What happened in Cauca?

Colombian friends took to Facebook this week following a stand-off between soldiers and people from the indigenous Nasa community in the Department of Cauca with an unusual intensity for a country often numbed to so much violence.

Why such a reaction? I can't begin to explain. The more I learn about Colombia the more clouded and undefinable the layers of conflict in this beautiful country seem to me. Here are some resources that hopefully provide context to the ongoing battle between the military and the FARC, and the immense toll such violence takes on the innocent people caught in the middle.

Latin American Working Group's Colombian Campaign. Noticias 24's coverage with video of President Santos' statement. A write-up from Foreign Policy. Images from the BBC. The fairly in-depth AP story with a focus on political fallout.

Reigning in Mexico's Military

In a country where the military is still disappearing its citizens amidst the fog of the war on drugs, the Mexican Supreme Court's unanimous decision last week ordering military personnel to be tried in civilian courts, not secretive military tribunals, for human rights violations is a step in the right direction. The tribunals proceedings are hardly transparent and result in very few convictions. Allegations of serious abuses are also on the rise. Since the beginning of President Calderon's term, the National Human Rights Commission, CNDH, has received 4,772 reports of kidnapping, torture, and murder.

However, Mexico's civilian courts are rife with massive problems of their own. Endless detentions, due process, and witness intimidation are institutionalized. The documentary film, Presunto Culpable, demonstrates the depth of the challenges facing judicial reformers and the impunity that bad actors within the security forces enjoy. What's more, top military brass are grumbling in public about the Court's decision, pinning allegations of murder and kidnapping on drug gangs seeking to, in the words of Secretary of the Navy Admiral Mariano Francisco Saynez, "damage the image of our institutions."

The case of Rene Jasso Maldonado belies the Navy Secretary's assertion. Jasso's home in Monterrey was raided in June and he was taken from his family. He has not been seen since. The New York Times clearly states that it was the military who conducted the raid yet they, and the state police, claim they were not in the area and don't have their son. The family flatly denies that the raid and kidnapping could have been the work of a drug gang posing as the military. His brother claims that, "they would have wiped out the witnesses."

The Court's ruling is a first step. Beyond the massive reforms needed within civilian courts is a plan to quickly move existing cases out of the military tribunals and free up courts to open new cases. Apparently, a process has not yet been unveiled and the military's full cooperation is doubtful. President Calderon and Congress should move to create a special civilian court to hear cases of alleged violations committed against Mexican citizens by members of the military sworn to protect them. This though would be further than Calderon has been willing to move thus far. His military campaign has been mostly popular with Mexicans and his full recognition of the military abuses would cut against his strategy and public statements.

Narco-corridos in Colombia

The outlaw Mexican genre has been popular but shunned by most mainstream outlets in Colombia for 30 years.

¿De qué se ríe La Barbie?

Mexico captured a big fish yesterday, Texas born Edgar Valdez Villareal, inexplicably nicknamed 'La Barbie'. Once a top deputy to Arturo Beltran Leyva, who was killed by the military last year, La Barbie has been duking it out with Beltran Leyva's brother, Hector, for control of the cartel. This rivalry has put Cuernavaca and parts of Guerrero in the cross-hairs of a factional battle and has gripped the region with fear and death.

La Barbie's henchman are linked to the horrendous massacre of the family of the sole marine killed in the operation that took down Beltran Leyva last December.

One thing to note is that Calderon's government has been criticized for picking winners or cutting deals when battles for cartel control spin into the public sphere with awful repercussions for innocent victims. For instance, was Ignacio Villareal, a top deputy of 'El Chapo' Guzman killed in exchange for lessened violence in Sinaloa? Does the capture of La Barbie mean that Hector Beltran Leyva can rest easy and move his product without a meddlesome rival?

La Corte Suprema se apaga la luz en el SME

The Mexican Supreme Court has finished off Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LyFC), the bloated utility that provided middling service to millions of Mexicans throughout DF, EdoMex, and portions of surrounding states. The Court's opinion, reached unanimously, states that Calderon's takeover was constitutional and within his powers to disband a "decentralized entity" when it ceases to be economically viable.

As reported last October, on the same evening that Mexico qualified for the 2010 World Cup, President Calderon sent in hundreds of troops to shut down LyFC and transfer operation to the Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE). In doing so, he took on a weakened and unpopular political nemesis, the Sindicato Mexicano de Electristas (SME) and its 44,000 LyFC electricians. Many hoped, he would be so brave as to take on the corrupt teachers' union (SNTE) leadership and the drug cartels with the same degree of success. But Elba Esther Gordillo, head of the SNTE, has proven to be too valuable of an ally. The cartels are another story.

