Friends of Brad Will

Hemispheric Militarization reaches Costa Rica

Under the guise of ‘war on drugs’

“After receiving a diplomatic request from the US Embassy, on July 1 the Costa Rican legislative assembly approved a measure to grant unprecedented access to a U.S. military fleet in Costa Rica’s waters. The vessels will arrive for at least six months to assist counter-narcotics operations by Costa Rican authorities. Costa Rica has long been used a stopping point of entry for drugs coming from Colombia and Panama on their way further north.
. . .
Critics say that a massive foreign military landing at their shores not only directly violates that constitution as it stands today, but tears at the moral fabric of a nation which constitutionally abolished its own army in 1949.”

Neither WOLA nor Adam Isaacson working with them have much meaningful to add other than obfuscation (which says plenty!).

Read full July 15, 2010, article, “Fear, Suspicion as US Military En Route to Costa Rica”, by Joseph Shansky here.

Human Rights Defenders Seek Protection in Mexico

Quote from NY Times article by Marc Lacey:

“Activists working on cases connected to the drug war are particularly vulnerable because drug trafficking organizations, and their many accomplices in police forces and governments, show little tolerance for criticism.”

is this the government with which the US is seeking law-enforcement cooperation in the so-called ‘drug war’?! Besides the complete impracticability of the ‘war on drugs’ as a narco-trafficking reduction method, the continued provision of lethal aid by the US Government (including the Obama Administration which is increasing it) is deeply immoral given the systemic abuses, corruption and impunity Mexicans face at the hands of their own government officials.

Contact your elected officials (Representatives and Senators) to let them know you oppose the Merida Initiative (Plan Mexico) and that you demand that the murder of Brad Will be resolved.

The author should have mentioned Brad Will.

Human Rights Defenders Seek Protection in Mexico
By MARC LACEY, Published: June 19, 2010

MEXICO CITY — With a drug war raging around them and an unreliable judicial system in place, Mexico’s human rights activists have their hands full as they grapple with a growing new class of victims: themselves.

“I’m not going to be silenced,” insisted Silvia Vázquez Camacho, an activist from Tijuana, who is now in hiding after receiving a series of threats on her life in recent months. Despite her bold declaration, the fear in her voice was palpable, and she acknowledged that she had been forced to take a respite from her activism.

Mexico has a long history of cases in which the authorities, whether they wear badges or business suits, trample on the rights of the powerless. Acknowledging that, the government 20 years ago created a formal commission to officially identify violations and recommend — but not order — remedies. Citizens groups also rose up, however, to level the playing field and represent victims of wrongful arrests, torture, illegal land grabs and numerous other transgressions.

But the system is being severely tested by what human rights activists say is a concerted attack on their rights. Read more »

A Bad Week for the Monroe Doctrine

Written by Conn Hallinan
Thursday, 17 June 2010 12:10

Source: Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF) published at Upside Down World.

It is hard to find words that quite describe U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s performance at the June 7 meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Lima, Peru. Cluelessness certainly comes to mind, but leavened with a goodly dash of arrogance and historical amnesia.

Clinton leaned on the 35-member grouping “to move forward and welcome Honduras back into the inter-American community,” urged the OAS to step up the fight against drug trafficking, and scolded the organization for a “proliferation of priorities and mandates that dilute its efforts, drain its budget, and diminish its capacity.” She added that the OAS should “refocus” on such tasks as monitoring elections.

Where does one begin? Well, Honduras and elections for starters. Read more »

The Circle Opens Out: New Evidence on Criminality in Colombian Regime

Excellent article!

And Plan Mexico is modeled on Plan Colombia except there are no benchmarks to allow the public (or the GAO) to measure its failure. Great.

Here’s a quote:

“If Colombians are victims of this regime, indeed of this State, one has to ask who the beneficiaries are. The answer has to be sought. This is an International Criminal Legal issue. Amongst many other facts that require volumes to be exposed, Colombia is the largest recipient of US military aid and cooperation in the continent. The Colombian regime is the closest ally of transnational corporate interests (pharmaceutical, tourism, mining, oil, agribusiness, food, energy, biopiracy, infrastructure projects such as dams, the arms trade and almost anyone involved in anything and everything from the legal and illegal organized global crime networks). Through FTAs, the Colombian regime has delivered national sovereignty, freedoms, resources, labour, nature and more to foreign interests at an intolerable expense for Colombians. Investors are attracted to put money into the Colombian economy for guaranteed profit in exchange for absolutely nothing for the Colombian population: No jobs, no transfer of technologies, no profit for the Colombian economy. The Colombian criminal regime promised Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, on November 21 2008, to deliver 50% of Colombian territory to mining and other transnational corporate interests [iii]. Every crime of the Colombian State revolves around corporate profit.”

Merida II prospects of ’success’ negligible

Mexican President Comes to Washington: What will come of President Calderøn’s visit to Washington?

by COHA Research Associates Elizabeth Sahner, Carl Patchen, & Kyle Tana along with Research Fellow Dan Boscov-Ellen

• It no longer is just Mexico’s drug war as violence and corruption begins to engulf the U.S.
• No prospect that the U.S. will adequately fund the anti-drug war.
• Drug battle places a crushing strain on Mexican economy.
• If and when barriers to Mexico’s ground transports to the U.S. are entirely lifted, a crisis arising from the smuggling of drugs and migrants into the U.S. is sure to follow.

more here.

AP IMPACT: US drug war has met none of its goals

U.S. priorities shifting in Mexico’s drug fight

By ALFREDO CORCHADO / The Dallas Morning News
November 21, 2009

The article describes how President Obama’s administration is in discussions with his right-wing PAN counterpart, Mexican President Calderon, to extend lethal aid package to Mexico with a new emphasis on corruption. Of course, this worked so clearly not the outcome of 11 years of support for rule of law under Plan Colombia that many are rightly skeptical. It certainly does not instill confidence that the Democratic Congress-drafted legislation for Plan Mexico did not include any benchmarks to determine if the 100s of millions of taxpayer dollars were achieving their goals. Again, perhaps, this is because Plan Colombia included such benchmarks which allowed the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) to determine it had failed.