“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.

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.

A vivid report on a journalist’s flight from the Mexican military to the United States. This is the same Mexican military which the Obama Administration and the Democratic Congress are funding even more than Bush did!

Quote: “Colombian history demonstrates the State’s security agencies have considered as enemies those from society who are committed to the defence and promotion of human rights. Additionally, since February 2004, the DAS has substantially increased its persecution of human rights organisations. In this respect, it created special strategic-intelligence groups with the purpose of structurally persecuting human rights organisations as they were considered to be “a threat or risk to national security.”

Within this context, the DAS decided to undertake intelligence activities against CAJAR through a very laborious, extensive and sophisticated operation called OPERATION TRANSMILENIO, the funds for which came out of a heading designated for RESEVERED EXPENSES. This OPERATION TRANSMILENIO has consisted in gathering information on the Lawyers’ Collective and its members, and specifically information on activities relating to human rights defence work, international cooperation, and the organisation’s financial records. During this time, the DAS has carried out diverse intelligence activities against members of CAJAR, including the identification of their nuclear families and the gathering of biographical economic, financial and work-related information. Political and psychological profiles were also developed and fingerprint records were kept. The DAS kept track of the members’ routines and travel routes and surveillance was carried out throughout the country (along with ongoing surveillance at set points by way of apartment rentals). Photographs and video have also been taken of the lawyers and their families at home and in their places of work. Telephone conversations and email communication have also been intercepted on a massive scale. Lastly, records have been kept on their migratory movements and their national and international contacts have been cross-referenced. The DAS has obtained this information from the government protection program for human rights defenders, public and private institutions, and what were called “human and technical sources.” The Colombian State Employs the Administrative Department of Security Against Human Rights Organizations”

The rest of this frightening document by the Lawyers Collective here.

These efforts to suppress political dissent are part of a growing trend of increased governmental aggression towards activists and social movements occurring across Latin America. Accompanying this repression are huge increases in military spending authorized by the Bush administration to combat drug trafficking and “terrorism” in Latin America via programs like Plan Colombia and now the Merida Initiative.

The Obama administration has a chance to walk U.S. anti-drug policy back from this long favored militarization stance. But recent actions taken by the new administration are disappointing for those seeking a dramatic change in U.S. policy in the region.

Read the rest of this clarion call, here.

by Jeremy Bigwood

Published in In These Times, May 13, 2009.

From the article: “Obama may not understand the dangerous waters his administration is drifting into by expanding “public safety” policing programs. If the history of the OPS and similar projects are any indication of what will come, U.S. policing initiatives in Latin America and elsewhere could result in violence and political repression.”
Read all of it, here.

Two key passages of the article:

First, Dyncorp. . . :

‘The increase in the concentration of new personnel includes support from private companies that have been contracted by the State Department to bring their own specialists, known as private service contractors.

As of now, the Dyncorp company has contracted three employees to administrate its participation in the Merida Initiative, one of whom will be in Mexico City and will help the Narcotics Affairs Office in the Embassy to “maintain good contact with Mexican security agencies.”‘

Second, who are the ‘human rights organizations’ which might be bought with the Merida blood money (you’ll likely have to follow a paper trail to find out):

“The contracts PSC-09-010-INL and PSC-09-019-INL were offered to two specialists in training Mexican police and military personnel, particularly police, inspectors, judges, and prosecutors.”

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!!!

We reached Congress people representing districts and states from Maine to Minessota to Texas, from Arizona and California to Illinois and New York . . . and many points in between.

Legislators and staffers we spoke with encouraged us to continue our efforts, saying that we were getting our perspective across and being heard.

One delegation to the Capitol visited offices with Gustavo Vilchis, the talented Mexican photographer and one of the witnesses to Brad Will’s murder. His powerful photographs document the teachers’ strike, the non-violent anti-corruption movement which which blossomed around it, and the violent repression by the Mexican government show a people standing strong for their human rights.

And you all are standing in solidarity with them, the people of Oaxaca, Guerrero, Chiapas, Atenco, D.F. and throughout Mexico who are opposing corruption and militarization in the name of democracy, transparency, and economic opportunity for all.

You have reached out to Representatives and Senators and demanded that your tax dollars – and the government acting in your name – not be used to trample on the dreams of a better life of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, targeted under the Merida Initiative.

THANK YOU!

In the days, weeks, and months ahead, it is critical that you continue to let your Congress people know what you want (and keep letting us know what they say).