Mexican Elections: A Readout

Mexico went to the polls yesterday to elect 12 governors and dozens of presidentes municipales. The results appear to show the status quo holding steady, with the PRI holding 6 governorships, losing 3 state houses while gaining 3 others. However, the expectations were high for the PRI and the 3 states lost were symbolically and strategically important for several reasons.

In Oaxaca, a similar coalition to one built in 2004 and the same candidate from that year, Gabino Cue, beat back the PRI, who have controlled Oaxaca since 1929. The outgoing governor, Ulises Ruiz, was accused of stealing the '04 election and oversaw tremendous state repression during the '06-'07 civil unrest. He was also found responsible for violating the human rights of Oaxacan citizens by the Supreme Court last fall. In Sinaloa, another PAN-PRD coalition candidate, Mario Lopez Valdez, pulled off an upset over the former mayor of Culican who has been connected to powerful drug traffickers for decades. And in Puebla, the outgoing PRI governor, who used the power of his office to kidnap a muckraking journalist, seemed to taint his party's candidate in yesterday's election.

Neither the PAN nor the PRD though can be considered yesterday's victors. About President Calderon and the PAN, the AP wrote, "Calderon's conservative National Action Party won not a single state on its own, and lost two it had held, and needed desperate alliances with leftists to wrest strongholds from the old ruling party."

The PRD is still in shambles following Lopez Obrador's fractious leadership over the party and will need a personally dynamic candidate untainted by (and possibly at odds) with AMLO in 2012 to inspire any following. Is Marcelo Ebrard such a candidate?

In the end, the PRI is still well-positioned to take Los Pinos in 2012 but will now have to run on its governing record as the majority party in Congress and the party with nearly 2/3rds of Mexico's governorships. For the record, the prospect of the PRI, whose continued political philosophy is its own self-interest, retaking the presidency would be a step back for Mexican democracy. But, as they say, nations end up with the leaders they deserve.

The PAN-PRD alliance could offer a viable pathway towards the governorship in Estado de Mexico, currently held by the PRI's leading presidential candidate, Enrique Pena Nieto. A loss by the PRI there would deflate his prestige slightly. The PAN-PRD players would do well to remember the battles they waged together in 1988 after Salinas stole the election from Lazaro Cardenas.

Unsettling narco-war thought of the day

From the LA Times:

"If the fundamental institution of any state, the armed forces, can't prevail in the battle against narco-trafficking, then what is next?" asked Jose Luis Pineyro, an expert on national security at Mexico City's Autonomous Metropolitan University. "It is the last recourse." 

La Impunidad

Within the past several days, two disturbing incidents occurred across Latin America which underscore the profound challenges for the rule of law and the struggle against impunity. Following the military operation in Mexico that resulted in the death of Arturo Beltran Leyva, one of the country's three most powerful narcos, questions were raised about photographs that showed the body in a disrespectful manner echoing the calling cards of murders committed by the narcos themselves.

One member of the Mexican Navy was killed in that operation and on Tuesday morning Beltran Leyva's cartel sought revenge. Hours after the family of that fallen soldier buried their son at a funeral attended by President Calderon they were killed by hitmen aligned with Los Zetas. Four people have now been arrested and it appears that members of the Tabasco state police force, where the family lived, were also involved.

Javier Ibarrola had this to say in an L.A. Times article, "We are not facing a criminal group but a corps of combatants who are going to exact revenge and take territory from the government. The government is not prepared for this. Presidential speeches do not scare them."

The second incident occurred in Colombia. There, the governor of the state of Caqueta was abducted and found dead less than a day later. Luis Francisco Cuellar had been kidnapped on four previous occasions. He appeared with President Uribe as recently as this past Saturday. Ten assailants, presumably FARC members, killed one guard, injured others, and used grenades to gain entry into Cuellar's residence.

Both of these attacks, on two targets with distinctly different public profiles, demonstrate that Mexico and Colombia's success in rolling back these destabilizing elements has not had a significant impact on their ability to wage high-profile operations. The narcos, and to a lesser extent, FARC, have used fear in unprecedented ways to preserve their power. Gruesome murders and indiscriminate violence against journalists and other members of society not involved in government or security have abetted their sense of impunity.

