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Archives: June 2008
EL SALVADOR: US State Department Official Slanders FMLN Party
State Department official announces crime-fighting funds for El Salvador, slanders FMLN party
During a recent visit to El Salvador, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte announced the financing of the so-called Mérida Initiative, a $1.6 billion funding package recently approved by the U.S. Congress that seeks to fight drug trafficking and organized crime in Mexico and Central America. $7 million of the initiative’s funds will go to El Salvador’s National Civilian Police, whose sub-director, Luís Tobar Prieto, says the money will be used to purchase “equipment for investigating narcotrafficking networks.”
Meanwhile, Negroponte took advantage of his visit to make public statements regarding El Salvador’s domestic politics. Notably, he congratulated President Saca on his work to combat organized crime, while expressing his concern about allegations of links between the FMLN opposition party (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front) and the FARC, Colombia’s armed rebel group. After slandering the FMLN by stating that alleged ties to the FARC “are very troubling,” and declaring that “these are things that should not happen,” he condemned “any type of intervention” in El Salvador’s electoral process.
Charles Glazer, U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador, subsequently reiterated Negroponte’s warning, stating that “any group that collaborates or expresses friendship with the FARC is not a friend of the United States,” an allusion clearly aimed at the FMLN. These blatant attempts to discredit the FMLN have been made in spite of recent promises by the State Department to work collaboratively with whatever government comes to power in El Salvador’s presidential election, to be held on March 15, 2009.
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COLOMBIA: Keep up to date on current issues
The Latin America Working Group has just released The Other Half of the Truth, a report that was inspired by the heroic efforts of Colombia's victims of paramilitary violence to obtain truth, justice and reparations, and to be guaranteed "never again." Click here http://lawg.org/docs/the_other_half_of_the_truth.pdf to view the report in English and here http://lawg.org/docs/la_cara_oculta.pdf to view the Spanish version.
Free Trade Agreement (FTA) still needs our efforts
Talking Points:
1. Violence against trade unionists continues to occur with near total impunity. So far this year, at least 17 trade unionists have been assassinated. Since 1991, more than 2,200 unionists have been killed and, in the vast majority of these cases, the murderers have not been brought to justice. One trade unionist killed is one too many. The right to organize is a fundamental right that workers everywhere must be able to exercise without fear of being killed. Click here for more informaiton: http://usleap.org/files/Impunity%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf
2. This FTA will harm small farmers, internally displaced persons, Afro-Colombians and indigenous peoples, the very people who have already suffered so much in the armed conflict. Without the proper protections in place, small farmers could become internally displaced or forced to grow coca instead of licit food crops. Afro-Colombians and indigenous peoples, whose collective territories are often rich in natural resources, could be violently displaced from their lands as armed actors move to make way for export-oriented industries. Click here
http://wola.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=viewp&id=676&Itemid=2 to read the Washington Office on Latin America's concerns and here http://wola.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=viewp&id=676&Itemid=2 to read materials from Witness for Peace.
With the Colombian Embassy and the Bush Administration waging a no-holds-barred campaign to win support for the trade pact, it’s important that members of Congress hear your human rights concerns. We must tell our representatives to vote NO on the U.S.-Colombia FTA until true progress is made on human rights.
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Travel to Latin America this summer!
NATURAL, PREVENTIVE HEALTHCARE IN NICARAGUA: August 31- September 6, 2008
A Learning and Service Adventure
Leader: Dr Jim Fleming, M.D.
In Coordination with theNicaragua Network
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
**To help strengthen and facilitate development of current the healthcare system in rural Nicaragua.
**To understand the value, to both developed and developing societies, of integrating natural (i.e. herbal and nutritional) healthcare strategies with conventional treatments.
**To learn about the direct role of nutrition and water quality in health and disease of developing countries and the role of reforestation and locally based agriculture in creating and sustaining healthy rural communities.
