The Drug Enforcement Administration is in an optimistic mood. A new DEA report insists that the antidrug campaigns Washington has undertaken with Colombia and Mexico in recent years have dramatically slowed the flow of cocaine into the United States. The DEA’s principal piece of evidence is that average street prices for the drug have soared over the past twenty-one months from $96.61 per gram to $182.73, which suggests “that we are placing significant stress on the drug delivery system.” There’s just one problem with the DEA’s proclamation of success. We’ve heard it all before. Many, many times before.
The rest here:
http://www.nationalinterest.org/Article.aspx?id=20386
After the hearing last Monday was awaiting the decision, these days are important to take actions and exert pressure before the trial judge. Juan Manuel wants to return to his family.
Please add your name to this letter and send it to the judge in the case. The english version is first and spanish follows.Read more »
NOTE: Important links and actions below in the body of the (short, 2 page) report. Ed.
Hey folks:
Thanks for all your great work!
Last week, your actions and those of a number of organizations aligned with our network against the Merida Initiative (aka Plan Mexico) made International Human Rights Day an unqualified success.
If you would like to skip the REPORT BACK and go straight to the NEXT STEPS we’re taking, please go to the end of this note.
REPORT BACK
We acted together to again issue a warning about the militarization of Latin America and the Caribbean under Plan Mexico. We explained what even Mexican commentator Jorge Chabat recognizes, even though less than a year ago he was heralding Plan Mexico as a sign of the end of the “historical lack of trust in Mexican police forces coming from the U.S.” Chabat typically adopts a cautious tone so his assessment of the results of Calderon’s militarized ’solution’ to the “war on drugs” is noteworthy. He writes: “if there’s one thing worse than a corrupt and poorly equipped police corps its a corrupt and well equipped police corps.”
Indeed, the drug cartels’ penetration of Mexican law enforcement and government at virtually all levels is legendary.
Although we didn’t reach the 100 Congress member target we had set for ourselves we did – between our delegations which lobbied in D.C. and those in our networks who met with Congressional staffers in their home state offices – reach 69 legislators total!!! Read more »
As the world marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights this week, a new report from The New America Foundation finds that U.S. arms transfers are undermining human rights, weakening democracy and fueling conflict around the world. Read more »
Description: A look at how, and why Friends of Brad Will took a stand for Human Rights and against Senator Dodd and the Washington Office on Latin America on September 17, 2008.
The Zetas, Castillo said, have now realigned with corrupt elements in the Mexican army, a marriage that is spreading the infection in the military, particularly among the 32,000 troops Calderon sent into nine Mexican states specifically to stamp out the cartels. “And so the military is sort of running the whole show down there,” said Castillo. “You’ve got thousands of military put all over the country, a lot of them corrupt, a lot of them also working as paramilitaries. They’re operating under the guise of stamping out drugs when they’re actually moving [the drugs] and stamping out rivals for the drug trade.”
Calderon’s strategy of fanning out the army to try to regain some semblance of control from the cartels in those states has worked about as well as the U.S. Special-Forces training. Rather than restoring government control, in many areas the military has wreaked havoc with the citizenry, prompting calls for Calderon to remove them.
http://www.fwweekly.com/content.asp?article=7338
A Border Under Siege
American military training and Texas guns are helping boost drug-war violence.
