This is entry #8 and the final one in a series of entries that can be found in the category U.S.-Latin American Relations.
The 1980s was a decade decidedly marked with drugs and blood (just rent the movie Scareface). At the close of the decade the U.S. decided it was time to try direct military force again; this time against Panama’s brutal and corrupt dictator Manual Noriega (who by the way, received some of his military training at non other, you guessed it: the School of the Americas- one of its many blowbacks). He served the CIA in counterintelligence issues and by laundering drug money to the U.S.-backed Contras. However, in 1989 when the CIA discovered that he was also a double agent serving his own self-interests (selling arms and intelligence to the Sandinistas), the CIA no longer had any use for the monster that it had created, and when psychological warfare proved to have no affect in removing him, President George H. W. Bush ousted him. This involved a full out invasion, Operation Just Cause, of Panama overseen by Colin Powell, that resulted in thousands of civilian deaths and tens of thousands displaced and homeless. This would prove to be a significant stepping stone for Bush Jr.’s Operation Iraqi Freedom. Last year one of my students confided in me that she and her family emigrated to Mexico during this invasion due to the U.S. attacks and bombings in her neighborhood in Panama.
The 1990s saw the U.S. covertly and overtly sticking its greedy little hands in the Nicaraguan elections. Washington shamelessly and openly used taxpayer’s money to illegally fund the opposition coalition. An escalation of the so-called “War on Drugs” took the limelight, where it became honorable to obliterate a third-world country’s cash-crop.
In 2000, as part of the so-called “War on Drugs”, the U.S. initiated Plan Columbia, a military aid program that pumped 1.3 Billion USD into the Colombian military to combat what would later be dubbed as the “War on Terror”.
In 2002, the U.S., with Bush at its helm, backed a coup that sought to take Hugo Chávez out of power- no wonder Chávez addresses him as the Devil! This is ironic as most conservative evangelicals thereafter were worshiping Bush and asking for Chávez’s head to be presented on a platter (See the previous post in this series for Bush’s tactics for garnering support of the evangelical Christian base). Perhaps Chávez was one of the first to catch on to little Bush’s ‘cowboy and Indian’ game of secret “executive assassination rings” which were operating in dozens of countries that Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, Seymour Hersh later brought to light.
This brings us to the year 2004. This is a pivotal year in relation to the situation that currently plagues Mexico. In 2004 Bush allowed the decade-old assault weapons ban to expire, which allowed for greater ease of trafficking heavy arms across the border into Mexico. Senator Kerry, who has continued to champion the ban’s reinstatement, could but then exclaim that yet again Bush had failed. He had failed the Inter-American community, and as a result has the U.S. along with Mexico paying direly.
Circa 40 Billion USD in drugs crosses US border per year. Almost all of it comes from one of the most corrupted countries on Earth: Mexico. Mexico, where mordidas or bribes (nearly 3 Billion USD worth in 2007 alone) and impunity to anything that faintly resembles law are the only manners in which the country conducts its business- it is the rule. If that fails there’s always a last resort in the country where there are more assassinations than many countries in the middle east combined (murders actually rose 117% from 2007 to 2008, and thus far 2009 looks like we’re in for much of the same). After all, in 2008, 10% of all journalists that were assassinated in the world were assassinated in Mexico. All of this has been a long process in the making and in 2008 Mexico officially underwent “Columbianization”. It is the new battleground for the “War on Drugs”; if you’re not already corrupt, your life expectancy has just been cut in half.
In 2008 over 6,500 people were murder due to drug/gang related violence (mostly in the north, in and around Ciudad Juárez), often times in very public displays like beheadings and grenade attacks- last august there was a person found decapitated for every day. Also in 2008, Mexico claimed the crown for kidnapping capitol of the world. On independence day last year (September 15th) a terrorist attack took place in the square of Morelia, Michoacán injuring many civilians, sending the message that if the government did not back off, civilians would be intentionally targeted. One for the books: the Mexican Drug Czar was indicted for selling Mexican intelligence to the Pacific Cartel at a rate of $500,000USD a month (he would be enjoying a nice exchange rate right about now, had he not been the one given up to the wolves). 2008 was the year President Felipe Calderón began to openly wage war against the cartels.
The beginning of 2009 saw the capture of Teo el Pozolero, who worked for the Pacific Cartel; his job position required him to melt bodies in acid- all in all totaling to more than 300 bodies in his Mexican town of Tijuana which borders San Diego, CA. Forbes list also inducted its newest Billionaire this year: Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman of the Sinaloa Cartel. Mexico is a mess! In Ciudad Juárez recently, where at the height of the violence there were as many as 10 murders per day, the police chief was forced to resign by the cartel- they were murdering one police officer per day until he did. The mayor’s family is now living in Texas and President Calderón has sent 7,500 soldiers and 2,500 federal police to Ciudad Juárez where the brunt of the combat is taking place and an additional 45,000 soldiers throughout the republic- though he is standing firm in stating that no territory has yet been lost, as was the case in Columbia not too long ago. A cartel/gang member has stated to CNN’s Anderson Cooper that “We stick ice picks in feet, burn flesh with blowtorches and acid, cut off testicles; it just takes $100USD to kill a person in Mexico, $500-1000 to kill someone in the States- no one is immune. We have operations in 250 U.S. cities, even in Alaska.” One of my students just recently returned from Juárez and all he could say is that “it feels like it’s the twilight zone- no, better, a war zone, the morgues are overflowing, you don’t go out at night.” And this war zone is beginning to know no borders, as the cartels develop their own intelligence operations and increased violence is beginning to infiltrate the States across the border. This is, as Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has stated, “The States’ number one national security threat.”
