Over the weekend, the New York Times features a piece on Mexico and the drug war in the city of Nuevo Laredo, writing that while signs of drug violence abound, “what makes Nuevo Laredo so remarkable now […] is the relative calm that envelops this border town.” The state of Tamaulipas used to be a central battleground for drug cartels, but now, says the NYT, the epicenter for trafficking has shifted to Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez. Organized crime is still present in the border town but much of it has gone back underground and is no longer in charge of running the city. This, says the paper, is the Mexican government’s realistic goal: not to eliminate drug gangs all-together, “but to weaken them to the point where something resembling everyday life can resume.” The article goes on to examine the changes in Nuevo Laredo through profiles of a police officer, a journalist, a children’s advocate, and a shopkeeper, all resident’s of the border city. The latter says that while Nuevo Laredo’s violence may have calmed, the city’s reputation has not changed as quickly, making business very slow in an increasingly difficult economic downturn.
From the Washington Post there were also two additional stories on the drug war in Mexico. On Saturday the paper examined the La Familia cartel’s rise to power in the country, and the government’s effort to thwart their influence. The paper writes about the arrest of over two dozen city officials recently in Michoacan state, calling La Familia “an ascendant drug cartel guided by a messianic cult that promises to protect the poor while meting out ‘divine justice’ to its enemies.” La Familia’s presence has spread deep into the U.S. as well, according to the report, with cities like Dallas, Chicago, and Atlanta among those with active cartel members. In Mexico, crack downs on the cartel have been met with some resistance also. The WaPo writes that “thousands of residents across the farming belt known as the Tierra Caliente, or hot lands, rose up in protest” after the recent raids that detained government officials. And Michoacan's governor, Leonel Godoy, filed a formal complaint with President Felipe Calderón for “the violent and illegal incursion” by federal authorities. Interestingly, in the face of an aggressive anti-drug policy by the Calderón government, cartels like La Familia have tried to adapt. La Familia, for example, has employed a public relations specialist and “presented itself as a semi-legitimate company that hired only Michoacan residents and worked for the benefit of the mostly impoverished state,” making it popular within the local community. They have also promised to deliver books and schools. In another drug war article, today, the WaPo looks at the city of Juarez, investigating the murder of five recovering drug addicts in a rehabilitation center in the city. The WaPo says addicts in the city have been targeted by drug gangs for the past year and a dearth of investigations following murders has made it very difficult to figure out why. However, many hypothesize that users are in deep debt with drug traffickers or have stolen from cartels to feed their addiction.
Stories about drugs and violence in Mexico continue into the Wall Street Journal where a feature story looks at Mexico’s most wanted man, drug capo Joaquin Guzman Loera, aka “El Chapo.” Loera, 52, has built a business empire and is currently tied for number 701 on Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s richest men as the head of the Sinaloa cartel. He has become what the paper calls a “narco folk hero,” “part Al Capone and part Jesse James.” In 2001 he escaped a maximum security Mexican prison in a laundry cart, increasing his legendary status. Interestingly, the paper likens the search for El Chapo to that for Osama bin Laden. It is suspected that the drug lord is hiding in the Sierra Madre mountains that run through Sinaloa and bordering states, similar to the hills of Pakistan, and a place where El Chapo has bought off many law enforcement agents. But frequently people say they have seen the El Chapo in public, often coming to local restaurants with his entourage of personal security who confiscate everyone’s personal cell phones before El Chapo enters. Using yet another Middle East metaphor, a U.S. official tells the WSJ that “catching him would be like the capture of Saddam Hussein after the Iraq war. His capture didn't stop the insurgency, but it was a huge victory.”
In the Miami Herald yesterday and today, the first two of a three part series on “false positives” and human rights abuses in Colombia. The first looks at the killing of Fabio Rodriguez Benavides, one of 1855 individuals murdered by the Colombian military and suspected of being portrayed to the public as a guerrilla fighter to get bounty money. This week Philipe Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, is in Bogotá, collecting testimony and evidence about the abuses. The MH says the bounty program dates back to a secret, closed-door meeting of Colombia's Ministry of Defense in 2005, and since then, millions of dollars have been paid out as rewards for the “arrest or death in combat” of outlaw organizations. Such bounty money, it turns out, has come in part from international aid funds. In part II of the series, the MH profiles a witness to an extrajudicial execution by the military.
