The End of Closed-Door Military Tribunals in Mexico?

In what the LA Times calls “the most sweeping response to persistent complaints about excesses by Mexico's military,” Mexican President Felipe Calderon sent a new proposal to Congress Monday which , if passed, would force soldiers to be tried in civilian courts for certain human rights abuses. The crimes expected to be included in the proposal include torture, rape, and forced disappearances, say Mexican news reports. And upon delivery of the proposal, Calderon indicated that the measure was an attempt to finally “harmonize” Mexico’s internal legal norms with those set out in the American Convention on Human Rights and Inter-American Convention Forced Disappearances.

As the LA Times suggests, Monday’s announcement comes after years of pressure. Soldiers are currently tried in closed-door military tribunals – a practice which international human rights groups have long criticized. In addition, the Times says, “civilian investigations and prosecutions of police and military personnel” was “one of four human rights conditions” included in the three-year, $1.4-billion Merida Initiative, passed in 2008.

But as Mexico seeks a corrective to one serious human rights issue, another may just now be coming to light. Yesterday, El Universal published a long report on the growing use of death squads in Mexico’s fight against organized crime. The activities of such groups has been confirmed by the Centro de Investigación y Seguridad Nacional (Cisen), tasked by the Mexican Senate to study paramilitary groups in September. As El Universal’s reporting suggests, both Mexican officials and business leaders are increasingly hiring “extermination” groups who are selected and trained to carry out “social cleansing.” Here’s lawyer Miguel Angel Garcia Leyva, with some powerful words about the presence of such groups:

“The participation of these (death) squads is public knowledge not only in Sinaloa but everywhere in the country. They operate dressed in uniforms, they carry out patrols, they have guns and identification, just like the security forces of the State…The silence is terrible. Nobody talks about what is really happening, but if the ‘black figures’ were revealed we would see that there have not been 28,000 murders, as the government says, but over 40,000.”

Also on Mexico, the AP reports on the seizure of 105 tons of US-bound marijuana by Mexican security forces in Tijuana Monday. The news agency calls the raids “by far the biggest such bust in Mexico in recent years.” It estimates the illicit goods had a street value of some $340 million. More from the LA Times, including a photo of the 10,000 seized packages of marijuana. And finally the Washington Post with a report on cross-border drug operations on the California/Baja California border – increasingly the object of US investigations. The Post:

“The case shows that as the border becomes less of an operational barrier for Mexican cartels, it appears to be less of one for U.S. surveillance efforts. Because the suspects' cellphone and radio traffic could be captured by towers on the northern side of the border, U.S. agents were able to eavesdrop on calls made on Mexican cellphones, between two callers in Mexico - a tactic prosecutors say has never been deployed so extensively.”

To other stories:

· The Washington Office on Latin America says it has received yet another death threat from individuals claiming to represent the Colombian paramilitary group, the Black Eagles. The email threat comes as WOLA prepares to honor the Colombian rights group, the Association for Internally Displaced Afro-Colombians (AFRODES) with its 2010 human rights award. In a statement released yesterday, WOLA Senior Associate Gimena Sanchez called the threat “extremely disturbing,” adding that just two days after receiving the threat, there was an attempt on the life of an AFRODES leader in the city of Cartagena. In the email message – which was apparently directed toward 60 organizations in total – recipients were told they should “consider themselves dead” and that “the time has arrived to finish all of you.” The Black Eagles go on to state: “we plan to exterminate the leaders [...] those who continue to create obstacles by doing protests, meetings and events.” According to WOLA, the US State Dept. and US Embassy in Colombia are aware of this threat and past threats, yet they still “continue to certify Colombia's progress on human rights.”

· On Honduras, a press release, via Quotha, on the Honduran Human Rights Platform, one of the recipients of the Institute for Policy Studies annual Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards last week. The release mentions a Dear Colleague letter which was circulated by Congressman Sam Farr last week, and signed by 20 members of Congress, calling on the Obama administration to “curtail assistance to the Lobo administration until it protects the rights of all Hondurans, not just political supporters.” Bertha Oliva, one of the activists who accepted the award on the Platform’s behalf, adds to that. Oliva was quoted on Democracy Now yesterday saying the Platform is demanding the United States “stop financing the police and military forces” in Honduras.

· The Miami Herald reports on high-level talks between Cuban and American officials regarding the release of USAID contractor, Alan Gross. The discussions included a secret meeting between Ass’t. Sec. of State Arturo Valenzuela and Cuban foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez, at the UN last month, DOS spokesman PJ Crowley said Monday.

· Peruvian President Alan Garcia is proposing a new economic integration schema for Panama, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Chile.

· Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez continues his international travels with a stopover in Iran today. Cooperation on projects related to oil, gas, and petrochemical development are expected to be the primary matters of discussion, the AP says. Responding to the United States’ statement that it would be carefully watching the recently signed Russia-Venezuela nuclear power deal, Chavez maintained that it was “the same story of the (U.S.) empire and all of its worldwide networks to try to impede the independence of our people.” He continued: “Development, industrialization: On that path we have chosen, they will not stop us.”

· In Brazil, rising opposition candidate José Serra put the issue of drug policy on the table during a recent presidential debate with Dilma Rouseff. Serra promised a “great war against drugs,” if elected. He also attacked Lula da Silva for not doing enough to stop cocaine from passing across the Bolivian border into Brazil.

· And finally two opinions on Brazil. Paulo Sotero from the Wilson Center writes in the Estado de Sao Paulo on issues of energy and the environment as the campaign winds down. And Jaime Daremblum of the Hudson Institute attacks Lula da Silva for his foreign policy.