Mexico Week In Review: 10.08-10.14

[cisdc]

Mexico Week In Review: 10.08-10.14
=================================================================
Published since 1994, 'Mexico Week In Review' is a service of the
Committee of Indigenous Solidarity (CIS).  CIS is a Washington, D.C.
based activist group committed to the ongoing struggles of Indigenous
peoples in the Americas.  CIS is actively supporting the struggles
of the Indigenous peoples of Mexico while simultaneously combating
related structures of oppression within our own communities.

To view newsletter archives, visit: 
http://lists.mutualaid.org/pipermail/mexico-week/

"Para Todos, Todo; Para Nosotros Nada"
=================================================================

OAXACA: THREE MEDIA WORKERS MURDERED

Three media workers for the Oaxaca-based daily El Imparcial del Istmo 
were shot and killed on Monday (10/08) afternoon while driving in the 
southern state of Oaxaca in a vehicle bearing the paper's logo. The 
Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the attack today and 
called on Mexican authorities to conduct a prompt and thorough 
investigation.

At 1:15 p.m., an Equinox SUV with tinted windows chased and then 
blocked an El Imparcial del Istmo truck along a highway connecting 
the cities of Salina Cruz and Tehuantepec, according to Mexican press 
reports. According to El Imparcial del Istmo, unidentified 
individuals got out of the car, and shot the van's driver Mateo 
Cortés Martínez and delivery workers Agustín López Nolasco and Flor 
Vásquez López at close range. According to Mexican press reports, El 
Imparcial del Istmo's Regional Director Gonzalo Domínguez received an 
anonymous telephone call later that afternoon stating he was "next." 
Luis David Quintana, the daily's deputy director, told local 
reporters that the newspaper had received several threatening e-mail 
messages and letters in the last month warning that the paper should 
tone down its coverage of local drug trafficking gangs.

"We offer our deepest condolences to the families, friends and 
colleagues of Mateo Cortés Martínez, Agustín López Nolasco, and Flor 
Vásquez López," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. "We condemn 
this brutal attack, and urge local and federal authorities to conduct 
a speedy and thorough investigation and to bring all those 
responsible to justice."

In the last year, reporters and media outlets in the state of Oaxaca 
have been attacked in retaliation for their critical reporting, CPJ 
research shows. On August 5, an unidentified assailant shot and 
wounded journalist Alberto Fernández Portilla outside his home in 
Salina Cruz and warned him not to "mess with our leader." Fernández 
had reported extensively on corruption involving Mexico's state-owned 
oil and gas monopoly Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and its local union 
in Oaxaca. On October 27, 2006, Bradley Roland Will, a 36-year-old 
documentary filmmaker from Illinois, was killed during a street 
battle in the provincial capital of Oaxaca between anti-government 
protesters and armed plainclothes men, many identified by witnesses 
as working for the local government. Will's killing remains unsolved.

Mexico is one of the most dangerous places for journalists in Latin 
America, CPJ research shows. Drug trafficking and organized crime 
have both become greater problems there in the last couple of years, 
and reporters who cover these dangerous stories are threatened and 
killed.

CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that 
works to safeguard press freedom around the world.

Source: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ): 10/09
====

BORDER NEWS: JUDGE DELAYS PART OF BORDER FENCE

A federal judge temporarily delayed construction of a 1.5-mile 
section of a border fence in a wildlife conservation area on the 
Arizona-Mexico line. The Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club 
had requested a 10-day delay in a motion alleging that the Bureau of 
Land Management and other agencies had failed to conduct a thorough 
study of the fence's effect on the environment. U.S. District Court 
Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle said she granted the delay in part because 
the federal government did not explain why it hurried through an 
environmental assessment and began building the fence in the San 
Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. Huvelle repeatedly asked 
the government's attorney, Gregory Page, to explain why the agencies 
took only three weeks to do the environmental assessment. She said 
that amount of time was unprecedented and that the government was 
trying to "ram" the environmental study through and start 
construction "before anyone would wake up." Huvelle also questioned 
why equal urgency was not applied to building border fences in Texas 
and California.

President Bush signed a law last year ordering the Homeland Security 
Department to build 700 miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. 
Construction is nearly finished in other parts of Arizona, but the 
proposed fence is running into strong opposition in Texas. Opponents 
of the fence have said it will interfere with wildlife, disrupt 
commerce and disturb the bilateral way of life along the border. 
Supporters say it will curb illegal immigration and is needed for 
national security. The San Pedro conservation area includes the 
biologically diverse San Pedro River, one of the last free-flowing 
rivers in the Southwest. The river, whose banks are dotted with 
cottonwood and willow trees, is a seasonal flyway for millions of 
migratory birds and hosts a large variety of plant and animal life

Page argued that building the fence at the conservation area would 
not only address a national security problem but also the 
environmental problems caused by thousands of illegal immigrants 
cutting through the conservation area, on foot and car, leaving 
behind trash and damaging wildlife. "When you abate a border-security 
problem, that itself causes environmental problems, you are acting as 
a steward of the land," Page said.

Huvelle and Brian Segee, the attorney for the environmental groups, 
said the environmental problems caused by the illegal immigrants have 
been going on for a long time. Previously, the federal government 
planned to construct vehicle barriers, which were not opposed, Segee 
said. Huvelle agreed with Segee's argument that the government failed 
to look at the cumulative effect of fencing on the border. The 
failure of the government to even acknowledge the potential impact of 
fencing on other parts of the border "renders this environmental 
assessment inadequate," she said.

