El Enemigo Común

$500,000 in Department of Defense Funding to Kansas University for Mapping of Communally Held Indigenous Lands in La Huasteca and Oaxaca, Mexico

November 26th, 2007 - Simón Sedillo writes: $500,000 in Department of Defense funding is being made available to the Department of Geography by the Foreign Military Services Office (FMSO), based out of Fort Leavenworth in Lawrence, Kansas. Geography professors Jerome Dobson and Peter Herlihy explicitly acknowledge the security and intelligence ramifications of their project, the Bowman Expeditions, citing the geo-political and cultural effects of the “neo-liberal property regime.” The home of the FMSO, Fort Leavenworth, was the command center of the western front during US expansionism into native lands in the early 1800s as well as the epicenter of the War Departments “control” over native populations after the civil war. Today, the FMSO focuses on emerging and asymmetric threats to the national security of the United States of America, which is a red flag as to their intentions in funding the Bowman Expeditions.

US military intervention in Mexico has seen a steady increase in the last decade, and now is set on a fast track through Plan Mexico, which like Plan Colombia, justifies further military funding for the “war on drugs.” The racist history of colonial rule and territorial occupation continues with a whole new set of conspirators seeking economic gain and academic notoriety. The maps produced by this project are not just of the physical landscape, but rather more intentionally of the cultural resistance to displacement. Through the rhetoric of unbiased science, and geographic exploration, the Bowman expeditions are actively paving in Mexico, the road to hell.

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Bush is trying to rush Plan Mexico through Congress without making details public, while evidence indicates that the Plan will lead to serious human rights abuses.

November 19, 2007 - Jennifer Truskowski writes: The Bush administration is trying to get Congress to approve what it calls the Merida Initiative, a $1.4 billion aid package to Mexico in order to fight drug cartels. The plan is more commonly known as Plan Mexico because of its inevitable similarities with Plan Colombia, another U.S. aid package to fight drug cartels in Colombia. Even while the administration has refused to release details of the initiative since planning began in March, Congress is being pressured to pass it. The first $500 million of Plan Mexico is now attached to the appropriations bill for fiscal year 2008.

The Merida Initiative Joint Statement can be found on the State Department website. It reads that Mexico will “strengthen its operational capabilities to more effectively fight drug-traffickers and organized crime.” The U.S. and Mexico will do this with “enhanced transfer of equipment and technical resources, consistent with all appropriate standards in both countries of transparency and accountability of use.” The aid also includes helicopters, surveillance aircraft, “non-intrusive” inspection equipment, and canine units for the police and military use. The plan will offer “technologies to improve and secure communications systems” to collect information for law enforcement, along with technical advice and training.

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by Charles Davis

WASHINGTON, Nov 15 (IPS) - A 1.4-billion-dollar U.S. aid package to Mexico and Central American states aimed at combating drug trafficking and organised crime could backfire, the chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee said in a hearing Wednesday.

Known as the “Merida Initiative”, the majority of U.S. aid would go to Mexico in the form of surveillance aircraft, border-security equipment, and counter-drug personnel training. An initial funding request of 550 billion dollars includes 50 billion dollars to assist efforts against organised crime in other Central American countries.

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The House Commitee on Foreign Affairs meeting is met by protests.

November 16th, 2007 - NYC Indymedia Congressional Reporter writes: At the November 14th U.S. Congressional hearing on the Merida Initiative which is part of Plan Mexico, four Friends of Brad Will shifted the talk from a 1.4 billion dollar package to bolster Mexico’s security against narco-trafficing to a discussion on Mexican government impunity to commit human rights abuses against pro-democracy dissidents, labor activists, and journalists. At five different times during the hearing, Friends of Brad Will “corrected” Thomas Shannon, Assistant Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs for Western Hemisphere Affairs, and David Johnson, from the Bureau of Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. Friends of Brad Will argued that giving a military aid package to the Mexican government would lead to more human rights abuses like ones that have occurred along the U.S./Mexican border, Atenco, Chiapas, and Oaxaca, where Brad Will died covering the people’s movement against Governor Ruiz.

Mr. Shannon began his speech by saying, “He (President Calderon) is reorganizing the federal police, putting new
and additional resources in the hands of his security services, deploying military units to support police operations, rooting out corrupt officials, attacking –.” James Renson screamed, “Civilians in Oaxaca!” Some members of the crowd laughed, including high school students on a field trip, before Chairman Lantos called for order. After a warning and another intervention where Mr. Bubbins told the story of journalist Brad Will’s murder in Oaxaca, Bubbins was removed by a police officer and released outside of the hearing.

