“There’s a proposal called autonomy, in the society from below, different from all those options that have been tried and that don’t work.”
- Gloria Arenas from “Mexico’s Hidden War”
The Rigours: Despite the frequency with which journalists are slain in Mexico, it...
Despite the frequency with which journalists are slain in Mexico, it is highly unusual for their families to be targeted. Lopez Velasco was killed with his wife, Agustina Solana, 53, and 21-year-old son, Misael, a student, state government officials and the newspaper said. Another of Lopez’s sons,…
Tlachinollan works to achieve justice and dignity for the indigenous people in La Montana and Costa Chica, addressing issues of land, economic as well as cultural rights, and the consequences of the militarization of the region. The organization continues to demand accountability for the murder and torture of Raul Lucas and Manuel Ponce.
It is Tlachinollan director, Abel Barrera that you see speaking at the memorial service for Raul and Manuel above from Fault Lines’ “Mexico’s Hidden War.”
Source: tlachinollan.org
“They were warriors raised on the edges of this mountain in the dark night of the forgotten. They are the lions of community justice.” - Abel Barrera
Raul Lucas and Manuel Ponce were leaders of the Organization for the Future of the Mixtec People and denounced harassment by the Mexican army.
-from Al Jazeera Fault Lines, “Mexico’s Hidden War,” June 20, 2011
Source: youtube.com
From last night’s Al Jazeera Fault Lines episode “Mexico’s Hidden War,” the Community Police of the Costa Chica and La Montana regions of Guerrero are an example of autonomous organizing – of communities taking justice into their own hands, instead of leaving it to government authorities.
More on their site, http://www.policiacomunitaria.org/
Source: policiacomunitaria.org
Episode two on Season 2011 of Fault Lines, “Mexico’s Hidden War,” aired tonight on Al Jazeera. Above is the full episode; please do reblog and share.
The spectacular violence of Mexico’s drug war grabs international attention. Some 40,000 people have been killed since 2006, when President Felipe Calderon deployed Mexican military and security forces in the so-called war against the cartels — often in gruesome and sadistic ways.
But behind the headlines, under cover of impunity, a low-intensity war is being waged.
In the second episode of a two-part series, Josh Rushing and the Fault Lines team travel to the state of Guerrero to investigate claims that Mexican security forces are using the drug war as a pretext to repress indigenous and campesino communities. In one of Mexico’s poorest and top drug-producing states, where struggling farmers are surrounded by the narco-economy, we ask about the cost of taking the struggle against dispossession into your own hands.
A shot from Josh Rushing taken behind the scenes of the Fault Lines episode “Mexico’s Hidden War” first airing tonight, Monday, June 20th 2230 GMT on Al Jazeera English.
Legalization Won't Kill the Cartels
Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. Marijuana legalization has many merits, but it would do little to hinder the long-term economics of the cartels — and the violent toll they take on Mexican society.
For one thing, if marijuana makes up 60 percent of the cartels’ profits, that still leaves another 40 percent, which includes the sale of methamphetamine, cocaine, and brown-powder and black-tar heroin. If marijuana were legalized, the cartels would still make huge profits from the sale of these other drugs.
Plus, there’s no reason the cartels couldn’t enter the legal market for the sale of marijuana, as organized crime groups did in the United States after the repeal of Prohibition.
(by Sylvia Longmire)
ESPN The Magazine has a cover story this week profiling the same high school football team in Ciudad Juarez that ‘Impunity and Profits’ opens with.
A shot from Josh Rushing taken behind the scenes of the Fault Lines episode “Mexico’s Hidden War” airing Monday, June 20th 2230 GMT on Al Jazeera English.
