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Misconduct by Public Officials, Environmental Protests, and Criminal Complaints May Result in Market Forces Ending the Company’s Destructive Mining Practices

By Okke Ornstein
Via The NarcoSphere
July 17, 2008

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/okke-ornstein/2008/07/will-stock-market-sink-panamas-petaquilla-mine

Published since 1994, 'Mexico Week In Review' is a service of the Committee of Indigenous Solidarity (CIS). CIS is a Washington, D.C. based activist group committed to the ongoing struggles of Indigenous peoples in the Americas. CIS is actively supporting the struggles of the Indigenous peoples of Mexico while simultaneously combating related structures of oppression within our own communities.

To view newsletter archives, visit: http://lists.mutualaid.org/pipermail/mexico-week/

"Para Todos, Todo; Para Nosotros Nada"

FEDERAL POLICE OCCUPY VILLAGE IN TOXIC WASTE FIGHT

For the past two weeks, some 200 troops from Mexico's elite Federal Preventive Police (PFP) have occupied the village of Zimapán, Hidalgo, the scene of protests over a toxic waste site that the Spanish firm Befesa is scheduled to open this month. Heavily armed troops-some in ski masks and full riot gear-arrived in military-type trucks backed up by helicopters June 12, and continue to patrol the town's streets. The former bishops of Chiapas, Samuel Ruiz García and
Ra?l Vera L?pez, have demanded the withdrawal of the PFP. Residents of the local community of Boti?a, where the plant is being built, have joined with the civic group Todos Somos Zimapán in calling for a general municipality-wide plebiscite on the waste facility.

Source: http://www.ww4report.com: 07/11


BORDER UPDATE: 2008 MIGRANT DEATH COUNT

In a grim disclosure, Mexico?s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) recently released its count of the number of Mexican migrants who died struggling to reach El Norte in 2008 so far. Until June 9, the SRE documented the deaths of 117 migrants who perished while attempting to cross the Mexico-US border. According to the SRE, most of the deaths, or 72 to be precise, were registered in the state of Texas. The McAllen area of the Lone Star State proved to be the deadliest point for would-be border crossers, with 26 undocumented Mexicans losing their lives in the zone. Additionally, 14 migrants died in the El Paso area and 4 around Eagle Pass. Nonetheless, the dangerous terrain surrounding Tucson, Arizona, was the deadliest single zone for migrants, claiming 40 lives during the first half of the year. The Arizona numbers suggest migrant deaths could be on a downswing in comparison to the last two years. Still, it's important to note the reported deaths were registered before some of the hottest days of the year pound the border region.

The US Border Patrol's Tucson Sector reported 204 migrant deaths during the 2007 fiscal year that ended on September 30 of last year. The death toll represented a 21 percent increase from fiscal year 2006, when 165 deaths were registered. However, the Tucson-based
Human Rights Coalition reported a higher death toll for the region than did the Border Patrol. The immigrant rights group cited 237 deaths for FY 2007, a number 32 higher than in FY 2006, when the coalition documented 205 deaths.

In 2007, 409 Mexican migrants died in the entire Mexico-US border region, according to the SRE. Official Mexican migrant death statistics for this year report most victims were individuals in the 18 to 45-year-old age category, with the death of one minor recorded. Since 2001, the SRE has tallied the deaths of 2,956 Mexican migrants in the northern borderlands. The federal agency has identified the main causes of death as dehydration (1062), drowning (583) and vehicle accidents (247). In terms of geographic origin, ill-fated migrants from the states of Mexico, Guanajuato and Mexico City topped the list of victims.

Sources: Frontera NorteSur (FNS): 07/08; La Jornada: 07/06


POLICE TAPE TORTURE TRAINING

On June 30 El Heraldo de Leon, a newspaper based in Leon in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, released two graphic videotapes showing police agents from Leon's Special Tactical Group (GET) torturing other agents during training sessions. The victims, who had reportedly volunteered, were subjected to a practice known as the tehuacanazo, in which mineral water is forced up the nose, and were threatened with the pocito, in which the subject's head is submerged in excrement. In one scene, a trainee collapses and throws up; another agent then pushes him into his own vomit. Leon police chief Carlos Tornero Salinas said the tapes were made in April and that the training went on for 160 hours over the course of 12 days. The sessions were conducted by an unidentified person of English nationality, according to Mayor Vicente Guerrero Reynoso, a member of the center-right National Action Party (PAN) of Mexican president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa.

