* BUSH VISIT: US MUST DO MUCH MORE, CALDERON TELLS BUSH
* CALDERON REVEALS MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY IMMIGRATED TO THE U.S.
* CHIAPAS MARCH TURNS UGLY
* OAXACA UPDATE: HUMAN RIGHTS CHIEF BLAMES GOV'T FOR ABUSES
* HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS CRITICIZE GOV'T PERFORMANCE TO OAS
* ARMS TRAFFIC FROM US TO MEXICO GROWING
* GMO I: GREENPEACE DEMANDS PRESSURE TO HALT GM RICE EXPORTS
* GMO II: GOVERNMENT HALTS US RICE SHIPMENTS OVER GMO ISSUE
Committee of Indigenous Solidarity (CIS). CIS is a Washington, D.C.
based activist group committed to the ongoing struggles of Indigenous
peoples in the Americas. CIS is actively supporting the struggles
of the Indigenous peoples of Mexico while simultaneously combating
related structures of oppression within our own communities.
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"Para Todos, Todo; Para Nosotros Nada"
BUSH VISIT: US MUST DO MUCH MORE, CALDERON TELLS BUSH
President Felipe Calderon chastised President Bush for doing too
little to stem the causes of illegal immigration and for failing to
curb the U.S. appetite for illegal drugs. Opening a two-day meeting
aimed at easing strained relations, Calderon reminded Bush that he
had once said that "there is no relationship the world over that is
more relevant to the United States than the one with Mexico."
"Unfortunately, because of the terrible events against the United
States, priorities changed," said Calderon, referring to the Sept. 11
attacks. "Nevertheless, I believe that it is now time to retake the
spirit of those words and to direct our relationship toward a path of
mutual prosperity." Calderon told Bush of the pain caused in Mexico
by the departure of millions of immigrants, a movement that has
divided families and emptied villages. The costs are more than
personal, he said. "Mexicans lose in each migrant the best of our
people: young people, working people, audacious people, strong
people," Calderon said. "This is why we want to generate jobs for
Mexicans here in Mexico, because that is the only way to truly solve
the immigration issue."
When it was his turn to speak, Bush repeated pledges made a day
earlier in Guatemala that he would work forcefully to pass
immigration overhaul this year, as well as reduce the demand for
illegal drugs. "I respect your views on migration," Bush said.
"Because we're working together, I believe we will make good progress
on this important issue. Together, we're working to ensure that we
have a secure and modern border that speeds the legitimate flow of
people and commerce, and stop those who threaten our common safety
and prosperity."
Calderon's opening remarks, delivered at a lush hacienda about 30
miles outside this former Mayan stronghold, were unusually pointed
for a welcome speech, when presidents tend to exchange pleasantries,
saving their differences for later, behind closed doors. White House
officials said the frank tone was not surprising. "The fact that they
were direct with each other in public and direct with each other
behind closed doors is a sign of the maturity of the relationship and
that we are partners," said Dan Fisk, Bush's top adviser on Latin
America. "But we both have domestic dynamics that neither president
is going to deny."
Protesting Bush's visit, several hundred protesters marched on the
embassy, tearing down barricades and attacking police with metal bars
and firecrackers. Around 30 people, wearing masks and dressed in
black, led the demonstration, in which US flags were set on fire and
banners with anti-Bush slogans were waved. A number of people were
arrested, and others suffered injuries when officers used tear gas,
pepper spray and baton charges.
Sources: Chicago Tribune: 03/14; Guardian Unlimited: 03/14
====
CALDERON REVEALS MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY IMMIGRATED TO THE U.S.
Underscoring the complex nature of the immigration debate, Mexican
President Felipe Calderon acknowledged that he has relatives living
and working in the United States. "Yes, I do have family in the
United States and what I can tell you is that these are people who
work and respect that country," Calderon said in response to a
question during a joint news conference with President Bush at the
end of Bush's two-day visit to Mexico. "They pay their taxes to the
government. These are people who work in the field. They work in the
field with vegetables. They probably handle what you eat," Calderon
said.
Calderon's admission confirmed what has long been rumored in Mexico -
that the president, like millions of his countrymen, has relatives
who've sought work in the United States. Bush, who grinned sheepishly
as the question was asked, listened attentively as Calderon talked.
"These are people who respect the United States," Calderon said.
"These are people who have children, who want these children to be
educated with respect for the land where they live and for Mexico."
Noting that he hails from Michoacan, a farm state in Mexico's
center-west with a huge rate of emigration to the United States,
Calderon suggested that his relatives are no different from the
estimated 12 million undocumented people who've gone north. "We want
them to come back. We want them to find jobs here in Mexico. We miss
them," he said. "These are our best people. These are bold people.
They're young. They're strong. They're talented. They have overcome
tremendous adversity. We're working so that they can come back to
their country some day."
