From Democracy Now!
Plan Mexico Cartoon by CXB
This is the flier that they were handing out, by the way like a third of the people inside clapped, including me. Spanish below.
September 17, 2008
Dear Friends,
We join a growing chorus of human rights activists, religious leaders and labor leaders opposing the militarization of South and Central American society under the pretext of a 'war on drugs'.
Why, after eight years of billions of dollars in resources under this false rubric, do we have 3.8 million internally displaced Colombians, greater coca production, and more human rights violations? Plan Colombia is a failure. Why is it a model for the Merida Initiative (aka Plan Mexico)?
We abhor the provision of human rights cover to these Bush-initiated projects in Latin America because it exemplifies a new and troubling facet of U.S. intervention in the region: the co-optation of human rights discourse and the paid involvement of local human rights authorities in U.S.-sponsored police and military training programs.
We will not obfuscate the political question of how the United States achieves regional hegemony in Latin America through a variety of practices. How can DC-based human rights groups subscribe to the notion that sending more money to corrupt military and police forces will improve human rights? Shouldn’t this be vigorously opposed?
At a moment when their voice could have been instrumental, Washington Office on Latin America testified before Congress not to oppose the Merida Initiative, but to counsel that helicopters the USG proposed sending Mexico must work well and warning that the Mexican government chafes at human rights oversight. While we demanded accountability for past abuses and protection against future ones, Sen. Dodd declared “(a)nything that smacks of certification is a nonstarter,” i.e. a blank check, no leverage to achieve accountability for outstanding and future violence.
This support by WOLA and Senator Dodd has provided Plan Mexico with a veneer of legitimacy. They have declared that already inadequate human rights safeguards like those used to 'protect' labor leaders and internally displaced communities in Colombia during 8 years of terror and right-wing consolidation of that country - would be further weakened to satisfy corrupt Mexican security forces and civilian government.
WOLA supports the 'war on drugs'!!! but would provide a bit less to thugs and crumbs to human rights documenting orgs unable to counter growing state repression but able to report it. And they actually honor Senator Dodd (D-Conn) tonight who advocated for more Sikorsky helicopters (manufactured in Connecticut) as part of Plan Colombia, actually introducing an amendment for more Black Hawks into the Senate bill, speaking on the floor about their superior load-bearing capacity etc.
This is a thoughtful plea to people seriously concerned about people’s lives and not just a career in ‘human rights’. We need to work together to stop the growing violence and turmoil in Central and South America, funded by the USA under the guise of the war on drugs, the war on terror and the war on immigrants.
· End military/police funding to Mexico now!
· End military/police funding to Colombia now!
· Stop pretending the ‘war on drugs’ can work!
· Do not defile the tradition of human rights by defending imperial projects as concerned with them.
Just say no!’ to 3.8 million IDP victims of Plan Colombia and future Mexican victims we can avoid by stopping Plan Mexico funding NOW.
For more info:
http://www.witnessforpeace.org/article.php?id=390
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17438347/how_america_lost_the_war_on_drugs
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5118
For more info: http://www.witnessforpeace.org/article.php?id=390 http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17438347/how_america_lost_the_war_on_drugs
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5118
Octubre, 2007 - El gobierno del los EE.UU. bajo la administración del presidente George Bush y el Congreso anuncia la iniciativa "Merida", otro proyecto imperialista contra América Latina.
Como si la década de los 80 no hubiese sido lo suficientemente violenta, Bush pide ahora más apoyo para:
-- Mercenarios de la compañia Blackwater
-- Aviones de vigilancia y entrenamiento para las fuerzas de 'seguridad' de México, las cuales son brutales.
-- Repetir el "Plan Colombia" con el asesinato de trabajadores y personas indígenas.
-- Helicópteros utilizados contra nuestras comunidades en Chiapas, Oaxaca y otros lugares.
La parlamentaria Nydia Velázquez fue contactada con urgencia para dirigir la jefatura en el plan de 'seguridad' de Bush para América Latina.
En los primeros dias de 2008, la organización "AFL-CIO" se unió con varias organizaciones de fe y con los Trabajadores Unidos del Acero en contra
de Plan México.
Los congresistas Nydia Velázquez y José Serrano, y todos los miembros de la delegación de la ciudad de Nueva York están apoyando este proyecto de imperialismo? ¿Por qué extienden la fallida "guerra contra las drogas"?
Para mas información, puede dirigirse a la página de Internet "Witness for Peace" (Testigos de la Paz) y ver su ALERTA DE ACCIÓN sobre Plan México.
