“IF U.S. LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES WERE LOSING THEIR FINEST AT SUCH A RATE, YOU CAN BET AMERICANS WOULD GIVE GREATER THOUGHT TO THE VIOLENCE GENERATED BY HIGH DEMAND AND PROHIBITION. OUR FRIENDS IN MEXICO DESERVE EQUAL CONSIDERATION.”

THE U.S. ROLE IN A MEXICO ASSASSINATION

By MARY ANASTASIA O’GRADY
The Wall Street Journal, May 12, 2008

Stories of campus drug use in the U.S. are so common that last week’s
arrest of 75 alleged dealers at San Diego State University was shocking
chiefly due to the number netted. The occasional big bust aside, the long
running drug war has become almost background noise. At least in this
country.

American nonchalance about drug use stands in sharp contrast to what is
happening across the border in Mexico. There lawmen are taking heavy
casualties in a showdown with drug-running crime syndicates. On Thursday
the chief of the Mexican federal police, Edgar Millán Gómez, was
assassinated by men waiting for him when he came home, becoming the latest
and most prominent victim of the syndicates. (more…)

Will the Democratic Majority (Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Wexler, Barbara Lee, Eliot Engel, Nita Lowey, Joseph Crowley and company) betray democracy in Mexico? Or will they challenge the Bush Administration’s militarization plan for Mexico under the guise of the ‘war on drugs’?

You can help prevent the slide towards authoritarianism in Mexico by demanding the Democratic Congress with many Republican allies reject the Merida Initiative!

Here’s a copy of the bill:
hr6028-merida-foreign-ops-aut0

Check current status

There’s a push to promote ‘human rights safeguards’ as a solution which some D.C.-based human rights groups are supporting. We should not be fooled given the experience of Colombia. We don’t have amnesia on an international scale.

The best safeguard for human rights is to demand respect for them - an end to impunity as shown through prosecutions of those responsible for pending cases of human rights violations, like the murder of Brad Will - as a condition BEFORE any lethal aid is given to the security forces of Mexico.

Why is it that labor organizations like the AFL-CIO can say this but some mainstream ‘human rights’ organizations talk about their serious concerns while offering ineffective protection to the Mexican people (likely activists) who would suffer at the hands of U.S.-supplied - armed and trained - Mexican security forces?

Immediate Release ********************** May 13th, 2008

Left and Right Unite to Oppose Mexico Foreign Policy Scheme

Amnesty International Joins Opposition to Bush’s Merida Initiative

Contact:
NYC: Robert Jereski, 212-973-1782
Washington, DC: Harry Bubbins, 646 641 5788

Opposition to the President’s ebbing “Merida Initiative” scheme to give $1.4 Billion in military aid to Mexico’s police and military implicated in widespread human rights violations grew with Amnesty International issuing a statement to Congress.

“Aid for Mexico must not be a blank check for Mexican security forces that have been implicated in crimes like rape and torture,” said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA (AIUSA). Amnesty International said that any initiative to support Mexico’s fight against drug cartels and organized crime must focus on the rule of law and should also press for justice in the unresolved killing of U.S. journalist Bradley Roland Will, and other civilians, in Oaxaca in 2006.

“We are encouraged by Amnesty International’s recognition of human rights abuses by Mexican forces,” said Robert Jereski of Friends of Brad Will. “But we hope for more from human rights organizations, especially when top labor unions reject this dangerous scheme outright.” (more…)

Top News:
GOP: Merida plan likely to fail in House

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/05/13/gop_merida_plan_likely_to_fail_in_house/7239/

WASHINGTON, May 13 (UPI) — Ranking Republicans predict a $500 million measure to combat drug violence in Latin America will fail when the House votes on it Wednesday.

GOP lawmakers told the Washington Times they did not think the so-called Merida Initiative, named after the historic Mexican city in the Yucatan, would pass because it had been glommed on to a supplemental funding bill for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The supplemental spending bill is the not the appropriate vehicle for this particular funding initiative,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.

Some Republicans added that they had doubts about the effectiveness of the plan on the assumption that Mexican law-enforcement agencies were riddled with corruption and would undermine the Merida program.

The Times said Mexico has been urging passage of the plan, which would improve coordination of anti-drug efforts among the United States, Mexico and nations in Central America.

Opposition in Mexico. Including within the Mexican military, academia and the diplomatic corp.