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.
On September 30th, 2008, in Mexico City,The National Council of Citizen Communicators (known for its Spanish initials CONACC) presented an award in the name of Brad Will. Nick Cooper of Friends of Brad Will attended the ceremony to accept the award in Brad’s name.
CONACC was founded on September 17, 2006 at the Journalists Club of Mexico, a day after the formal establishment of the Democratic National Convention. Initially the founding states were the Federal District and Durango with the later they were joined Sonora, Baja California, Yucatan, the State of Mexico, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Nuevo León, Guerrero, the United States, Venezuela, Cuba, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and Panama.
CONACC celebrated its second anniversary with the Ricardo Flores Magon award to reporters and “citizen communicators” for achievements in journalism, ethics, and commitment to the community. Other recipients included families, friends and suporters of those killed in the the 2006 police attack in Atenco, and families of those killed in the March cross-border raid by Colombian troops of a FARC encampment in Ecuador.
more coverage and audio in Spanish
Nick’s presentation in Spanish (English below):
Es un gran privilegio el recibir este honor aquí, además es un privilegio mio que tengo suficientes recursos economicos-, y el apoyo de mucha gente para poder venir. Mil gracias a Robert, Lee, Hardy, Christine, Selina, Massoud, Dorinda, Julita, Patricia, Richard, Luis, Magdalena, y Alexander por la ayuda que me han dado. El privilegio desempeña un gran papel en la vida de gente como Brad Will y yo mismo, quienes tenemos suficiente para viajar, tener equipo, de llegar a un lugar, participar, aprender, hacer periodismo, y al final regresar a casa. Sin embargo, en octubre de 2006, Brad no fue capaz de salir de Oaxaca vivo y regresar a casa. (more…)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-carlsen/mexican-torture-training_b_111784.html
Mexican Torture Training Raises Questions About U.S. Military/Police Aid
by Laura Carlsen published at the Huffington Post.
Excellent piece! Carlsen raises troubling questions on the role of human rights organizations in supporting funds for institutions which have and continue to abuse Mexican and Latin American people with impunity!
She writes: “Some Washington human rights groups have claimed that Plan Mexico will help Mexico reform and eliminate illegal practices such as torture. But the aid package funds the same forces that commit those atrocities with virtual impunity.”
Add your comments at Huffington Post to get that important discussion continued! Help provide attention to the campaign we’ve been working on:
Demanding accountability for Brad Will’s murder and the murder of many other innocent people by the Mexican security forces;
Exposing u.s.g. support for right-wing human rights abusing governments and institutions in Mexico and El Salvador;
Amplifying how popular movements for human rights and against corruption are at risk from the Bush/Leahy Merida Initiative;
Exposing the role of some d.c.-based ‘human rights’ organizations in legitimizing the ‘drug war’ as a pretext for increasing militarization under Merida!
From article: “Two videos of a torture-training session with the police force of León, Guanajuato shocked the Mexican public last week and raised serious questions about human rights under the Calderon offensive against organized crime. For readers with strong stomachs, the videos can be found here.” (link at Huffington Post).
An altar to Brad Will, created by artist Tanyth Berkeley, whose work has been featured at the Museum of Modern Art will be on display at the world renowned BELLWETHER gallery.
July 10th - August 8th, 2008 Opening Reception: Thursday, July 10th, 6-8PM
Vanessa Albury, Tanyth Berkeley & Todd Chandler, Tammy Rae Carland,
Patricia Cronin, Amrita Das, Leela Devi, Rob Hauschild, Paa Joe,
Joss paper effigies, Roy Kortick, Lisa Ross, Victorian hair
wreaths, Marc Swanson & Joe Mama-Nitzberg
Curated by Becky Smith
If Love Could Have Saved You, You Would Have Lived Forever is an
exhibition of art and objects that reference the aesthetics, material
culture, and traditional gestures surrounding death and remembrance.
(more…)
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…)
By Stephen Lendman
Global Research, May 27, 2008
It’s called “Plan Mexico,” or more formally the “Merida Initiative,” and here’s the scheme. It’s to do for Mexicans what Plan Colombia has done to that nation since 1999, and, in fact, much earlier. Since then, billions have gone for the following:
– to establish a US military foothold in the country;
– mostly to fund US weapons, chemical and other corporate profiteers; it’s a long-standing practice; in fact, a 1997 Pentagon document affirms that America’s military will “protect US interests and investments;” in Colombia, it’s to control its valuable resources; most importantly oil and natural gas but also coal, iron ore, nickel, gold, silver, emeralds, copper and more; it’s also to crush worker resistance, eliminate unions, target human rights and peasant opposition groups, and make the country a “free market” paradise inhospitable to people; (more…)
AFL-CIO opposes the Merida Initiative
Clicking on the link above will allow you to download the AFL-CIO pdf of letters to Chair of Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Berman (D-California) and Chairman of the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight Congressman Delahunt (D-Massachusetts).
We’ve been letting them know what they should do:
i) publicly oppose Bush’s Merida Initiative;
ii) hold hearings w/opponents to the Merida Initiative; and
iii) officially table consideration of Merida Initiative for funding until the next President, who would have to live w/destabilizing effects of Bush’s newest ill-thought out “security” initiative, is elected.
They should not be only listening to boosters of Bush’s newest ’security’ aid package, allowing it to be tucked away in the Iraq Emergency Supplemental instead of standing on its own merits (or lack thereof).
Denouncing the appointments of members of El Yunque, an ultra-right anti-semitic movement, to the highest levels of the Mexican government, Friends of Brad Will has told key Democratic Party leaders to reject the Bush military aid package called the Merida Initiative. Friends of Brad Will is a non-government organization advocating for accountability for the murder of U.S. journalist Brad Will, who was killed by Mexican government paramilitaries in October, 2006.
(more…)
There was much interesting discussion, sharing of perspectives and strategy.
We broke out into working groups and reported back to the whole.
Some participants: group picture.
These can be discussed at your next Friends of Brad Will meetings across the country and/or just carried out as your local groups see fit (feel free to contact FoBW folks in NYS and California to coordinate/strengthen efforts):
1. Organize to participate in an SPP (Plan Mexico) Counter-summit in New Orleans for the time around April 21-22nd.
2. Sign-on statements for organizations to express opposition to Plan Mexico and SPP and then provide to press/representatives.
3. Resolutions by municipal - city or state - governments.
4. Initiate a referendum/vote on Plan Mexico/SPP.
5. A call-in day to Congress/Parliament(s).
6. Set up individual meetings with Congress/Parliamentary representatives or their staffers.
7. Candidates questionnaires: circulate/request answers to questions by McCain, Obama, Clinton campaigns re. trade/security/human rights and publicize results.
8. Your ideas here.
