More Domestic Opposition to Mexico's Drug War?

With the passing of another weekend, reports on drug violence in Mexico again fill early week papers in the US. The New York Times this morning has coverage of the “massacre” of 10 youth—ages 8 to 21—traveling in a pickup truck in the state of Durango Sunday. The murder of the group, on their way from a small farming community to collect student financial aid money, is called “baffling” by the paper. Officials, however, note the area has increasingly become a battlefield between the Sinaloa cartel and the Zetas. Moreover, the murders were part of some 21 reported murders around the country on Sunday alone.

Meanwhile, both the Times and others add that an arrest has been made in connection to the murder of US consular official and her husband in Juarez two weeks ago. Ricardo Valles de la Rosa, leader of the Barrio Azteca prison gang, was picked up last Friday in connection with the killings. Reports indicate that the arrest came with FBI help. Valles de la Rosa has been sought on both sides of the border for his involvement in drug trafficking.

In the Wall Street Journal this morning, Nicholas Casey reports that the drug war in Mexico is now taking its toll on Mexico’s elites. The paper writes on the death of two university students at Monterrey’s Institute of Technology and Higher Education on March 19. In the Journal’s words, the killings signal another important shift in public opinion:

“The killings have brought the country's bloody drug war close to home for Mexico's middle and upper class, which have remained at a distance from the daily turf battles between rival cartels. Now the elites are joining poorer Mexicans in questioning the use of lethal military force to fight drug cartels in their cities, and whether the army could be killing more innocent victims than it claims.”

The report continues with opinions from Human Rights Watch Americas Director, José Miguel Vivanco who says the Monterrey Tech case illustrates a general lack of accountability in Mexico's army. The paper paraphrases Vivanco: “Victims of military abuse have few avenues to ensure their cases are fairly heard, because human rights complaints are handled by military tribunals with little incentive to convict.” It’s on these points which both NACLA and IPS also have recent pieces. First, NACLA reports on a Mexican Supreme Court decision from earlier this month which upheld limits on the amount of information the country’s attorney general’s office must hand over to the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH). In effect, says human rights lawyer Luis Miguel Cano, the new law gives the attorney general “discretion to decide what information it will withhold from the CNDH” and limits transparency and accountability for actions taken by Mexican security forces. Second, IPS writes on a UN Human Rights Committee statement last Friday which says Mexico has failed to make progress on human rights issues related to violence against women, journalists, and abuses committed by military troops conducted police work.

Finally on Mexico and the drug war this morning, the LA Times also has more on last week’s arrest of heroin kingpin, Jose Antonio Medina Arreguin, who, the paper says, Ventura County prosecutors are now working to extradite for a California trial.

In other stories:

· A day before the UN international donors conference on Haitian reconstruction is set to begin in New York, the Washington Post’s Colum Lynch reports that the Haitian government plans to unveil a $3.9 billion reconstruction action plan. The plan would apparently redirect large amounts of aid money away from Port-au-Prince and to the interior of the country, “creating provisional economic hubs to compete with the capital.” The proposed plan is the first phase of reconstruction efforts, the paper says, and comes out a study conducted by both Haitian and international reconstruction specialists. The plan also calls for a “Multiple-Donor Fiduciary Fund” to oversee reconstruction monies. Also at tomorrow’s NY meetings, Sec. General Ban-Ki Moon is expected to announce the appointment of current interim Haiti envoy, Edmond Mulet, as permanent head of the UN’s mission in the country. In the Miami Herald, Jacqueline Charles examines those who continue asking whether Haiti is prepared to manage a massive infusion of new aid. “There is a lot of goodwill to give money. That's not the problem,'' said Ciro De Falco, coordinator of the Inter-American Development Bank's Haiti Task Force, quoted in the report. “The real challenge is execution, implementation.” The paper adds that new legislation was presented to the Haitian parliament Monday, which if passed next week, would give broad new powers to the Haitian government and create an “Interim Haiti Recovery Commission” to be chaired by PM Jean-Max Bellerive and Bill Clinton. And via CEPR’s Haiti Watch, a set of US civil society group recommendations for Haitian reconstruction was also released yesterday (full document here). The plan includes both short-term recovery objectives and long-term reconstruction and development goals which should be taken into account ahead of tomorrow’s UN conference.