Huvelle noted that her decision could be made moot by Homeland 
Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who can waive all environmental 
laws to build the fence. "The law allows you to trump it. You have 
all the power," Huvelle said. The Homeland Security Department will 
review the decision and its options, spokesman Russell Knocke said. 
"Arizonans and, quite frankly, Americans everywhere have been clear 
that they want more border security. Today's ruling will not diminish 
our resolve to deliver it," Knocke said.

Source: Associated Press: 10/10
====

IMMIGRATION NEWS: CHILD DEPORTATION NUMBERS REPORTED

Traveling across the Mexican interior, often alone, underage migrants 
are considered at greater risk of suffering illness, sexual assault 
and other forms of physical violence. Many child migrants who cross 
the border without papers are detained by United States immigration 
agents and deported back to Mexico. According to Mexico's National 
Migration Institute (INM), 5,279 minors were deported from the US to 
the state of Chihuahua between January and September of this year. 
More than half of the deportees, 56 percent, were detained while 
traveling alone. Of the deported minors, 1,147 were below 12 years of 
age. The vast majority of the deportees, 4,921 to be precise, were 
taken into custody while trying to cross the US border.

In Mexico, deported minors who are alone are turned over to Integral 
Family Development centers, legal authorities or non-governmental 
support institutions while efforts are made to reunite the children 
with their families.

The INM recently analyzed some of the demographic characteristics of 
this year's group of child migrants deported to Chihuahua. 
Researchers found that 20 percent of the deportees did not complete 
any elementary school grade, while 60 percent had some experience 
with primary school. Another group had attended middle school, while 
a smaller percentage had at least some high school studies. Most of 
the young migrants studied, 1,582, were from the state of Chihuahua. 
Other Mexican states with high numbers of residents represented in 
the deportation figures included Durango, which accounted for 402 
deportees; Oaxaca, 361; Guanajuato, 318; Michoacan, 271; Zacatecas, 
269; and Mexico state, 242. Smaller numbers of deported minors hailed 
from other states of the Mexican Republic as well.

Sources: Frontera NorteSur (FNS): 10/11; El Diario de Juarez: 10/10
====

CARDINAL COMPLAINS OF THREATS

Mexico's top Roman Catholic cardinal, who is accused in a U.S. 
lawsuit of protecting an alleged pedophile priest, said he has 
received threats and will ask the government additional security. 
Norberto Rivera said he feels "always at risk" in an interview 
broadcast by the Televisa network, after several protesters kicked, 
pounded and reportedly spat at his car outside Mexico City's 
cathedral after his weekly Mass. It was unclear why the protesters 
attacked the car, and Rivera has not said who is behind death threats 
against him.

Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said he had instructed his security 
secretary, Joel Ortega, to help. But Church officials have suggested 
that Sunday's confrontation may have involved supporters of Ebrard's 
Democratic Revolution Party, which party officials deny. "We can't 
tolerate this kind of chaos at the cathedral," Rivera said, "where 
today they hit me and tomorrow they shoot at me." Rivera seemed to 
suggest he wanted help from federal authorities, and it was unclear 
if he would accept the offer from the capital's leftist government, 
which has accused him of interfering in politics by organizing 
opposition to a new city law legalizing abortion in the first 
trimester. Mexican law prohibits clerics from taking an active role 
in politics.

Rivera has been accused in connection with a lawsuit of protecting a 
priest accused of molesting young boys in the U.S. and Mexico. Rivera 
says he was unaware of child molestation allegations against accused 
priest Nicolas Aguilar.

Source: Associated Press: 10/09
====

INCREASED US MILITARY AID EXPECTED

Bilateral negotiations last week reportedly hashed out the final 
details of a new US military aid package for Mexico that could top 
US$1.4 billion (some reports say US$1 billion) the first two years. 
Details are still sketchy, but the aid package is expected to provide 
military hardware, training, sophisticated radar coverage of Mexican 
airspace, and intelligence cooperation for Mexico's "war on drugs." 
Many analysts compare the program to the infamous Plan Colombia, 
which has been used mainly to battle left wing insurgents in 
Colombia, and apparently US authorities are not displeased with the 
comparison.  Defense Secretary Robert Gates referred to "Plan Mexico" 
during a visit to Bogota. 

Supposedly the plan does not include the presence of US troops in 
Mexico, though it may include US law enforcement officials and 
technical supervisors stationed within Mexican territory.  To assuage 
concerns over Mexican sovereignty, the package reportedly includes 
language holding the US responsible for controlling drug distribution 
and money laundering north of the border, and the illegal exportation 
of arms from the US to Mexico.  Many weapons that are illegal in 
Mexico can easily be purchased at gun shows or in WallMarts across 
the US, making the northern neighbor the most important source of 
heavy weapons for drug cartels.  Currently, the US provides US$40 
million in military aid annually to Mexico, mainly in the form of 
hardware and counter-insurgency training at the School of the 
Americas.  The Bush administration is expected to present the aid 
package to Congress in the coming months.

Source: Mexico Solidarity Network Weekly News Summary: 10/010-07

====
The above articles were originally published and copyrighted by the 
listed sources. These articles are offered for educational purposes 
which CIS maintains is  'fair use' of copyrighted material as 
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.

end: Mexico Week In Review: 10.08-10.14
--