Is “Terrorism” a problem?

The countless murders, threats, gory videos showing the torture, burning, beheading, and shootings of people that are spread across the internet are all a part of what the Mexican cartels are doing. This is very similar to what they are/have been doing over there in Afghanistan, but over there it’s labeled as terrorism and over in Mexico it is not. If it’s not terrorism then what is it? According to an article by Whitney Eulich of the Christian Science Monitor it’s “variously called a criminal insurgency, narcoterrorism, simply war, and – less frequently – terrorism. Mexicans, in everyday language, call it la inseguridad (insecurity).”

The article states that Hilary Clinton last year proclaimed that Mexican drug cartels and its organizations are turning into an insurgency. “An insurgency, in security parlance, is often thought of as a step beyond terrorism, more of a mass movement of violence and crime.” Both Mexicans and Americans alike were unhappy with this comment, and President Obama declared an apology in regards to what she said. That’s interesting, why did he have to apologize? He didn’t have anything to do with her comment. Everyone knows Obama’s position on the situation, so why does he have to barge up in there? Let Hilary take care of it herself. I’m sure that was embarrassing for her to have Obama apologize when she’s the one making the claim. Plus, she’s a grown experienced politician and woman that can fight her own battles. I understand Obama was trying to “do the right thing,” but I’m sure she knows what she’s doing.

Back in August, Mexican President Calderon said that the casino attack in Monterrey was an act of “terror.” “He tweeted it, his spokesman repeated it, and then in a televised speech, he said it again. It was the first such official use of the term, and there was no domestic political backlash.” Why is it that when a woman says something about a political affair there’s almost always controversy, and then when a man says something, it’s not as frowned upon (obviously depending on the issue). But the media seem to forgive men a lot more. Of course the case could be that Calderon did not receive any backlash because he is the guy running the country that encompasses all this terror. But, it’s still a debatable case.

Apparently, what’s going on in Mexico doesn’t count as terrorism according to Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

He said that “Scholars agree, terrorism has to be political: a fundamental political change sought through violence.”

Many people feel that it’s not important to determine whether there is or there is not terrorism but to focus on what will happen once the actual word is used.

“There are obvious economic impacts associated with the terror label – such as driving tourists away – but more specific dangers exist, say experts.”

Human rights activist Florencia Ruiz Mendoza says “the term would be convenient for both governments in increasing funding to combat cartel violence, but would hurt average Mexican citizens.”

“If the cartels are terrorists that allows the Mexican government to fight back. They might release more troops throughout the country and set up more military checkpoints,” Mendoza says.

Article Source: http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/can-mexicos-pervasive-drug-violence-be-considered-terrorism

mexican cease-fire on christmas

Javier Sicilia is a Mexican poet that I’ve posted about before. He’s the guy that instigated an activist movement to work towards obtaining and spreading the message of peace (the Movement of Peace with Justice and Dignity) in Mexico ever since the Pacifico Sur cartel shooting and murdering of his son back in March.

Sicilia attended an international book fair this past weekend in Guadalajara and asked that the cartels and the Mexican government pause and have “a cease-fire” moment on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the 24th and 25th. He requests that these two entities have this break not only for the sake of Christmas and the meaning behind it, but also so they may “reflect on what they are doing, what they are doing to the country.”

He went on to say, “I ask for this truce as a momentary pause, not just in honor of Christmas, but to think about the harm we’re doing to ourselves and what those guilty of murder and corruption are doing to themselves, and the damage done by authorities who do not fulfill their obligations,” Sicilia said.   In the event, he called for all the people there take a minute of silence to commemorate all of those whom have died in the drug war and those who continue to die. Right after that is when he asked for the days of cease-fire.

Sicilia and the many other authors and writers that were with him were crying out about the irresponsibility of the government.   Writer Alejandro Rosas said something that Mexico must be very worried about is “a very incipient, very weak democracy,” and targeted the issue of the 2012 presidential elections in Mexico.   Rosas believes that the end of the world would come if the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) came back into power. This comment brought a large applause from the audience.   Along with the applause coming from this political attack, came the cheers from the attacks and criticisms targeted at President Calderon who initiated the entire all out war against the cartels and who as a result, in many people’s opinions, advanced/widened the violence in Mexico.