· The LA Times and others reported yesterday on the FARC’s release of a Colombian military soldier, held captive for the last 11 months. The International Red Cross, Sen. Piedad Cordoba, and a Brazilian helicopter were all involved in the release. The rebel group may also soon free another Colombian soldier who has been held in captivity for the last 12 years. The Latin America News Disptach highlights the release in its news round-up yesterday, adding that “Colombian President Álvaro Uribe opened the door to the humanitarian [prison swap] agreement in a speech on Sunday…” As the BBC writes, Uribe said such a prisoner exchange agreement would, however, be conditioned on freed FARC rebels not returning to the ranks of the FARC, or to other “criminal activities.”

· In Bolivia, gubernatorial elections are set for this weekend. At the Democracy Center’s blog, Jim Shultz has a recent post previewing the poll, focusing on four races in particular which may be worth watching (including the MAS candidacy of former Miss Bolivia, Jessica Jordan). Schultz’s overall prediction: “Regardless of the final MAS/Opposition split among the governorships, what is certain is that the opposition will be in a far, far weaker position then after the 2005 elections that thrust the governors into the leading role. There will be fewer opposition governors and those that remain will have political bases that are much less secure. Nor will there be any genuinely effective opposition to MAS and Morales at the national level.” He continues: “MAS has succeeded in becoming what is known in political terms as a "big tent", a tent so big that it includes not only MAS' core original base but a beauty queen and long-time functionaries of the old parties.”

· More journalist murders in Honduras this weekend brought the total to 5 in the last month. According to the AP, the latest killings took the lives of radio voices Jose Bayardo and Manuel de Jesus Juarez in the eastern province of Olancho. No motive has yet been determined, but, in a recent statement, the Washington Office on Latin America says “continued human rights violations and pervasive impunity will undermine the government's capacity to rebuild trust in democratic institutions and embolden perpetrators of political violence.”

· In Ecuador, questions of press freedom surround the sentencing of editorial writer, Emilio Palacio, to three years in prison for writing an article in August which “made fun of official Camilo Saman for supposedly sending bodyguards to the newspaper to complain about a news story.” The court determined Palacio “insulted the head of the Ecuador government's National Financial Corp.” which apparently can get you some serious jail time in the country. In Chile, Sebastian Pinera will be the latest Latin American president taking to the internet. Global Voices says Pinera and his entire cabinet have just opened Twitter accounts. In Venezuela, meanwhile, Twitter has Hugo Chavez in a spin, according to Reuters this morning. Venezuelans—many of them opponents of the president—are using the “microblogging” site in record numbers. [Seven of the top 10 most followed Twitter accounts in the country are strongly critical of Chavez, while his defenders do not appear until number 66 in the list]. Interestingly, however, the report does note that Venezuela’s Twitter boom may, in part, be due to Chavez’s government itself. “When Chavez came to power in 1999, internet access was a privilege of the rich and only 5.8 percent of Venezuelans used it. But thanks in part to the government's own efforts -- it launched thousands of free Internet centers in the country’s poorest and most remote shantytowns -- access has shot up.”

· In other news/events related to the digitalization of Latin America, Americas Quarterly will be hosting a live online discussion tomorrow, March 31, on technological inclusion in the Americas. “Paulo Rogério, author of The Digital Integrator in the Winter issue of Americas Quarterly and founder of Brazil’s Instituto Mídia Étnica, will lead an online discussion that addresses the underlying conditions behind exclusion from the digital revolution and how these challenges can be addressed,” a magazine release on the event says.

· A major ideologue of the Bolivarian Revolution and co-founder of the PSUV broke with President Hugo Chavez yesterday. Left wing thinker and former military man, Alberto Muller Rojas, announced his resignation from politics Monday saying he was tired of seeing “more of the same.” In an interview with Diario Panorama, he also called the last three months in Venezuela “wretched.” In 2007, Muller Rojas was one of the most vocal critics of the polarization of the military among Chavez supporters.

· I’m not sure if Brazilian President Lula da Silva reads the WSJ but he took some of the advice offered there this weekend, announcing yesterday the beginning of a massive new, $880 billion infrastructure plan for the next six years.

· Two Latin Americans (Argentine Juan Méndez and Brazilian Paulo Sergio Pinheiro) are on the short-list of four to become the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

· Finally, two Haiti opinions this morning include an editorial in the LA Times and Prof. Vijay Prashad at Counterpunch, who writes on foreign aid lessons for Haiti today which might be learned from the 1982-1990 famine in Ethiopia. His piece includes this astounding statistic of the day. “According to the World Bank, for every $1 of aid sent South, $25 goes to the North in debt-servicing.”