Plan Mexico is a $1.4 billion U.S. aid package to Mexico to fight the “war on drugs.” Officially known as the Merida Initiative, the bulk of the funding will go to private U.S. contractors to train and supply equipment to Mexico’s law enforcement. According to the U.S. State Department, Mexico’s security forces commit human rights abuses such as unlawful killings; kidnappings; physical abuse; arbitrary arrests and detention; (coerced) confessions... permitted as evidence in trials; criminal intimidation of journalists leading to self-censorship; and corruption at all levels of government.

Mexico’s police and military regularly harass and threaten peaceful indigenous communities that are resisting corrupt government programs that intend to displace them and grab the resource-rich land. You can see some of this harassment in a video on YouTube: Plan Mexico Threatens Peaceful Mexican Communities (www.youtube.com/watch). Activists are also beaten and kidnapped by government-supported paramilitaries.

These crimes have gone unpunished and more crimes continue. U.S. journalist Brad Will was shot and killed while filming protests in Oaxaca, Mexico. The gunmen were captured on his footage, but they still have not been brought to justice.

The House and Senate both voted to “authorize” Plan Mexico, but they still need to approve the funding for it. It’s far from becoming official policy, and we have a chance to stop it.

Barack Obama voted in favor of Plan Mexico, along with other senators. Chicago and Illinois voters, and citizens all across the country, need to contact him. He needs to hear why Plan Mexico is a bad idea, and that he needs to vote and speak out against it. If he wants our vote, he's going to have to work for it.

You can also call other senators who are crucial to stop this plan. More details from Friends of Brad Will are below.

Thanks for your help!


From Friends of Brad Will (www.friendsofbradwill.org), June 10th:



i) An update on the Merida Initiative legislation in Congress: Today the House voted to support authorization of Bush's Plan Mexico. It is a testament to all the excellent work our teams and allies have done across the country that 106 congress people voted against the initiative. (And also that it was trimmed to $350 million in the Senate and $400 million in the Hosue)Thanks!!! We should congratulate ourselves.

This vote was for 'authorization' (where the policy is validated) which is different from appropriations (when the policy is funded). The authorization bill still needs to go to the Senate for a vote. And the appropriations bill has to be reconciled between its Senate and House versions.

Given that the overwhelming majority of opponents of the Merida Initiative are Republicans, we can surmise that, no matter what powerful special interests and campaign contributors are offering, the Republican party has become more careful than the Democratic Party in considering whether or not to support Bush's 'security' adventures. Only 21 Democrats - some of whom met with us in D.C. a number of times - voted against it.

Shamefully, Senator Barack Obama has attempted to out do Bush in calling for even more lethal aid to unaccountable security forces than Bush himself was demanding!

ii) Action Alert: We need to call Senators to let them know that our network demanding accountability for Brad Will's murder and the murder of many others would like our representatives to show principled leadership in filibustering a 'security' initiative which would reward the corrupt and unaccountable security forces of Mexico for these murders!

Capitol switchboard: (202) 224-3121

Please contact Senators Cornyn (R-Texas), Dodd (D-Conn), Feingold (D-Wisconsin) and Leahy (D-Vt) and urge them to filibuster or at least oppose the Merida Initiative because it promises to destabilize Mexico, while increasing human rights abuses, and failing to slow narco-trafficking as the case of Plan Colombia makes clear.

Because U.S.-provided lethal aid in an environment of what the Committee to Protect Journalists calls "relentless impunity" will have predictable drastic impacts on human rights, we demand no lethal aid until impunity is ended. As far as the 'human rights safeguards' which some human rights organizations - namely WOLA, Amnesty International, and LAWG - are calling for: these are known to be completely ineffective. One only needs to pay attention to Colombia's millions of internally displaced, the continued impunity of her military and paramilitaries for human rights abuses, and the bumper crops of coca and dead labor union activists there to recognize this!