Writer Paco Ignacio Taibo II demanded that those at fault for the situation and contributing to Mexico’s “falling to pieces” should be identified.   He also requested that the population attempt to unify “the national discontent into a movement that will remove from power those who now hold it.”

I like that this event happened because it’s inspiring. It’s a group of authors and writers proclaiming peace and declaring something be done and have some ideas about what could be done. It’s not a group of politicians making things up or saying what the people want to hear and then do nothing about it, or add to the violence. What these writers want to do is take away from the violence and promote peace. They are fully aware that an all-out war is not going to contribute to the peace they are trying to spread. There are good people out there trying to do good things, if only people would listen. I’m curious to see if Sicilia’s request will be fulfilled…if the violence will stop for those two Christmas days. At this point all one can do about the situation is continue to spread peace, and hope that things will somehow get better. As well as Mexicans taking a good look at the politicians’ issues and figuring out who may have the best plan to end this headstrong battle.

Calderon, a man of many suits

Mexican cartoonists Antonio Helguera and Jose Hernandez created the above cartoon of President Calderon wearing a variety of suits for his different “special occasions.” By the descriptions of each one, it sounds like these suits are not very appealing to the Mexican people. No doubt that making fun of the president in this way shows that the Mexican populace has lost confidence in him. Calderon initiated the head on military fight against the drug cartels but he does not have the full support of his country. How is the drug war supposed to get any better if Mexican people can’t believe in their own President? Perhaps Calderon should stop the acting, take off all these costumes, and take things at a different angle…listen to what his nation is telling him.

 

I plan to more or less translate into English each description underneath the cartoons of Calderon and analyze why I believe the cartoonists wrote it.

 

1.) Well, to start off, the Mickey Mouse character caught my eye first. The caption directly underneath it says, something along the lines of Very Tight Pants, Very High Pants, or Well Swaddled Pants.

 

Description: designed especially to receive high authority/ranking  officiality from the U.S. government.

 

Analysis: My way of looking at it is it seems like Calderon wears the pants, he’s the boss here. And his pants are so tight, it’s like to say he’s got the balls to say certain things, or he’s got the guts to because he blames everybody else using their first and last name.

He even blamed the U.S. government about the crisis of the cartels in his country to the point that President Obama personally had to pay him a visit in Mexico to clarify things. So he’s got the tight pants, because he’s got some nerve.

 

2.) The next one to the left is the burglar looking character of Calderon. The title says “Model Chompiras,” meaning little thief or good for nothing.

 

Description:  This fine suit inspired by the ideologies of the PAN party, is the one that Calderon used when he took over the presidency.

 

Analysis: People in Mexico use “Chompiras” for slang to refer to Calderon when they want to say he is good for nothing. Chompiras was a little thief on a television show back in the 70’s in Mexico. But every time he wanted to commit a crime, everything would go wrong, so he was bad at being a thief. So I’m thinking that means the people think that Calderon is such a  “good for nothing” that he even sucks at being at thief.

 

3.) The next one to the left is the Doctor suit. The title is “Doctor’s Coat.”

 

Description: this design was created for very special occasions when Calderon needs to show an air of authority like new measures against the common cold or announce when a lady that was raped by soldiers in reality had gastritis.

Analysis: So, I believe the idea is that he got into power to be the doctor of Mexico’s illnesses. He was going to cure all of Mexico’s sicknesses. But actually the only thing he really does is take measures against little problems, the big ones are still there.

In real life, he’s given a speech about the drug war where he’s metaphorically worn a doctor’s coat. I will paste a small passage from an online news article that talks about this speech. It’s all in spanish but if you use google translator most of it makes sense…which is actually what I did. So below you can read some of it.

 

Here’s the link to a news article addressing this speech.

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/columnas/71965.html

 

“Calderón–metaphorically put a white coat to speak of the famous war against drugs.

