Mexico's Drug War Has Decreased Life Expectancy For Men

Newsweek: A new report reveals how Mexico’s ongoing drug war has undone gains made in the life expectancy of men and women in the country, as the country’s homicide rate soared in the first decade of the 21st century.

Despite six decades of increase in life expectancy for Mexicans, thanks to the introduction of health care reform and improvements in quality of life, between 2005 and 2010 life expectancy for Mexican men between the ages of 15 and 50 across the country fell an average of .3 years. This decline is being attributed to drug war-related homicides, according to a new study from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, which was published in the journal Health Affairs on Tuesday. Read more. 

US reviewing democracy work in hostile countries

AP: The State Department said Monday it was reviewing some of its secretive democracy-promotion programs in hostile countries after The Associated Press reported that the nation's global development agency may effectively end risky undercover work in those environments.

The proposed changes follow an AP investigation this year into work by the U.S. Agency for International Development, which established a Twitter-like service in Cuba and secretly sought to recruit a new generation of dissidents there while hiding ties to the U.S. government. The agency's proposed changes could move some of that work under America's diplomatic apparatus. Read more. 

The 10 Most Corrupt Mexicans Of 2013

Forbes
By Dolia Estevez

Alarming levels of corruption in government, the judiciary and law-enforcement, earned Mexico the 2013 title of one of the two most corrupt countries in Latin America, according to the Global Corruption Barometer released in July by Transparency International, an anti-corruption nonprofit group. Mexico shares its rank with Argentina.

In the group’s Global Corruption Barometer of 2013, Mexico’s political parties, police, legislature and judiciary were perceived as the most corrupt, with 91%, 90%, 83% and 80% negative views on corruption.  The report, which is based on a survey of  114,000 people in 107 countries, offers a warning that the abuse of power, secret dealings and bribery continue to ravage societies around the world. In  Mexico corruption cases are rarely prosecuted.

A serious drag on Mexico’s development and a significant obstacle to Mexico achieving a functional democracy, corruption has long been a part of the country’s political culture. Carlos Hank González, the deceased founder of the powerful Grupo Atlacomulco, which masterminded Enrique Peña Nieto’s run for president, once said: “A politician that is poor is a poor politician.” For many Mexican politicians, his motto became the Bible.

The following is a list of the 10 Mexicans perceived to be among the  most corrupt in 2013. I appreciate the input received from colleagues and academics during the process of compiling this list.  Read more. 

Mexico Faces Challenges in Tackling Corruption

ABC News 
By E. Eduardo Castillo
Associated Press
June 26, 2013

It's a scandal a day in Mexico: an ex-governor sent to jail, another under investigation, mysterious money popping up in senators' bank accounts, politicians passing stacks of bills on YouTube.

Scandals are nothing new to Mexican politics, but the pace of revelations is accelerating as a more robust democracy and social media have emboldened Mexico's watchdogs, who are increasingly trying to bring the officials to justice or at least publicly shame them. And much of the new attention focuses on scandals in states, where the powerful grip of governors often had masked wrongdoing in the past.  Read more. 

Over 100 Groups Call on Obama & Mesoamerican Leaders to Tackle Root Causes of Violence at SICA

By CIP Americas with several others and signed by more than 145 organizations

Dear Honorable:

President Barack Obama

President Enrique Peña Nieto

President Laura Chinchilla

President Otto Pérez Molina

President Porfirio Lobo

President Mauricio Funes

President Daniel Ortega

President Ricardo Martinelli

Attorney General & Minister of Foreign Affairs Wilfred Elrington

April 30, 2013

We, the undersigned civil society organizations from throughout the region, are writing to you on the eve of your meetings in Mexico and at the Summit of the Central American Integration System (SICA) in Costa Rica.We welcome the opportunity for our nations to discuss cooperation on critical cross-border issues and urge our States to address our concerns about the dire human rights crisis in Mesoamerica.

Our organizations have documented an alarming increase in violence and human rights violations. While we recognize that transnational crime and drug trafficking play a role in this violence, we call on our governments to acknowledge that failed security policies that have militarized citizen security have only exacerbated the problem, and are directly contributing to increased human suffering in the region.

It is time to refocus regional dialogue and resource investment to address the root causes of violence,

understanding that for many citizens and communities, drug trafficking is not the principal cause of insecurity. Harmful “development” policies have similarly caused increased conflict and abuses, while forced migration and criminalization of migrants and human rights activists continues to divide families. Most importantly, the region’s challenges must be addressed without violating fundamental rights and human dignity.

Enrique Pena Nieto Reforms: Mexico's President Pushes Sweeping Changes To Telecom, Oil Industry

The Huffington Post 

By Michael Wissenstein
March 19 2013

Mexico City -- New President Enrique Pena Nieto has been fast out of the blocks in attacking some of Mexico's toughest issues in a country often stymied by monopolies and corruption.

