A U.S. delegation Cabinet-level with the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and several military officers, intelligence and security in Mexico have resulted in an unprecedented debate and criticism of the Merida Initiative in the media. U.S. officials were in Mexico to discuss phase two of the Merida Initiative, an aid package of U.S. military and police lies expires in 2011.
Clinton and his counterpart Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa, held a press conference where they released a vague statement in which the two countries strengthened their commitment to stop drug traffickers and combat illicit arms trafficking, corruption and money laundering. During the press conference, a reporter asked if U.S. officials and Mexico discussed the legalization as a possible alternative to war against drugs, which has claimed almost 23,000 lives in Mexico since late 2006 when President Felipe Calderon sent the army to fight drug cartels. To which Clinton responded: "No".
Within the coverage of the meeting, the American press asserted that the Obama administration is changing the priorities of the Merida Initiative. The Clinton-Espinosa mentioned "We build strong and resilient communities" as a priority for the next phase of the Merida Initiative. Moreover, the President's request for the 2011 budget Obama spent the war on drugs from Mexico, says "the exchange to provide aircraft support, equipment and other high cost, to the development of institutions, training and assistance technique. "
However, Laura Carlsen, Americas Program questioned administration rhetoric of Obama Merida Initiative: "The meeting was attended by a high level of security and defense officials, without the presence of a single member of the Agency for International Development (USAID) or drug czar Gil Kerlikowske, who allegedly was responsible for the implementation of U.S. commitments to reduce demand for illegal drugs. No serious references, founded efforts to reduce corruption and trafficking in the United States, and statements about the decline in demand and increased support for programs to combat poverty in Mexico remains vague and imprecise.
reaction in Mexico the version of Obama on the Merida Initiative was extreme, especially since Janet Napolitano gave a controversial interview with NPR in which he claimed that "there are discussions about the role of our military ... the request of, and consultation and cooperation [ of] the Mexicans.
"Are you saying that (Mexican President Felipe) Calderon has spoken out in favor of the entry of U.S. military uniforms in Mexico?" Asked Robert Siegel of NPR. To which Napolitano responded, "Yes, I would be very, very clear [because] this is a very sensitive issue ... Our military is very limited in some ways have worked with the Mexican military in their efforts against the drug cartels. But, is at the request of the Mexican government was consulted by the Mexican government. And it is only part of all our efforts with Mexico, which are mainly civilian.
This statement caused an uproar in the Mexican press. Process, one of the most respected political magazines in Mexico, reported that Napolitano "It reveals that President Felipe Calderon called on the Obama administration to send troops to conduct anti-drug operations with the Mexican military ... administration officials Calderon have refused time and again that the doors to the territory Mexico has been open to U.S. troops. "
That's not true, "Napolitano said Calderon never request that the U.S. soldiers involved in counter-drug operations in Mexico, and Mexican authorities never said the U.S. soldiers would not put a foot on Mexican soil. However, the article and it sparked outrage across the country show that consensus Mexicans do not consider the U.S. military welcome in Mexico under any circumstances. It also demonstrates the amnesia of the Mexican media about the collective presence of U.S. military in Mexico.
The U.S. military has had a relatively small but constant presence in Mexico at least since 1999, information on the number of U.S. military personnel on active duty in Mexico that has since the early years is available. In 1999, there were 33 U.S. soldiers stationed in Mexico, at present there are 26 or so. The Defense Department has sent military personnel to Mexico to train Mexican military every year since at least 2001, the first year the Pentagon began to break the foreign military training location. U.S. have trained Mexican military security, data collection and analysis, control terrorism, English, special operations, interdiction planning, civil-military relations, law enforcement tactics, anti-smuggling and aviation all over into Mexico.
The presence of U.S. military instructors in Mexico is not a secret Defense Department public information online. In 2007, the newspaper La Jornada stumbled across documents indicating the information on military training in the Mexican territory in 2006. The day's article barely touched the tip of the glacier, but it contained sufficient information to Mexican media were aware that military instructors U.S. found in Mexico for quite some time.
Merida Initiative-based U.S. military, coaches and operating in Mexico. USA Today Report:
About 20 teams, ranging in size from one to five people travel to Mexico each year by making short visits to assist in training, Renuart said. Most are veterans of Afghanistan or Iraq. Northern Command began sending advisory teams for two years.
Both the U.S. media as the rule that Mexicans Mexicans tend to react negatively to the comments of "Neapolitan as important, response que se derivaría de un evento que algunos considerarían historia antigua: La Guerra México-Estados Unidos de 1846.1848, durante la cual el ejército de EE.UU. invadió a México. Sin embargo, la historia más reciente nos sugiere que la preocupación de los mexicanos acerca de la relación tan estrecha entre los militares mexicanos y estadounidenses es totalmente racional.