**To understand the impact on health of socioeconomic factors including globalization, corporate agriculture, privatization of water and free trade agreements in the context of U.S.- Nicaraguan relations and history.
**To promote, through service, experiential education and cultural exchange, peace and solidarity between U.S. and Nicaraguan citizens.
TENTATIVE PROGRAM
Sunday, Aug. 31: Arrive in Managua
Monday, Sept.1: Morning: Introductory Program by Dr. Tabatha Parker who works with Natural Medical Doctors International on the island of Ometepe
Afternoon: Visit to local clinic and other sites in Managua
Tuesday, Sept, 2: Travel to Esteli. Classes in Herbal Medicine and tour of farm and production facility CECALI AND ISNAYA near Esteli.
Wed--Fri., Sept. 3-5: Service opportunities for healthcare, reforestation and other projects involving water and food security with communities in northern Nicaragua served by FEDICAMP (Federation for the Integrated Development of Rural Farmers)
Saturday, Sept. 6: Return home or optional trip to Ometepe returning to Managua Monday Sept 8.
TO APPLY PLEASE CONTACT:
Dr. Jim Fleming at: jflemingmg@yahoo.com or 816- 213-1885
COST (Including administrative fees, educational materials and programs, housing, meals, transportation in country= $800
(NOTE: this does not include airfare to Nicaragua or optional trip to Ometepe)
APPLICATION DEADLINE: AUGUST 4TH WITH DEPOSIT OF $150 DUE AT THAT TIME.
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Jeronimo Osorio Chen: Challenging the Xalala Dam in Quiche, Guatemala
Xalalá Dam Development Will Bring Misery
NOTE: This news article, written by NISGUA human rights accompanier Hilly McGahan, appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday, June 8, 2008.
Las Margaritas Copón, Guatemala -- Alejandro Che Paau's home is slated to be under water by 2013.
Paau was born in this Maya-Q'eqchi jungle village of 300 people perched above the verdant banks of the Chixoy and Copón rivers in northern Guatemala. Fields of cardamom and corn surround several dozen palm-thatched homes, which are accessible only by boat or foot.
But the junction of these two jade-colored rivers, a 20-minute descent from Paau's home, is also the proposed site for the nation's second-largest hydroelectric project - the Xalalá Dam. His village is one of 18 communities that would become a 3-square-mile reservoir.
In Guatemala, a country where roughly 2 percent of the population owns 70 percent of productive farmland, according to the Harvard International Review, most subsistence farmers like Paau can only dream of fertile floodplains and fish-filled rivers of Las Margaritas Copón. Not surprisingly, the 25-year-old farmer has no plans of giving up his land….
To read the entire article published in the San Francisco Chronicle, please visit:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/08/MN6110LJAP.DTL&hw=Guatemala%27&sn=001&sc=1000
Closely linked to the Xalala Dam is this story. (The Dam on the Chixoy River in the 1970s led to the massacre on the Rio Negro. Jeronimo's father and 2 siblings were killed)
Verdict for Rio Negro Massacre Case: Five Ex-PAC Convicted for the Rio Negro Massacre
The final sentence came out for the Massacre in Rio Negro, municipality of Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, convicting and sending five ex- civil defense patrollers to prison. NISGUA accompaniers have been critical to witnesses in this case. To read an article written by NISGUA accompaniers who have been closely involved, visit: http://www.nisgua.org/news_analysis/index.asp?id=3146
To see the article in Guatemalan newspaper (in Spanish) Prensa Libre, visit:
http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2008/mayo/29/241200.html
In a previous case in 1999, three commanders of the Patrol were sentenced to 50 years in jail for their participation in the same massacre, in which 70 women and 107 children were killed.