(Note: Narco News has reported that the company responsible for the training is Risks Incorporated of Miami, Florida, and Great Britain, Narco News has learned. The Mexican daily El Universal identified the leaders of the torture workshop as "Jerry Wilson" of Great Britain and Cuban-Mexican Gerardo Arrechea on July 3, but officials refused to identify the company for which they worked. Source: http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/kristin-bricker/2008/07/company-led-training-torture-techniques-mexican-police-is-risks-inc)

Leon public safety secretary Alvar Cabeza de Vaca Apendinni acknowledged on June 30 that GET agents had received the training "because we need to have a special group to respond to certain conditions" due to the spread of organized crime in the city and the state. "It's extreme training for extreme conditions," he said. The course was to prepare the agents to deal with "high- stress" situations, police chief Tornero explained on July 1. "This doesn't imply...that the training was for the application of methods of torture." He said the tortures were just simulations, and complained that by airing the videos journalists were trying "to discredit the institution [the police department], one way or another." "Please, be more ethical, be more responsible," Mayor Guerrero Reynoso told reporters. "You're doing a lot of damage to society."

On June 30--the day of the Guanajuato torture revelations--in Washington, DC, US president George W. Bush signed a supplemental appropriations bill into law providing $162 billion for the US occupation of Iraq and $465 million for the Merida Initiative [see Update #952]. This initiative, which critics call "Plan Mexico," allocates $400 million to Mexico and $65 million to Central American countries to fight drug trafficking. The law provides for 15% of Mexico's allotment to be held up until the US secretary of state certifies that the Mexican government is showing improvements in various areas, including respect for human rights by the military and police, and the prohibition of torture.

Source: Weekly News Update- Nicaragua Solidarity Network Of Greater New York: 07/06


DIRTY WAR UPDATE: EXPERTS LOOKS FOR GRAVES ON ARMY BASE

Forensics experts began digging for secret graves on an army base in southwestern Mexico this week to find proof of government atrocities during the country's 1970s 'dirty war.' Using high-tech scanners, picks and shovels, they searched for bodies of community leaders who were abducted by soldiers, taken to the isolated base at the Pacific town of Atoyac de Alvarez in Guerrero state and never heard from again. Human rights advocates said it was the first time dirty war excavations have taken place at a Mexican military base. The team is headed by Argentine experts with experience digging up evidence from that nation's dirty war.

Atoyac de Alvarez was the base of an armed guerrilla movement in the 1970s, and some 470 people "disappeared" from the town when security forces and senior government officials crushed leftists and students. Survivors hope that finding the remains of their loved ones will lead to some sort of justice. "They say the bones talk. The bones will tell us what happened to
them; they will tell us if they were tortured," said Tita Radilla, whose father Rosendo was a community leader in Atoyac before he was arrested. "I know my father was at the military base. Witnesses who were there saw him, but they never saw him leave," she said. Rosendo, who built schools and medical clinics in Atoyac de Alvarez and briefly served as mayor, was arrested by soldiers for composing pro-guerilla songs, said Alejandro Juarez, a spokesman for a rights group who works with Radilla's lawyers.

The excavations could take several weeks as forensic specialists work alongside public prosecutors to scour the base's shooting range, basketball court, wells and latrines for signs of buried remains. "We have no idea how many bodies could be buried on this military base," Juarez said. "But what we do have are eyewitness accounts from people who were detained on the base and saw farmers, social activists and guerrilla sympathizers getting tortured, killed and buried there." The Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled Mexico for seven decades until 2000, clamped down hard on leftists in the 1960s and 1970s, but few officials were ever prosecuted for their actions. Some 1,200 people disappeared nationwide, hundreds of them in Guerrero. Prosecutors say the campaign against them was mainly orchestrated by Luis Echeverria, the interior minister from 1964 to 1970 and president from 1970 to 1976.

