Photo
Abril 09, 2013
271 notas
Monument to honor up to 70,000 over 100,000 people killed in country’s drug war criticized for not naming the dead. Mexico City has opened a memorial to honor tens of thousands of victims of the country’s drug war. The government’s official monument was dedicated on Friday, four months after its completion, in a public event where relatives of the missing chased after the dignitaries in tears, pleading for help in finding their loved ones. Only some victims’ rights groups recognize the monument, while others picked an entirely different monument to place handkerchiefs painted with names and personal messages in protest of the official site, which does not bear a single victim’s name. “Other organisations asked us for other space because they’re against this one,” Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said at the official dedication of the government monument, which consists of steel panels bearing quotes from famous writers and thinkers.   “What took us so long was trying to get agreement among the groups, and we failed.” The memorial dispute arises from the fact that the Mexican government has yet to fully document cases of drug war dead and missing, despite constant pleas from rights groups, the public and orders from Mexico’s own transparency agency. The previous government of Felipe Calderon stopped counting drug war dead in September of 2011 and the new government of Enrique Peña Nieto has only provided monthly statistics for December, and January and February of this year. Estimates of those killed range from 60,000 to more than 100,000, and the missing from 5,000 to 27,000 The reason the monument doesn’t contain a single name is because including names and ages of victims would disclose the fact that innocent children, women, men, politicians, and journalists have died in this “war” on drugs, but most importantly, it would hold the Mexican government responsible to some extent for the lives of those well-over 100,000 people. This monument is an insult to the Mexican pueblo and the countless people who have lost loved ones to the War on Drugs .

Monument to honor up to 70,000 over 100,000 people killed in country’s drug war criticized for not naming the dead.

Mexico City has opened a memorial to honor tens of thousands of victims of the country’s drug war.

The government’s official monument was dedicated on Friday, four months after its completion, in a public event where relatives of the missing chased after the dignitaries in tears, pleading for help in finding their loved ones.

Only some victims’ rights groups recognize the monument, while others picked an entirely different monument to place handkerchiefs painted with names and personal messages in protest of the official site, which does not bear a single victim’s name.

“Other organisations asked us for other space because they’re against this one,” Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said at the official dedication of the government monument, which consists of steel panels bearing quotes from famous writers and thinkers.  

“What took us so long was trying to get agreement among the groups, and we failed.”

The memorial dispute arises from the fact that the Mexican government has yet to fully document cases of drug war dead and missing, despite constant pleas from rights groups, the public and orders from Mexico’s own transparency agency.

The previous government of Felipe Calderon stopped counting drug war dead in September of 2011 and the new government of Enrique Peña Nieto has only provided monthly statistics for December, and January and February of this year.

Estimates of those killed range from 60,000 to more than 100,000, and the missing from 5,000 to 27,000

The reason the monument doesn’t contain a single name is because including names and ages of victims would disclose the fact that innocent children, women, men, politicians, and journalists have died in this “war” on drugs, but most importantly, it would hold the Mexican government responsible to some extent for the lives of those well-over 100,000 people. This monument is an insult to the Mexican pueblo and the countless people who have lost loved ones to the War on Drugs .

Tags: Mexico war on drugs politics Latin America crime Latina

Quote
Diciembre 10, 2012
34 notas
"La primavera mexicana se enfrió, se ha convertido en invierno."

—

Jorge Gastélum, ITAM en el articulo de BBC Mundo ¿Murió la primavera mexicana?

The Mexican Spring became cold, it has turned into winter - Jorge Gastélum for the BBC World piece “Have the Mexican Springs died?”

It’s sad for many Mexicans to recognize the death of what could have been a Mexican Spring. The failure of this summer’s #Yosoy132 movement to truly organize into something more united and consistent, the lack of empathy by so many Mexicans, the drug war, and finally the the rampant corruption within the government that makes sure any kind of progressive movement gets stomped on and literally killed, were all factors in the death of the Mexican Spring. Me parte el corazón.

Tags: México politics yosoy132 Mexico War on Drugs

Link
Noviembre 25, 2012
46 notas
Mexico authorities find 19 bodies in mass graves

Mexican security forces have found 19 bodies in mass graves in the northern state of Chihuahua.

