Country-specific Turn: Mexico 250

Country-specific Turn: Mexico 250

[Kevin, Assistant Director, Criminal Investigative Division; Anthony, Assistant Administrator for Intelligence

Drug Enforcement Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation; “Drug Trafficking Violence in Mexico: Implications for the United States,” 5/05, http://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony/drug-trafficking-violence-in-mexico-implications-for-the-united-states]
We cringe at news stories detailing the arrest of a “pozolero” (stew-maker), a killer who disposes of his victims’ body parts in barrels of acid, or the discovery of a mass grave containing the remains of countless victims decomposing under a layer of lime. But these and other gruesome tactics are not new. What is both new and disturbing are the sustained efforts of Mexican DTOs to use violence as a tool to undermine public support for the government’s counter-drug efforts. Traffickers have made a concerted effort to send a public message through their bloody campaign of violence. They now often resort to leaving the beheaded and mutilated bodies of their tortured victims out for public display with the intent of intimidating government officials and the public alike. Particularly worrisome are those tactics intended to intimidate police and public officials, and law-abiding citizens. The intimidation of public and police officials through violence or the threat of violence has a more insidious side. Not all corruption is a clear cut, money-for-cooperation, negotiation: the intimidation of officials, threats against their lives or their families’ lives, is a much more widespread and effective tactic, and likely accounts for a plurality of corrupt law enforcement officials in Mexico.

Country-specific Turn: Venezuela 251

[Bernardo, special advisor to the UN, UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF; “Corruption in Latin America: getting past the myths,” 3/12, http://english.safe-democracy.org/2009/03/12/corruption-in-latin-america-getting-past-the-myths/]

Country-specific Turn: Cuba [1/2] 252

1) Castro’s reforms can’t fight corruption alone – the U.S. needs to open the embargo in order to push Cuba toward freedom.
PICCONE, 13

[Tom, Senior Fellow and Deputy Director of Foreign Policy at Brookings Institute; “Opening to Havana,” 1/17, http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2013/01/opening-to-havana]

Under Raul Castro, the Cuban government has continued to undertake a number of important reforms to modernize its economy, lessen its dependence on Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, and allow citizens to make their own decisions about their economic futures. The process of reform, however, is gradual, highly controlled and short on yielding game-changing results that would ignite the economy. Failure to tap new offshore oil and gas fields and agricultural damage from Hurricane Sandy dealt further setbacks. Independent civil society remains confined, repressed and harassed, and strict media and internet controls severely restrict the flow of information. The Castro generation is slowly handing power over to the next generation of party and military leaders who will determine the pace and scope of the reform process. These trends suggest that an inflection point is approaching and that now is the time to try a new paradigm for de-icing the frozen conflict. The embargo — the most complex and strictest embargo against any country in the world — has handcuffed the United States and has prevented it from having any positive influence on the island’s developments. It will serve American interests better to learn how to work with the emerging Cuban leaders while simultaneously ramping up direct U.S. outreach to the Cuban people.
2) Allowing Cuba to compete in the U.S. ethanol market will enable Cuba to ween itself off Venezuelan assistance, building democracy.
ANDERSEN, 7

[Martin Edwin, long-time human rights activist and news correspondent in Latin America, is the editor of a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) study on possible electoral transitions in Cuba; “Sweet Opportunity: Ethanol and a Grand Bargain for Cuban Democracy,” 06/04, http://www.offnews.info/verArticulo.php?contenidoID=8075]

In order to promote Cuba’s true independence and democratization, the Bush Administration should signal its willingness to immediately include Cuba as a preferred member of its hemispheric bio-fuels alliance, once the island signals it is on the road to democratic reform, including the respect for human rights. By removing the tariff on sugar based ethanol and giving Cuban-produced ethanol potential equality of opportunity with U.S. producers of corn-based ethanol—who now receive a federally-subsidized 51-cents a-gallon tax credit, Congress and the president would send a strong message about Washington’s willingness to do everything it can to promote both Cuban democracy and independence. Rather than depending on Chavez’s refineries to make Cuban bagasse into useable fuel, access to U.S. markets will help give Cuban entrepreneurs the incentive to build ethanol plants in Cuba, adding to that country’s revenues and employment base.

Directory: wp-content -> uploads -> 2011
2011 -> Voices of the Old Sea Norman Lewis
2011 -> Malevil Robert Merle
2011 -> The Elephant Keeper’s Children Peter Hoeg
2011 -> Jv packet •Mars Colonization Affirmative •Mars Colonization Negative
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2011 -> All America Looks Up to Virginia;” Virginia and the Declaration of Independence
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2011 -> The Battle of Frenchtown (1855), Washington Territory: the Political and Demographic Context rev 9/4/11
2011 -> Seti aff •seti neg •Asteroids Aff

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