After three years of having been suspended, the case of Rio Negro was reopened in December of 2007. In this case, six ex- civil defense patrollers from Xococ stood accused for their role in the massacre of March 13th 1982. While the conviction and sentencing of 5 of the accused is an important victory for justice, it is unfortunate that those found guilty for the Rio Negro massacre did not reach higher up the chain of command. According to Rights Action, a colleague organization of NISGUA, “The main problem is that the 5 former civil defense patrollers -- poor, Mayan men themselves -- going to jail for life, are the least of the guilty parties. They were forced to participate in the massacre by soldiers and Army lieutenants; the soldiers and Lieutenants were following orders given by their ranking officers, all the way up the generals.” To more from Rights Action’s analysis and additional articles about this historic verdict, visit: http://www.rightsaction.org/urgent_com/Rio_Negro_Decision_060208.html
Update on the NISGUA speaking tour in April:
The visit in April was a great success! The Washington University Interdisciplinary Environmental Law Clinic has taken on the case and is working with NISGUA in Oakland! We also visited local Congressional and Senate offices.
Mr. Chen discussed opposition to the Xalalá hydroelectric dam, a mega-“development” project that would displace indigenous communities and damage the ecosystem in the Ixcán, Quiché region.
The speaker represents the Ixcán Referendum Commission, a grassroots group that engages in education, organizing, and legal strategies to ensure that the people of the Ixcán determine their own resource use and development priorities. In a referendum held last year, almost 90% of Ixcán’s inhabitants voted against the construction of large hydroelectric dams, including Xalalá, as well as oil exploration in the region. Disregarding this overwhelming opposition, the Guatemalan government is currently accepting bids from national and international investors interested in the Xalalá dam.
This period of bidding, to be followed by feasibility studies, represents a key window of opportunity to oppose the Xalalá dam. The NISGUA tour will offer action ideas to support struggles for local resource management in the context of self-determination and participatory democracy.
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MEXICO: Merida Initiative will be another "Plan Colombia"
The Merida Initiative is a U.S.-proposed regional aid package that would primarily fund law enforcement operations and equipment throughout Mexico, Central America, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic aimed to control drug trafficking, organized crime and terrorism. The $1.4 billion initiative proposed by the Bush administration — of which about $150 million would be directed to Central America — has raised concerns by grassroots, human rights and social justice groups due to its over-emphasis on military/policing special forces and equipment and lack of focus on prevention programs for crime such as youth violence. The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) reports: “The plan offers scant support for comprehensive, structural reforms of Central American police forces, overemphasizing specialized units without a comprehensive analysis of the needs of the police.” To read more analysis about the initiative by WOLA, visit: http://www.wola.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=viewp&id=668&Itemid=2%20
NISGUA (Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala) reports:
John Negroponte in Guatemala:
Plan Merida and the U.S. Push for the Militarization of Borders
The Subsecretary of the United States, John D. Negroponte, visited Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras June 3-6, 2008 to discuss bilateral and regional issues such as the U.S.-proposed “Merida Initiative” and CAFTA. During his stay he met with government authorities, some civil society groups and representatives from the private sector.
The Merida Initiative is a U.S.-proposed regional aid package that would primarily fund law enforcement operations and equipment throughout Mexico, Central America, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic aimed to control drug trafficking, organized crime and terrorism. The $1.4 billion initiative proposed by the Bush administration — of which about $150 million would be directed to Central America — has raised concerns by grassroots, human rights and social justice groups due to its over-emphasis on military/policing special forces and equipment and lack of focus on prevention programs for crime such as youth violence. The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) reports: “The plan offers scant support for comprehensive, structural reforms of Central American police forces, overemphasizing specialized units without a comprehensive analysis of the needs of the police.” To read more analysis about the initiative by WOLA, visit: http://www.wola.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=viewp&id=668&Itemid=2%20
Who is John Negroponte?
