Last month, Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom declared a “state of calamity” as Guatemala experiences the worst drought in 70 years. Approximately half of the population lives below the poverty line and 50 percent of children are suffering from chronic malnutrition. But these are only the surface casualties of a vulnerable nation ravaged by 36 years of civil war, genocide and now, the encroaching drug war spilling over from the northern border with Mexico.

Worldfocus special correspondent Martin Savidge hosts Anita Isaacs, Carlisle Johnson and Sam Lowenberg. Some highlights of the conversation include:

• Guatemala in 2009 looks a lot like Guatemala of the 1960s and 1970s
• Malnutrition is connected to poverty, which is connected to the ownership of land
• There is almost no basic infrastructure in rural areas, including access to clean water and sanitation
• The U.S. CIA-orchestrated coup in 1954 gave rise to 36 years of genocidal armed conflict
• Lawlessness on the streets, drug trafficking and rural violence have contributed to the deaths of 6,000 people in 2008
• Indigenous systems of justice punish by means of lynching and public humiliation
• The sitting vice president has called Guatemala a “failed state”
• There has been no justice for war crimes and the civil war hangs over everyday life in Guatemala
• Is Guatemala a feudal society that never stopped being a banana republic?
• Guatemala has the highest per-capita income in all of Central America at $4,000/person, but income distribution is woefully underreported
• As the capital of Central America with it’s entangled history with the U.S., Guatemala does matter

GUESTS:

Dr. Anita Isaacs is a political science professor at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. For the last decade, she has researched democracy, justice and the peace process in Guatemala. She conducts field research in the country four to five times a year. Anita is writing a book with the working title At War with the Past? The Politics of Transitional Justice in Postwar Guatemala. She has also served as consultant to the Ford Foundation, the Inter-American Dialogue, Freedom House and the Open Society Institute.

Stephen C. “Carlisle” Johnson is the producer and host of the television show “Inside Guatemala.” He has worked as a venture capitalist in about 50 countries and traveled to more than 120 countries. Carlisle has lived in Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, France, England, and currently, Guatemala. He is the former publisher of the “Guatemala Post” and the former host of the English radio program “Good Morning Guatemala” on ABC Radio International affiliate. He is a chartered interpreter in English and Spanish.

Samuel Loewenberg is a journalist who covers public health and politics. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Economist, The Atlantic Online, The Washington Post and many others.  He has reported from Latin America, Europe, China, Africa, and the former Soviet Union. His work in Guatemala was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti, Ben Piven

Is Mexico taking the right approach in ending the prosecution of people caught with small amounts of marijuana and other drugs? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

John Walsh, a senior associate on drug policy for the Washington Office on Latin America, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the new law, U.S. concerns and the larger drug war in Mexico.

Read what a Worldfocus contributing blogger had to say: In Mexico, drug legalization is a mixed bag.

The Mexican government has decriminalized small amounts of drugs. A person may now carry up to five grams of marijuana without penalty.

In Mexico, a new law has been passed to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of narcotics including marijuana, cocaine, heroin, LSD and crystal meth. Instead of serving jail time, those found with drugs at or under the legal limit will be referred to drug treatment programs.

Sean Goforth of “Foreign Policy Blogs” examines the pros and cons of Mexico’s new law.

The decriminalization of drug use in Mexico is bound to have unintended consequences. Beginning last Friday, possession of small amounts of drugs, including cocaine, heroine, LSD, marijuana and meth, is permitted. Such wholesale legalization is crude, but may prove beneficial to the Mexican economy.

Having up to four joints on you (the legal limit is five grams) isn’t going to have a societal impact. Prosecutions for possession were already non-existent in Mexico. Studies commissioned under the tenure of Gen. Barry McCaffrey, President Clinton’s “Drug Czar”, concluded that marijuana is not a “gateway” drug. It is widely believed not to be addictive, and it is not known to induce violent behavior.