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No $ To Mexico Until Accountability on Human Rights!

November 14, 2007 - Friends of Brad Will write: The Friends of Brad Will, a network of friends and associates of Brad Will, the U.S. journalist, have urged Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Representative Tom Lantos and Representative Eliot Engels, the Chair of the Western Hemispheric Affairs Subcommittee to oppose U.S. support for Mexican military and police forces. Mr. Will, the 36-year-old reporter, was murdered in Oaxaca, Mexico a year ago, on October 27th, 2006. Witnesses and photographic evidence implicate members of the Mexican government, including a police chief.

On 10-21-07, President Bush quietly announced a $1.5 billion dollar “security cooperation initiative” proposal for Mexico that the President tucked into the Iraq supplemental spending package submitted to Congress. The initiative allows for the sharing of U.S. military intelligence information with Mexican military counterparts and provides weaponry and training with the notoriously corrupt and brutal Mexican military and police.

Brad Will’s family and friends denounced plans to fund a “Plan Mexico” that would be more costly than the controversial “Plan Colombia” while in attendance at the 11-14-07 hearing. They pointed to the lack of any credible investigation into the murder of the U.S. journalist, who was in Mexico covering the protests of a popular movement of teachers and their supporters facing paramilitary violence deployed by the Mexican government and the Governor of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.

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Human and Labor Rights Must Be Protected before Mexican Government Given Blank Check to Allegedly Fight Drug War

November 13th, 2007: PITTSBURGH–(BUSINESS WIRE)–News from USW: The United Steelworkers union announced today that it opposes handing Mexico what amounts to a blank check for $500 million for border enforcement of drug trafficking because it’s likely the American tax dollars will instead end up further undermining human and labor rights in Mexico.

USW International President Leo W. Gerard notified the chairmen of Congressional committees and subcommittees handling the Bush Administration’s request for the money that, at the very least, hearings should be conducted before votes are taken so human rights activists and trade unionists may testify to the violations that have occurred under the administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderon and his predecessor.

“Without fundamental institutional reforms in Mexico, and concrete commitments on the part of the Mexican government to cease its violations of labor and human rights, we believe that the money requested by the Administration will serve to reinforce a pattern of impunity,” Mr. Gerard wrote in his letter to the Congressional leaders.

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Planning to Stop ‘Plan Mexico’

November 8th, 2007 - Friends of Brad Will write: While Friends of Brad Will joined Brad’s family in D.C. to lobby for justice for his murder and for other people murdered in Oaxaca, Atenco and elsewhere, the Mexican authorities which Bush would like to lavish with ‘drug war’ money were busy arresting activists and mourners in Oaxaca.

Here is the report on our convergence on D.C.

The Friends of Brad Will advocacy trip on November 1st and 2nd to Washington, DC was a great success, thanks to our nation-wide network. Over 100 people took part in the wide spectrum of activities, events and lobbying that we organized to coincide with Dia de los Muertos commemoration. Our efforts gained in impact and poignancy, having family of Brad with us.

The two day whirlwind trip was slated to continue the effort to achieve justice in the murder of U.S. Journalist and activist Brad Will, end the impunity for human rights violations in Oaxaca and elsewhere and stop the proposed funding of a Bush/Calderon ‘Plan Mexico’ that would have disastrous consequences for the Mexican people.

Audio: Download the mp3 || 100 riders in Critical Mass protest Plan Mexico, then ride to Georgetown

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While the Bush administration tries to rush the Senate to approve Plan Mexico before the end of the year, the costly plan remains vague and will unlikely achieve its stated goals.

November 2nd, 2007 - Jennifer Truskowski writes: On Thursday, October 25, in Washington, DC the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere held a hearing to discuss Plan Mexico, recently renamed the Merida Initiative in a PR attempt to distance this plan from the failed Plan Colombia. Plan Colombia is a similar “drug war” Washington military aid package which hasn’t reduced the availability of drugs in the U.S., barely reduced the production of cocaine in Colombia, and devastated poor farmers whose food crops have been destroyed and who never received sufficient alternative aid.

The Bush administration has still failed to make Plan Mexico details public to citizens or even the officials attending this hearing, which made the discussion almost pointless. Even the purpose of Plan Mexico was unclear. When Chairman Eliot Engel gave his opening speech he asked, “Is our goal to curb the amount of drugs entering the United States or is it to help Mexico and communities on the U.S.-Mexico border to improve their security?”

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