Washington Arms Mexico
Sale of $1,300 million dollars in one year - without a declared war
March 2015
March 2015
Senator Jeff Flake, Arizona
Senator John Kyle, Arizona
September 26, 2018
Dear Sirs,
Today Wednesday September 26, 2018
marks the 4th Year anniversary of the Forced
Disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa
students by agents of the three levels of government (municipal-state-federal)
of the narco-state of president Enrique Peña Nieto of México.
The incident occurred on the evening of
September 26, 2014. Six deaths also occurred on that evening in Iguala,
Guerrero.
Among the pieces of irrefutable,
concrete evidence collected by the Independent International Group of Experts (GIEI)
were 18 spent cartridges of a particular caliber and manufacture ONLY AVAILABLE to the federal military
apparatus. The GIEI was also denied entry into the headquarters of the Battalion 27 headquarters in Iguala
where telemetric evidence of one of the students, Jorge Anibal Cruz, has
revealed the last live text message was emitted from within the Battalion 27
headquarters at 1:16 AM of the 27th of September.
The bus carrying the 43 Ayotzinapa
students that was attacked on the evening of the 26th of September in Iguala is
reported to be was loaded with heroin to be delivered to Chicago. The 43 Ayotzinapa students were unaware of this fact, but
they were then caught up in the efforts of the narco network cartel to recover
the drug cargo. They have not been seen since. They have been eliminated as WITNESSES to the complicity of the
Mexican federal police, military and the local and national political apparatus
in the international narco state drug trade.
Collusion
and Complicity of US Government with Narco Violence in Mexico
According to the Foreign Assistance
Act:
“[A] principal goal of the foreign
policy of the United States, shall be to promote the increased observance of
internationally recognized human rights by all countries.” Eventually, to give
practical effect to that declaration, the Act was amended by the “Leahy Law,” which forbids assistance to
any unit of the security forces of a foreign country if the Secretary of State
has credible information that such unit has committed gross violations of human rights."
Section 620M of the Foreign Assistance
Act of 1961 (Leahy Amendment) reads as follows:
(a) IN
GENERAL. – No assistance shall be furnished under this Act or the Arms Export
Control Act to any unit of the security forces of a foreign country if the Secretary
of State has credible information that such unit has committed a gross
violation of human rights.
The public policy of the US Government towards Mexico which is marketed as an anti-drug cartel program under the Plan Merida-Mexico operates in fact as an engine of corruption and collusion with the systemic IMPUNITY and State Violence that has resulted in 26,000 disappeared human beings currently in Mexico, and 100,000 deaths as casualties of the so-called War on Drugs.
On January 1, 2015 the Human RightsCommission of the Comités de Defensa del Barrio sent a letter to then President
Obama calling for the provisions of the Leahy Amendment to be invoked in regard
to the Plan Merida-Mexico initiative.
It is with
great humanitarian concern and in absolute denunciation of the complicity and
collusion of the of the US government with the pogrom of violence and impunity
in Mexico that we now call for the US State Department and Department of
Defense to immediately withhold all military assistance to the government of the
Republic of Mexico as a consequence of the systematic and ongoing violations
human rights, collusion and impunity which is prohibited by the Section 620M of
the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (Leahy Amendment).
The letter to President Obama was
preceded by a petition delivered on November 20, 2014 to US Congressman Matt Salmon at his offices
in Gilbert, Arizona requesting that Congressman Salmon provide the names and
particulars of the 5 individuals trained
by the US military involved in the Massacre of Tlatlaya, Mexico on June 30 where 22 youth were executed by the armed
forces of the state of Mexico.
Congressman Salomon at the time served Deputy Chief of the Western
Hemisphere Sub Committee within the Foreign Relations Committee in the US
Congress. To date we have received no
response from either request.
