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NGOS to Washington: Cut Military Aid to Mexico (DC)



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NGOS to Washington: Cut Military Aid to Mexico (DC)

10 November 2011

Global Post
A group of influential NGOs in Washington on Thursday called on the U.S. government to reduce military aid to Mexico and replace it with more help building Mexico’s institutions.
Presenting a joint report, entitled “A Cautionary Tale,” the NGOs argued that the U.S. help to Mexico has been too centered on support of its army and marines.
While the soldiers have been shooting down drug cartel capos and hit men across the country, they have also been accused of widespread human rights abuses, including torture, murder and forced disappearances.
“The only way out is for citizens to live with a government—not just a military, but a government,” said the report co-author of the Washington Office on Latin America. “And that includes a justice system with the tools to stop that government’s representatives from abusing citizens or working with criminals.”
Since the Merida Initiative was signed in 2007, the U.S. government has underwritten the war on drugs in Mexico with some $1.8 billion worth of training and equipment, including Black Hawk helicopters.
However, during this time there have been more than 40,000 drug related murders as cartels fund death squads to fight each other and the security forces.
The NGOs argue that the Merida Initiative is fast resembling Plan Colombia, in which the U.S. eventually spent some $8.5 bolstering the Andean nation.
While Plan Colombia helped reduce the power of drug traffickers and guerrillas, it also supported an army that killed hundreds of civilians.
“The right choice is not to fund an abusive army,” said the report co-author of the Latin America Working Group.
On Wednesday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch released its own report, in which it documented cases of abuse by Mexican security forces in five states.
In total, it found 170 cases with credible evidence of torture, including waterboarding and electric shocks, 24 cases of extra-judicial killings and 39 forced disappearances.
Source: [www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/que-pasa/ngos-washington-cut-military-aid-mexico]

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    1. Success Plan Colombia 'Greatly Overstated': Study (US/CO)

10 November 2011

Colombia News
Plan Colombia should not be seen as a model for US foreign policy in Mexico as its success in Colombia is "greatly overstated," a group of Washington-based think tanks on Latin America said Thursday.
The report, compiled by the Center for International Policy, the Washington Office on Latin America and the Latin America Working Group, issues a warning against the temptation for policy makers and politicians in Washington to see Plan Colombia as a success to be replicated in U.S. policy in Mexico.
According to the study the "successes" of Plan Colombia have been greatly overstated, with many improvements in security, drug production and human rights being incorrectly attributed directly to U.S. foreign policy in the country.
"If you look at Plan Colombia's impact on the total tonnage of drugs that go to the market of international consumers, or the total number of hectares of coca in Colombia, I think that without risk of angering our Colombian friends we can say that Plan Colombia has not had an impact on the mitigation of production or trafficking," The study quoted the Mexican ambassador to Washington as saying.
The report also argues that the U.S. needs to devise policies that prioritize the protection of local populations and the preservation of human rights.
"The success of the past several years in Colombia is only a partial, and fragile, victory at best and it has come at an exceptionally high human and institutional cost," says the report.
The report argues that the voracious appetite for cocaine in the U.S. has made off shore drug eradication policies particularly inefficient and that it is essential "to clean your own house." An ongoing failure by the U.S. to invest in prevention and treatment to reduce domestic drug demand has served to seriously undermine anti-drug policies in places such as Colombia and Mexico, the think tanks said.
The report, titled "A Cautionary Tale: Plan Colombia's Lessons for U.S. policy toward Mexico and Beyond," argues that the very different political and social contexts of Colombia and Mexico would make the application of the Plan Colombia policy to Mexico ineffectual and potentially destructive for the lives of thousands of Mexicans.
According to the report, "The blueprint and strategy behind the Colombia aid package makes little sense when applied to Mexico."
Plan Colombia is a multi-million dollar, multi-faceted drug eradication program implemented in 2000 with the intention of combating drug trafficking groups, insurgencies and paramilitary groups in the country. It has been largely hailed as a success in reducing drug violence and reducing coca production.
Source: [colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/20391-success-plan-colombia-greatly-overstated-study.html]

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    1. Bureau Recommends: Torture Used by Army in Mexico’s ‘War on Drugs’ (BC/NL/TAB/GRO/CHIH)

