(Mentions the unresolved nature of Brad’s case and the corruption of the Mexican government)

by Frontera NorteSur

Rodriguez’s murder topped a spectacularly violent week, in which victims in public thoroughfares were shot during peak business hours, businesses were firebombed and the bodies were dumped with intimidating messages in public places.

Posted on November 14, 2008

El Diario de Juarez journalist Armando Rodriguez Carreon was well-known for countless stories about gangland killings in his hometown of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. For years, the 40-year-old police beat reporter tirelessly published pieces about the latest executions in a violence-torn city.

Rodriguez launched his journalistic career as a technician and photographer for the Ciudad Juarez Channel 44 television station before moving into print during the early 1990s. His newspaper career closely paralleled the violent rise of the Juarez drug cartel and the women’s slayings that became known worldwide as femicides. Popularly known as “El Choco,” Rodriguez was among the first reporters to write about the discoveries of raped and slain women on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez.

Rodriguez’s stories, which relied a lot on police sources and often did not implicate any particular suspects, were characterized by an almost matter-of-fact quality that kept to the narrative even as violence kept escalating. On Thursday morning, Nov. 13, Rodriguez became a victim himself when he was shot outside his home by a gunman who reportedly fled in a waiting car. (more…)

By Jorge Carrasco Araizaga and Francisco Castellanos J., Proceso
Translated from the original Spanish by Kristin Bricker for NarcoNews

Through confessions obtained “under torture” and with multiple irregularities, the Federal Attorney General’s office (PGR in its Spanish initials) maintains the three alleged culprits under arrest in the September 15 terrorist attack in Morelia, Michoacan—which left eight people dead and 106 injured—even though many family members and neighbors assure that the accused were in Lazaro Cardenas [250 miles south of Morelia] the moment the attacks occurred.

Juan Carlos Castro Galeana, Julio Cesar Mondragon Mendoza, and Alfredo Rosas Elicea, the suspects in the grenade attack, were kidnapped and tortured by armed men in Lazaro Cardenas and later brought to a house in Apatzingan, where they were tormented again, before federal authorities took charge of them.

According to the criminal investigation PGR/SIEDO/UEITA/110/2008, the accused say they were kidnapped and psychologically and physically tortured for days so that they would confess to the attack and to being members of Los Zetas.

According to their statements, which Proceso had access to, the kidnappings happened between September 18-23 in Lazaro Cardenas, a port city in the zone controlled by the La Familia cartel, which is involved in a turf war with Los Zetas for control of drug trafficking in Michoacan. La Familia had offered to undertake its own investigation to find people responsible for the attack.

Despite the fact that the Assistant Attorney General for Specialized Investigation of Organized Crime (SIEDO), Marisela Morales Ibañez, credited an anonymous call that revealed the location of those who are now detained, a memo provided to this weekly by a member of an intelligence organization says that on September 18 “there was a meeting between the security authorites in Michoacan and La F. (La Familia), in some cabins in the vicinity of Cuitzeo (security barracks), agreeing that they would detain various people” in order to blame the Morelia attacks and the grenade attack against the Michoacan Assistant Attorney General’s Office in Lazaro Cardenas, which occurred this past August. (more…)

As U.S. voters go to the polls the issue of the ‘war on drugs’ looms large both domestically and internationally.

The best journalism on the international ‘front’ has come out of Rolling Stone magazine[the failed ‘war on drugs’ (Dec. 2007)and the ‘war next door’ (Nov. 2008). On the domestic ‘front’, Alternet (Nov. 2008) has written a compelling short piece about efforts to undo some of the damage in the U.S.

And as a corruption scandal hits the Mexican AG’s (Prosecutor General of the Republic’s) office, with more than 35 of its officials revealed to be working for narcotraffickers. today’s New York Times also has an important piece from which a key excerpt is included here.

Take note that it is this AG’s office - which Bush’s Plan Mexico/Merida Initiative is slated to provide $60 million to - which promoted the cover up story that Brad was shot at close range and that he was shot by the activists who in reality were helping him (as is clear in the video and photographic footage, forensic and witness evidence etc.).

November 2, 2008
In Mexico’s Drug War, Sorting Out Good Guys From Bad
By MARC LACEY

It has long been known that drug gangs have infiltrated local police forces. Now it is becoming ever more clear that the problem does not stop there. The alarming reality is that many public servants in Mexico are serving both the taxpayers and the traffickers.

The latest corruption scandal has prompted President Calderón’s attorney general to order a restructuring and purging of his office, and specifically of Siedo, which was formed from another agency that was shut down after being infiltrated by drug spies.

The men in suits, it turns out, were both bureaucrats and bad guys, officials say, corrupt employees high up in an elite unit of the federal attorney general’s office who were feeding secret information to the feared Beltrán Leyva cartel in exchange for suitcases full of cash.

Their arrest, and the firing of 35 other suspect law enforcement officials, represents the most extensive corruption case that this country, which knows corruption all too well, has ever seen. And it raises a question that is on the lips of many Mexicans: how does one know who is dirty and who is clean?

Blindman’s Buff #228 by JOHN ROSS
Contact: 011-5255-5518-1213 X102 and johnross@igc.org

Excerpt of this excellent piece: “Then five local cops in civilian dress appeared at the head of the street about 35 to 50 meters away and turned their weapons on the APPO supporters milling around outside the compound. When the plainclothes police began to fire, Brad turned towards them, still filming. A .38 caliber slug caught him square in the chest. The impact caused him to drop his video camera and swerve to the left where a second bullet smashed into his right side destroying vital organs. Mortally wounded, Brad Will slid down to the sidewalk as the bullets continued to explode around him.”

AS THE DAYS OF THE DEAD DAWN OVER MEXICO, BRAD WILL IS STILL DEAD - AND KICKING!

