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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Unwitting Cartel Toys? The UN and Huffington Post - Thousands Across Mexico Call for New Strategy in Drug War

Thought: I wonder how many of the demonstrations were penetrated by those who benefitted from the cartels, or hired to protest in support of cartel interest...false illusion...a well-known tactic used by criminal and insurgent elements. Sure, there were likely actual demonstrations with real feelings against the government tactics...the cartels would be one of them, but the government did not kill 36K people. So, it's okay to support the cartels, but its bad to support the government-hmm... Some messed up logic here in the Huffington Post article as well as a possible miguided UN, that is only quasi-effective against nation states, but near totally ineffective against non-state actors like Mexican drug cartels.  What kind of pressure is the UN and Huffington Post putting on the cartels?   And one last thought regarding the last line of the last article excerpt below, there is NO RULE OF LAW or there would not be a cartel problem to begin with. The implied bottom line here appears to be that state actors are held accountable, non-state actor criminals, terrorists and insurgents are not.  End thought.


Visit this link addressing tactical/strategic deception before reading the article, and then ask yourself if the media are possibly being played to some extent.  Though the video example addresses a Mid-East issue, the video shows how a threat element uses deception to sway public opinion by shaping/influencing the media.


"In early April, thousands of Mexicans poured into the streets in over 20 Mexican cities to raise their voices in a chorus of protest against the government's ineffective and increasingly unpopular military campaign against organized crime. That same week, authorities unearthed 145 murder victims in northeastern Mexico, not far from where 72 migrants were massacred last August. This gruesome discovery has further fueled the Mexican people's anger at the government's failure to stem spiraling violence that has led to over 35,000 dead in the past four years."


"Just a week earlier, the United Nations released a report urging Mexican authorities to immediately withdraw the armed forces from "public security operations and criminal law enforcement" as a critical step to prevent forced disappearances. Simply put, the UN is urging Mexico to send its soldiers back to the barracks. 




The UN findings indicate that security forces have played a role in disappearances. Mexico's own National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) agrees, citing that 5,397 people have been reported missing since 2006 when a newly inaugurated Felipe Calderon deployed thousands of soldiers across the country in an effort to pursue drug cartels. CNDH president Raúl Plascencia Villanueva echoed the UN recommendation when he urged the Mexican government to revise its public security strategy, emphasizing that only the police ought to carry out public security operations.

Mexicans are fed up, and for a good reason. Reports of grisly human rights abuses committed by the military, including torture, rape, and murder, have gone unchecked. Over 4,000 complaints of human rights violations have been filed with Mexico's National Human Rights Commission since President Calderón took office. Yet the notoriously opaque military tribunals have sentenced only one soldier for a human rights violation committed during the Calderón administration.


For years, as complaints of abuses by the military multiplied, rights groups have demanded that basic human rights be protected and that putting an end to rampant impunity is the enduring and effective solution to contesting organized crime, not military might. Without full and fair investigations, prosecutions and conviction, criminals -- both organized crime and corrupt officials -- will continue to be let off the hook, victims will continue to be denied justice, and the climate of lawlessness in which violence thrives will continue to undermine public support for efforts to ensure public safety.


The L.A. Times noted on Monday that the recent discovery of mass graves in northern Mexico should serve as a catalyst to advance desperately-needed judicial reforms in order to address skyrocketing levels of violence and impunity and restore the public's trust. Yet the Mexican government's response to these most recent slayings has been to send in more troops to patrol the streets. The Mexican people, however, have resoundingly called for a fresh, more effective strategy that respects human rights and upholds the rule of law. "

Source: Lisa Haugaard: Thousands Across Mexico Call for New Strategy in Drug War

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