Gracias por su atención.
http://witnessforpeace.org/article.php?id=502
Also go to http://www.lasolidarity.org and www.narconews.org
September 17, 2008
Dear Friends,
We join a growing chorus of human rights activists, religious leaders and labor leaders opposing the militarization of South and Central American society under the pretext of a 'war on drugs'.
Why, after eight years of billions of dollars in resources under this false rubric, do we have 3.8 million internally displaced Colombians, greater coca production, and more human rights violations? Plan Colombia is a failure. Why is it a model for the Merida Initiative (aka Plan Mexico)?
We abhor the provision of human rights cover to these Bush-initiated projects in Latin America because it exemplifies a new and troubling facet of U.S. intervention in the region: the co-optation of human rights discourse and the paid involvement of local human rights authorities in U.S.-sponsored police and military training programs.
We will not obfuscate the political question of how the United States achieves regional hegemony in Latin America through a variety of practices. How can DC-based human rights groups subscribe to the notion that sending more money to corrupt military and police forces will improve human rights? Shouldn’t this be vigorously opposed?
At a moment when their voice could have been instrumental, Washington Office on Latin America testified before Congress not to oppose the Merida Initiative, but to counsel that helicopters the USG proposed sending Mexico must work well and warning that the Mexican government chafes at human rights oversight. While we demanded accountability for past abuses and protection against future ones, Sen. Dodd declared “(a)nything that smacks of certification is a nonstarter,” i.e. a blank check, no leverage to achieve accountability for outstanding and future violence.
This support by WOLA and Senator Dodd has provided Plan Mexico with a veneer of legitimacy. They have declared that already inadequate human rights safeguards like those used to 'protect' labor leaders and internally displaced communities in Colombia during 8 years of terror and right-wing consolidation of that country - would be further weakened to satisfy corrupt Mexican security forces and civilian government.
WOLA supports the 'war on drugs'!!! but would provide a bit less to thugs and crumbs to human rights documenting orgs unable to counter growing state repression but able to report it. And they actually honor Senator Dodd (D-Conn) tonight who advocated for more Sikorsky helicopters (manufactured in Connecticut) as part of Plan Colombia, actually introducing an amendment for more Black Hawks into the Senate bill, speaking on the floor about their superior load-bearing capacity etc.
This is a thoughtful plea to people seriously concerned about people’s lives and not just a career in ‘human rights’. We need to work together to stop the growing violence and turmoil in Central and South America, funded by the USA under the guise of the war on drugs, the war on terror and the war on immigrants.
· End military/police funding to Mexico now!
· End military/police funding to Colombia now!
· Stop pretending the ‘war on drugs’ can work!
· Do not defile the tradition of human rights by defending imperial projects as concerned with them.
Just say no!’ to 3.8 million IDP victims of Plan Colombia and future Mexican victims we can avoid by stopping Plan Mexico funding NOW.
For more info:
http://www.witnessforpeace.org/article.php?id=390 http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17438347/how_america_lost_the_war_on_drugs http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5118 For more info:
http://www.witnessforpeace.org/article.php?id=390 http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17438347/how_america_lost_the_war_on_drugs http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5118 Octubre, 2007 - El gobierno del los EE.UU. bajo la administración del presidente George Bush y el Congreso anuncia la iniciativa "Merida", otro proyecto imperialista contra América Latina.
Como si la década de los 80 no hubiese sido lo suficientemente violenta, Bush pide ahora más apoyo para:
-- Mercenarios de la compañia Blackwater
-- Aviones de vigilancia y entrenamiento para las fuerzas de 'seguridad' de México, las cuales son brutales.
-- Repetir el "Plan Colombia" con el asesinato de trabajadores y personas indígenas.
-- Helicópteros utilizados contra nuestras comunidades en Chiapas, Oaxaca y otros lugares.
La parlamentaria Nydia Velázquez fue contactada con urgencia para dirigir la jefatura en el plan de 'seguridad' de Bush para América Latina.
En los primeros dias de 2008, la organización "AFL-CIO" se unió con varias organizaciones de fe y con los Trabajadores Unidos del Acero en contra
de Plan México.
Los congresistas Nydia Velázquez y José Serrano, y todos los miembros de la delegación de la ciudad de Nueva York están apoyando este proyecto de imperialismo? ¿Por qué extienden la fallida "guerra contra las drogas"?
Para mas información, puede dirigirse a la página de Internet "Witness for Peace" (Testigos de la Paz) y ver su ALERTA DE ACCIÓN sobre Plan México.
Gracias por su atención.
http://witnessforpeace.org/article.php?id=502 Also go to
http://www.lasolidarity.org and www.narconews.org
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