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8 posts tagged Mexico
El Zócalo July 8th, 2012. Millions of Mexican students marched from Ángel de la independencia to el Zócalo, protesting the impositions of televisa, PRI, and the fraudulent presidential victory of Enrique Peña Nieto this past July, 1st, 2012.
According to a new report from the Pew Hispanic Center, net migration from Mexico is now zero. In fact, the report suggests that more Mexican-born people may now be leaving the US than arriving. This means the end of the largest and most sustained immigration trend in American history.
The co-author of the report and senior demographer with the Pew Hispanic Center, Jeff Passel, says the reasons include the economic downturn in the United States; the comparative prosperity of Mexico; tougher border controls; increased deportation of undocumented immigrants. More.
(via fylatinamericanhistory)
While Obama's Thugs Raid Marijuana School, People Die
Neill Franklin, Executive Director of L.E.A.P., speaks truth to power on the absurdity of America’s Drug War, through the lens of a recent raid on a California medical marijuana manufacturing and education facility:
As I sit and watch video after video of Monday’s senseless federal raid of Oaksterdam University and other medical cannabis-related facilities managed by Richard Lee, the orchestrator of California’s historic Proposition 19, a few serious concerns come to mind.
…
Let’s take a look at the results of this “successful” raid upon those who care for the sick. The first indicator of success is one of public safety. That’s why we have such enforcement activity in the first place — law enforcement and public safety should be synonymous. Will the raid make the community safer? Will there be fewer homicides? Oh, wait, there never were any on-site at Oaksterdam. They occur blocks away while we “the police” do our thing here. Will there now be fewer robberies in the neighborhood? Just the opposite: violent crime has been down in the area since Oaksterdam became operational. Well, maybe there will now be less “pot” being sold to kids in the neighborhood? Actually, expect that to increase now that any marijuana being sold in the area, post-raid, will be done by drug dealers on the corners who don’t check ID. Oh yes, one more observation: Patients will no longer have access to safe medicine in safe environments. They will be forced to acquire cannabis from the dangerous illegal marketplace, lining the pockets of criminal organizations, gangs and thugs instead of universally supported local businesses that pay taxes and create jobs.
Which will, in turn, perpetuate violence in Mexico as drug cartels continue to jockey for positions in the U.S. market. upwards of 47,000 Mexican citizens have died since Felipé Calderon, with the full approval and material support of the United States, mobilized the Mexican military against the drug cartels in 2006. Forcing medical marijuana patients to turn to the black market only intensifies the economic incentives that make drug trafficking worth the risk for the cartels.
Yet another example of our absolutely destructive drug policy destroying more lives than it could ever prospectively save.
A Message to the United States
To the men and women of the United States:
More than 40 years ago, U.S. president Richard Nixon announced the war on drugs. Since then, the consumption of illicit subsistences has grown, not diminished.
Mexican president Felipe Calderón’s war on drug trafficking organizations has gone on for more than 5 years, and it has come at a very high cost. More than 60,000 people have already been killed, a growing number of them being innocent civilians.
Please watch this video and think about the role the United States plays in this bloody drug war as both the largest drug consumer in the world and as lead force behind this militarized approach.
Visit: Emergencia MX
We’re not helping. The United States is just playing their part in this faux war, where real people pay the price. 60,000 people have died. The Mexican government doesn’t care. The American government doesn’t care. Know that. If you want to understand just a little of Mexico’s situation, one of the major reasons people immigrate, and why the War of Drugs is a waste of time that has only caused more pain and violence, you must watch this video.
“It’s time for Washington to abandon the fiction that the cartels don’t operate in the United States. The U.S. government’s narcotics-flow maps show the drug trade as fat arrows coursing their way from Colombia through Central America and Mexico — but they all stop at the U.S. border. The National Drug Intelligence Center has published a list of 235 American cities reporting a Mexican cartel “presence,” and that just skims the surface. Ignoring the cartels’ vast networks won’t make them go away. Co-responsibility also means addressing “southbound” flows — the U.S. arms and cash that are the raison d’etre of the cartels — to Mexico, Central America and beyond.
Or if we’re unwilling the match the courage that the Mexicans have shown — and if we just want the Central Americans to follow the same failed strategy — we must launch a serious dialogue here on legalizing, or at least decriminalizing, the drugs. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s better than no solution at all.”
(via todos-somos-marcos)
How Legal Pot Could Save Thousands of Lives? Hint: Stop Feeding the Mexican Death Cartels | AlterNet
What is plain as day is the fact that the demand for cannabis sativa is responsible for more deaths in Mexico than anything else—and after half a decade of unrelenting bloodshed—the body count just recently surpassed the 50,000 mark. Personally, that’s a bitter pill to swallow considering 50 percent of Americans now believe marijuana should be outright legalized, according to Gallup’s most recent poll from October 2011.
For over forty years, ganja has been the steadiest and most reliable source of income for Mexican traffickers, and it’s still the primary substance that lures most wannabe sicarios into the drug running game. Most green-horn dope peddlers don’t get their start by transporting tons of coke at a time; rather, they have to earn their stripes by moving up the marijuana food chain—and many don’t make it past that point in their careers to begin with.
Most followers tuned in to the legalization debate are already well aware of weed’s contribution to the chaos, yet there are still millions of unaware Americans who automatically assume it’s the costlier drugs at the heart of the violence. Obviously heroin, meth, and cocaine are significant players in their own right, but by they’re nowhere near the bread and butter that pot is to the cartels. This is further illustrated by the fact that the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has consistently reported a drop in cocaine shipments from Mexico, and additional studies have shown that the use of the three aforementioned drugs is on the decline in the United States (meanwhile, marijuana consumption continues to rise).
Having worked extensively along the border as a special agent for the Department of Homeland Security (Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s office of Homeland Security Investigations, or ICE HSI, to be exact), I know firsthand the futility behind continuing to wage an all-out war against a plant, especially one that American consumers are demanding more than ever. Realistically, when it comes to the sheer volume of weed arriving daily from Mexico, the entire border from Brownsville to San Diego is like a full-time smuggling feeding frenzy, with DHS personnel practically cross-trained as factory workers in light of the constant pot seizures and undercover controlled deliveries. Lord knows my former brothers would be helping the U.S. more by making better use of their time, like dismantling human trafficking networks for example. These cells are active all across the country, and they’re responsible for numerous deaths—like the gruesome slaying recently of Carina Saunders outside of Oklahoma City. +
Jamie Haase, a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, served as a special agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Bodies hanging from bridge in Mexico are warning to social media users
It seems governments aren’t the only entities disturbed over the power of social media. A drug cartel in Mexico has apparently dispatched a man and a woman in a manner brutal enough to warn of the disturbing nature of the text alone.
“This is going to happen to all of those posting funny things on the Internet,” one sign said. “You better (expletive) pay attention. I’m about to get you.” >continue<
Beyond disturbing. If you haven’t been paying attention, now’s the time to start.
(via shortformblog)