Calderon said he didn't know his relatives' legal status. The remark
wasn't in the White House's English-language transcript, though it
remained in the Spanish transcript released in Mexico. "It's been a
long time since I've seen them," Calderon said. Government people
close to Calderon, who asked not to be identified because they're not
authorized to speak about his personal life, said the relatives were
second or third cousins. Calderon's first cousin, Gerardo Torres,
told McClatchy Newspapers that he believes Calderon has at least
three-second cousins in the United States. One is married to an
American, he said, and is in the United States legally. Two others
also work there; Torres said he thought they, too, were in the United
States legally.
Unlike many Mexican presidents, Calderon and his family don't come
from Mexico's elite. His father was a staunchly Roman Catholic
teacher and politician who co-founded the conservative National
Action Party after the Mexican Revolution of 1917 and was persecuted
for fighting for religious freedom when Mexican law severely
restricted the clergy and the church.
Bush didn't address Calderon's revelation, which came at the end of
their news conference. But earlier he pledged again to persuade
fellow Republicans to support a revamping of immigration law that
would include provisions for workers to remain in the United States.
"Amnesty's not going to fly. There's not going to be automatic
citizenship. It just won't work. People in the United States don't
support that and neither do I," Bush said. "Nor will kicking people
out of the United States work. It's not practical. It is not a
realistic solution. ... And so therefore there's got to be a middle
ground, a reasonable way to deal with the 12 million or so people
that have been in our country for a period of time."
Source: McClatchy Newspapers: 03/14
====
CHIAPAS MARCH TURNS UGLY
Members of an indigenous group opposed to the long-quiescent
Zapatista rebels beat two reporters from alternative media outlets as
they were covering a rally in Chiapas. There also were initial
reports that La Jornada newsman Hermann Bellinghausen had been held
by the demonstrators for several hours, but the newspaper's directors
told EFE that Bellinghausen denied that version of events.
Reporters that had been in the area confirmed that two of their
colleagues, Alonso Luna Giron from Enlace Civil, and Carlos Vazquez
Guzman of Promedios- Chiapas, were beaten by the indigenous who were
staging a demonstration in the municipality of Ocosingo. Members of
the Organization for the Defense of the Rights of Indigenous and
Campesinos, or OPDDIC, which is engaged in land disputes in the area
with supporters of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN),
were taking part in the rally. At one point during the demonstration,
members of the OPDDIC launched verbal attacks against the journalists
filming the rally and physically assaulted two of them.
Francisco Vazquez, legal representative of the local community group
Promedios, confirmed that Vazquez Guzman was covering the OPDDIC
march and said he had received reports that the journalist had been
attacked, along with another cameraman, by demonstrators who accused
them of belonging to the EZLN.
In a note published in La Jornada, Bellinghausen reported on presumed
training activity being conducted by OPDDIC members, who supposedly
possess AR15 and M16 assault rifles.
Source: El Universal: 03/09
====
OAXACA UPDATE: HUMAN RIGHTS CHIEF BLAMES GOV'T FOR ABUSES
The Mexican government was an accomplice in the killing of 20 people
in last year's conflict in the tourist city of Oaxaca and permitted
torture and illegal arrests, a rights watchdog said. In a report on
the conflict in which leftist activists tried to bring down Oaxaca's
governor, Mexico's National Human Rights Commission said federal,
state and municipal officials were responsible for human rights
violations. "Authorities and public officials ... either by action or
omission caused rights violations," including the right to life of 20
people, Jose Luis Soberanes, head of the autonomous state agency,
said on presenting the report to the Senate's rights commission.
During the six-month conflict in the city, famed for its colonial
architecture, exotic food and indigenous culture, protesters set up
hundreds of barricades and chased police from the downtown area to
try to oust state Gov. Ulises Ruiz. In response, death squad-style
groups, including men identified by local media as police officers,
toured the city at night shooting at protesters. The clashes
escalated, leading to the fatal shooting of a US activist journalist
and the occupation of the city by federal riot police. Police finally
regained control of the city after fierce street battles and massive
arrests. Soberanes, Mexico's highest rights official, said police
used excessive force, threats, illegal arrests and torture to take
back the city from protesters, and blamed the government for badly
managing the crisis.
Sen. Alejandro Gonzalez, a member of President Felipe Calderon's
National Action Party (PAN), told Reuters lawmakers were awaiting the
results of the government's own internal investigation, which he
hoped to see before the end of 2007. "If the investigation reflects
the issues raised in the National Human Rights Commission's report,
we must take action. We don't want more impunity," Gonzalez said. The
watchdog recognized that the protesters, who accuse Gov. Ruiz of
stealing an election, corruption and heavy-handedness, had also
exceeded their right to legitimate protest in some cases. Soberanes
warned the conflict had not been resolved and could flare up again if
social, economic and political issues were not resolved in the state,
one of the poorest in Mexico.
Source: Reuters: 03/15
====
HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS CRITICIZE GOV'T PERFORMANCE TO OAS
Mexican human rights organizations confronted their government during
three hearings at the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (IAHRC)
of the Organization of American States in Washington. Rights
advocates testified before the commission about torture, attacks on
journalists in Sinaloa and arbitrary detentions in Oaxaca.