They said 11 of the bodies had been buried about two years ago in a desolate area about 40km (25 miles) southeast of Ciudad Juarez.

The remaining eight victims, who had been tortured and killed only days ago, were found along a road near the town of Rosales.

Chihuahua is one of the states hardest hit by drug-related violence in Mexico.

All the victims were male and had been shot dead. Many also showed signs of torture.

According to figures released earlier this year by Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission, 16,000 bodies remain unidentified and a total of 24,000 people are missing.

Most of them are believed to be victims of fighting between rival drug gangs or the military response to the drug violence.

The total of 24,000 people missing and the over 50,000 (which let’s be real,those are two extremely conservative numbers) add up to over 70,000 casualties to this backwards and complete failure of “War on Drugs”. Cases like these 19 bodies is what Calderón should have worried about in his 6-year presidency. Not trying to change Mexico’s name…

Tags: Mexico War on drugs politics

Text
Noviembre 23, 2012
89 notas

Mexico’s President Calderon seeks to change country’s name

yerba-santa:

political-linguaphile:

Mexico’s President Calderon seeks to change country’s name

The current name, the United Mexican States, was adopted in 1824 and was intended to emulate its northern neighbour.

President Calderon wants to change it to just Mexico, as the country is known the world over.

Mr Calderon, who leaves office on 1 December, said Mexico no longer needed to copy any foreign power.

WHAT. Ridiculous. This stunt is just Calderon’s sorry attempt to go down in Mexico’s history for something other than the fact that his presidency has been nothing but a murderous bloodbath. 

México es una nación de estados distintos y soberanos. Cambiando el nombre borra esa distinción múy central a la historia y desarollo social de nuestro país.

Si Calderon pretende distinguir a México de EEUU, quizás deber empezar por lo que los dos países tienen en común sobre todo—la pobreza en los pueblos y el desamparo de la gente indígena del continente.

yerba-santa: Mexico is a nation of different and sovereign states. Changing the name erases that very central distinction of our history and social development of our country. If Calderon wishes to distinguish Mexico from the U.S., maybe he should start by [changing] what these two countries have in common — the poverty in the “pueblos” and the abandonment of the indigenous people of this continent. 

Dropping some truth bombs. This is why I love César. You guys should go follow asap!

(vía yerba-santa-deactivated20121206)

Tags: Mexico Felipe Calderon politics war on drugs pinche pendejo

Link
Noviembre 23, 2012
89 notas
Mexico's President Calderon seeks to change country's name

The current name, the United Mexican States, was adopted in 1824 and was intended to emulate its northern neighbour.

President Calderon wants to change it to just Mexico, as the country is known the world over.

Mr Calderon, who leaves office on 1 December, said Mexico no longer needed to copy any foreign power.

WHAT. Ridiculous. This stunt is just Calderon’s sorry attempt to go down in Mexico’s history for something other than the fact that his presidency has been nothing but a murderous bloodbath. 

Tags: Mexico Felipe Calderon politics war on drugs pinche pendejo

Link
Octubre 16, 2012
24 notas
Drones, Special Forces on call to expand War on Terror to Africa

pieceinthepuzzlehumanity:

Related: The US expands the War on Drugs to Africa

Because the previous “War on Terror” and “War on Drugs” were a total success…

(vía pieceinthepuzzlehumanity-deacti)

Tags: news US africa war on terror war on drugs Special Forces drones

Quote
Agosto 17, 2012
28 notas
"This war’s failure is devastating: the 23 million American drug consumers are far from diminishing but increasing instead; in the past 5 years, Mexico has accumulated almost 70 thousand dead, more than 20 thousand missing people, more than 250 thousand have been displaced, along with hundreds of thousands of widows and orphans, and these figures keep rising. The American gun manufacturers arm the organized crime through illegal trade, while the Mérida Initiative legally arms the Mexican army, fostering war. The American jails imprison millions of human beings because of drug consumption. The immigrants are criminalized on this side of the border and extorted or made to disappear on the other side; the temptation to militarize using the police regime emerges on both sides, while setting a deep crisis for democracy and undermining the greatness of open societies."

— Javier Sicilia Talks to L.A. (via theamericanbear)

(vía jayaprada)

Tags: war on drugs javier sicilia drug policy US Wars politics