(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?

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…)

Would it have been too much for the Times to mention the fact that protestors/witnesses had identified then-current members of the Mexican government shooting at the protestors and that there was photographic evidence of this!?

After you read this piece, check out the excellent blog on Narcosphere of journalist Kristin Bricker for the real scoop.

The state and federal officials responsible for investigating the murder of Brad Will were strongly denounced by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) which declared that the federal and state attorneys general have violated ‘human rights, legality, judicial security and access to justice.’

Soberanes of the CNDH has also given the AGs a very short time frame to find and punish those who botched the investigation immediately after the murder and thereafter.

Well, at least they wrote about it. Really key for us to reach out to our Representatives to demand they speak out against this cover-up of Brad Will’s murder and the intimidation of witnesses.

Rob

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/18/world/americas/18mexico.html?_r=1&ref=worl
d&oref=slogin

Mexico Says U.S. Journalist Was Killed by a Protester
By ELISABETH MALKIN
Published: October 17, 2008

MEXICO CITY — Bradley Will, a journalist from New York City, was shot and killed at close range by an antigovernment protester during civil unrest in the state of Oaxaca two years ago, the Mexican authorities said Friday, a conclusion that was challenged by Mr. Will’s family and human rights groups.
(more…)

Nick Cooper went to Mexico City to receive an award for Brad and he was interviewed twice — once before his trip by a radio station in Phoenix, and also during his trip on KPFT Houston.

The state and federal officials responsible for investigating the murder of Brad Will were strongly denounced by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) which declared that the federal and state attorneys general have violated ‘human rights, legality, judicial security and access to justice.’

Soberanes of the CNDH has also given the AGs a very short time frame to find and punish those who botched the investigation immediately after the murder and thereafter.

Very strong stuff. Guess we’ll find out who prevails.

You can see the document of CNDH here: http://www.cndh.org.mx/recomen/recomen.asp

The document details many of the glaring omissions and irregularities by the Mexican government and the (Prosecutor General of the Republic (PGR) in the case of Brad Will’s murder. The CNDH finds the theory peddled by Lizbet Cana (Oaxacan State Prosecutor) and by the federal prosecutor that Brad was killed by APPO people standing near him absurd.

Great piece by journalist Clarence Page. One mistake: his implication that Amnesty International opposed the Merida Initiative. They didn’t; they supported it on ‘condition’ that it included notoriously inadequate human rights safeguards. Even though the final bill did not have even these safeguards, Amnesty refused to issue a statement of opposition to the Merida Initiative.

Sad testament to that human rights organization.

RJ

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080629/OPINION03/806290306

Drug wars next door

As if our military didn’t have its hands full in Iraq and Afghanistan, the head of the Minuteman Project border security group seems to think they might also make good narcotics cops.

Minuteman cofounder Jim Gilchrist suggested in recent radio interviews that the U.S. give Mexico 12 months to corral its criminal drug cartels and rising violence, particularly in border towns like Juarez and Tijuana — or deploy the U.S. Army to do the job. (more…)

LASC writes that “Numerous Mexican and international human rights organizations have expressed concern that Merida Initiative aid for Mexico’s military and police constitutes a recipe for unchecked human rights violations. . . . Vague human rights provisions in the bill would not change this reality.”

We agree.

And now that the human rights conditions” which Amnesty International and WOLA advocated as necessary for them to support the Merida Initiative are being softened into ‘guidelines’, we urge them to make their voices heard in opposition to this military aid package. An action alert from Amnesty may undo all of the tacit support they’ve given this Bush initiative to date. RJ

LASC Position on the Merida Initiative
June 2008

As Congress enters the final stages to approve the Merida Initiative, an aid package to Mexico and Central America that seeks to further militarize the region under the guise of the U.S.’s “war on drugs/war on terror,” we find manifold reasons to stand in opposition: (more…)

Another way of saying ‘political pressure’ is ‘lack of political will’, a reality which an arms package (i.e. the Merida Initiative) would only make worse. The case of Brad Will mentioned below. RJ

http://www.cpj.org/news/2008/americas/mexico09jun08na.html

Calderón endorses federalization of crimes against freedom of expression

Mexico City, June 9, 2008—President Felipe Calderón today pledged his commitment to federalize crimes against freedom of expression in a meeting with the Committee to Protect Journalists in Mexico City.

Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora announced draft legislation that would amend Article 73 of Mexico’s political constitution and would make a federal offense any crime causing “social alarm,” including threats to freedom of expression.

“The government agrees with the idea of federalizing crimes against freedom of expression,” Calderón said. He said the proposed legislation would be brought before Congress at its next session in September.

Calderón met with a CPJ delegation led by board Chairman Paul Steiger and Executive Director Joel Simon at his official residence, Los Pinos. CPJ expressed concern at ongoing violence against journalists who cover organized crime and official corruption, and highlighted the climate of fear in which the Mexican media work.

“The most important threat to independent journalists in Mexico is the same threat faced by society as a whole—organized crime,” Calderón said. (more…)