John Negroponte is famous for his history with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) where he spearheaded Operation Fenix in Vietnam. In the 1970’s and 80’s he was the subject of controversy for his activities in Latin America, specifically his work in Nicaragua, directing, arming, equipping, and training the Contra from his post as ambassador to Honduras with the help of the U.S. State Department. He also played a back-stage role in Chile where he collaborated with Henry Kissinger in organizing Operation Condor, responsible for the forced disappearances and torture tactics that affected tens of thousands throughout South America. Immediately following the September 11 attacks, he was appointed by George W. Bush as ambassador to the United Nations and then to Iraq in 2004, after the ousting of Saddam Hussein.
Merida Initiative Update
May 27, 2008
Last week, both the House and the Senate passed their own versions of the Merida Initiative as a component of the broader Iraq Supplemental bill. The differences between the two versions will likely be reconciled in conference committee during the coming weeks.
As noted in earlier updates, the Merida Initiative was originally envisioned by the White House as a package that would provide $1.4 billion in U.S. assistance over a three-year period to Mexico and Central America for counternarcotics, counterterrorism and border security programs in those countries, with a sizeable percentage designated specifically for the Mexican military.
The version of the Merida Initiative passed by the Senate would provide $350 million for Mexico and $100 million for Central America, the Dominican Republic and Haiti this year. The House version of the Iraq Supplemental bill includes a total of $400 million for Mexico to be spread out over two years -- $296.5 million for fiscal year 2008 plus $103.5 million for fiscal year 2009. Although many of the specifics regarding exactly what equipment, training or materials would be provided by either the House or Senate versions of the package remain unclear, both versions would provide less than the $500 million that President Bush requested be included for Mexico as part of the Iraq Emergency Supplemental.
The House and Senate versions of the Merida Initiative include both programs we support--such as those to strengthen judicial institutions and gang prevention programs--and those we oppose, such as helicopters for the Mexican military.
Although the funds included for the Merida Initiative are dwarfed by the rest of the Iraq supplemental, we believe that the nature of this funding is important as it will likely shape the course of U.S. counternarcotics aid to Mexico for years to come. For this reason, we feel that it is critical to continue reminding policymakers that the U.S. needs to do its part in combating drug-related violence – by halting the flow of arms trafficked from the U.S. into Mexico, reducing U.S. domestic drug consumption that fuels and finances Mexico’s drug wars, and collaborating with Mexico to strengthen the rule of law and protect human rights. However, the United States should not fund programs that support the army’s role in domestic counternarcotics law enforcement operations.
Reporting from Congress:
H.R.6028
Title: To authorize law enforcement and security assistance, and assistance to enhance the rule of law and strengthen civilian institutions, for Mexico and the countries of Central America, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep Berman, Howard L. [CA-28] (introduced 5/13/2008) Cosponsors (4)
Latest Major Action: 5/22/2008 House Committee on Judiciary Granted an extension for further consideration ending not later than June 6, 2008.
House Reports: 110-673 Part 1
ALL ACTIONS:
5/13/2008:
Referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
5/13/2008:
Referred to House Foreign Affairs
5/14/2008:
Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held.
5/14/2008:
Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by Voice Vote.
5/13/2008:
Referred to House Judiciary
5/22/2008 10:11pm:
5/22/2008 10:11pm:
Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Foreign Affairs. H. Rept. 110-673, Part I.
5/22/2008 10:12pm:
House Committee on Judiciary Granted an extension for further consideration ending not later than June 6, 2008.
COMMENTARY:
Both the House and Senate have passed measures that would provide less than the $550 million requested by President Bush in a three-year program to support Mexico. Obama supported it.