He responds well to Javier Moreno of the country on whether imagined the magnitude of the problem:

‘When I came to the presidency, his reach was no longer tenable. I got to the theater knowing that the patient had a very serious condition, but when opened, we realized it was invaded by many places and had to heal at any cost.

At first strange parallelism. Well, in war and there is blood in the operating room, right? Sometimes a lot … And dead, as we have in Mexico.

Still, Dr. Calderon is confident that the patient-country-cancer drug save.

Note: you did not say that we are winning but not enough, famous phrase from his attorney, assistant operation, Eduardo Medina Mora. The diagnosis of the chief surgeon of the nation state is less optimistic: we will win, he says. When? What cost? After many chemotherapies, radiation, operations? Who knows?”

-By Katia D´ Artigues
16 June 2008

 

So Calderon, to sum it up, believes that Mexico has the right strategy and the exact cure and will of course win this war, while others continue question.

4.) The following cartoon down is the image of Calderon in a Catholic priest outfit. This title says something like: Cassock for the Gala. A cassock is “an item of clerical clothing, is an ankle-length robe worn by clerics of the Roman Catholic Church.” (wikipedia)

 

Description: Perfect when there are events organized by the Vatican. But the Pope doesn’t feel like coming.

 

Analysis: The picture here is that Calderon is very moralist (in his speeches). He tends to preach (to the Mexicans) just like the priests would do to a congregation.

 

He has the custom/tendency to preach to the Mexican people in different public acts as if they were all Catholic. He talks about the Virgin Guadalupe, the Pope, and he quotes Bible verses thinking that all Mexicans are Catholic and belong to his “flock.” But he obviously doesn’t know his own country at all, for not all of them profess the faith of Catholicism.

 

I’m going to post a portion of a blog post from a Mexican woman who was angered by a speech Calderon gave about Catholicism representing the Mexican people.

Once again, it was all in Spanish, but I used google translator to turn it into English.

 

“After all, many Mexicans, most Mexicans, the Lady of Guadalupe is a sign of identity and unity. We Guadalupe, independently, dare I say, much of the faith, beliefs and non beliefs and, of course, it is for those who profess the Catholic faith, who certainly brings this image as representative of Mexico and the Mexicans. He stressed that the Basilica is a place full of significant events since the appearance of the Virgin to Juan Diego, landmark religious, social integration factor of national unity and cultural diversity “(presidencia.gob.mx).

Who has told so blessed official, who can claim the right to consider ourselves professing the same religion, in this case Catholicism, as if we were his flock?

Obviously, it continues without being in his right mind. He forgot that there are figures in the various percentages of believers, a number of religions and even freethinkers or atheists, we add a not insignificant number whose status is attributed not pleasant nor edifying us.

He continued in his exalted sermon (sorry, in his address substance) noting that:

“… The design is inspired by the papal coat of John Paul II, who is fondly remembered by Mexicans for his message of peace we need.”

Unfortunately I lost the link to this blog, but if I do end up finding it, I’ll edit it into this post.

 

But this lady’s strong opinion absolutely has some truth in it. Calderon seems to have the fame of being more of a Pope than the real Pope and more be a better Virgin Mary than the actual Virgin Mary, bringing his Catholic religion to the spot light in every opportunity that he can.

 

 

5.) Finally the last suit is the Napoleon looking guy. The title says “Straightjacket.”

 

Description: designed especially for delusions of grandeur. It’s a suit made to order to visit Waterloo City, Chihuahua to let the citizens in that area know that we are winning the war against the drug cartels.

 

Analysis: Sarcastically saying, like Calderon is actually going to go to Chihuahua and say “Yeah we are winning the war against the narcos”…But the people living there and going through the war in everyday life know it’s not true. But he likes to go around acting like he’s so important like Napoleon. But think about it… what ended up happening to Napoleon?

 

What other suits can you think of?

a report on Mexico’s constant struggle

“Once known as a booming industrial city and a model of economic progress in Mexico, the border city of Juarez has become infamous as the murder capital of the world.