NEXT STEPS

We are urging Congress people to do the following FOUR tasks:

1. Sign the Dear Colleague letter circulated by Representative Manzullo (below) which mentions Brad Will’s murder and the Merida Initiative and rally their state Congressional delegations and Senators to sign on as well (note: the sign on is not yet being sent out but your Congressional Rep. or Senator can make inquiries about when it will be);

2. Sign the Dear Colleague letter to be circulated soon demanding the end of scapegoating of witnesses, activists, journalists, and other innocents by Mexican Federal and State Attorneys General for Brad Will’s murder and rally their state Congressional delegations and Senators to sign on as well;

3. Demand a stand alone bill be introduced for round two of funding and that new hearings allow opponents of Plan Mexico to be heard;

4. Ask Congress people to discover and publicize a) how USAID is funding the programs that are Merida-like but not Merida; and b) who is pushing these bills and why leadership thinks they are worthy of support (i.e. need all supportive documentation etc to counter).

As many organizations have come to recognize, Plan Mexico is a dangerous Bush security initiative, being proposed under the rubric of the “war on drugs” despite the abject failure of similar strategies to combat narco-trafficking in Colombia. The hastily assembled initiative risks having U.S.-supplied lethal aid turned against labor activists, dissenters and political opposition in Mexico and throughout Latin America, at a time when mobilization against neo-liberal trade policy is occurring in unprecedented numbers.

Please continue to reach out to church and labor organizations, peace and justice organizations, human rights groups etc. to ask them to issue statements against Plan Mexico. You can point them to Friends of Brad Will and we will put them in touch with experts focused on Latin America, Ivy league professors, Fulbright scholars, and leaders in the field of human rights who are willing to speak with them to explain in more details the risks Merida poses.

The Merida Initiative/Plan Mexico is opposed by the AFL-CIO, Witness for Peace, Tikkun, the United Steelworkers and many many other religious, labor and human rights organizations across the country (see link below). We have many contacts with. There’s also more information on the Merida Initiative here.

The Dear Colleague letter below being circulated by Representative Manzullo insists that Mexican security forces and government to which our government would send US taxpayers’ hard earned money under the Merida Initiative be held accountable for Brad Will’s murder and its subsequent cover-up before any money is invested in non-existent law enforcement cooperation. Again please urge your representatives to sign onto this letter and to urge all members of their state Congressional delegation to do so as well.

Besides the problems of fueling corruption, impunity and instability, a lethal aid package delivered to the current unpopular Mexican President at this time risks destabilizing the fragile secular democracy South of our border and undermining its history of religious tolerance. Mexican President Calderon has appointed to the highest Cabinet posts of his government members of the extreme right-wing anti-semitic and anti-women’s rights movement known as El Yunque. These forces should not be further empowered using U.S. taxpayer-donated lethal aid. Please see the investigative piece mentioned in this link for more about El Yunque.

Our human rights delegations in D.C. and across the country encountered much support among Congress people for (y)our campaign for justice for Brad Will and against continuing to lavish U.S. taxpayer-funded lethal aid on corrupt governments in Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean. Many recognized the serious risk that US-subsidized impunity posed to the stability of the region, an especially troubling prospect given our shared border with Mexico.

Your work is paying off. Now, in solidarity with activists like you who are being targeted by Mexican federal and state prosecutors and police, let’s keep moving forward until we win this one!

Getting signatures for the Dear Colleague letter below is our next step. Please let us know what your legislator says and whether they would like more information.

In peace and solidarity,

Robert Jereski
Congressional Liaison
Friends of Brad Will
www.friendsofbradwill.org

From: The Honorable Donald A. Manzullo
Sent By: nien.su@mail.house.gov

Date: 12/9/2008

No More Funding for the Merida Initiative

December 9, 2008

Dear Colleague:

On December 3, the United States signed a Letter of Agreement to give $197 million of American taxpayer funds to the Mexican Government as part of the Merida Initiative. While the ostensible purpose of this assistance package is to help Mexico fight organized crime, I remain seriously concerned that this important goal cannot be achieved while corruption continues to run rampant in that country.

Over two years have passed since Mr. Bradley Will, whose parents are my constituents, was tragically killed in Oxaca, Mexico. During this time, the Mexican Government has done nothing to bring those responsible for Mr. Will’s death to justice. Regular law enforcement cooperation between the U.S.and Mexico cannot continue as long as the Mexican government refuses to finish investigating the murder and prosecute those truly responsible for Mr. Will’s death.

On April 20, 2008, the Attorney General of Mexico, the Honorable Eduardo Medina Mora Icaza, informed me personally that the investigation into Mr. Will’s death was to be completed “within weeks.” Eight months later the investigation remains unfinished, and Mr. Will’s family still does not have any answers. Sadly, the unwillingness of Mexican justice system to conduct a thorough and unbiased investigation into this case casts doubts over their ability to use the Merida Initiative funds properly. Why should the U.S. Government give money to a government to “fight organized crime” when the very Mexican officials trusted with spending this money, including the Mexican Attorney General, refuse to cooperate with officials of the U.S. Government concerning a U.S. victim of a Mexican criminal act?