Plan Mexico: Plan Colombia Heads for Mexico By Stephen Lendman 27/05/08 "Global Research," -- It's called "Plan Mexico," or more formally the "Merida Initiative," and here's the scheme. It's to do for Mexicans what Plan Colombia has done to that nation since 1999, and, in fact, much earlier. Since then, billions have gone for the following:-- to establish a US military foothold in the country;-- mostly to fund US weapons, chemical and other corporate profiteers; it's a long-standing practice; in fact, a 1997 Pentagon document affirms that America's military will "protect US interests and investments;" in Colombia, it's to control its valuable resources; most importantly oil and natural gas but also coal, iron ore, nickel, gold, silver, emeralds, copper and more; it's also to crush worker resistance, eliminate unions, target human rights and peasant opposition groups, and make the country a "free market" paradise inhospitable to people;-- it funds a brutish military as well; already, over 10,000 of its soldiers have been trained at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) - aka the School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, Georgia; its graduates are infamous as human rights abusers, drugs traffickers, and death squad practitioners; they were well schooled in their "arts" by the nation most skilled in them;-- it lets Colombia arm and support paramilitary death squads; they're known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC); for more than a decade, they've terrorized Colombians and are responsible for
most killings and massacres in support of powerful western and local business interests;-- it funds drug eradication efforts, but only in FARC-EP and ELN areas; government-controll ed ones are exempt; trafficking is big business; laundering drugs money reaps huge profits for major US and regional banks; the CIA has also been linked to the trade for decades, especially since the 1980s; after Afghanistan's invasion and occupation, opium harvests set records - mostly from areas controlled by US-allied "warlords;" the Taliban's drug eradication program was one reason it was targeted; Colombia's drug eradication is horrific; it causes ecological devastation; crop and forest destruction; lives and livelihoods lost; large areas chemically contaminated; bottom line of the program - record amounts of Colombian cocaine reach US and world markets; trafficking is more profitable than ever; so is big business thanks to paramilitary terror;-- it's to topple the FARC-EP and ELN resistance
groups; Latin American expert James Petras calls the former the "longest standing (since 1964), largest peasant-based guerrilla (resistance) movement in the world;" it's also to weaken Hugo Chavez, other regional populist leaders and groups, and destabilize their countries; and-- it supports the "Uribe doctrine;" it's in lockstep with Washington; its policies are hard right, corporate-friendly and militarized for enforcement.Plan Colombia turned the country into a dependable, profitable narco-state. Business is better than ever. Violence is out of control and human rights abuses are appalling.It gets worse. Two-thirds of Columbians are impoverished. Over 2.5 million peasant and urban slum dwellers have been displaced. Thousands of trade unionists have been murdered (more than anywhere else in the world), and many more thousands of peasants, rural teachers, and peasant and indigenous leaders have as well. Paramilitary land seizures are commonplace. Colombian latifundistas
profit hugely. Wealth concentration is extreme and growing. Corruption infests the government. Many thousands in desperation are leaving.
Colombia's "democracy" is a sham. So is Mexico's. Plan Mexico will make it worse. That's the whole idea, and it's part of the secretive Security and Prosperity Partnership - aka the North American Union.It's planned behind closed doors - to militarize and annex the continent. Corporate giants are in charge, mostly US ones. The idea is for an unregulated open field for profit. The Bush administration, Canada and Mexico support it. Things are moving toward implementation. Three nations will become one. National sovereignty eliminated. Worker rights as well. Opposition is building, but moves are planned to quash it. That's the militarization part.Business intends to win this one. People are to be exploited, not helped. That's why it's kept secret. The idea is to agree on plans, inform legislatures minimally about them, get SPP passed, then implement it with as few of its disturbing details known in hopes once they are they'll be too late to reverse.SPP is ugly, ominous and hugely people destructive. Hundreds of millions in three countries will be affected. Others in the region as well. Plan Mexico is a contribution to the scheme. Below is what we know about it.Plan Mexico - Exploitation Writ LargeThe plan was first announced in October 2007 as a "regional security cooperation initiative." It's to provide $1.4 billion in aid (over three years) for Mexico and Central America on the pretext of fighting drugs trafficking and organized crime linked to it. FY 2008 calls for $550 million for starters with about 10% of it for Central America.In fact, Plan Mexico is part of SPP's grand scheme to militarize the continent, let corporate predators exploit it, and keep people from three countries none the wiser. Most aid will go to Mexico's military and police forces with its major portion