If anything, this law will undercut corruption among local police, as they will no longer be able to hassle those with a joint in order to get a bribe. Still, marijuana is one thing, but should Mexico have legalized cocaine? Crystal meth? Heroine? LSD?

I for one don’t think so. Little good can come of legalizing such powerful and addictive drugs. Drug-related violence may well increase, even if cartel violence decreases, as the desperation of addiction grows in Mexico’s cities and towns.

Portugal decriminalized drug use in 2001 in order to focus on rehabilitation. Mexico, unlike Portugal, does not currently have the facilities to treat a potential surge in drug addiction. The cartels, for their part, will continue to target America as the destination of their product. So if low-level violence and/or addiction-related deaths increase in Mexico, poorly crafted legislation will be to blame.

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user splifr under a Creative Commons license.

Read Worldfocus blogger Peter Eisner’s take on the meeting: Hollow words as Obama praises Mexico’s war on drugs

One of the biggest problems the federal government in Mexico is confronting in its war on drugs is police corruption. This week, in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, officials ordered the municipal police not to sit in parked patrol cars observing traffic because they suspect those police are actually spying for the drug cartels.

Andres Martinez, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the Americas summit, the drug war and the U.S. commitment to Mexico.

President Barack Obama with his Mexican and Canadian counterparts at a trilateral meeting in Guadalajara on Monday. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

I’ve had some telling glimpses over the years of how politics and diplomacy really work. There was the time years ago when I sat in a U.S. ambassador’s office in Bolivia and listened to him brazenly giving orders to the country’s interior minister.

Or when I watched how an American official tried to cajole the president of Honduras into a military dispute with Nicaragua.

And the time when I was told that a top U.S. official was traveling to Mexico City to observe Mexico’s drug interdiction program.

“What drug interdiction program?” a confused Mexican government spokesman asked me. I had gotten advance warning of the visit. “We don’t have a drug interdiction program.”

Five minutes later, the same Mexican spokesman called me back and said — without a trace of irony — that I was invited to attend a meeting between U.S. and Mexican officials who would be discussing Mexico’s “drug interdiction program.” It had somehow materialized.

Those anecdotes are the product of the last century, but I was reminded this week that things haven’t changed much.

The U.S. government arrogantly figures that the governments of other countries can meet the imposed values that the United States expects. One can respect the people of Mexico and honor that country’s heritage and sense of pride, but still say: The Mexican government is over-gunned by drug dealers and will not be able to stop the violence and out-of-bounds profits earned by the narcotics trade.

For some sense of the absurdity of the fight, have a look at the New York Times story about Mexican prisons, headlined: War Without Borders: Mexico’s Drug Traffickers Continue Trade in Prison

The cycle of violence and death waxes and wanes, but the reality hasn’t changed for decades; there is too much money in drug dealing to stop the industry. Drug cartels practically own the Mexican prisons where they are held. Plagued by corruption, drug producing nations have been unable over the years to control the production and flow of illegal narcotics.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon won praise from President Obama this week during the annual North American summit in Mexico:

We will work to make sure Mexico has the support it needs to dismantle and defeat the cartels.  And the United States will also meet its responsibilities by continuing our efforts to reduce the demand for drugs and continuing to strengthening the security of our shared border — not only to protect the American people, but to stem the illegal southbound flow of American guns and cash that helps fuel this extraordinary violence.

I have to say that the words are mighty, but if history is a guide the U.S. Congress will do little if anything to halt the sale of guns southward. And the United States has not shown signs of augmenting Mexican security efforts to the degree needed. International money laundering of drug trafficking  appears beyond control. I’d love to end up being surprised that I’m wrong.

A must-read to see the depths of the problem is an extensive report in the Washington Post by my old colleagues Steve Fainaru and Bill Booth.