11 November 2011

The Bureau
The Bureau recommends an investigation by Human Rights Watch into the conduct of the Mexican Army and municipal police officers in the fight against drug cartels in Mexico.
The 212-page report examines, in-depth, five of Mexico’s most violent states, and has found evidence that strongly suggests the participation of security forces in more than 170 cases of torture, 39 ‘disappearances’, and 24 extrajudicial killings since Calderón took office in December 2006.
President Calderón declared ‘war’ on organized crime shortly after taking office. More than 50,000 soldiers are now focused on the fight against drugs, along with thousands of members of the Navy, the federal police, and state and local police forces.
The report found that instead of reducing violence, Mexico’s ‘war on drugs’ has resulted in a dramatic increase in killings, torture, and other appalling abuses by security forces, which are making the climate of lawlessness and fear worse in many parts of the country.
The report also alleges that widespread human rights violations committed by the forces are not being adequately investigated. In all five states surveyed – Baja California, Chihuahua, Guerrero, Nuevo León, and Tabasco – Human Rights Watch found that security forces systematically use torture to obtain forced confessions from detainees or information about cartels.
And while the incidence of grave human rights violations has increased dramatically in the context of Mexico’s counter-narcotics efforts, the effective investigation and prosecution of such abuses has not, Human Rights Watch found.
In the five states surveyed, military prosecutors opened 1,615 investigations from 2007 to April 2011 into crimes allegedly committed by soldiers against civilians. Not a single soldier has been convicted in these cases.
Source: [www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/11/11/bureau-recommends-torture-used-by-army-in-mexicos-war-on-drugs/]

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    1. Curing Central America’s Crime Epidemic Is Up to Latin America, Not the U.S. (HN/GT)

11 November 2011



World Crunch
SANTIAGO - Each year, the tiny nations of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – the so-called ‘northern triangle’ – have more violent murders than all of the 27 members of the European Union combined.
According to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, Honduras leads the world in violent killings, with 82.1 murders per year per 100,000 residents, followed by El Salvador, with 66 per 100,000. The two Central American states beat out countries in the Middle East and Africa that are in the middle of armed conflict. Guatemala comes in seventh, with 41 homicides per 100,000 (for comparison sake, the comparable figures are 1.4 per 100,000 in France and 5 per 100,000 in the United States).
The havoc wrecked by the drugs war is readily apparent in all three countries. Governments are weak, as are the police systems, and the principal state institutions are riddled with corruption. There are hordes of jobless young people who live on the fringes of society, in poverty. In short, it is fertile ground for drug cartels.
A violent death awaits those who dare oppose the drug barons. But those who join the cartels often meet the same fate. Drug lords hand out weapons to criminal gangs, creating small, autonomous armies. The gangs are then free to make “personal” use of their weapons when not on “official” cartel business. A hit costs about $500.
Private companies spend an average of 20% of their operating budget on staff security. The violence seriously discourages investment in the region, and threatens to further erode progress towards the construction of a solid, institutional democracy that the region’s countries have been building since shaking off dictators and civil war. Recent surveys have shown that more than half of Central Americans would accept a coup d’etat if the new government were able to improve security.
Time for a southern solution
Politicians have been taking steps to improve the situation. For example, new (and badly-needed) tax reforms will allow the governments to fatten the public coffers. In the current system, tax revenue in the most violent Central American countries is extremely low, only about 10% of GDP. Increased revenue will allow the states to increase their security measures.
The political party system is also seriously in need of reform, since its current form leaves a vacuum that criminal groups can easily take advantage of – increasingly having direct influence on politics. Major reforms are also needed in the military, police and judiciary systems.
The problem has gotten so large, however, that to adequately address it requires far more financial backing than what these small Central American states can provide. Historically, this kind of help would come from our friend up north. But today, there are many indications that the United States is not prepared to launch another “Plan Colombia,” the all-out effort to end drug trafficking and violence that began in 1999.
Right now, America’s most important security threats come from outside the Western Hemisphere. And with cocaine consumption in the United States having dropped substantially in the past decade, several states toying with the idea of decriminalization, and a crippling economic situation, it hardly seems like the right moment for a new military campaign like the one in Colombia. Additionally, U.S. authorities are primarily interested in stopping drugs headed north. Much of the drugs trafficked in Central America end up being shipped east to Europe or back toward South America. From the U.S. perspective, that makes it someone else’s problem.
The answer to Central America’s serious problems, therefore, needs to come from inside Latin America, which as a region, has the money and the resources to solve the drug violence. Brazil, which has been increasing its presence on the isthmus, should join Mexico, traditionally an influence in the area, in taking a leadership role. The two countries should then push the rest of Latin America to get involved.
It would be an appropriate first project for the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), a regional block formed in February, 2010. Unlike the Organization of American States (OAS), the CELAC does not include the United States and Canada.
By taking on the Central America conundrum as its own, the Latin American states would also have an opportunity to confront the problem creatively – to not, in other words, replicate the ‘prohibition and criminalization’ tactics favored by Washington. The policy should not be imposed from the outside, and should be adapted to Central American realities. But the clock is ticking. It is not overstating the case so say the situation in Central America is the most urgent topic in Latin America today.
Source: [www.worldcrunch.com/curing-central-america-s-crime-epidemic-latin-america-not-us/4084]