earmarked back to US defense contractors for equipment, training and maintenance. It's how these schemes always work.This one includes a menu of security allocations, administrative functions, and special needs like software, forensics equipment, database compilations, plus plenty more for friendly pockets to keep our Mexican cohorts on board.After failing on May 15, House passage will likely follow the Senate's approval on May 22 - below the radar. It's one of many appropriations tucked into the latest Iraq/Afghanistan supplemental funding request, and its purpose is just as outlandish. It will militarize Mexico without deploying US troops. It will also open the country for plunder, privatize everything including state-owned oil company PEMEX, give Washington a greater foothold there, and get around the touchy military issue by allowing in Blackwater paramilitaries instead to work with Mexican security forces.Only privatizing PEMEX is in doubt thanks to immense citizen opposition. Thousands of "brigadistas" were in the streets, protesting outside the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, as lawmakers considered ending PEMEX state-control. They paralyzed debate and brought it to a halt - temporarily putting off a final resolution of this very contentious issue. Big Oil wants it. Most Mexicans don't. The battle continues. Mexico's military may get involved.The US State Department describes them as follows:-- ...."impunity and corruption (in Mexico's security forces are) problems, particularly at the state and local levels. The following human rights problems were reported: unlawful killings; kidnappings; physical abuse; poor and overcrowded prison conditions; arbitrary arrests and detention; corruption, inefficiency, and lack of transparency in the judicial system; (coerced) confessions. ...permitted as evidence in trials; criminal intimidation of journalists leading to self-censorship; corruption at all levels of government; domestic violence against women (often with impunity); violence, including killings, against women; trafficking in persons; social and economic discrimination against indigenous people; and child labor."Mexico's military fares little better with promises Plan Mexico will worsen it. President Calderon now deploys troops around the country. People fear them when they come. They're purportedly against drugs traffickers, but that's mostly cover. Their real purpose may be sinister - a possible dress rehearsal for martial law when SPP is implemented.Mexican soldiers are hard line. Their reputation is unsavory. People justifiably fear them. They commit flagrant human rights abuses and get away with them. The major media even report them. The New York Times, CNN, BBC, USA Today and others cite evidence of rape, torture, killings, other human rights abuses, corruption, extortion, and ties to drugs traffickers. Little is done to stop it. Government and military spokespersons often aren't available for comment. They're part of the problem, not the solution. Plan Mexico promises more of the same and then some. Billions from Washington back it.Social protests in the country already are criminalized. Hundreds are filling prisons. Many languish there for years. Labor and social activists are most vulnerable. Injustice and grinding poverty motivate them. Plan Mexico ups the ante. Things are about to get worse.Militarizing society is toxic. Police state enforcement follows. Accountability disappears. The rule of law no longer applies. Plan Mexico assures it. So does SPP for the continent. In classic doublespeak, the White House claims it will "advance the productivity and competitiveness of our nations and help to protect our health, safety and environment." Its real purpose is to annex a continent, destroy its democratic remnants, lock in hard line enforcement, and secure it for capital.SPP Backdrop of Plan MexicoA detailed SPP explanation can be found on the 2007 article link. It's titled The Militarization and Annexation of North America - http://www.globalre search.ca/ index.php? context=va&aid=6359 Plan Mexico is part of SPP. It will militarize and annex the continent. It was formerly launched at a March 23, 2005 meeting in Waco, Texas attended by George Bush, Mexico's President Vincente Fox, and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. They forged a tripartite partnership for greater US, Canadian and Mexican economic, political, social and security integration. Secretive working groups were formed to accomplish it - to devise non-negotiable agreements to be binding on all three nations.Details are hidden. No public input is permitted. Pro forma legislative voting is approaching. It will try to avoid a NAFTA-type battle. Legislatures aren't being fully informed. The worst of SPP is secret. It's not a treaty, and the idea is to pass it below the radar and avoid a protracted public debate.What's known so far is disturbing, and considerable opposition has arisen but thus far too inadequate to matter. SPP, Plan Mexico, and a final continent-wide plan amount to a corporate coup d'etat against three sovereign states and hundreds of millions of people. It's to erase national borders, merge three nations into one under US control, and remove all barriers to trade and capital flows. It's also to militarize the continent, create a fortress-North America security zone, and have in place police state laws for enforcement. Billions will fund it. All for