In 2017 the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
realized an official visit to Mexico. From her September 18, 2018 report to the
United Nations Human Rights Council
in Geneva:
This report
examines the situation of indigenous peoples in Mexico. It is based on information received by the
Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples during her visit to the
country from 8 to 17 November 2017 and on independent research. The Special Rapporteur notes that, since the
official visit made in 2003 by the former Special Rapporteur, Rodolfo Stavenhagen,
and despite the commitments subsequently made by Mexico in the field of human
rights, indigenous peoples continue to face serious challenges in the exercise
of their human rights.
Current
development policies, which are based on megaprojects (in mining, energy,
tourism, real estate and agriculture, among other areas), pose a major
challenge to indigenous peoples’ enjoyment of human rights. Lack of
self-determination and prior, free, informed and culturally appropriate
consultation are compounded by land conflicts, forced displacement, and
criminal accusations and violence against indigenous peoples who defend their
rights.
All these
problems are taking place against a backdrop of profound inequality, poverty
and discrimination faced by indigenous peoples that restricts their access to
justice, education, health and other basic services.
The case of
the 43 students from Ayotzinapa,
Guerrero, who disappeared in September 2014 is particularly emblematic. The
Special Rapporteur met with the parents of some of the students from indigenous
communities and noted how little progress had been made in investigating the
whereabouts of their children. Another
notable case is the massacre of 46
persons that took place in Acteal, Chiapas, in December 1997. The Special
Rapporteur met with survivors and members of the victims’ families who are still
seeking justice and a full
investigation of this massacre, which disproportionately affected
indigenous women.
In light of the above, and taking into
account that according to sources within the current US government, the Plan Merida-Mexico initiative is to be
revised after the new government of president Manuel Lopez Obrador takes office on December 1, 2018 and that the
US Congress has appropriated $145 million for the Merida Initiative, the
following concerns and demands are presented for public disclosure:
As the UN Special Rapporteur on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples noted in her report of September 18, 2018 the systemic violence in Mexico occurs against
the historical backdrop of centuries of colonization
and genocide. In January of 1994, upon the initial implementation of the original
NAFTA accord the bloodbath in Mexico crested in the state of Chiapas with
uprising of the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN). Today, as evidenced in the report of the Special
Rapporteur the conditions have worsened, in spite of the fact the in 2007 the
United nations adopted the Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which specifically articulates the Right of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent
for economic development projects which impact the territories and Human Rights
of Indigenous Peoples.
We understand that the proposed “Indigenous Chapter” submitted by the
Canadian government to be considered in the “modernization” of the NAFTA agreement has been scrapped. We understand
that the provisions in the bi-lateral US-Mexico agreement
that has been announced by the current administration in Washington have no mention
of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,
much less the specific right of Free,
Prior, and Informed Consent. What we do not understand is how the president
of the US government can preen and pose before the world community on the floor
of the UN General Assembly as he did yesterday, and claim the mantle of Freedom
and Democracy when it was he who unethically, illegally and in complicity with
his allies in the fossil fuel industry unilaterally overrode all due process, environmental
justice regulations, civil rights protections, treaty rights, and Indigenous
Rights by fast tracking the permit for the Dakota
Access Pipeline at Standing Rock.
Today, if the North America Free Trade Agreement is to be legitimate, if it is to
be “modernized”, it must integrate in its provisions the recognition, respect,
and guarantees of legal protection for the collective right of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent of
the of Indigenous Peoples, as
peoples equal to all other peoples. Nothing less is acceptable. This is
not negotiable.
We call upon the US Department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
to take immediate and appropriate steps to confront the COMPLICITY and COLLUSION of the US government in the ongoing Crimes
against Humanity by the State of Mexico in violation of fundamental Human
Rights established under the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights to which the United States is a signatory.
We demand and end to the impunity afforded to the state of
Mexico by US State Department policies and an embargo of the armaments originating from US for the bloodbath that
has resulted in over 26,000 disappeared and 100,000 deaths across Mexico under
the guise of the War on Drugs, in
particular the Plan Merida-Mexico
Initiative.