He arrested the most powerful woman in Mexico, leader of the largest union in Latin America, on allegations of corruption that previous presidents saw but were too compromised to tackle. He is taking on the richest man in the world, Carlos Slim, and pledges to bring diversity to a television industry dominated by the head of the largest network in Latin America, a scion of one of Mexico's leading families.

At one time all three were key allies of Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled for 71 years with a combination of coercion and corruption before being voted out of office in 2000. Now, Pena Nieto is declaring that there are no more sacred cows.

The moves have built momentum behind what could be his most dramatic and difficult reform – modernizing and drawing foreign and private capital to the behemoth state oil company, a long sacrosanct but increasingly inefficient pillar of the Mexican economy. On Sunday, at a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the nationalization of the Mexican oil business, Pena Nieto said again that he will transform Petroleos Mexicanos. The longtime head of the Pemex union, who had been expected by many to fight any changes but has been the subject of questions about unexplained family wealth, pledged his support.

Pena Nieto says his plan will make Mexico more democratic and competitive in the world economy, and his drive for reform is fueling international confidence about Mexico. Rating company Standard and Poor's raised the country's long-term sovereign credit rating from "stable" to "positive" last week, citing optimism about the government's ability to carry out structural changes. The Mexican peso is stronger against the dollar than it's been in a year and a half.

But some analysts warn against mistaking style for substance and making early declarations of victory against entrenched powers built up by the very party that now says it's trying to bring them to heel. It will take many months, in some cases years, before Pena Nieto's reform agenda becomes law and produces its first results, plenty of time for big promises to be derailed by special interests, institutional inertia and the PRI's old guard.  Read more. 

Mexico's media monopoly vs. the people

Televisa helped elect the country's new president. Now it hears cries for the breakup of its broadcast empire.

By Nathaniel Parish Flannery, contributor

CNN FORTUNE -- On July 7, nearly 100,000 people forced their way down Reforma, one of Mexico City's main avenues, gathering in front of the Angel of Independence, a 150-foot-tall monumentin a plaza in the city center. "People, Listen! This is your fight!" they chanted. "Governing a country is not [the same as] making a telenovela," one of the protest posters announced. Mexico's election is over, but in the weeks following the July 1 ballot count, demonstrators have takento the streets. They are angry about the victory of Enrique Peña Nieto, a polarizing but telegenic candidate who ran a campaign based on simple slogans such as "You'll Earn More!"

As the demonstration passed by Museo de Bellas Artes, an iconic museum in downtown Mexico City, Carolina Reyes, a recent college graduate, explained "I think there was fraud in the promotion [of Peña Nieto] in the media." She had painted the front of a model TV screen to show a modified version of the Televisa logo, re-done in the red, white, and green colors of Peña Nieto's party, a political machine with a long and checkered history in Mexico. A plastic tyrannosaurus rex toy poked its head out through a rip in the center of the logo, a warning about the return of old, corrupt, political "dinosaurs" to power. "Fraud! Fraud! Fraud!" the crowd around Carolina chanted, as onlookers stopped to use their cell phones to snap photos as she held her TV prop over her head. The protesters, the majority of whom supported Andres Manuel Lopez Obredor (AMLO), a leftist candidate, are frustrated with the influence of Televisa (TV), Mexico's most important media company, in their country's political discourse. They don't want to see Televisa write the script for their country's elections.

Many members of Mexico's urban, educated, tech savvy youth, who watched and criticized the campaigns via Youtube and Twitter, think that Televisa, a TV conglomerate that produces many of the country's most popular telenovelas, may be too big for the country's good.Televisa controls 70% of the broadcast television market, and its broadcasts reach 95% of all homes in Mexico. Unlike cable TV or the Internet -- platforms that offer a plethora of options -- viewers frustrated with the perceived political slant of news coverage on Mexico's broadcast TV networks have few alternatives. Especially in Mexico, a country with limited cable and Internet penetration, broadcast TV plays a central role. Right now the country has only two nationally broadcast TV channels. Javier Aparicio, a political economy professor at CIDE, a prestigious research institute in Mexico City, explained that his "main concern is the concentration of the media industry in Mexico." He added, "Televisa has an important influence in campaigns in national elections." Read more. 

With Mexico's election results upheld, what's next for the YoSoy132 movement?

The youth movement that emerged in opposition to the media's campaign coverage of President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto is redefining its message and working to give new life to Mexico's democracy.

CSM: Lauren Villagran,  Mexico City / September 11, 2012

When student protestors took to the streets after a government tribunal dismissed charges of fraud and upheld the results of Mexico’s July presidential election last month, they said they mourned “the death of democracy.” But not the end of their movement.