Radilla's father disappeared in 1974 and she fought for decades to bring his case in front of an international court, putting pressure on the Mexican government to investigate. The Argentine forensic investigators have an international reputation and are often sent to probe massacre sites around the world, having conducted extensive searches at home.

Echeverria, who painted himself as a leftist, is widely blamed for a 1968 massacre in Mexico City when police opened fire on student protesters, killing hundreds, shortly before the city was due to host the Olympic Games. Now 86, Echeverria has been living quietly under house arrest in Mexico City since 2005 when prosecutors brought genocide charges against him. He has always denied any charges against him and attempts to bring him to trial have foundered. "The Mexican government has always been very careful to guard its image as a protector of human rights. That's why not much is known about this time period," said Radilla. "For us it was a catastrophe," she added.

Source: Reuters: 07/08


UN NAMES BUTTERFLY RESERVE AS WORLD HERITAGE SITE

The Mexican government says UNESCO has added a Monarch butterfly reserve in southern Mexico to its list of World Heritage sites. Mexico's Foreign Relations Department says the reserve located in the states of Mexico and Michoacan was declared a natural heritage site by the U.N.'s World Heritage Committee meeting in Quebec City. Each September the butterflies begin a 3,400-mile (5,470-kilometer) journey from the forests of eastern Canada and parts of the U.S. to the central Mexican mountains. The voyage is considered an aesthetic and scientific wonder. But illegal logging and development threaten a delicate migratory route that has spanned across a million square miles (2.6 million square kilometers) for some 10,000 years.

Source: Associated Press: 07/08

The above articles were originally published and copyrighted by the
listed sources. These articles are offered for educational purposes
which CIS maintains is 'fair use' of copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.

------------------------------------------------------------ Mexico Solidarity Network ------------------------------------------------------------ Red de Solidaridad con Mexico Please forward: Fall 2008 Study Abroad program deadline extended, 2 spots left! Accepting applications for Spring 2009! The most beautiful part of study abroad in Mexico is the direct contact with it's people. Join us on this wonderful program with Mexico's Social Movements! New for Fall 2008 -US accreditation available through Hampshire College. Add first-hand testimonies from Mexico's vibrant and active social movements to your academic and theory based studies! Fall 2008 September 7 – December 1 Spring 2009 January 25 - May 2 Both programs will travel to Chiapas, Tlaxcala, Mexico City and Ciudad Jaurez.This accredited program focuses on the theory and practice of Mexican social movements, with important lessons for activism in the US context. This hands-on course includes workshops with the Universidad de la Tierra, the Zapatista movement, the National Assembly of Ex-Braceros, the National Urban-Campesino Council, Frente Popular Francisco Villa Independiente, families of femicide victims, maquiladora workers, El Barzon, and other urban barrio organizations. The Spanish language component focuses on oral communication skills. Visit: http://www.mexicosolidarity.or... [1] to download an application.Visit: http://www.mexicosolidarity.or... [2] to download a flyer. Or write to msn@mexicosolidarity.org [3] Fall and Spring Courses and Credits Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in Mexico City accredits the program at the undergrad and masters levels. The 14-week course on Mexican Social Movements offers 16 credits (240 class hours) via a consortium agreement between the UAM-Xochimilco and the Mexico Solidarity Network or through our US school of record Hampshire College. Please accept our apologies if you have received this email in error. To be removed from the Mexico Solidarity Network mailing list, please send a blank message to "studyabroad-unsubscribe@mexicosolidarity.org [4]" If this message has been forwarded to you and you would like to subscribe to the Mexico Solidarity Network mailing list, please visit www.mexicosolidarity.org and use the subscription feature provided, or send a blank message to "studyabroad-subscribe@mexicosolidarity.org [5]" [1] http://www.mexicosolidarity.org/studyabroad/apply [2] http://www.mexicosolidarity.org/sites/mexicosolidarity.org/files/MSN_Study_Abroad_flyer.pdf [3] msn@mexicosolidarity.org [4] studyabroad-unsubscribe@mexicosolidarity.org [5] studyabroad-subscribe@mexicosolidarity.org

Inicia las festividades de la Guelaguetza Popular en medio de una pertinaz...