More than 8,000 people have been killed there since 2008, when Mexican President Felipe Calderon sent in the army to carry out his offensive against the drug cartels.

The official story is that the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels are fighting for the city and the access it provides to the multi-billion dollar US drug market only a few hundred meters away.

On this episode of Fault Lines, Josh Rushing travels to Ciudad Juarez, and asks how human life there came to be worth so much less than the drugs being trafficked through.” -Fault Lines

Mexican Secretary of Interior Dead

On Friday, November 11, 2011, the Mexican Secretary of the Interior Francisco Mora at the age of 45 was killed in a helicopter crash while on his way to a judicial meeting.

He was President Calderon’s main supporter and advocate in the military fight against the drug cartels, “frequently traveling to violence-torn cities for meetings with besieged state and local security officials.”

He was extremely hardcore on the drug business and would vow publicly to step up the fight towards the traffickers rather than backing out of it or turning it down a notch.

Along with this, many times he passionately announced to increase the presence of military and national police in dangerous areas and continue to reside there until drug cartel members were captured.

After detectives discovered over a hundred bodies in ditches near the United States border, Mora said, “Organized crime, in its desperation, resorts to committing atrocities that we can’t and shouldn’t tolerate as a government and as a society.”

As a result he declared to instigate a “five-point initiative” to delve into the crimes as well as advance security. This included “the federal monitoring of buses such as those used by the migrant victims.”

He was excellent in the areas dealing with natural disasters, oil, forensic studies, politics, and much more. He was a native from Tijuana and initially trained as a lawyer, he began his path towards politics in the mid-1990s as an official in his hometown. He served a few years under Calderon as a Congressmen in his party, then he moved to serve a local legislator in northern state Baja California.

2007 was the year he was named as interior secretary for Baja, rising higher in position to nation wide until he died last Friday. It’s sad that “Calderon lost another interior secretary, Juan Camilo Mourino, in a plane crash in Mexico City in November 2008.”

May these men rest in peace.

 

Article Source: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/11/11/face-mexicos-drug-war-dies-in-chopper-crash/

Leftist presidential Candidate’s stance on drug war

 

Marcelo Ebrard is the Mayor of Mexico City and is running in the 2012 Mexican presidential election. He says that if he were to be elected president he would take out the country’s military from the drug cartel fight and discuss with policymakers from the U.S. on how they can improve laws regarding narcotics in both countries.

He proclaims that the relationship between certain drugs like marijuana consumption and the fabrication and distributing of it are “schizophrenic.”

It isn’t logical according to him that “the United States is legalizing marijuana and we’re over here killing ourselves on the street over marijuana.” He backs up his claim by saying that the legalization of marijuana in California has reduced illegal drug dealing and drug related conflicts and misdemeanors.

He goes on to say, “We need to have a common policy with the United States, because if not, we have a schizophrenic scheme that is very costly for Mexico.”

He reported his stance on this particular issue at an interview at City Hall, where on the same day the government released a book, published by the government, glorifying all of Mayor Ebrard’s successes throughout his term as Mayor in certain areas like environment and transportation.

This book along with his unique stance on popular issues in Mexico will support his effort to make his name known nationally throughout Mexico where most voters don’t know who he is.

The only thing standing in his way is the former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. He, unlike Ebrard, is popular and well-known throughout the nation, and is well-favored even when people ragged on him for not respecting Calderon when he took office.

By the end of this week, polls will tell who will become the next leftist candidate that will run in the 2012 Mexican presidential election. It could be Ebrard…it could be Obrador.

Going back to the issue at hand, he declares he would take the military out of the streets and create “state police forces that could tackle trafficking and corruption locally. He’d also seek to reform the judicial system.”

This is something completely different than Calderon’s current and future plans for the security and drug issue. He wants the military to stay “on the job” until the existing local and state police forces have been evaluated and rid of their corrupted officers, traitors and instigators of harm to the innocent Mexican civilians.

Calderon did, however, win “approval of a judicial reform bill in 2008 that, among other things, would bring U.S.-style oral trials to Mexico.” All other reform plans though have been held up by a disobliging Congress.