I recently wrote to the committees of jurisdiction in both the House and Senate to request that they hold hearings as soon as possible to examine whether funding and equipment provided under the Initiative has been misused. It is also extremely important to hold hearings on the status of Mr. Will’s investigation. Notwithstanding the Mexican Government’s assurances we need to ensure that American tax dollars are not used to support a corrupt system. If misuse is found, further payments under this flawed agreement must be stopped. I hope you will join me in this effort.

Sincerely,

/S/

Donald A. Manzullo

Take a Stand Against Human Rights Violations in México!

Stop the Merida Initiative aka Plan Mexico!

Join us in actions at each of the 100 Congressional District offices (or
in DC).

For more information about how to take action read below.

For inspiration WATCH THIS VIDEO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9KboUuzwd0

Now is the time to get creative. How will you take a stand?

——————

Here is how to find your representative:

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

But don’t just write to them here, call and set up an in person appointment!

If you never did that before, it’s easy: say this…..

“Hello, I want to thank the rep for their work on human rights and would like on Dec 10th International Human Rights Day, to discuss Plan Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean etc”

And then contact us for more info if needed (and to let us know what district you’ve called – whether or not a meeting w/Reps is scheduled).

Call and set up a December 10th appointment with your Representative’s D.C. and/or District Offices this week.

Under the guise of the ‘war on drugs’, the Merida Initiative threatens Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean with a return to 80s style counter- insurgency targeted at activists like us throughout the hemisphere, namely those that dissent, challenge domination and oppression and offer more fair alternatives to live together – e.g. labor, anti-neoliberal trade, indigenous rights activists.

Volunteer to lobby rally, meet, forum or create an event in your local community. Add your issue to the agenda!

We need local volunteers across the country!
Email h.bubbins((AT))gmail(DOT))com

Sponsored by:

Friends of Brad Will
North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA),
WESPAC Foundation
Grannies for Peace
NYC Chapter of the
National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights
Committee in Solidarity People El Salvador CISPES
UCTP United Confederation of Taino People
HustleMode
DeepDance Promotions

and a growing coalition, add your name and energy!

More on Plan Mexico:
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5118
Please forward far and wide! (And contact local Congresspersons
office to ask for meeting).

****RECUERDEN LA FECHA

10 de Diciembre de 2008-12-04 es Día Internacional de los Derechos Humanos

As algo parar detener las violaciones de derechos humanos en México!

Hay que detener la Iniciativa Mérida (también conocido como el Plan México)

Nuestra meta es que ocurran eventos en cada una de los cien distritos congresionales (o en sus oficinas en D.C.)

Aquí ay un VIDEO para inspirarte:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9KboUuzwd0

Ahora es tiempo de ser creativo. Como vas a apoyar a nuestros vecinos?

——————-

Si nunca has hecho esto anteriormente, te decimos que es fácil: Dices esto:

“Hola, me gustaría agradecer a mi representante por su trabajo en los derechos humanos y me gustaría que el 10 de diciembre, el día internacional de derechos humanos, se discuta el Plan México, Latino América, y el Caribe etc.”

Nos puedes contactar si necesitas mas información, o cuando lo necesites (también para avisarnos a que distrito llamaste- y si se pudo agendar una reunión con el Representante).

Llama y agenda una reunión el 10 de diciembre con tu representante de D.C. y/o en las oficinas de distrito esta semana.

Bajo la mascara de la “guerra en contra el crimen organizado y drogas”, la iniciativa Mérida amenaza a México, latino América, y el caribe con un retorno de la contrainsurgencia también vista en los años ochenta, los cuales también atacaban a los activistas como nosotros a través del hemisferio; específicamente aquellos quienes
disiden, enfrentan a la dominación y la opresión y aquellos quienes ofrecen alternativas justas en respecto a como vivir juntos, por ejemplo en el labor, en el intercambio anti-neoliberal, y quienes defienden la autodeterminación y los derechos de los pueblos indígenas.

Apoya en los mitins, los encuentros, en los forums y en crear eventos en sus respectivas comunidades.

Necesitamos voluntarios locales a través del país!

Escriba al correo electrónico: h.bubbins(at)gmail(dot)com

Patrocinado por:
Friends of Brad Will
North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA)
WESPAC Foundation
Grannies for Peace
NYC Chapter of the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights
CISPES
May 1 Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights.

Y una coalicion creciente! Agrega tu nombre y energia a la lista!

Mas sobre el Plan Mexico: http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5118

Por favor re-envía y difunde!