And in the LA Times, not to be outdone by Shakira’s philanthropy, the paper profiles Colombia’s other rock star, Juanes, who has done much to help land mine victims and advocate for youth education in his home country. Juanes says “his social consciousness was shaped growing up in Medellin at the height of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar's reign.” In Colombia, the singer’s Fundacion Mi Sangre, gives out “hundreds of thousands of dollars to victims in Narino and in four other Colomobian states, says the paper.” According to Oscar Rojas, president of the Cali-based AlvarAlice Foundation, “the charitable activities of Juanes and Shakira have had a positive effect in a culture where philanthropists traditionally have had little public presence.” “Juanes' social commitment, his ability to put his art at the service of a humanitarian cause, has made some of these people come out of the closet,” says Rojas. This week Juanes met with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, White House officials and members of Congress in Washington D.C., partly to seek help in arranging a concert in Havana, Cuba for Sept. 21 -- the U.N. International Day of Peace
Outside these headlines, there were many more important stories over the weekend. In Mexico, the AP reports that a mayoral candidate in San Pedro Garza said over the weekend that all of the country’s leading political contenders have been contacted by drug cartels who are seeking their loyalty before elections next month—an indication of the cartels’ deep penetration into the Mexican political system. Also, an arrest was made in the murder of journalist, Eliseo Barrón, abducted and killed on May 25 in the northern city of Torreón. On Sunday, Mexican officials also reported the arrest of 25 traffickers, posing as Mexican soldiers at a ranch in Chihuahua. The LAT reports on the stark choice being offered to many police officers in Mexico: do the bidding of cartels or become the target of violence. Such a choice, says the paper, has led many police to seek asylum in the U.S. but have been rarely welcomed by the U.S. border patrol. And also on Mexico, the WaPo writes about how already poor Mexican towns are being particularly hard hit by the sharp decline in remittances from the U.S. The story says “remittances sent home by Mexicans in the United States are the second-largest source of legal foreign revenue in the country, after gasoline exported by the national oil company.”
The MH also reports on the U.S. cutting off remaining aid once promised to Nicaragua this week, a response to apparent fraud in last year’s municipal elections. The paper writes that, in turn, Nicaragua has accused the United States of being “manipulative,” “anti-ethical,” and “invasive of Nicaraguan internal political affairs.” Approx. $62 million of the $175 million pledged to Nicaragua through the Millenium Challenge Corporation in 2006 was suspended late last week.
The WaPo has a long profile of Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, and his impact as a writer on many in Latin America, in its Sunday paper.
Finally, three opinions. Nick Kristof in the NYT writes that drugs won the drug war on the 40th anniversary of Richard Nixon’s declaration of the “war’s” start. Kristof says we have filled our prisons, squandered resources, and empowered terrorists and criminals because of the war. He says perhaps one way to move forward would be to have “a state or two to experiment with legalization of marijuana, allowing it to be sold by licensed pharmacists, while measuring the impact on usage and crime.” Mary Anastasia O’Grady comments on the Kirchners and the media in Argentina, writing on apparent criminal charges being leveled against top executives of the traditionally conservative paper “La Nacion.” And in the MH, Andres Oppenheimer argues that the U.S. should do more to compete with Cuba as a top study abroad destination for Latin American students. Fascinatingly, Bolivia has 4,800 college students in Cuba, just 1,030 in the United States, and 490 in Argentina. Paraguay has 865 college students in Cuba, 390 in Argentina and 330 in the United States. Uruguay has 780 college students in Cuba, 530 in the United States and 500 in Argentina. And Nicaragua has nearly 850 college students in Cuba, 425 in the United States and 287 in Costa Rica.
No comments:
Post a Comment