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    1. Mexico: Anonymous Shifts Sights from Zetas to Government Corruption (NL)

10 November 2011

National Anonymous Examiner
Operation Cartel (#OpCartel) morphs into Operation Corrupcion (#OpCorrupcion)

The nebulous and notorious international Internet hacktivist collective known as Anonymous has switched targets from the dangerous and deadly drug cartel Los Zetas to the government corruption within Mexico that allows drug cartels like Los Zetas to flourish.

The switch in tactics was signaled by a YouTube video released Tuesday, November 8. The switch came after Los Zetas released a kidnapped Anonymous enthusiast per demands made by Anonymous via Operation Cartel (#OpCartel). Anonymous had threatened to expose the identity of Los Zetas drug cartel members as well as cartel collaborators and other pertinent information if their fellow Anon was not released by 5 November. According to reports, that Anonymous enthusiast was released November 4.
After some days of debate and discussion between various factions within the bowels of the Anonymous hive mind, a decision was made to call a truce with Los Zetas, and instead target government corruption within Mexico. Many both inside and outside Anonymous circles had counseled against going up against the Zetas because of their well-known penchant for murder and mayhem of the most heinous nature.

The following is a Google translation of an announcement from Iberoamerica Anonymous - Official Blog:


Government of the Federal Republic of the United Mexican States

During these days we have been aware of the plight of a people forgotten by their leaders. A town battered by gratuitous violence, corruption, indifference of their government, the passivity of its security ...

We have found that Mexicans are not alone. They have nobody on their side no one to believe.

From Anonymous have tried to raise awareness among the people to change this. We tried to make the government listen and take appropriate action to fix the situation. But we realize that you get to the point of corruption and fear, that nobody wants to do anything to change things.

Therefore, we appeal to all the world's Anonymous, the entire global hacker community, putting aside our differences, ruthlessly attacking all government agencies in Mexico. A hack their webs, their email, their servers. To bring to light all the hidden information that demonstrates that Mexico is corrupt rulers.

Officially declare the war against corruption in Mexico.

Mexican people are not alone. Difficult times ahead but it is time to change things. We are with you. The posters do not scare us, only we took decisions to help you. Be brave. We ask that colaboréis.That denunciéis. That you manifestéis. You go out into the street without fear. You feel that in Mexico there is no fear and wants to change things.

We are with you but cannot do it alone. We need your help. It's time to change things.

Each in its own sphere, each with their level of commitment, so that together we can destroy the corruption, abuse of power and can live in freedom of expression and decide our future and our children.

It is time to say what we think and show that the people have the power.

It is your anger. Go out. Fight for your rights.

People of Mexico, are not alone. Anonymous and the world is with you.

We are Anonymous

We are Legion

We do not condone

Do not forget

Espérennos

Update: Thursday, news broke that “a Mexican blogger and social network moderator has been found tortured and killed by the Los Zetas drug cartel. The victim is believed to have been a moderator on local social networking site Nuevo Laredo en Vivo, and is the fourth apparent victim of the ruthless Los Zetas drug cartel to have been murdered in the town over the last two months.”


In addition, several news outlets are now reporting that the sometimes self-appointed speaker for the Anonymous hive mind and a very vocal promoter of Operation

Cartel has gone into hiding, fearing for his safety.


Source: [www.examiner.com/anonymous-in-national/mexico-anonymous-shifts-sights-from-zetas-to-gov-corruption]

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