At this point, in my opinion, I would like to see Mexico get Calderon out of office. See if any positive change could happen from a different person occupying the king’s throne, but I don’t know if Ebrard would be the right guy to do that, since I don’t know any of his other stances on policies/issues.

I’m not completely hating on Calderon either. I will commend him on the economy improving significantly since he’s been in office, but a breath of fresh air from Calderon sounds nice.   

Article Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/11/mexico-city-mayor-drug-war.html

human rights watch cites dozens of authority abuse issues in mexico

A group called the Human Rights Watch went to Mexico where the drug cartel violence had been extremely gruesome and talked to many families in which a loved one in their family became of a captured victim of the Mexican navy, army, or other authority figured force.

Some of these victims were kidnapped and never appeared again, others were shot and killed.

These families call the government, and agencies, and human rights commissions, and no one is willing to help. Even some go to the courts to share their experience of torture and abuse and the judge doesn’t believe them. There’s authority abuse on all sides of the spectrum, ” from prosecutors who give detainees prewritten confessions to sign, to medical examiners who classify beatings and electric shock as causing minor injuries.”

An article in the Huffington Post states, “Only 15 soldiers have been convicted out of the 3,671 investigations launched by military prosecutors into alleged human rights violations by soldiers against civilians from 2007 to June 2011, according to the report.”

The only thing these families can do is investigate for themselves, in which they write down and collect  information about the event and write down their accounts of the last time they saw their loved ones and hope someone will listen…someone will help.

Even President Calderon said he’s tired of hearing all the fuss and bother about the Mexican military abuse reports and would rather just let them do their job and not deal with the situation.

I thought a president was supposed to care about the public and their issues, I thought a president is elected to confront situations and deal with them in any way possible until they can get resolved or at least partially taken care of in some form to make the people happy again.

Ever since I’ve started this blog, all the research and reading I’ve done on President Calderon is not positive. It seems he is a selfish guy that only cares about popularity and the Mexican people do not favor him in the slightest.

The Mexican 2012 election is rolling around soon and hopefully he will not get re-elected. Let’s get him out of there and see if the other party, or even just a different candidate could take better action on this manner. Let’s hope they can clean this up.

And perhaps with a different president, they would like to accept the United State’s help more. Maybe things could really change…and for the better with just a new person in that chief position.

Nonetheless, while the time to election is ticking, the Mexican death toll is rising.

To read a lot more on the subject go here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/09/mexico-drug-war-human-rights-abuses_n_1084870.html

 

Legalisation?

Paresh Nath, The Khaleej Times, UA

Apparently this is showing Calderon changing his mind about which path he would rather take for Mexico. However, I don’t know if this is truly something he would like to do. I don’t know if he wants to do anything at all for that matter.

He seems to be stagnant in his position towards this lately. He lets the Mexican military take care of it while he blames the United States for most of the problem going on. I absolutely agree that the United States plays a role in this but he’s not really doing much to clean up the situation either.

I watched a video from a segment called “Hard Talk” from BBC News.

This video kinda struck a nerve in me that made me decide that I don’t like Calderon very much. But that’s just my own opinion.

This definitely could count as “Hard Talk,” cause there’s some hard back and forth questioning and retorting going on.

 

I’ve tried to be indifferent towards the Mexican government, but it’s becoming more difficult.

Days and Days of the Dead

Guillermo Arias / AP

Today and tomorrow (November 1-2), is what they call in Mexico “El Dia de Los Muertos,” in translation the Day of the Dead. The tradition of this Mexican national holiday includes families taking the favorite foods and drinks of those that have passed on to the cemeteries and “decorat[ing] the graves of departed relatives with marigolds, candles and sugar skulls.”

These days there are many families visiting an abundant amount of graves since “Every day is Day of the Dead now…We have 40,000 days of the dead,” said a man quoted in a Seattle PI online article.

About 40,000 people have died in the Mexican drug war and the amount of graves continue to increase.