We return to the issue of consent. May we also submit at this
critical moment in our shared histories as Original
Nations of Indigenous Peoples and the societies of the settler states now known as the United States of America, that the
principle of self-governance that we have shared with you, is based upon a
fundamental principle of respect for human dignity. Human dignity is our eventual
goal, it is our tradition. We submit that the universal human rightzs principle of self-governance
requires a comprehensive and responsible appreciation and evaluation of all factors and
information on issues to be considered, without discrimination. The principle of non-discrimination is a preemptive norm. We urge you to live up to this standard of
ethical behavior and reaffirm the principle of No Confirmation Without Investigation as you consider the current
processes of nomination of Judge Kavanaugh for the US Supreme Court.
As finally for historical context, we
share the communication from our Calpolequeh Emiliano Zapata, who also addressed these same issues in his letter to President
Woodrow Wilson in 1914.
Attentively,
Tupac Enrique Acosta
Los Comités de Defensa del Barrio
Human Rights Commission, Secretariat
TONATIERRA
Letter from Emiliano Zapata to the President of the US
Letter from Emiliano Zapata to Woodrow Wilson,
President of the United Sates
General Headquarters of Yautepec, Morelos
August 23, 1914.
Mr. Woodrow Wilson,
President of the USA. UU. of America. Washington.
Dear Esteemed Sir:
I have seen in the press statements you made regarding the agrarian revolution which for four years has been developing in this Republic, and with great surprise I became aware that in spite of the distance you have accurately understood the causes and aims of the revolution which has increased especially in the South of Mexico, a region which has had to suffer the most from acts of dispossession and extortion by the large landholders.
That conviction that you sympathize with, the agrarian emancipation movement, leads
me to explain to you regarding the facts and background of the press in Mexico
City, which being dedicated to serving the interests of the rich and powerful, has
always worked to deface with infamous calumnies before the rest of America and
the world in order that the deep significance of this great proletarian
movement would never become known.
I'll start by pointing out to you the causes of the revolution that I lead.
Mexico is still today is a country in full feudal epoch, or so it was at the
outbreak of the 1910 revolution.
A few hundred landowners have monopolized all the arable land of the Republic, from year to year they have been increasing their domains, which in order to accomplish they have had to strip the people of their ejidos or communal fields, and their modest parcels of individual inheritance. There are cities in the State of Morelos, for example Cuautla, which are lacking even land needed to dispose of their garbage, land which is rightly required for the development of the population.
So it is that the landowners, by dispossession upon dispossession, today with this pretext, tomorrow with another, have been absorbing all properties that rightfully belong to and from time immemorial have belonged to the Indigenous Peoples, lands from whose livelihood and culture the Indigenous Peoples have drawn sustenance for themselves and their families.
To realize this extortion, the land barons have used legislation which has been elaborated under their influence that has allowed them to take over vast tracts of land, with the pretext that these lands are idle, or not protected by legally correct titles.
In this manner, aided by the complicity of the courts and even worse acts of the sort, such as false imprisonment or forced consignment into the military, the small landholders are robbed, and the great land barons have become sole owners of the entire country. The Indigenous Peoples now disposed of their lands, have been forced to work on plantations for low wages and are forced to endure the extreme mistreatment of the landowners and their stewards or overseers, many of whom, being Spanish or the children of Spanish parents, consider that they are entitled to conduct themselves as if they live at the time of Hernán Cortés, in other words as if they were still the conquerors and masters, and that we the "peons" were mere slaves, subject to the brutal law of conquest.
The landowner's position regarding the “peons” is exactly equal to that held by the feudal lord, the earl or baron of the Middle Ages, in regards to their servants and vassals.
The Hacendado (Squire) in Mexico has at his will the complete person of “his peon". He may reduce him to prison if he likes, he may forbid the “peon” to leave the ranch with the pretext that there is debt that can never be repaid, being so ordered by judges whom the hacendado bribes, and then there are the prefects or "political bosses" who are always their allies. The landlord is truly the complete Lord of Life and Property without doubt, within their vast domains.