Parece que cada vez que el gobierno mexicano se encuentra en su peor momento, los militares estadounidenses están ahí para tenderles la mano. Dos de los ejemplos más infames son el de 1971 la masacre de Corpus Christi en la cual paramilitares golpearon a muerte a 25 estudiantes y dejaron a decenas de heridos, y 1994 la sangrienta represión that followed the uprising of the Zapatista Army of National Freedom
According to documents and photographs of the Mexican army an American plane loaded with explosives entered a hangar in Mexico in 1969. The U.S. military used the explosives to train members of the Presidential Guard of Mexico as part of a course of "urban terrorism." According to the Secretary of Defense at the time, Marcelino García Barragán, the soldiers who were trained the bombers in federal government buildings and three offices of the newspaper. The operation according to Mexican researcher Carlos Montemayor, was part of a campaign of dirty war of terror that culminated in 1971 in the slaughter of Corpus Christi.
Recently, the U.S. military training for Mexican soldiers shot after the Zapatista uprising of 1994. According to the Staff for Public Integrity, From 1984 to 1992, a total of 512 Mexican troops were trained by the United States, an average of 57 students per year. From 199. The United States has trained more than 4,000 Mexican troops, an average of 800 a year, a spokesman for the Department of Defense said. Some of the courses you took place in states of Guerrero, Chiapas, Veracruz and Mexico City. The increase in Mexico's cooperation has become the largest recipient of funds in Latin America of the International Military Education and Training 1996 to 1999 and second in 2000 after Colombia and Mexico ... ranked first nations enter them with the greatest number of soldiers trained at the School of the Americas in 1997 and 1998.
This training occurred in spite of a Mexican military unit led by a graduate of the School of the Americas quickly massacred five people tied in a market in Chiapas during the 1994 uprising. The training continued even though the Pentagon had reliable intelligence that the Mexican army was organizing groups paramilitaries to attack Zapatista support bases, even when the Zapatistas declared a ceasefire. Close relationship
Military Military
While on the surface seem that the new Merida Initiative Obama puts less emphasis on the military's role in the war against drugs, the absence of new aircraft does not mean that the army's role decrease in Mexican drug war. Rather, the new Merida Initiative aims to prepare the Mexican military for a long war, endless.
The draft budget for 2011 of Obama includes $ 8 million in military funding to "promote greater cooperation US-Mexican military. " This cooperation will give a greater military to military training.
Senior U.S. military officers say that the Merida Initiative will focus on the preparation of the Mexican army for a war very similar to the U.S. holding in Afghanistan and Iraq. "They need the support of intelligence, skills and tactics that have been developed for us in our fight against terrorist networks in the world", the words of Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs. "There are too many similarities." Mullen traveled with Clinton to attend the Meeting of the High Level Consultation Initiative Merida, Mexico.
of the Air Force, Gen. Gene Renuart, commander of Northern Command, agreed with his colleague. "We have learned and grown a lot in the way we've conducted operations against terrorist networks, insurgent fighters," Renuart told the USA Today. "Many of the tactics used to pursue networks applied ... to the drug trafficking organizations."
According to USA Today, U.S. soldiers are helping their Mexican counterparts to acquire the "skills to help transform the army of Mexico of a conventional force designed to counter threats outside, an army fighting an illegal war where the enemy lives among the civilian population. "
The problem, as the Iraqi and Afghan people have discovered is that in a war where "the enemy lives among civilians," anyone can be confused with the enemy. In Mexico, the line between civilians and "the enemy" is increasingly blurred. This point can be illustrated by the last day of Passover, when soldiers opened fire on a bus full of children at a military checkpoint. Two infants died. The government immediately issued a press release stating that two "criminals" were killed in the shooting, as well of having seized an impressive arsenal of weapons and armor during the shooting. Subsequently, the government reviewed its history to declare that the children were caught in "crossfire" between soldiers and drug traffickers. The parents spoke to reporters from his hospital room, declaring that only soldiers were present at the place and it was they who pointed him to the family.
The military has consistently used the pretext of "finding marijuana" to attack Zapatista strongholds, despite never having found any drugs in the Zapatista territory.
Zapatistas are not the only ones to suffer repression the war against drugs. In 2009, federal and state police kidnapped three leaders of the peasants of Chiapas in the base-Emiliano Zapata Peasant Organization (OCEZ). The government told reporters that the OCEZ was a front for drug traffickers. The smear campaign justify military buildup in the region, which also live Zapatista sympathizers. After two months of imprisonment and hours of torture, OCEZ leaders were released without charge, however, the region remains under military surveillance.
Last October, in what may be considered as the most terrifying show of the militarization of the war drugs, at gunpoint, federal police shot to 44,000 unionized electricians, Calderon ordered police to attack Luz y Fuerza del Centro electricity company owned by the government, only after the attack was made to issue a statement legally dissolved that company and union default. The Mexican Electricians Union (SME), which is fighting for the jobs of its members, is considered one of the oldest unions and most radical of the nation. The federal police who carried out the order to shoot the workers receive military training, apparently to give them the skills they need to fight the war on drugs. They are among the main beneficiaries of the Merida Initiative.
