The US Must Address Its Role in Mexico's Human Rights Crisis

[Judi Lynn]

The US Must Address Its Role in Mexico's Human Rights Crisis
Friday, 24 April 2015 00:00
By Mike LaSusa, Truthout |

The militarized approach to crime and violence pursued by Mexico and other countries in Latin America with US support has not only failed to achieve its stated objectives, but in many cases, has contributed to the very problems it proposes to solve. Instead of "wiping out" organized crime, this decades-long warlike framework has paradoxically ensured that only the most adaptable, innovative and ruthless groups survive.

Since it was ramped up in the mid-2000s under the nearly $2 billion, US-funded "Merida Initiative," the drug war has left an estimated 100,000 dead and millions more displaced in Mexico alone. A large number of high-level cartel leaders have been arrested by Mexican authorities in recent years, but this so-called "kingpin" strategy often causes further violence by destabilizing already volatile black markets. Additionally, this heavy-handed "whack-a-mole" approach can fragment criminal groups and disperse their influence over wider areas, simply pushing violence around rather than addressing its root causes.

Criminals of various sorts are undoubtedly responsible for many horrific acts of violence in Mexico, but they depend on the protection offered by the country's weak and often-corrupted police and judicial institutions to operate with widespread impunity. In many cases, the distinction between organized crime and "the state" is one without a difference, as criminal groups have become increasingly intertwined with official politics.

For example, last September, a group of students in Guerrero state was attacked by local and federal security forces allegedly working for a cartel-connected local mayor. The Mexican government's handling of the case of the three murders and 43 forced disappearances that resulted has been marred by accusations of a cover-up. Another apparent massacre of 22 civilians was carried out by the army soldiers in Tlatlaya, State of Mexico, in June 2014. That case followed a similar trajectory, with the National Human Rights Commission concluding that state authorities had attempted to improperly influence the investigation.

More:
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/30384-the-us-must-address-its-role-in-mexico-s-human-rights-crisis

[Demeter]

1. I won't live that long, Judi Lynn

Maybe my grandchildren...and I don't have any, yet.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Sad, but true. There's been no admissions on anything, other than Bill Clintons's apology

for the hideous medical experiments the US conducted on unknowing Guatemalan citizens. I think that's it.

It's as if any people who want to defend themselves are simply enemies of the U.S. That's so twisted.

[daleanime]

2. K&R.....