corporate gain. Nothing for public welfare.SPP takes NAFTA and the "war on terrorism" to the next level en route to extending it further for more corporate plunder. It's based on outlandish notions - that doing business, protecting national security, and securing "public welfare" require tough new measures in a very threatening world.SPP bolsters US control. It enhances corporate power, quashes civil liberties, erases public welfare, and creates an open field for plunder free from regulatory restraints. It's being plotted behind closed doors. A series of summits and secret meetings continue with the latest one in New Orleans from April 22 to 24.Three presidents attended and were met by vocal street protests. They convened a "People's Summit" and also held workshops to:-- inform people how destructive SPP is;-- strengthen networking and organizational ties against it;-- maintain online information about their activities;-- promote their efforts and build added support; and-- affirm their determination to continue resisting a hugely repressive corporate-sponsored agenda. Opponents call it Nafta on steroids.Business-friendly opposition also exists. Prominent is a "Coalition to Block the North American Union." The Conservative Caucus backs it. It has a "NAU War Room." It's the "headquarters of THE national campaign to expose and halt America's absorption into a 'North American Union (NAU)' with Canada and Mexico." It opposes building "a massive, continental 'NAFTA Superhighway.' "It has congressional allies, and on January 2007 Rep. Virgil Goode and six co-sponsors introduced House Concurrent Resolution 40. It expresses "the sense of Congress that the United States should not engage in (building a NAFTA) Superhighway System or enter into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada."The April summit reaffirmed SPP's intentions - to create a borderless North America, dissolve national sovereignty, put corporate giants in control, and assure big US ones get most of it. Militarism is part of it. It's the reason for fortress-North America under US command. The US Northern Command (NORTHCOM) was established in October 2002 to do it. It has air, land and sea responsibility for the continent regardless of Posse Comitatus limitations that no longer apply or sovereign borders easily erased.Homeland Security (DHS) and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) also have a large role. So does the FBI, CIA, all US spy agencies, militarized state and local police, National Guard forces, and paramilitary mercenaries like Blackwater USA. They're headed anywhere on the continent with license to operate as freely here as in Iraq and New Orleans post-Katrina. They'll be able to turn hemispheric streets into versions of Baghdad and make them unfit to live on if things come to that.SPP maintains a web site. It's "key accomplishments" since August 2007 are updated on it as of April 22, 2008. Its details can be accessed from the following link:http://www.spp. gov/pdf/key_ accomplishments_ since_august_ 2007.pdfIt lists principles agreed to; bilateral deals struck; negotiations concluded; study assessments released; agreements on the "Free Flow of Information;" law enforcement activities; efforts related to intellectual property, border and long-haul trucking enforcement; import licensing procedures; food and product safety issues; energy (with special focus on oil); water as well; infrastructure development; emergency
management; and much more. It's all laid out in deceptively understated tones to hide its continental aim - enhanced corporate exploitation with as little public knowledge as possible.Militarization will assure it, and consider one development up North. On February 14, 2008, the US and Canada agreed to allow American troops inside Canada. Canadians were told nothing or that the agreement was reached in 2002. Neither was it discussed in Congress or the Canadian House of Commons. It's for "bilateral integration" of military command structures in areas of immigration, law enforcement, intelligence, or whatever else the Pentagon or Washington wishes. Overall, it's part of the "war on terror" and militarizing the continent to make it "safer" for business and be prepared for any civilian opposition.Congress may soon pass SPP, but with no knowledge of its worst provisions kept secret. It's to assure enough congressional support makes it law. Nonetheless, federal, state and local opposition is building. It ranges from private activism to vocal lawmakers. In 2008, a dozen or more states passed resolutions against SPP. Around 20 others did it in 2007. Congress began debating it last year with opposition raised on various grounds - open borders, unchecked immigration, a NAFTA Superhighway System, and the idea of giving unregulated Mexican trucks free access to US roads and cities.There's also talk of replacing three national currencies with an "Amero." Unfortunately, little is heard about trashing the Constitution or giving corporate bosses free reign. There's even less talk about a militarized continent against dissent. SPP is a "new world order." Companies are plotting to get it. People better hope they don't. Disruptive opposition might derail them. It's building but needs more resonance to matter. Time is short and slipping away. These schemers mean business. They want our future. We can't afford to lose it.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@ sbcglobal.net.