This unbearable situation is from whence originated the Revolution of 1910 and which as primary principle and direction has intention to destroy the feudal regime and fight against the monopoly of land in the hands of a few.
But unfortunately, Francisco I. Madero who coming from a wealthy and powerful family which owns large tracts of land in the north of the Republic, Madero naturally quickly joined with other landowners, and invoking the power of legislation (laws for the rich and favoring the rich) as an excuse, chose not to fulfill the promises he had made to restore the stolen lands to their rightful owners and destroy the overwhelming monopoly of the landowners, through the expropriation of these lands in the name of public interest and with corresponding compensation, if possession was legitimate.
Madero failed in his promises and the revolution continued, mainly in the regions that had seen the greatest abuses and assaults by the hacendados, such as in the states of Morelos, Guerrero, Michoacan, Puebla, Durango, Chihuahua, Zacatecas, etc., etc.
Then came the Coup of the Citadel, that is the effort made by the ancient Porfiristas and conservative elements of all shades to seize power again, for they feared that Madero would be forced one day to have to keep his promises. At that juncture, the campesino population became justly alarmed and revolutionary ferment spread with more force than ever, since the coup, followed the assassination of Madero, was a challenge - a true threat to the revolution of 1910.
At this point the revolution encompassed the full extent of the Republic, and chastened by past experience, and I chose not to await final victory but instead began the distribution of land and the expropriation of the large estates. Thus as has happened in Morelos, Guerrero, Michoacan, Puebla, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Chihuahua, Sonora, Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi: in such a way that it can be said that the people have done justice for themselves, as the legislative process does not favor justice and given that the current Constitution is a hindrance rather than a defense or security for working peoples, and especially for the campesino communities.
It was at this point that the Campesino Pueblos realized the need to break the old patterns of legislation, and seeing in the Plan de Ayala the articulation of their desires and the expression of the principles that should underpin the new legislative process, began to implement such a plan, as required by the supremacy of law and justice, and this is how revolutionaries throughout the Republic have restored the lands of the dispossessed peoples. They have divided up the monstrous estates and punished the eternal enemies of the people, the feudal lords, with confiscation of their estates, along with the caciques and chief accomplices of the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz as well as the perpetrators and accomplices of the Coup of the Citadel.
It is to be ensured, therefore, that there will be no peace in Mexico until the Plan de Ayala is raised to the rank of law or constitutional provision, and fulfilled across the entire country.
This position is reference not only in terms of social issues, or the need for land redistribution, but also with regard to the political question, or the manner of appointing the interim president who must issue the call for elections and has to start the process of implementing land reform.
The country is tired of impositions, Mexico no longer tolerates imposed masters or leaders, our desire is to take part in the appointment of our governors, and since the interim government should emanate from the revolution and in order to assure this, is logical and fair that these be true representatives of the Revolution, or the heads of the armed movement, who should carry out the appointment of Interim President. This is guaranteed by article twelve of the Plan de Ayala, in spite of the wishes of D. Venustiano Carranza and his circle of ambitious politicians, who propose that the Carranza step into the position of President by surprise, or rather, by a bold stroke of audacity and imposition.
The only way to wisely choose the Acting President is through the collective conviction of the revolutionary leaders across the country. Only so can be presented a man who by his record and his ideas provide absolute guarantees, while with Carranza as an owner or shareholder owning large properties in the Border States, his imposition is a threat to the campesinos of the country, as he would opt for the same policies as Madero. His ideas are clearly identified, with the only difference that Madero was weak, while Carranza is man capable of exercising a most tremendous dictatorship, which would again provoke a formidable revolution, perhaps bloodier than those before.
Therefore you will see, being that the Revolution of the South is a revolution of ideals, not of revenge or retaliation, that this revolution has committed before the country and before the civilized world, to a formal contract to provide full guarantees for the lives and interests of nationals and foreigners, before and after our victory, and I am happy to make you aware of this fact.
May these notes better illustrate, along with the information which Messrs. Dr. Charles Jenkinson and Thomas W. Reilly will share with you, and who as kind visitors of this State, we have had the pleasure to offer our modest but gracious hospitality, and via whose kind conduct I send these lines.