Mario Solorzano of the Mexican Commission for the Defense and
Protection of Human Rights (CMDPDH) declared that 80 percent of
criminal confessions obtained between 1990 and 2004 were extracted
under torture. A report co-authored by the CMDPDH and the Human
Rights Program of Mexico's IberoAmerican University cited cases of
rape and other rights violations in San Salvador Atenco in May 2006,
and arbitrary arrests and torture in Jalisco in May 2004. The
governor of Jalisco at that time, Francisco Ramirez Acua, is now
secretary of the interior. The report also notes that while torture
is recognized as a basic human rights violation, it is defined and
punished differently in each state. "We still don't have a unified
set of criteria to define torture," observed Florentin Melendez,
president of the IAHRC.
Heading up the Mexican government delegation was Deputy Secretary for
Foreign Relations Juan Manuel Gomez Robledo. Representatives from the
Interior Secretariat, the armed forces and the federal Attorney
General's Office were also present. Gomez conceded that the country
still struggles with its authoritarian past, but said President
Calderon is dedicated to human rights. "Mexico is a budding
democracy, still marked with the fingerprints of authoritarianism,"
Gomez said. "President Calderon is committed to human rights, via
transparency and greater scrutiny." Melendez praised the political
will of the Mexican government, and its admission that torture
persists. The government has pledged to reduce the practice of
torture through improved training of police and prison officials.
Rights groups, meanwhile, are calling for structural changes, for
example allowing judges to determine verdicts through direct oral
questioning, rather than the "inquisitorial" manner of closed- door
judgments based on written materials. Issues of press freedom were
also on the agenda. "Next to Iraq, there are more assassinations of
journalists in Sinaloa than anywhere else in the world," said Eva
Guerrero, from the association of journalists known as "7 de junio."
There are on average five such murders in Sinaloa every year, and
press intimidation is pervasive - 40 percent of journalist killings
in Mexico occur in Sinaloa. The government defended its record,
focusing on the landmark 2002 freedom of information law, and the
recent lifting of criminal charges for libel.
Source: El Universal: 03/08
====
ARMS TRAFFIC FROM US TO MEXICO GROWING
US weapons smugglers are supplying assault rifles and other powerful
weaponry to Mexican drug and human traffickers operating along the
common border. Federal agent Thomas Mangan, spokesman of the US
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, told Arizona daily East
Valley Tribune that the traffickers use people without criminal
records to buy the weapons. These people then carry the arms Mexican
territory hidden in their cars, where they are sold for three times
the original price. Mangan said they are working with Mexican
colleagues to stop the illegal trade and trace the weapons already in
use.
Source: Prensa Latina: 03/12
====
GMO I: GREENPEACE DEMANDS PRESSURE TO HALT GM RICE EXPORTS
The international ecological organization Greenpeace called on
Mexican President Felipe Calderon to pressure his U.S. counterpart
George W. Bush to halt exports of genetically modified (GM) rice to
Mexico. Greenpeace, which says GM rice harms human health, made the
call in a statement ahead of Calderon's meeting with Bush on Tuesday
in Merida, a city in the southeastern Mexican state of Yucatan.
A dozen protestors rallying outside Merida's La Ermita church told
Xinhua that they would press Calderon to tell the United States that
it must not export food judged unfit for human to other nations. Last
week, Greenpeace said that transgenic rice type LL601, created by
Bayer, was being sold as own-brand rice from the Soriana company in
the northern city of Monterrey and in two Mexico City locations:
Chedraui supermarket and the city's wholesale market. "If rice must
be imported from the United States, let it be normal...without the
transgenic varieties that our nation has not authorized for human
consumption," said Gustavo Ampugnani, Greenpeace coordinator of the
anti-transgenic campaign in Mexico. Ampugnani said that Mexico's
health authorities knew about the situation and had taken no measures
to protect citizens. According to Greenpeace data, Mexico imports 70
percent of the rice it consumes, due to a 1999 rice crisis triggered
by the increase of U.S. subsidies from 12 billion to 21 billion U.S.
dollars.
Source: Xinhua: 03/12
====
GMO II: GOVERNMENT HALTS US RICE SHIPMENTS OVER GMO ISSUE
U.S. rice shipped to Mexico has been stopped at the border where
Mexican government officials have asked for certification that the
grain is free of genetically modified material, an official with the
USA Rice Federation said. "As a condition of entry the Mexican
officials were requiring a statement that the rice was GMO free,"
said Bob Cummings, the groups vice president of international policy.
"We're trying to learn what authority in the Mexican government
issued that document." Three separate exporters of U.S. milled rice
told Cummings their shipments were stopped, he said. At least eight
rail cars have been stopped at Laredo, Texas. After contamination of
the U.S. commercial supply last year, a number of countries,
including those in the European Union, have required certification
that U.S. rice contains only trace amounts.
Source: Reuters: 03/14
====
The above articles were originally published and copyrighted by the
listed sources. These articles are offered for educational purposes
which CIS maintains is 'fair use' of copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
end: Mexico Week In Review: 03.12-03.18
--
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