Nosotras, nosotros, organizaciones, colectivos, movimientos, redes, comunidades, pueblos, familias y...

If Neoliberalism Left Something Intact, It Was the Factory Workers’ Movement

By Oscar Olivera F.
Ukhampacha Bolivia
July 15, 2008

http://www.ubnoticias.org/en/article/the-historical-significance-of-the-cochabamba-factory-workers-strike

The Complaint, Filed with a Congressional Committee, Seeks an Ethics Investigation into the Congressman's Actions and Cites Narco News Reports

By Bill Conroy
Via The NarcoSphere
July 15, 2008

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2008/07/law-enforcement-groups-call-probe-us-rep-reyes%E2%80%99-handling-kidnapping-cas

------------------------------------------------------------ Mexico Solidarity Network ------------------------------------------------------------ Red de Solidaridad con Mexico WEEKLY NEWS AND ANALYSIS JULY 7-13, 2008 1. ZAPATISTA ECOLOGICAL RESERVE UNDER ATTACK 2. DISSIDENT TEACHERS CREATE PARALLEL LEADERSHIP 3. PRD CALLS FOR UNITY ON ENERGY REFORM 4. SEDENA ACCUSED OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES 5. MSN PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS (Contact MSN@MexicoSolidarity.org [1]) 1. ZAPATISTA ECOLOGICAL RESERVE UNDER ATTACK The Zapatista’s self-declared environmentally protected area in Huitepec, located above one of the regions most important aquifers, is coming under increasing attack by the Mayor of San Cristobal de las Casas, Mariano Diaz.  On Friday, Diaz offered urban development funds to a neighboring community if they would join in opposition to the Zapatista’s environmental efforts, part of an ongoing campaign to free up the land for “development.”  The Community Ecological Reserve, which covers 200 acres, was in danger of being despoiled by illegal logging, overuse of fresh water, and urban development before the Zapatistas declared a protected zone in 2007.  Since then, the Junta de Buen Gobierno planted 2,000 trees in deforested sectors, and animals are beginning to return to the area. 2. DISSIDENT TEACHERS CREATE PARALLEL LEADERSHIP Dissident members of the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE) formed a parallel leadership council during their First Grassroots Congress in an effort to challenge the power of current union president Elba Esther Gordillo.  Sergio Espinal Garcia, former general secretary of Section 18 in Michoacan, was unanimously elected general secretary of the dissident faction.  The parallel structure will not seek formal recognition from the Calderon administration, which in any case would be unlikely.  The First Grassroots Congress included teachers from eight states, but did not include representatives from the most militant elements of the SNTE in Oaxaca, Chiapas and Section 9 of the Federal District.  The First Grassroots Congress wants to maintain union unity, even in the face of widely acknowledged corruption by Gordillo and her family who exercise firm control over SNTE finances and politics.  The more radical dissident factions are calling for the formation of a separate independent union.  The SNTE is the largest union in Latin America with about 1.3 million members. In related news, on July 1 Gordillo imposed Maria Perez as general secretary of the dissident Section 9 in the Federal District.  The “election” was held in the patio of an obscure home on the north side of the city, attended only by allies of Gordillo after the union president was unable to buy enough votes for her chosen candidate through distribution of housing credits and other favors.  President Carlos Salinas de Gotari appointed Gordillo president of the SNTE in 1989, and she has exercised near dictatorial control over the union ever since.  She led the PRI bank of Congress during part of the Fox administration, but always maintained close relations with the PAN president.  She broke with the PRI during the 2006 elections, forming her own political party.  Gordillo is largely responsible for the manipulations of the 2006 presidential election that brought Calderon to power.  Calderon re-paid Gordillo by appointing one of her family members as assistant Secretary of Education.  She is widely seen as one of the most corrupt union officials in the history of Mexico. 3. PRD CALLS FOR UNITY ON ENERGY REFORM Guadalupe Acosta, the interim president of the PRD, proposed a meeting this week with leaders of the PRI and PAN to discuss a unified approach to energy reform.  Acosta represents the faction of the PRD aligned with Jesus Ortega, a group that has been willing to negotiate with the Calderon administration in the past.  Elements of the PRD aligned with former presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador refuse to recognize Calderon as the legitimate president.  On Saturday, Lopez Obrador called on Calderon to withdraw his energy reform proposal that would privatize and allow foreign control of large segments of the petroleum industry. 4. SEDENA ACCUSED OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES On Friday, the Federal Human Rights Commission (CNDH) issued a report on eight new cases of military abuse and torture.  In one case, army troops shoved splinters of wood under the finger and toenails of an immigrant caught near the US border, then forced him to drink large amounts of alcohol by forcing a tube down his throat.  They left him passed out in the Sonora desert, but miraculously he survived.  In a separate case, troops applied electric shocks to the testicles of two men and to the stomach of a third while searching their homes without warrants during drug sweeps in Michoacan.  Other cases include assassinations, torture, arbitrary detentions, robbery, and warrantless home searches.  High Long message truncated by MailBucket.