For my part I can say to you that I understand and appreciate the noble and uplifting policy that you are carrying forward, within the limits of respect for the sovereignty of each state in this beautiful and not always happy Continent of the Americas.
I would have you believe that, as long as this policy respects the autonomy of the Mexican people in pursuit for their own ideals [and] as they understand them, I will be one of many of your sympathizers from this sister Republic and hopefully not the least useful of your servants, which I reiterate now with my particular appreciation.
President of the United Sates
General Headquarters of Yautepec, Morelos
August 23, 1914.
Mr. Woodrow Wilson,
President of the USA. UU. of America. Washington.
Dear Esteemed Sir:
I have seen in the press statements you made regarding the agrarian revolution which for four years has been developing in this Republic, and with great surprise I became aware that in spite of the distance you have accurately understood the causes and aims of the revolution which has increased especially in the South of Mexico, a region which has had to suffer the most from acts of dispossession and extortion by the large landholders.
I'll start by pointing out to you the causes of the revolution that I lead.
A few hundred landowners have monopolized all the arable land of the Republic, from year to year they have been increasing their domains, which in order to accomplish they have had to strip the people of their ejidos or communal fields, and their modest parcels of individual inheritance. There are cities in the State of Morelos, for example Cuautla, which are lacking even land needed to dispose of their garbage, land which is rightly required for the development of the population.
So it is that the landowners, by dispossession upon dispossession, today with this pretext, tomorrow with another, have been absorbing all properties that rightfully belong to and from time immemorial have belonged to the Indigenous Peoples, lands from whose livelihood and culture the Indigenous Peoples have drawn sustenance for themselves and their families.
To realize this extortion, the land barons have used legislation which has been elaborated under their influence that has allowed them to take over vast tracts of land, with the pretext that these lands are idle, or not protected by legally correct titles.
In this manner, aided by the complicity of the courts and even worse acts of the sort, such as false imprisonment or forced consignment into the military, the small landholders are robbed, and the great land barons have become sole owners of the entire country. The Indigenous Peoples now disposed of their lands, have been forced to work on plantations for low wages and are forced to endure the extreme mistreatment of the landowners and their stewards or overseers, many of whom, being Spanish or the children of Spanish parents, consider that they are entitled to conduct themselves as if they live at the time of Hernán Cortés, in other words as if they were still the conquerors and masters, and that we the "peons" were mere slaves, subject to the brutal law of conquest.
The landowner's position regarding the “peons” is exactly equal to that held by the feudal lord, the earl or baron of the Middle Ages, in regards to their servants and vassals.
The Hacendado (Squire) in Mexico has at his will the complete person of “his peon". He may reduce him to prison if he likes, he may forbid the “peon” to leave the ranch with the pretext that there is debt that can never be repaid, being so ordered by judges whom the hacendado bribes, and then there are the prefects or "political bosses" who are always their allies. The landlord is truly the complete Lord of Life and Property without doubt, within their vast domains.
This unbearable situation is from whence originated the Revolution of 1910 and which as primary principle and direction has intention to destroy the feudal regime and fight against the monopoly of land in the hands of a few.
But unfortunately, Francisco I. Madero who coming from a wealthy and powerful family which owns large tracts of land in the north of the Republic, Madero naturally quickly joined with other landowners, and invoking the power of legislation (laws for the rich and favoring the rich) as an excuse, chose not to fulfill the promises he had made to restore the stolen lands to their rightful owners and destroy the overwhelming monopoly of the landowners, through the expropriation of these lands in the name of public interest and with corresponding compensation, if possession was legitimate.
Madero failed in his promises and the revolution continued, mainly in the regions that had seen the greatest abuses and assaults by the hacendados, such as in the states of Morelos, Guerrero, Michoacan, Puebla, Durango, Chihuahua, Zacatecas, etc., etc.