Known for its Twitter hash tag, #YoSoy132 emerged before this summer’s presidential election in opposition to what the students called favoritism by the television media for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto. Mr. Peña Nieto ultimately won the election with 38 percent of the vote in a field of four.

The election now settled, many are questioning what YoSoy132 will do next. Their No. 1 goal remains fair access to information and the “democratization” of Mexico’s media, according to a message emitted to coincide with President Felipe Calderón’s sixth and final state of the union address earlier this month. But the ad-hoc student movement, criticized early on for its lack of organization and focus, is still struggling to create a unified message, leaving some to question its significance and potential to endure in Mexico today.

“The problem with the movement is not whether it continues to have a voice; it’s that it has too many,” says Carlos Bravo Regidor, professor of political studies at Mexico City’s CIDE research center. “The internal diversity at times appears to overpower [the group’s] capacity to deliver coherent and effective messages.”

From nonpolitical marches against media manipulation to the “taking” of government buildings in the state of Veracruz to behind-the-scenes work on proposals for public policy, the private and public university students who consider themselves a part of the YoSoy132 movement differ as much on method as message.

That diversity is a source of strength, says Antonio Attolini, a political science student at Mexico City’s private Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM).  Read more. 

Protests Against Elections Heat Up with "National March Against the Imposition"

Photo: Clayton Conn

Mexicans hit the streets again on Sunday, in the third mass demonstration against the apparent president-elect, Enrique Peña Nieto, in the three weeks since the elections. After months of demonstrations, Mexico's movement to reject the return of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)
shows no signs of fading away.

The July 22 "National March Against the Imposition" began at the presidential residence and arrived shortly after noon at Mexico City's Angel of Independence. Hundreds of people waited to join at the gold-tipped monument, swelling the ranks as students, unions, and citizens moved on to the central plaza.

At the final destination, tens of thousands poured into the square. They marched in clumps and converged from different routes, making it impossible to grasp the full dimension of the march at any given moment. But what the mobilization lacked in route planning, it made up for in energy, indignation and creativity.

This was about the fifth or sixth march against the PRI and its candidate that I've observed first-hand.  I wanted to check out two questions at this one: 1) what difference, if any, the coalition of organizations forged during the National Convention July 14-15 made and 2) what the main demands are, as election day fades into history and evidence of foul play mounts. I also wanted to see if accusations that the student-led movement is controlled by the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) had any substance behind them.

Organizations like the electricians union (SME) and the democratic current of the teachers' union (CNTE) that took part in the planning meeting in the town of Atenco turned out, although not in huge  numbers. The march was called just a week after the accords in Atenco and most organizations have to go through a series of assemblies to make decisions. It may take longer to really assess the impact of the formal incorporation of other sectors into the movement against Peña Nieto and the PRI.

Some unions and universities walked in contingents but for the most part, the march--unlike most Mexico marches--was made up of citizens with home-made signs who marched without visible organizations. Most were young, some were older, including veterans of past movements. The predominance of seemingly unaffiliated people added to the sense of spontaneity of the demonstration, but also to questions about its longer term direction and longevity.

National March Against the Imposition
Since the elections and accusations of fraud, vote-buying and coercion, the marches against the PRI have focused more on the electoral process. "Imposition" refers to the protesters' belief that Peña Nieto was imposed on voters through a series of manipulations and falsifications that violated electoral laws and the popular will. Recent demonstrations called by the student group "Iam132" continue to before the elections denounced the candidate, the way the highly concentrated mass media openly promoted his candidacy and the possible return of the PRI. Most of the students who make up the movement have no real memory of living under a PRI government, since the conservative National Action Party (PAN) has held the presidency for the past twelve years. One young woman carried a sign that read, "We are the children of the ideals you never succeeded in killing".

Photo: Clayton Conn

They have done their history homework. In one of the first demonstration against Televisa, the giant television conglomerate accused of having sold favorable coverage to Peña Nieto as far back as 2009, students projected scenes from the PRI government's massacre of protesting students in 1968 and 1971 against the wall of the media giant's office building. The ruling elite that controlled a one-party system to perpetuate itself in power eternally is a legend they don't want to repeat.

An Ominous Response
The march was replicated in scores of cities across the country and by groups of #Yosoy132  in other countries. Unlike past marches, the July 22 marches met with a violent response from the government in various cities. In Leon, police picked up several protesters and drove them around for three hours, captive, before taking them into detention.

In Oaxaca City, state and federal police arrested and allegedly beat up youth protesters, sexually threatening and abusing the women.

Here is part of the statement from the #YoSoy132 movement:

We also demand the a full explanation of the physical and legal situation of the 24 young people arrested--including two minors, identified in the #YoSoy132 movement, who were arbitrarily imprisoned by state government officials in Oaxaca City. We call on the competent authorities to investigate the cases and clear their names. We request that the officials involved in the various violation of human rights be sanctioned for their acts.

