Stop Plan Mexico! Bush wants to expand 'drug war' to Mexico.
Plan Mexico threatens activists and social movement participants in Mexico with a Mexican military and police empowered by $1.4 billion in U.S. taxpayer largesse. The Bush Administration secretly negotiated the 'security pact' with center-right Mexican President Calderon, which would provide blackhawk helicopters, shared military intelligence, surveillance technology, and more lethal aid to the recividist human rights abusers: the Mexican security forces.
Year after year these forces are exposed by Amnesty International and local human rights organizations for their widespread serious abuses of human rights of Mexicans. The right-wing Washington Post is heralding this pact as an important one, opposed only by 'leftist'. But even the State Department's annual country report cites impunity for abuses by Mexican security forces.
The Democratic leadership needs to hear from the grassroots to make sure that the same failed drug policy of Plan Colombia does not befall Mexico.
As usual some of the 'aid package' is sugar-coating to allow some d.c.-based ngos to be able to defend it (or not oppose it strongly). But the reform of the criminal justice and police systems can be offered in a separate bill and would cost a fraction of the $1.4 which will be spent on lethal weapons and training, inevitably to be used against Mexican activists.
Join Friends of Brad Will, a nationwide network of activists and friends of the u.s. journalist murdered almost exactly a year before Bush officially announced this security pact in saying No to Plan Mexico!
Contact the following key legislators:
Ask them to ensure Condi Rice testifies at the November 14th full Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Plan Mexico;
Demand that Plan Mexico be away from Iraq Appropriations bill to stand and fall on its own merits;
Urge that questions about the murder of Brad Will and many other innocents by Mexican security forces in Oaxaca and Atenco be asked and justice achieved in those cases BEFORE any u.s.-taxpayer funded lethal aid is offered to Mexico.
Tom Lantos, Chair, Committee on Foriegn Affairs:
650-342-0300
P 415-566-5257 San Francisco
Eliot Engel, Chair, Subcommittee on Western Hemispheric Affairs:
(202) 225-2464 and (914) 699-4100
Nita Lowey (Chair, appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations):
(202) 225-6506 and (914) 428-1707.
Visit www.friendsofbradwill.org for updates and info.
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There is much criticism of this "plan"
ranging from Narco News
http://www.narconews.com/Issue47/article2868.html
to The Economist
http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10024653
Here are two radically differents takes on Plan Mexico,
yet both agree it is infinitely flawed.
So, who in the hell besides the Bush and Calderon administrations
supports this?
support for Plan Mexico
Some groups we would most expect to strongly oppose it are in tepid support of it. Check out the testimony of Washington Office on Latin America's (WOLA's Joy Olson:
http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/sub_westhem.asp
WOLA: Olson expresses concern with hampering the aid w/some kind of oversight/certification
regime. This is considered hypocritical that the u.s. congress would want to know
if efforts against drugs are the real outcome of their forking over billions of
$. (Hmmm.);helicopters must work; and expect (and then what) mexican military not
to appreciate end-use monitoring. (Thanks, Joy!);Some formerly trained forces (codenamed the Zetas) joined the drug
cartels! great; also she calls for police reforms which are comprehensive and institutional; she doesn't
want the military involved FOR THE LONG TERM.
she calls for non-corrupt police and justice system and for fight against money
laundering (the latter as neither a part of this bill nor a condition of it).why not before pouring
$$$ into the problem?
notice Olson's low-ball figure of $500 million when in fact the package is being roled
out as a multi-year Plan Colombia-style $7 billion dollar package:
http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/ols102507.htm
then there's Latin America Working Group (LAWG): no opposition there.Human Rights Watch made a squeak last week. That said there is considerable support among grassroots dems for strong opposition to the drug war, the fueling of human rights abuses by giving lethal aid to unaccountable abusers, etc.http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5239642.html
US would poney up $1.5 billion and the Mexican govt. would pay $5.5 billion over
several years. (Guess they'll be shorter library hours in Mexico too).
WOLA press release announcing testimony: http://www.wola.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=viewp&id=589&Itemid=8
our organization is doing good work. Thanks for the links to articles. I'll read them pronto. Please let people know re. our efforts to stop Plan Mexico and to call members of the Foreign Affairs Commt to oppose it.
The hearing's next week.
We are contacting the following key legislators.
