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.

From article:

“I feel that this particular controversy would not have the traction that it does if it were not for the direct role of the U.S. military, especially in light of the turmoil in Oaxaca,” said Evergreen State College’s Grossman. “Oaxaca is not just any old state in Mexico and southern Mexico is not just any old region in the Americas, it’s an area that has had significant repression in very recent years against indigenous peoples by federal forces funded by the U.S.”
. . .
Adding to the specter of U.S. and state violence and repression in the region, the U.S Joint Forces Command released a report in November 2008 that stated Mexico risked becoming a failed state and, if that were to be the case, it would demand U.S. intervention. Meanwhile, the U.S. House passed a spending bill on February 25 which allocates $410 million for the Merida Initiative, a militarization project modeled after Plan Colombia, to “carry out counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism, and border security measures.”

To the Editor:
Op-Ed Columnist: Cocaine and White Teens (January 10, 2009)

In “Cocaine and White Teens” (column, Jan. 10), Charles M. Blow writes that white teenagers use more cocaine than black teenagers, and cites a ratio of 10 to 1 of white versus black teenagers entering drug treatment for crack and cocaine use.

A significant but missing statistic is white versus black teenagers entering the criminal justice system.

F.B.I. statistics for many years have shown more whites than blacks arrested for drugs, while more blacks than whites are incarcerated. We should not lose sight that our war on drugs has been a war on people of a certain color. Howard Josepher

New York, Jan. 16, 2009

The writer is president of Exponents, which helps people affected by drug addiction.

Here’s the original article.

The organization, which was established two and a half years ago when the journalist was killed by Mexican paramilitaries while covering a teachers’ strike, has called on Congress and the Bush State Department to aid in obtaining justice for their murdered friend. They described the Obama-Calderon meeting as “an important opportunity to move forward not only on Brad’s case but also on many Mexican political prisoners’ cases.”

They asked callers to Obama’s transition team to urge Obama to ask explicitly about Brad’s case and those of other innocent people arrested, raped or killed (in Atenco, Juarez, Chiapas, Oaxaca and elsewhere).

Manuel Red Pebble Perez, Coordinator of Binational Indigenous Peoples’ Outreach for Friends of Brad Will, declared “(t)he United States should not be supplying lethal aid to unaccountable ’security’ forces in Mexico or Latin America that have shown themselves incapable even to bring to justice the Mexican government paramilitaries witnessed in broad daylight killing our colleague, Brad Will”. He pointed reporters to the report by Reporters without Borders (see: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19485) and to the International Physicians for Human Rights forensic team’s findings which sited culpability of Mexican government paramilitaries for Mr. Will’s and others’ murders as ignored by Mexican State and Federal prosecutors.

Under pressure from the U.S. government for resolution of the case, the Mexican authorities have arrested and put out arrest warrants for 11 innocent people, at least 4 of whom courageously stepped forward with Brad’s parents to provide their eyewitness testimony to the Mexican govt. The Mexican government is now scapegoating these innocent people in a travesty of justice labeled by Kathy Will, Brad’s mother, as ‘absurd.’

Joy Ophelia, a spokeswoman for Friends of Brad Will said that “(t)he notorious corruption and lack of accountability of Mexican security forces and their widespread human rights abuses makes Bush’s Merida Initiative (aka Plan Mexico) a terrible, impractical idea, which Obama should discontinue.”

Background information:

Plan Mexico Backgrounder: http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5118

Witness to Brad Will’s Murder Denounces Recent Arrests
http://elenemigocomun.net/1704

“. . .Juan Manuel has been falsely charged with the homicide of U.S. journalist Bradley Roland Will. (H)e is . . .an active individual, committed to his community through his parish and municipality.”

Video: A Call to Action from the Family of Juan Manuel (one of the wrongly accused)
http://elenemigocomun.net/1928

President-elect Obama to Meet with President Calderón

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President-elect Barack Obama will meet with
Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón on Monday, January 12. The meeting
will be in Washington, DC at the Mexican Cultural Institute. There is
a long-standing tradition, since 1980, of U.S. presidents meeting with
the Mexican president prior to being sworn in to underscore the
important relationship between the United States and Mexico. This
meeting is in keeping with that tradition.

###

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