We repudiate the unjustified or disproportionate use of force, arbitrary arrest, torture, just to mention a few, repression that denies freedom of expression and the free manifestation of ideas, as well as abuse of power, threats and harassment against members of social movements. We therefore demand these cases be cleared up and public officials brought to justice and that state and federal authorities prosecute cases of complaints related to these events.

 The violent and arbitrary response by police in these cities could be an ominous sign. The movement continues to insist on peaceful and non-confrontational tactics as it moves into a series of actions decided at the National Convention. The July 22 march was the first of those actions It showed that the movement still has a great ability to draw people into the streets for organized protests-- even weeks after elections that the media and political elite attempted to portray as an unassailable victory-- and among those protestors the rejection of the PRI candidate runs as strong as ever.

As for the second question--what are longer term strategies, beyond the action plan from here to Dec. 1--in all the enthusiasm of the march, I couldn't discern any. The people I talked to said for now, the focus is on consolidating the movement and making its voice here from now to the inauguration.

Plan to “take on and surround” Televisa and boycott Soriana and Wal-Mart

La Jornada: Americas Program Original Translation
See Spanish Original.
- National demonstration against fraud, meeting in Atenco

Laura Poy Solano and Javier Salinas Cesáreo. San Salvador Atenco, Méx., July 15th. On participating on the first National Convention Against the Imposition, representatives of at least 300 organizations achieved a national central focus of action that will bring together students, farmers, workers, unions and teachers, who will drive national demonstrations, boycott companies that participated in fraud, occupy public plazas and “take on and surround” the Televisa facilities throughout the country, with the objective of preventing Enrique Peña Nieto from assuming presidency.

Members of the #Iam132 movement, Villages in Defense of Land Front (FPDT), Mexican Electricians Union (SME) and the National Committee of Education Workers (CNTE), among others, approved of having a national march this July 22nd in the capital of the country, while on Friday the 27th, they will call for action against the television company, among other measures, even though they will postpone for the second convention, to be carried out the 22nd and 23rd of September in Oaxaca, the plan for action that will take place between November 20th to December 1st.

For more than five hours, the 2,600 delegates and representatives of 29 organizations, according to figures from the organizers, discussed more than 200 mobilization proposals. August 4th was the date agreed on to convene in Jalisco for the meeting for the provisional national committee to organize its second convention. Likewise, on Friday the 8th, they will call their first national community protest and test out a general strike.

Laura's Blog: Elections over, but uncertainty remains

#Iam132 march before the election (Rodrigo Jardon)

Yesterday, we at the Americas Program team spread to various points of the country and participated in the elections, as citizens, accredited observers, reporters or a combination. Despite praise for Mexico's democracy throughout the press, none of us encountered a smoothly functioning electoral system.

I was in Colonia Tortuga, in southern Mexico City and later in the Zócalo, watching the press and checking out the long lines at the various polling places. I've also been doing interviews with international and national press and finding that following the elections, there is little patience for a voice of dissent and criticisms are largely seen as raining on the parade of democratic succession here. With notable exceptions, fraud is not being discussed in polite circles. Pundits are willing to discuss the pros and cons of a return of the PRI but few talk about what happened to democracy itself this time around. Even in the international arena, the pre-written script of the victory of Enrique Peña Nieto seems to require this last scene of universal acceptance to usher in the era of a new PRI that looks identical to the old PRI and has the same DNA.

#Iam132 organized candle-lit march (Rodrigo Jardon) 

President Obama called to congratulate the PRI candidate, days before the official results are out and before his closest opponent, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has conceded. It seemed a rude and unnecessary form of pressure for the U.S. government to jump ahead of the Mexican electoral authorities in proclaiming a winner.

I wrote this article "From the Perfect Dictatorship to the Imperfect Democracy" directly in Spanish, while watching the results until 4 AM last night. You can see it here. I thought a lot about whether given the dirty tricks and numerous obstacles to the exercise of the vote, the process could be called a "democracy". Some people have questioned the call, but in political science terms, it's correct. Mexico no longer lives in the time of the dedazo, people do vote, and new laws, rules and institutions have sought to push the nation from one-party rule to an authentic representative democracy. That doesn't mean it's there or even that those laws are applied, as described in the article. But you couldn't call it a dictatorship. The articles emphasizes the "imperfect". I will have it here in English by later tonight.

Police at march before election (Rodrigo Jardon)

Today the students of I am 132 marched again in a large demonstration downtown. Lopez Obrador held a press conference and announced that he will challenge the election on legal grounds. Tomorrow official results come out. We will be here, so stay tuned. This is not over...

Laura Carlsen
Photos by Rodrigo Jardon

(To hear and see some of the interviews over the past hectic days, please check this short piece on Uprising Radio of KPFK, and NBC Nightly News with Mark Potter tonight.)