Then came the Coup of the Citadel, that is the effort made by the ancient Porfiristas and conservative elements of all shades to seize power again, for they feared that Madero would be forced one day to have to keep his promises. At that juncture, the campesino population became justly alarmed and revolutionary ferment spread with more force than ever, since the coup, followed the assassination of Madero, was a challenge - a true threat to the revolution of 1910.
At this point the revolution encompassed the full extent of the Republic, and chastened by past experience, and I chose not to await final victory but instead began the distribution of land and the expropriation of the large estates. Thus as has happened in Morelos, Guerrero, Michoacan, Puebla, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Chihuahua, Sonora, Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi: in such a way that it can be said that the people have done justice for themselves, as the legislative process does not favor justice and given that the current Constitution is a hindrance rather than a defense or security for working peoples, and especially for the campesino communities.
It was at this point that the Campesino Pueblos realized the need to break the old patterns of legislation, and seeing in the Plan de Ayala the articulation of their desires and the expression of the principles that should underpin the new legislative process, began to implement such a plan, as required by the supremacy of law and justice, and this is how revolutionaries throughout the Republic have restored the lands of the dispossessed peoples. They have divided up the monstrous estates and punished the eternal enemies of the people, the feudal lords, with confiscation of their estates, along with the caciques and chief accomplices of the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz as well as the perpetrators and accomplices of the Coup of the Citadel.
It is to be ensured, therefore, that there will be no peace in Mexico until the Plan de Ayala is raised to the rank of law or constitutional provision, and fulfilled across the entire country.
This position is reference not only in terms of social issues, or the need for land redistribution, but also with regard to the political question, or the manner of appointing the interim president who must issue the call for elections and has to start the process of implementing land reform.
The country is tired of impositions, Mexico no longer tolerates imposed masters or leaders, our desire is to take part in the appointment of our governors, and since the interim government should emanate from the revolution and in order to assure this, is logical and fair that these be true representatives of the Revolution, or the heads of the armed movement, who should carry out the appointment of Interim President. This is guaranteed by article twelve of the Plan de Ayala, in spite of the wishes of D. Venustiano Carranza and his circle of ambitious politicians, who propose that the Carranza step into the position of President by surprise, or rather, by a bold stroke of audacity and imposition.
The only way to wisely choose the Acting President is through the collective conviction of the revolutionary leaders across the country. Only so can be presented a man who by his record and his ideas provide absolute guarantees, while with Carranza as an owner or shareholder owning large properties in the Border States, his imposition is a threat to the campesinos of the country, as he would opt for the same policies as Madero. His ideas are clearly identified, with the only difference that Madero was weak, while Carranza is man capable of exercising a most tremendous dictatorship, which would again provoke a formidable revolution, perhaps bloodier than those before.
Therefore you will see, being that the Revolution of the South is a revolution of ideals, not of revenge or retaliation, that this revolution has committed before the country and before the civilized world, to a formal contract to provide full guarantees for the lives and interests of nationals and foreigners, before and after our victory, and I am happy to make you aware of this fact.
This long exposé should confirm to you in your well-illuminated
mind regarding our movement of Southern Mexico, and convince you that the vile,
banal, and corrupt press of Mexico City has maligned my personality and that of
my compatriots.
May these notes better illustrate, along with the information which Messrs. Dr. Charles Jenkinson and Thomas W. Reilly will share with you, and who as kind visitors of this State, we have had the pleasure to offer our modest but gracious hospitality, and via whose kind conduct I send these lines.
For my part I can say to you that I understand and appreciate the noble and uplifting policy that you are carrying forward, within the limits of respect for the sovereignty of each state in this beautiful and not always happy Continent of the Americas.
I would have you believe that, as long as this policy respects the autonomy of the Mexican people in pursuit for their own ideals [and] as they understand them, I will be one of many of your sympathizers from this sister Republic and hopefully not the least useful of your servants, which I reiterate now with my particular appreciation.
General Emiliano Zapata
Los Comités de Defensa del Barrio
September 22, 2012
September 22, 2012