May 14, 2008, 11:46PM U.S-trained forces reportedly helping Mexican cartels By STEWART M. POWELL Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/5780470.html#
WASHINGTON As many as 200 U.S.-trained Mexican security personnel have defected to drug cartels to carry out killings on both sides of the border and as far north as Dallas, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, told Congress on Wednesday.
The renegade members of Mexico's elite counter-narcotics teams trained at Fort Benning, Ga., have switched sides, contributing to a wave of violence that has claimed some 6,000 victims over the past 30 months, including prominent law enforcement leaders, the Houston-area Republican told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The slaughter has gained urgency amid high-profile assassinations of law officers in Mexico since May 1, claiming six senior officers, five of them with the federal police. Poe held aloft a dramatic, poster-board-size photograph that he said showed guerrilla-style commandos crossing into the United States.
He said the Department of Homeland Security had documented "over 250 incursions by suspected military forces" into the United States over the past decade.
"I was surprised to hear that the United States has trained Mexican forces and some of those have deserted and become the reason for these attacks," Poe said.
Officers 'switched sides'
The US.-trained Mexican security personnel have "switched sides and became assassins and recruiters for the Mexican drug cartels."
Poe, a former prosecutor and criminal court judge, issued the allegations in an unsuccessful effort to persuade the House Foreign Affairs Committee to revamp President Bush's Merida Initiative
Bush's blueprint calls for $1.4 billion in training, equipment and law enforcement assistance to Mexico and Central America over three years.
Bush also is seeking $500 million in emergency assistance for Mexico this year as part of the supplemental war spending measure.
Democrats have included only $400 million of Bush's request in the $161 billion war spending measure.
Poe tried to require the Bush administration to evenly split spending between the United States and Mexico rather than sending the entire amount south of the border.
"It seems as though the United States has a history in some cases of giving support (to Mexico) and that support turns around and is used against the very people we're trying to protect, in this case, us," Poe said. "We have no assurance that the equipment we're sending to Mexico won't be turned over to the drug cartels and used against us."
Panel backs original plan
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, also tried to persuade the Democratic-controlled panel to shift part of the Mexico-bound spending to the United States to bolster law enforcement efforts on the border.
McCaul, a former federal prosecutor who specialized in counter-terrorism, called border drug violence "an imminent security threat right on our doorstep" that deserves the same effort as the war on terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 50-member panel, led by Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., largely endorsed the Bush administration's version of the proposal, expanding assistance beyond Mexico and Central America to include the Caribbean nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Berman referred Poe's and McCaul's proposed changes to the House Judiciary Committee, saying their plans for greater spending by U.S. law enforcement along the border fell within that panel's jurisdiction.
stewart.powell@chron.com
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IMMIGRATION: Immigration Raid in Postville, Iowa: UPDATE
These raids point out another injustice in the broken immigration system -- detention. The film, "The Visitor" givens another human face to the story.
From the Des Moines register:
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/05/13/20080513iowaraid.html
Seventeen youtube entries:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=raids+Postville&search_type=&aq=f
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