These groups have also benefited from the deep levels of mistrust that many Colombians and Mexicans have in their governments. Whether it is the complicity of politicians or members of the security apparatus (from the highest levels down to rank and file police officers) in Mexico's drug trade or Colombian officials implicated in violence committed by paramilitary groups, entrenched corruption in these countries has stifled the popular support for not just the objectives of these campaigns against criminal activity, but for the methods and individuals waging them. The impunity afforded to narcos and rebel groups across Latin America will be protected as long as this critical support is lacking.

"So that they learn repect"

Mexico's limited success in the drug war is becoming its own worst enemy in the struggle for hearts and minds. This past weekend, an elite Mexican navy team killed one of the nation's most powerful cartel leaders in a gun battle that lasted over 90 minutes outside of Cuernavaca. The images of a lifeless Arturo Beltran Leyva that appeared in the country's newspapers echoed the public relations objectives of the narcos themselves when leaving behind victims. Namely, to instill fear and demonstrate unchecked power.

The Mexican political commentator, Jorge Chabat, wrote in El Universal that, "The humiliated corpse, with its pants lowered, covered with bloody bills in one photo and religious objects in another, showed the typical modus operandi of narco-traffickers." He continued, "The only thing missing was a sign saying 'so that you learn to respect' to confirm the unmistakable stamp of an act of narco revenge."

For his part, the Interior Minister, Fernando Gomez-Mont said that, "The Mexican government fulfills its duty to halt organized-crime activity, but it does not get into personal humiliation." An investigation has been opened to determine who "dressed up" the corpse-the military or local coroner specialists. If in fact members of the military are increasingly adopting such narco tactics it seems hardly appropriate that they investigate themselves, afterall we know how well narcos respect the rule of law.

Narco-Lingo

Here's an interesting little article, more of a glossary, from Ken Ellingwood at the LA Times about the words that have been invented, or whose meanings have been transformed, to properly speak of the narco-violence that is racking Mexico.

What is it called when someone, or there remains, are dropped into a barrel of acid? I don't know, but the man who trademarked this unspeakable act went by the handle, 'el pozolero'. He was arrested in January of this year.

The Times' entire series, Mexico Under Siege, is remarkable and well-worth looking over.

Just what has Colombia done to earn such a close partnership with the US?

There are many questions about Colombia's place in the US orbit these days. This seemingly democratic country, and strong US ally, has one of the poorest human rights records in the Americas and yet they have continuously lucked out on being at the right place at the right time on the war on drugs . What have they done, in fact, to earn a free trade agreement? And just what does an Administrative Security Department do apart from conducting political killings, selling intelligence to the highest bidder, and indiscriminate wiretapping in a country where such a practice is illegal? 

Lastly one would like to know, what more must a country whose president has scrubbed the constitution for a second time in order to run for president and whose own government is complicit in the deaths of scores of trade unionists and human rights activists do get on the bad side of the Obama administration? Apparently a lot more:

Ian C. Kelly, a State Department spokesman, said last week that the accusations of illegal wiretapping were “troubling and unacceptable.” But in the same statement, he said Colombia’s human rights record was satisfactory enough to meet standards allowing Mr. Uribe’s government to receive all of the military assistance included in the $545 million in American aid that Colombia was set to receive this year.

Mexico decriminalizes pot, other drugs; Mexicans shrug

Mexico finally pushed through a law to decriminalize small amounts of a host of different drugs. This makes good on the legislature's attempt back in 2005-2006 to do so, only to be pushed back by Presidente Fox, who bent to Washington's threats and blocked the bill. Interestingly enough however, none of Mexico's biggest dailies (e.g. Reforma, El Universal, or La Jornada) were carrying the story on their websites in any sort of prominent way...if it all. Which may speak to the fact that many Mexicans believe that drug addiction is a US problem, though certainly with ill-effects for Mexico.

In other news, the PRD president of Guerrero's congress was assassinated as he left his home. Another drug murder, no sadder than the thousands of others this year.

Mexican Ambassador in Los Angeles This Evening

The Zocalo Public Square Lecture Series will host Ambassador Sarukhan this evening at the Disney Concert Hall. The ambassador gives an interesting response on the question of marijuana legalization towards the end of this interview from April, just prior to President Obama's visit. I suppose the Mexican government's willingness to seriously discuss decriminalization and the like is not news, however, it is a rare occurrence when these views are aired in the US media.