The New York Times ran four opinion pieces by four Mexican writers Sunday, beginning our round-up today of the distinct and diverse images of the drug wars around Mexico. In Puebla, novelist Pedro Ángel Palou writes of a place whose tenuous safety may rest on government-brokered pacts with cartel bosses. In Sinaloa, Elmer Mendoza insists that still “people live well” despite frequent interruptions by military patrols and federal policemen who “prowl” the streets looking to “uncover troves of weapon.” Monterrey, according to Ricardo Elizondo Elizondo, is no longer merely a transit point north for goods, licit and illicit, but is today also emblematic of a drug business that seeks to feed both external and internal demand. And in Tijuana Federico Campbell offers shades of hope [as does Richard Marosi in the LA Times], although, again William Finnegan in the New Yorker tempers such optimism with his report on torture amidst police “purification” and asking at what cost a new sense of tranquility has arrived.
From elsewhere around Mexico, NPR profiles violence in Reynosa, a city which just one year ago was a “relatively peaceful” but is now “one of the most dangerous places in Mexico.” The frontline of the drug wars offers decidedly different perspective than the images in the Times’ weekend series. “It's not officially declared a war, but we are in a war zone,” Eliacib Leija, the coordinator for President Calderon's PAN party in the state of Tamaulipas, tells NPR, in describing a “civil war” that pits the Gulf Cartel against its former security apparatus, the Zetas. “Most of the people stay home after 6, 8 at night. Just don't go out; you take your precautions.”
The LA Times, meanwhile, tells the story in the state of Sonora where a similar intra-cartel battle has pitted the Sinaloa cartel against the Beltran-Levyas over what the paper calls Mexico’s “most valuable” trafficking routes, for both human and drugs. Their point of entrance: Arizona. However, the underreported image of the Sonora drug war is distinct from the bloodshed in Tamaulipas or Juarez, according to the paper. In Sonora one of the gangs seeks to “starve out its rivals” by “cutting off a region about the size of Rhode Island from government services,” the paper writes, “severing a lifeline to thousands of ranch hands, storekeepers and retirees” in the process. In turn, the battle has forced Sonora communities to choose sides in order to survive.
In Guerrero, mystery continues to surround the recent abduction of some 20 tourists in Acapulco while in the kidnapped men’s home state of Michoacan, Mexico’s Proceso writes on the emergence of what appears to be a new paramilitary group calling itself “Pelotones Omega.” In the absence of law enforcement, the group has promised to “carry out justice” against those who kill, extort, and kidnap michoacanos.
And finally, EFE reports on the high-profile kidnapping of former PAN leader Diego Fernandez de Cevallos last May. According to EFE, the case is still unresolved, even as Fernandez de Cevallos’s family has forked over some $20 million to his alleged captors who simply identify themselves as the “Mysterious Disappearers.”
Like on Friday:
· Mor debate on issue of drug legalization and California’s Prop. 19. This morning the New York Times reports on how closely Mexico is monitoring the California ballot initiative. While “small steps toward legalization have already been taken on both sides of the border” (medical marijuana in California, decriminalization of small time possession of coke, heroin and pot in Mexico), the Times says “any major change in Mexico would probably be years away, regardless of what happens in California.” Meanwhile, in the US Attorney General Eric Holder raised questions about whether California’s legalization would even go forward should Prop. 19 pass in November. On Friday, Holder said DOJ would continue to use federal law to prosecute “those individuals and organizations that possess, manufacture or distribute marijuana for recreational use.” For its part, pro-legalization advocates at the Drug Policy Alliance have a response, saying “the reality is that the federal government has neither the resources nor the political will to undertake sole -- or even primary -- enforcement responsibility for low level marijuana offenses in California.” According to DPA, “well over 95% of all marijuana arrests in this country are made by state and local law enforcement. The federal government may criminalize marijuana, but it can't force states to do so, and it can't require states to enforce federal law.” Also, more from the Economist which has three drug war recommendations: better policing in Mexico, tighter gun laws in the US, and legalized marijuana in California.
· In Haiti, the AP says UN peacekeepers clashed Friday with Haitians protesting the unanimous renewal of Minustah’s security mandate in the country last week. According to Al-Jazeera, the 100 or so protestors “burned a Brazilian flag” and displayed banners saying “down with the occupation.” “A chorus of opposition to Rene Preval, Haiti's president, and to UN forces has become more vocal in recent weeks,” reports Al-Jazeera, while the AP has more on use of force by UN peacekeepers during a prison riot over the weekend. At least 3 were killed in that incident. More from CEPR as well, looking at the roots of Haiti’s frustration with Minustah.
· This is raising many questions about the upcoming Nov. 28 vote in which 19 candidates will vie for the presidency. The Miami Herald says that “a recent poll suggests that the contest is between President René Préval's 48-year-old protégé, Jude Célestin, and Mirlande Manigat, a 69-year-old twice-exiled grandmother and former first lady.” The paper also reports on President Préval’s new calls for “continuity” on Nov. 28. But many, including a group of 45 US members of Congress, say the legitimacy of the vote is in serious jeopardy due to exclusion of Haiti’s largest party, Fanmi Lavalas, and the potential disenfranchisement of displaced Haitians.
· A former high-ranking DAS official has said the ex-director of the agency ordered her to spy on opposition figures at the specific request of former President Alvaro Uribe. Caracol Radio broke the story over the weekend and the Latin America Herald Tribune has more, writing that “in a sworn statement to the Attorney General’s Office” former deputy director of operations at DAS, Martha Ines Leal, said that ex-DAS director Andres Peñate “ordered her to conduct covert surveillance on former Sen. Piedad Cordoba – known for brokering the release of hostages held by leftist rebels – concerning one of the leftist lawmaker’s trips to Mexico.” According to the testimony, “the information was requested by Alvaro Uribe” to try to demonstrate that “Cordoba had traveled to Mexico City for a meeting organized by that country’s Labor Party with funds provided by that same party.” The statement is the “first time a top ex-official of DAS has testified that former directors of that agency had asked for information at Uribe’s request.”
· In Colombia’s El Tiempo, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa speaks about much improved relations with Colombia under Juan Manuel Santos.
· Sandra Edwards, a frequent WOLA consultant in Ecuador, has put together an 8-page report on the events of Sept. 30 in Ecuador.
· From Bolivia, the Andean Information Network has an excellent primer on the details within the country’s new anti-racism legislation which many journalists are opposing.
· Sao Paulo’s Folha reports that Marina Silva will remain neutral ahead of Oct. 31’s tightening runoff vote between Dilma Rouseff and José Serra.
· A series of reports on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s global travels, the highlight of which was a new agreement with Russia to build Venezuela’s first nuclear power plant. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said the United States has no reason to object to that plan because Russia’s intentions were “absolutely pure and open.” The US, so far, has said it has no formal objection to the deal, but DOS spokesman PJ Crowley added that the US plans to watch developments “very, very closely.” Also on Venezuela, a Reuters report on a serious of recent nationalizations which suggest an acceleration of Bolivarian Revolution before a new national assembly is seated.
· El Pais with a comparative report on violence in Juarez, Caracas, and Medellin.
· Raul Zibechi with an opinion at Upside Down World on the likely continuation of Lulismo in Brazil.
· And finally, Nicaraguan journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro, speaking at the Univ. of Texas, on why he remains optimistic about independent journalism in Nicaragua.
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