Asking them to ensure Condi Rice testifies at November 14th full hearing;
That Plan Mexico is pealed away from Iraq Appropriations bill to stand and fall on its own merits;
that questions about the murder of brad will and many others in oaxaca and atenco are asked and answered satisfactorally;
Tom Lantos, Chair, Committee on Foriegn Affairs: 650-342-0300
P 415-566-5257 San Francisco
Eliot Engel, Chair, Subcommittee on Western Hemispheric Affairs: (202) 225-2464 and (914) 699-4100
Nita Lowey (Chair, appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations): (202) 225-6506 and (914) 428-1707.
Act FAST!
more info: http://www.friendsofbradwill.org/category/plan-mexico/
and here
http://mexicoreporter.wordpress.com/2007/11/08/drug-cartels-kill-journal...
Thanks for the links, Robert.
I am very interested in the outcome of this.
This is the first I've heard of Plan Mexico, and I live
two hours driving time from the border.
I'm really surprised this hasn't been in the LA Times.
They are starting to venture out into "risky" ,controversial
topics for their stories, again.
LA Times coverage, etc.
Even the LA Times is part of the corporate-owned media, and they don't want you to know about plans like these so they can easily and quietly be passed. (Many corporations have a lot of profit to make from a plan like this.)
This is why it is so vital that we stay on top of this, harass our elected officials, and do everything we can to keep Plan Mexico from getting passed. Alternative media is more important than ever nowadays.
And another thing we can do is write to news sources like LA Times and demand that they provide some real in-depth coverage of this. We can write Letters to the Editor to get the message out there as well.
Thanks for your interest!
Texas-Mexico border
join our listserve if you like:
www.friendsofbradwill.org
also contact your congress person and ask them to explain how giving lethal aid to a corrupt Mexican federal or state govt. is a good idea?
and why not demand progress on the case of a murdered u.s. journalist.
Witnesses saw who did it and testified. There's even a picture for x sake!
www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19485
These were acting members of a corrupt govt. and their security personnel (i.e. police). Two arrested briefly and let go; the five of them never on trial, prosecuted let alone punished. But the atty general of Oaxaca State grilled the witnesses who came to testify against them for hours!
And there are many others who have been murdered by these people.
anyhow, lots wrong w/plan mexico besides impunity.
call sheila jackson lee's office to urge her opposition on the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Then we wonder why many mexicans flee their homes, loved ones etc. to live in the u.s. and make a living. Corruption, free trade, human rights abuses, impunity. . . it's all part of the same package and is undermining the stability of Mexico.
Not good for the u.s.
Steelworkers Oppose Plan Mexico!
other groups should issue declarations too!
rob
Human and Labor Rights Must Be Protected before Mexican Government
Given Blank Check to Allegedly Fight Drug War
PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The United Steelworkers
union announced today that it opposes handing Mexico what amounts to a
blank check for $500 million for border enforcement of drug
trafficking because it's likely the American tax dollars will instead
end up further undermining human and labor rights in Mexico.
USW International President Leo W. Gerard notified the chairmen of
Congressional committees and subcommittees handling the Bush
Administration's request for the money that, at the very least,
hearings should be conducted before votes are taken so human rights
activists and trade unionists may testify to the violations that have
occurred under the administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderon
and his predecessor.
"Without fundamental institutional reforms in Mexico, and concrete
commitments on the part of the Mexican government to cease its
violations of labor and human rights, we believe that the money
requested by the Administration will serve to reinforce a pattern of
impunity," Mr. Gerard wrote in his letter to the Congressional
leaders.
The letter outlines violations of human and labor rights documented by
organizations such as Human Rights Watch. These include soldiers in
Coahuila state beating municipal policemen and sexually abusing 14
women and the refusal of the government to hold any company official
responsible for the deaths of 65 miners in the explosion at the Pasta
de Conchos mine in February 2006.
Gerard noted that giving such an administration access to an
unrestricted $500 million for law enforcement would make matters
worse. "Indeed, the repression of labor unions and human rights
organizations will likely lead even more Mexicans to conclude that
their only future lies in migration to the U.S.," he wrote.
The Bush Administration's request for the $500 million, called the
"Merida Initiative" or "Plan Mexico" is attached to the emergency
request for supplemental funding for Iraq.
Mr. Gerard urged the lawmakers, as an alternative, to research methods
for using the money to encourage economic development based on respect
for human and labor rights in Mexico.
The USW is the largest industrial union in North America with 850,000
members in the U.S. and Canada.