MEXICO CITY (Oct. 31st) - The Dias de los Muertos, (November 1st & 2nd ) when Mexicans celebrate those who have passed on to Mictlan, are upon us again and Brad Will, the U.S. photo-journalist murdered at the height of the Oaxaca rebellion two years ago, is still dead - although his spirit keeps kicking. (more…)

English (Spanish translation below)
October 24, 2008
Press Release
Reporters Without Borders

Federal Authorities Opt for Impunity in Brad Will and Robert Mora Murders

Reporters Without Borders is outraged by the Mexican federal justice ministry’s response to a recent recommendation by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) regarding the October 2006 fatal shooting of US cameraman Brad Will of the Indymedia agency in the southern city of Oaxaca (see 2 October release).

Not only has the ministry ignored the serious irregularities in the Will murder investigation but, on 22 October, a judge announced the indictment and imminent trial of three supporters of the grass-roots Popular Assembly of Oaxaca Peoples (APPO), two of whom have been freed on bail. Arrest orders were also issued for seven witnesses on a charge concealing a crime. Will was covering the APPO’s demonstrations against the Oaxaca state government at the time of his death. (more…)

Communique from Adherents of the OTHER CAMPAIGN in Oaxaca, October 21, 2008

Faced with constant threats and harassment against us and our families, we
write this letter so that the men and women of Mexico and the world are
made aware of the abuse of power exercised recently by institutions such
as the Federal Attorney General.

We have a right to live in peace, as do our families. From the very
beginning, we five witnesses voluntarily came forward to contribute to the
resolution of this case.

We gave statements before the Federal Attorney General, contributing
information, we supplied testimony based on the real events, and we
presented counter arguments to that of the State Attorney General, given
that the information and investigation led by this institution has always
been full of irregularities, ambiguities, and omissions. (more…)

Following are key portions of the CNDH report (sept. 26th) on Federal and State investigations into Brad Will’s murder, mostly from sections entitled “Observations”, and a little bit from “Sintesis”
- translated by Jill F.

The National Human Rights Commission has analyzed the facts and evidence included in Case 2006/4886/5/Q and determines that the public authorities of the Oaxacan State Attorney General’s office, as well as those in the Federal Attorney General’s office who were responsible for overseeing the proceedings 11/FEADP/07 found in the office of the Special Prosecutor for Crimes Against Journalists, violated the fundamental rights of legality and judicial security. (more…)

Ed. this is a strong statement, well-worth the read for briefings to U.S. govt. reps. RJ

http://www.cndh.org.mx/recomen/2008/050.html
Recommendation 050/2008

National Human Rights Commission issued on September 26, 2008
Translated by Scott Campbell [Spanish original]

Summary: On October 27, 2006, Mr. Bradley Roland Will, video journalist for the business Indymedia, was deprived of life, and due to this, on the 28th of that month and year personnel from the National Commission went to the city of Oaxaca, Oaxaca, to gather pertinent information and documentation, in respect to the beginnings of preliminary investigation 1247/C.R./2006 by the Attorney General’s Office of the state of Oaxaca.

From the analysis of the facts and evidence that make up case file 2006/4886/5/Q, it was verified that the public servants of the Attorney General’s Office of the state of Oaxaca who participated in compiling preliminary investigation 1247/C.R./2006, as well as those in the Federal Attorney General’s Office charged with compiling enquiry 11/FEADP/07, based in the Special Prosecutor for Attention to Crimes Committed Against Journalists, violated fundamental rights of legality, of judicial security, of access to justice, according to information contained in articles 6; 14, second paragraph; 16, first paragraph; 17, second paragraph; 20, subsection B; 21, first paragraph; and 102, subsection A, second paragraph, of the Constitution of the United Mexican States, as well as 21 of the Constitution of the state of Oaxaca. (more…)

From article: “According to Robert Jereski from Friends of Brad Will, his organization chose to oppose Plan Mexico outright instead of pushing for human rights conditions because “we saw what happened with Plan Colombia and those human rights conditions. They didn’t stop that country from becoming the worst country in the world for rights for labor activists, where hundreds have been assassinated by the government or government-supported paramilitaries. We saw how ineffective the conditions were, that [Plan Colombia] resulted in 4 million displaced people driven off of resource-rich land by the same thugs the US government has been supporting through the Uribe government and military. We had serious doubts about (the) value of human rights conditions.

The big players in human rights, however, remained silent throughout much of the debate over Plan Mexico. Human Rights Watch did not take a stance on the initiative until after it was passed. Amnesty International only weighed in publicly after the measure had passed both houses of congress. Its Mexico office circulated a letter calling US collaboration with Mexico “appropriate and timely” and simply requested that human rights conditions be included in the final version that would be sent to the president. ”

Posted by Kristin Bricker - October 24, 2008

Official human rights ombudsman says the government believed Plan Mexico funds were conditioned on resolving Brad Will case

The Mexican government’s human rights watchdog, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH in its Spanish initials) slammed the Federal Attorney General’s office (PGR) yesterday over the arrests of Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) supporters in the Brad Will murder case.

The PGR arrested three APPO supporters and has issued warrants for eight more in the Will case. José Luis Soberanes Fernández, the head of the CNDH, said that with the arrests, the PGR made the decision “to ignore the body of evidence that we sent it” regarding the case.

One principal component of the CNDH report that the PGR explicitly rejected was that Will was shot from a distance of 35-55 meters, not the 2 meters that the PGR claims. Despite the fact that a forensic video specialist hired by the Will family has found bullet streaks in the last two frames of Will’s video, and that anyone who shot Will at close range would have appeared in his video since he was shot head-on, the PGR maintains that the APPO supporters standing around Will were the ones who murdered him. (more…)

Link to Albert Covelli’s Video