Posted by Kristin Bricker on The Narco Sphere – February 26, 2009 at 4:06 am
Yesterday the House Passed 2009 Plan Mexico Funding Despite Mexico’s Failure to Comply with the 2008 Funding’s Human Rights Conditions
The US House of Representatives passed the “omnibus” spending bill yesterday, which reportedly increases federal domestic spending by 8%. Democrats celebrated the bill as having “reversed the Bush cuts on domestic priorities.” The bill will now head to the Senate.
(more…)
Now, why can’t ‘human rights’ (Amnesty International) and Latin American Policy (Washington Office on Latin America) organizations say this clearly!? And come out against the Merida Initiative?
FEBRUARY 23, 2009, 4:03 P.M. ET
We should focus instead on reducing harm to users and on tackling organized crime
By FERNANDO HENRIQUE CARDOSO, CéSAR GAVIRIA and ERNESTO ZEDILLO
The war on drugs has failed. And it’s high time to replace an ineffective strategy with more humane and efficient drug policies. This is the central message of the report by the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy we presented to the public recently in Rio de Janeiro.
Prohibitionist policies based on eradication, interdiction and criminalization of consumption simply haven’t worked. Violence and the organized crime associated with the narcotics trade remain critical problems in our countries. Latin America remains the world’s largest exporter of cocaine and cannabis, and is fast becoming a major supplier of opium and heroin. Today, we are further than ever from the goal of eradicating drugs.
Read more »
http://www.newspapertree.com/features/3441-mexico-in-the-international-human-rights-spotlight
by Frontera NorteSur
“Torture continues, extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances occur, freedom of expression is limited, and practically none of the cultural and economic rights is guaranteed or protected,” charged a report from civil society organizations delivered to the UN Human Rights Council.
Posted on February 10, 2009
Mexico’s government is under the glare of stage lights in different national and international venues for allegedly allowing the systematic violation of human rights. The administration of President Felipe Calderon faces a test today (Feb. 10, 2009), when the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council will submit Mexico to a three-hour exam and possibly assign voluntary make-up work.
Although the UN committee’s grading of Mexico’s compliance with international human rights standards is pending, a network of prominent Mexican human rights organizations has already given the Calderon administration an “F” in the subject matter.
February 17, 2009
Former Latin American presidents Cardoso, Gaviria and Zedillo told the United States what it didn’t want to hear: that their fight against drugs has failed and that it’s time to seek another approach.
Note: This is another encouraging piece except that Semana allows the Colombian government to get away with the strange claim that “the fight against drugs hasn’t been a failure in Colombia because if they hadn’t had implemented it, institutions would have failed”.
Strange in a country in which 4 million people have been driven from their land by government-backed paramilitaries, many too brutal to be ignored anymore by the u.s.g. which, although funding Colombia year-in-and-year-out, has had to add them to the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. Talk about failed institutions. . .
Report by the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy
declaracao_ingles_site
Great analysis of highlights of the Commission Report by Laura Carlsen of the Americas Program at the Center for International Policy can be found at the Huffington Post.
Please popularize that analysis by linking to it etc. . .
Yes, we can!
Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere
Eliot L. Engel (D-NY), Chairman
U.S. Policy Toward Latin America in 2009 and Beyond
You can download the witnesses’ testimonies at the site above.
The U.S. Congress is beginning to recognize the failure of the ‘war on
drugs’. That’s because of your work and the many fighting the domestic
and international policies which benefit drug cartels and corrupt
governments while increasing violence and human rights abuses and
promoting the high profit of narco-industry and its security and
banking partners.
Contact your Congressional Representative to schedule a face-to-face
meeting as part of the International Day of Action announced by
Friends of Brad Will last week.
Tags: Amnesty-International, Drug War, fiscal conservation, Merida Initiative, North American Union, Plan Colombia, Plan Mexico, President Obama, recovery plan, stimulus package, war on drugs
Merida Initiative Articles | admin 02/10/2009 | 
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