they are about to launch against Syria seeks, ultimately, to return to square one the open process of decolonization that began after World War II, install the imperial vassal Israel as the only power in the region, and defeat the process of democratization in the Arab world. Above all, this is a typical response of capitalism to a long economic crisis that appears without end: international financial capital expects, as it has in the past, to break the deadlock with a great war that will destroy property, deprive millions of people of their lives, and create a situation requiring massive reconstruction under conditions of global servitude and enslavement.  Read more. 

Will Syria Crisis Stifle Immigration Reform?

Frontera NorteSur
Immigration News
September 7, 2013

As the political crisis and debate intensify over Syria, immigrant advocates fear the issue of possible U.S. military action will delay comprehensive immigration reform in Washington.

At a Labor Day march this past week, Eric Garcetti, the new mayor of Los Angeles, said Syria could become a “distraction” for immigration reform. The leader of the nation’s second largest city contended that action on immigration legislation should be the top national priority at the moment.

On Capitol Hill, the looming vote on President Obama’s push for U.S. military action could make Republicans in particular even more skittish about tackling the controversial issue of immigration reform, according to a Republican political consultant.

“(Syria) is going to be a difficult vote, and I really doubt that they would want to take two difficult votes, especially if the second one is about immigration,” said consultant David Johnson. Although a comprehensive immigration reform bill passed the Senate earlier this year, corresponding action failed to gain traction in the Republican-dominated House of Representatives.

If a legislative delay on immigration reform emerges as one effect of the Syria crisis, it will be the third time in a dozen years that pending action was put on the political back-burner. In 2001, a movement in such a direction by U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox was derailed by the 9-11 attacks. Eight years later, as the Great Recession deepened, campaign promises of immigration reform by newly-elected President Barack Obama  took a back seat to health insurance reform and other issues.

Besides Syria, the politically thorny matter of the debt ceiling could complicate prospects for an immigration overhaul in the weeks and months ahead. Beltway talk is growing of a postponement of immigration reform until 2015 or even 2017, well after the next congressional and presidential elections.

Despite the sudden appearance of a new round of adverse political circumstances, immigrant rights activists in California, New Mexico and elsewhere are stepping up their mobilizations for a national legislative reform.

Building on an intense summer of activities at both the national and grassroots levels, immigrant advocacy and labor organizations have announced plans for demonstrationsOctober 5 in at least 60 U.S. cities.
Dubbed the “National Day of Dignity and Respect,” the protests are being organized to demand the passage of comprehensive immigration reform,  a halt to deportations, and an end to the militarization of the border with Mexico. Activists then plan to congregate for a mass demonstration in Washington, D.C. on October 8.

“We are not going to do this like in other years, and say, well, other things take priority,” said Jorge Mario Cabrera,  spokesman for the Los Angeles Immigrant Rights Coalition. “No, this time a lot has been given to bleeding, marching and voting, to not allow (immigration reform) happen.”

Sources: Noticiero Latino, September 6, 2013. Story  by Jose Lopez Zambrano. Nortedigital.com/El Universal, September 6, 2013. La Opinion, September 5, 2013. Article by Pilar Marrero.  Univision, September 2, 2013.


Frontera NorteSur: on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico

Fighting Education Overhaul, Thousands of Teachers Disrupt Mexico City

The New York Times
August 24, 2013
By Karla Zabludovsky

Mexico’s highly anticipated education overhaul program — intended to weed out poorly performing teachers, establish professional hiring standards and weaken the powerful teachers’ union — is buckling under the tried-and-true tactic of huge street protests, throwing the heart of the capital into chaos.

A radical teachers’ group mobilized thousands of members in Mexico City last week, chasing lawmakers from their chambers, occupying the city’s historic central square, blocking access to hotels and the international airport, and threatening to bring an already congested city to a halt in the coming days.

These mobilizations, analysts said, suggest how difficult it may be for President Enrique Peña Nieto to get through this and other changes he has pushed since taking office in December, including an energy and telecommunications overhaul deemed vital to revving up the economy.  Read more. 

Laura's Blog: Mexican Government Loses Millions in Bomb Detector Hoax

We've been saying for years that the drug war is a waste but this story proves just how absurd the waste is. As the Mexican government admits that thousands of children go to bed hungry every day, it spent some $30 million dollars on more than a thousand "empty boxes with handles and antennae" attached that supposedly detected explosives, drugs and cash.

The boxes were sold to federal and state governments by Segtec (Seguridad e Inteligencia con Tecnología de Vanguardia) owned by businessman Hugo Fernandez, according to information released by the Mexican Institute for Access to Information. Gary Bolton, the British conman who managed to sell the boxes, made for around $3.00 each, for up to $23,000 each, was sentenced to seven years in prison.

The British courts will reportedly determine property to expropriate to pay back those who fell for the hoax.

How is it possible that the Mexican security forces didn't even check the equipment before shelling out millions in public funds? Why weren't all the "GT200s" as the useless box is named, recalled immediately when word of the hoax came out?

Is it because the whole war on drugs is a hoax?

Fight over revered ex-president’s image dominates Mexico’s oil reform debate

The Washington Post 
August 16, 2013

The son of Mexico’s most revered modern president, known for nationalizing Mexico’s oil industry, says his dad is rolling in his grave.

In fact, both sides in the heated debate over proposals to open Mexico’s oil industry to private companies are using the image of former president Lazaro Cardenas, roughly Mexico’s equivalent of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Current President Enrique Pena Nieto has launched a blitz of TV ads that prominently feature photos of Cardenas, who expropriated foreign oil companies and nationalized the industry when he was president from 1934 to 1940.

Like FDR, who was known for helping pull America out of the depression with his ‘new deal’ public works programs, Cardenas is remembered for handing out land to poor farmers and standing up to the foreign oil companies that once took the lion’s share of profits from Mexican oil.  Read more. 

Leftist leader wants to repair, not privatize Mexico's oil industry

Los Angeles Times 
By Tracy Wilkinson
August 19, 2013

Mexico’s most prestigious leftist leader on Monday challenged President Enrique Peña Nieto’s proposal to open the national oil industry to private investment, setting the stage for what is sure to be a pitched political battle.

Cuauhtemoc Cardenas said the state oil monopoly, Pemex, is in dire need of repair, but that amending the Constitution, as Peña Nieto plans, is unnecessary and makes Mexico’s resources dangerously vulnerable to outside exploitation.

Instead, Cardenas offered an eight-point plan that would give Pemex financial and administrative autonomy, relieving it, he said, of the onerous state bureaucracy that cripples its ability to grow and become more efficient [link in Spanish]. The plan would also lower Pemex’s tax burden; currently, the company pays up to 70% of its revenue to the government.  Read more.