All of this is due to drug trafficking and of course a long history of corruption by one party and consumption by the other. 80% of the cocaine that is consumed in the U.S. is brought through Mexico and much of Marijuana is as well. It’s not only a 40 Billion dollar a year industry, it’s Mexico’s and the State’s War. I’d like to share some statistics from a March 26th ed. of a respected periodical:
The News- March 26, 2009
- “9 out of 10 guns found at crime scenes and raids are traced to U.S. dealers.” -(Obama reiterated this in a speech)
- Anywhere from hundreds to 2,000 guns move from the States to Mexico everyday.
- ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives) say there are 6,700 licensed firearm dealers along the Southwest border, and in 2008 they were only able to inspect 28% of them.
I’d also like to share some sayings of President Obama and Secretary Clinton during Secretary Clinton’s visit to Mexico this March. Their statements starkly contrasted those put forth by the Pentagon, implying that Mexico was on the verge of becoming a failed state:
“We need to do more to make sure illegal guns and cash aren’t flowing back to these cartels- that’s part of what’s financing their operation, that’s part of what’s arming them, that’s what’s making them so dangerous.” –President Obama, 24 March 2009
“We recognize drug trafficking is a shared problem. . . Mexico is not a failed state. . . we have to do a better job. . .obviously our demand for these drugs is what motivates these drug gangs ” – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 25 March 2009
And again, after President Obama’s visit to Mexico City (Marine One was outside of my window more than once), speaking before the Summit of the Americas:
I have a lot to learn and I very much look forward to listening and figuring out how we can work together more effectively.
We can overcome our shared challenges with a sense of common purpose, or we can stay mired in the old debates of the past. For the sake of all our people, we must choose the future. Too often, the United States has not pursued and sustained engagement with our neighbors. We have been too easily distracted by other priorities and have failed to see that our own progress is tied directly to progress throughout the Americas. My
administration is committed to renewing and sustaining a broader partnership between the United States and the hemisphere on behalf of our common prosperity and our common security.
It seems as though we are moving forward. Hopefully, if this drug problem leads to an intervention, it will be one of another type; one of hands extended for a pursuit of mutual benefit, not arms extended to take what God has destined for the white man- it’s a welcome and long overdue contrast, would you not agree? This is change I can believe in. Though we must recognized the failed policies of the past- yes, even the economic ones- particularly those of the likes of Milton Friedman and the travails of “shock therapy“. Perhaps so many are finding their way into the drug industry because neoliberalism and globalization has utterly failed them? Is it that U.S. enforced policies have forced millions of peasants off of their land because of forced entry into free-trade agreements and that they can no longer compete with the U.S. agro-industry? Is it that the U.S. would rather burn a nation’s cash crop than face their own consumption problem and moral schism at home? Is it that “free-trade” has actually increased the cost of living outside of the U.S.? Is it that the U.S. has brought this travesty upon itself? Why is it that in 2002, 58% of the Argentine population and 1 in 5 Chileans were below the poverty line? Why is it that the U.S. pumped over 10 Billion dollars into Nicaragua and El Salvador during wars of the 1980s, yet did not feel compelled to help reconstruct? Why is it that 20,000,000 million people live in poverty in Central America today? Why is that absolute poverty and severe malnutrition and inequality exist in the hemisphere that is the “light to the world”? Why is it that NAFTA has actually increased poverty in Mexico? Why was the President of Bolivia, Evo Morales targeted for an assassination attempt this year? Why can’t we have a fair-market instead of a free-market?
These are the questions that I hoped to raise along with the more simple question of “Why do they hate us?” We must learn to become responsible global citizens and think critically. Albert Einstein has been credited with saying, “Never stop questioning.” I hope we heed his wisdom. For example, what would happen if we follow Colorado’s and California’s precedent and legalize marijuana? What impact could this have on our struggling economy and on the escalating drug-related violence? Maybe we should question people that have been affected by the drug and economic wars, perhaps we should listen to their voices.
If there’s one thing to learn from our shenanigans in Latin America is that behind every ‘nation-building’ project there are a lot of bananas. I sit here at my desk and recall the words of our current President on the morning of his inauguration:
To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
Now it is our job to hold him responsible, just as we are now holding Bush responsible for shaming this country. Let us urge President Obama and the 111th congress to reason from their ethical centers and say no- not to drugs, but to the continuation of detrimental and broken relations with Latin America as we enter into this new era of change. Let’s make an effort to reinstate the assault weapons ban as we assist our neighbors to the south, lift the 47-year trade embargo against Cuba, and rally the closure of WHINSEC (formerly the School of the Americas) which continues to train Latin American soldiers in tactics of war and counterinsurgency. These acts (coupled with Obama’s acceptance of Eduardo Galeano’s book Open Veins of Latin America from Hugo Chávez) can prove as significant symbolic and concrete actions of construing an alternative reality or as President Obama puts it: “choosing the future”.
-MLW