Mesoamérica, 14 de julio.- Del 14 al 16 de julio se realiza en Managua, Nicaragua el VII Foro Mesoamericano. Semanas después de la aprobación del Plan México y el Proyecto Mesoamérica que afectarán a la región. El VII Foro será una respuesta organizada de los pueblos ante estas estrategias neoliberales.

El Foro Mesoamericanos de los pueblos se ha convertido en el espacio de los pueblos donde convergemos la representación diversa de luchadores y luchadoras sociales centroamericanos para organizarnos para trazar estrategias comunes de resistencia y articulación de alternativas frente al modelo neoliberal que viene generando mayor desigualdad, pobreza, injusticia y militarización en nuestra región, como región frente. Este espacio nace en México donde un grupo de luchadores/as preocupados por el denominado Plan Puebla Panamá, como proyecto de expansión norteamericano, plantea la necesidad de alertar y organizar a los pueblos de la región para hacer ante estas imposiciones. El PPP sin embargo resulto ser una de tantas manifestaciones de los designios contra Mesoamérica en tanto posteriormente aparecen los procesos de negociación de Tratados de Libre Comercio, de espaldas a los pueblos, hasta llegar ahora al reto que impone la negociación de denominados Acuerdos de Asociación con la Unión Europea.

Estos hechos, acompañados de procesos de fortalecimiento de los sectores militaristas de la región, vuelve necesario el sostenimiento organizativo para hacer frente a los mega proyectos que trascienden fronteras, subordinando a los gobiernos de la región entregados a su vez a los intereses de los grandes capitales transnacionalizados de Estados Unidos y de la región. La resistencia se hizo sentir en la región aun cuando fueran aprobados los Tratados de manera ilegítima destacándose la resistencia del pueblo de Costa Rica que impuso la condición de consultar a la población. Cabe valorar la nueva estrategia neoliberal de libre comercio, impactos ambientales, deuda y mecanismos de dominación financiera, incluyendo el papel de la denominada cooperación para el desarrollo. Es urgente asimismo revisar el llamado Plan Mérida preparado por el gobierno de Estados Unidos para fortalecer a los organismos represivos en la región, alegando la lucha anti-drogas y anti-terrorista.

Visitar la página del VII Foro Mesoamericano

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21 Caracas Daily Newspapers, Diverse Community Radio and TV Stations, Disprove the US-Propagated Myths

By Andrew Kennis
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
July 14, 2008

http://www.narconews.com/Issue54/article3161.html

Conforman movimiento ciudadano por la construcción de un parque recreativo...