The reporter from the previously mentioned Seattle PI article said his last visit in Mexico was the early 90’s. He talks about how there were also cartels back in those days selling cocaine and marijuana to the U.S. and there were also killings of an archbishop and a head PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) government official but globally Mexico “was not thought to be particularly violent then. There was no running tally of the dead.” Which when I thought about it, it’s absolutely true. I don’t remember hearing anything dramatic or outrageous coming from Mexico since before the drug war. Of course you have your occasional immigration stories, but I can’t recall ever thinking of Mexico as an extremely dangerous place to be.

The reporter said the country has changed dramatically since he was last there. Especially economically. In present day, “Mexican politicians can be openly pro-American at times, and Mexico is truly multinational now, with everything from Costco megastores to Ferrari dealerships.” The economy is much more successful and changing from a poor based community to a more middle class population. But they have to be careful with the whole “pro-American” thing, because if they make any wrong decision, their economy could end up like the United States, which is down in the dumps currently.

Even though there’s a positive transformation of people moving up in classes financially, there are still those young adults “who neither study nor find legitimate jobs, and may seek work or be pressed into service by drug cartels,” which is the scary part. If they could just find jobs for those kids then fewer people will have an encounter with being forced into working for the cartels.

As of now, election time is coming up in Mexico and after 10 years of having Calderon and his party (National Action Party), people seem to be ready to turn the power back to the PRI in hopes that they could pick the country back up and reform it to a violent-free state. As of now the “presumed candidate” has not said anything on his plan of action towards the drug violence.

Since I’m not fully informed on the policies and beliefs of each party, I can’t really say which one I would the think the better choice to govern the country would be, but I do hope that whoever may take the reins will responsibly uphold the importance of the nation’s well-being and take full accountability for decisions made towards this issue, and consistently work on it until it can be mostly and/or fully resolved.

Seattle PI article: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Every-day-is-Day-of-the-Dead-in-Mexico-drug-war-2242631.php#ixzz1cW1U2PVa

 

Animations to expose drug war myths

Back in August of this year, the Mexican government decided to try to gather the support of the Mexican people in favor of fight against the drug war by using the method of animated cartoons. On the Gobierno Federal’s (Federal Government) YouTube channel, they have 10 videos dedicated to setting the record straight and exposing the false myths of the Mexican drug war, mainly the government’s role in it. 

Each video has the title with the number of the myth and the name “For the fight of security.” So for example “Third Myth for the Fight of Security.” They are mostly a  maximum of 5 minutes long with little animated characters having talk bubbles above their heads saying what the myth is and saying that it’s false, explaining the truth of what’s going on. Some of the myths include things such as: “The government has no set strategy” (concerning what to do towards the drug war), “The solution to the violence is to negotiate with the criminals,” “It was only Calderon’s decision to start the fight against the drug war,” and many more.

Here’s the video to the first myth (it’s all in Spanish, but you get the idea of what it looks like and what they’re tyring to do)

What I’ve noticed is that with each video put up, the number of views goes down. I’ve read that a lot of the Mexican people do not like or support these videos because it’s all about a media campaign and an agenda to make the government look better, not necessarily fixing the situation. What’s also interesting/funny is that they disabled their comment section, so no one is allowed to express how they feel about these animations. This makes me believe the whole “government agenda” thing even more…they have to make themselves look good.

As I discovered these cartoons, I wondered if anyone else had been making cartoons concerning this topic. I found this guy from the U.S. that does satirical political animations on a variety of issues, and he’s created two different videos, one in 2009 when the drug war started to really shine in the U.S., and one in 2010. I like these videos because I agree with what they’re saying, but a lot of people in the comments section from the U.S. were not happy, because the animator blamed a lot of things on the U.S. in terms of drug use and drug buying, etc. You should watch the videos and then read the comments, I always learn something new.

 Gringo Guns-2009

NarcoMex Inc.- 2010

To read more on this topic here are some articles to refer to:

http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/nationworld/report/080411_mexico_drugs_cartoons/cartoon-characters-take-mexicos-drug-war/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14322001