Tag: mexico

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

The Si’an Kaan Bio-reserve is 1.3 million acres of protected land in the State of Quintana Roo, Mexico, about 2 hours south of Cancun, near Tulum.  “Sian Ka’an” is translated from Mayan as “where the sky is born” or “gift from the sky”.  I was there just a few days ago.

Please join me in paradise.

The Megamarch Yesterday In Mexico City

Chanting “Sin maiz, No hay pais” (Without Corn, the country doesn’t exist), Mexican farmers by the tens of thousands demonstrated in Mexico City against NAFTA.

Join me across the Rio Grande.

This is a review of Nick Henck’s book on Sup Marcos, the military leader of the EZLN, the subversive movement in Mexico.

(Photo from the account of Whodisan215)

(Crossposted at Big Orange)

Is the Associated Press another propaganda outlet for US wingnuts who justify state killing and don’t recognize Mexico’s sovereignty?  Apparently.  Tonight AP has a story that Mexico thwarts US death penalty cases because Mexico won’t extradite US fugitives unless the US signs on the dotted line that it will not execute them.  This isn’t news.  Mexico’s policy has been in place for thirty (30) years.

Well, maybe demanding an assurance that the extradited person won’t be killed is unusual?  It isn’t.

Other countries, including France and Canada, also demand such “death assurances” [that the extradited person won’t be executed]. But the problem is more common with Mexico, since it is often a quick drive from the crime scene for a large portion of the United States. /snip

The Justice Department said death assurances from foreign countries are fairly common, but it had no immediate numbers. State Department officials said Mexico extradited 73 suspects to the U.S. in 2007. Most were wanted on drug or murder charges.

No, the point of the story isn’t the policy.  It’s US exceptionalism and how Mexico should cave in to US barbarism and the death penalty and return fugitives slaves for execution:

“We find it extremely disturbing that the Mexican government would dictate to us, in Arizona, how we would enforce our laws at the same time they are complaining about our immigration laws,” said Barnett Lotstein, special assistant to the prosecutor in Maricopa County, Ariz., which includes Phoenix.

“Even in the most egregious cases, the Mexican authorities say, `No way,’ and that’s not justice. That’s an interference of Mexican authorities in our judicial process in Arizona.” /snip

“If you can get to Mexico – if you have the means – it’s a way of escaping the death penalty,” said Issac Unah, a University of North Carolina political science professor. /snip

John Walsh, host of TV’s long-running “America’s Most Wanted,” … said the delays and death-penalty compromises needed to get fugitives returned can be heartbreaking for victims’ families

“It’s not about revenge. It’s not so much about closure. It’s about justice,” he said.

Lotstein, the prosecutor’s assistant in Phoenix, said the county has agreed to drop the death penalty in a number of cases: “The option we have is absolutely no justice, or partial justice.”

Is the point of the article that US justice is somehow were synonymous with state killing? Is the point of the article that Mexico is somehow obstructing US state killing?

No.  Those are incidental points.  The real point, the Britney Spears size point of the article is that the Marine who allegedly killed a pregnant Marine may have fled to Mexico after the crime and now prosecutors may have to agree not to kill him in exchange for having him returned to the US.  I’m sorry.  But this doesn’t seem to me to be unfair.  Not in the slightest.

What would be unfair is allowing this alleged killer, or for that matter anyone else, to be executed.

Mexican Corn Field

Yesterday, both the US and Mexico publicly praised NAFTA while Mexican farmers begged for help.  According to Reuters:

U.S. officials trumpeted an end to farm trade restrictions under NAFTA, the controversial North American trade deal, on Friday, while Mexican farmers vowed to take to the streets to protest liberalization they fear will run them into the ground. /snip

Mark Keenum, U.S. undersecretary for farm and foreign agriculture, said the agreement had been a win for farmers in both countries, “creating not only dramatic growth in two-way agricultural trade, but providing our farmers, ranchers and processors with the potential (for) new export opportunities.”

This is some kind of a malicious joke.  NAFTA is no “win win”.  It’s really a disaster for Mexican subsistence farmers, US immigration policy, and bio diversity.  The only winner is US agribusiness.

Join me across the Rio Pequeno.

Mexican Farmer Protests Price Of Corn

Another disgrace.  On January 2, I wrote that dozens of Mexican farmers had blocked a lane of the border bridge from Ciudad Juarez to El Paso for 36 hours to protest the removal of Mexico’s last tariffs on US and Canadian farm goods.  And now Mexico’s President, Felipe Calderon, has responded to the protests by saying that there’s no problem, NAFTA’s good for Mexican workers.  He has to be joking, right?

Join me across the Rio Pequeno.

Harvesting Corn In Mexico By Hand

Dozens of Mexican farmers blocked a lane of the border bridge from Ciudad Juarez to El Paso for 36 hours to protest the removal of Mexico’s last tariffs on US and Canadian farm goods.  The protest ended today.

Activists lifted a blockade at the U.S.-Mexico border on Wednesday, ending a 36-hour protest against the removal of Mexico’s last tariffs on U.S. and Canadian farm goods.

Mexico abolished its last protective tariffs on basic crops like corn, beans and sugar on Tuesday, under the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. Mexican farmers have complained they won’t be able to compete with U.S. farmers who can sell cheaper products because they receive government subsidies.

Mexico’s Roman Catholic Church has warned that the changes could spark an exodus to the U.S.

“It is clear that many farmers will have a difficult time competing in the domestic market, and that could cause a large number of farmers to leave their farms,” the archdiocese said in a statement issued on New Year’s Day.

source

More across the Rio Pequeno.

cross posted at The Dream Antilles

The caracol (a snail) is a Zapatista symbol for free government entities (juntas). It’s a link between the present and the Mayan past.  And it’s a reminder of a time when the world moved much more slowly.  When there was time for thinking and time for thoughts.  When there was less rushing.  When there was deliberation.

And so the caracol is my wish to you for 2008.  May all of your minutes have 60 seconds.  May there be time to reflect.  May there be time to step off the treadmill.  May there be a pause.  May there be time for you.  And may time gift you with abundant delight, joy, happiness, satisfaction, peace, comfort, safety and health.

Y prospero año nuevo!

On December 22, 1997, a decade ago, paramilitary forces attacked the village of Acteal in Chiapas, Mexico. The attack became known as the Acteal Massacre.  45 people, mostly women and children, who were attending a prayer meeting were killed.  The victims, including children and pregnant women, were members of the pacifist group Las Abejas (“The Bees”).

While the Las Abejas activists professed support for the goals of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), they had renounced violence. Many suspect their affiliation with EZLN was the reason for the attack.  Following the murders, there were charges of government involvement and complicity. Soldiers at a nearby military outpost didn’t intervene during the attack, which lasted for hours, and the following morning, soldiers were found washing the church walls to hide the blood stains. Wiki.

Join me across the jump.

There is no longer a free press in Mexico. The Supreme Court just legitimized threats and torture against journalists who challenge entrenched politicians. Lydia exposed a pedophile ring that was linked with the state government and then was kidnapped, threatened with rape and death and the Supreme Court has given her the finger. It’s so dangerous in Mexico to be a journalist, anyway. This same court installed Calderón.

The judges ruled 6 to 4 against the journalist, Lydia Cacho, despite an investigation by one of them that concluded that at least 30 public officials, among them Gov. Mario Marín of Puebla State, had conspired to harass her.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11…