This paragraph sums it up:

Beyond the reach of the U.S. and Mexican governments in their fight against drug traffickers is an intimate, complex world of communal violence and crippled institutions. At the center of the drug war is Michoacan, a rugged, rural state in the southwest where all forms of traditional authority — city hall, the military, police and even the Catholic Church — have been unable to protect the people against the assassinations, kidnappings and extortions associated with the narcotics trade.

The United States has acknowledged the obvious many times: that U.S. consumption of drugs is a driving part of the problem of the international narcotics trade. But no politician in the United States will seriously consider drug decriminalization, or broad social programs and education that will change the formula of drug consumption, or laws that — heaven forfend — would curtail gun sales.

The promises are all words, and nothing changes.

- Peter Eisner

Police search bags for drugs and weapons in Mexico.

PUERTO LAS OLLAS, Mexico — The Mexican army has carried out forced disappearances, acts of torture and illegal raids in pursuit of drug traffickers, according to documents and interviews with victims, their families, political leaders and human rights monitors.

This was the lead last week in the Washington Post, in a well-reported piece by Steve Fainaru and Bill Booth. Over the last quarter century, it’s been amazing and shocking to see how U.S. policy and world condemnation have always focused elsewhere in dealing with stories about drug trafficking and the impunity with which it takes place.

The first Bush administration invaded Panama (for something like the 14th time in history) in 1989, supposedly to staunch the disease of drug trafficking through that country. The second Bush administration paid billions to Colombia from 2001-2009 to fight a drug war that looked a lot like a license for corruption and human rights abuses among security forces.

And yet, all the while, Mexican drug trafficking has trundled along, with organized crime corrupting generals and privates, police chiefs and mayors — or killing them if they didn’t play ball. Mexican officials have never been able to control the trafficking and the crime surrounding it. But they do launch military campaigns that don’t resolve the long-term problem — and people die in the crossfire. We’re in a long-lasting crescendo now — some U.S. officials have said the Mexican government is in a dire situation akin to the failed state status of Pakistan.

We’re not allowed to say that though — Mexican officials don’t want to hear it, and U.S. officials don’t want to push the issue too far ahead toward the front burner.

The reality and the danger are evident.

Early in her tenure, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged that the United States shares responsibility. She said this on a visit this spring to Mexico:

We know very well that the drug traffickers are motivated by the demand for illegal drugs in the United States, that they are armed by the transport of weapons from the United States to Mexico; and therefore, we see this as a responsibility to assist the Mexican government and the Mexican people in defeating an enemy that is committing violence and disruption that is very harmful and which is something that all people of conscience should attempt to defeat.

The State Department is now preparing to issue a report on Mexican efforts to police drug crime, and accountability in meeting accepted norms on human rights. Human rights organizations, such as the Washington Office on Latin America [WOLA], are calling on Congress to recognize the questions surrounding Mexico’s pursuit of the drug war before releasing further funding that supplies aid to the Mexican army and police.

Reacting to the Washington Post story, WOLA said this:

The growing number of military abuses is illustrated by amount of complaints received by Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH). During the first six months of 2009 the CNDH received over 2,000 complaints against the army, a dramatic increase from the 1,231 registered for all of 2008.

What role will the United States play in recognizing the dire situation — and who will deal credibly with the problems surrounding drug dealing and the accompanying violence?

- Peter Eisner

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Prometeo Lucero under a Creative Commons license.

The three share common borders and a long list of common problems, from drug trafficking to militant insurgencies.

Marvin Weinbaum, a scholar in residence at the Middle East Institute and a former State Department analyst specializing on Afghanistan and Pakistan, joins Martin Savidge to discuss Iran’s economic interests and what role the country could play in helping the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan fight the Taliban.

For more on Bolivia’s complex relationship with coca, watch the Worldfocus signature story “Bolivians depend on coca plant despite anti-drug efforts.”

On Thursday, U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in Mexico City to meet with his counterpart, Mexican President Felipe Calderon.  The issue of drug violence quickly took center stage, with the president again promising that the U.S. will do all it can to help Mexico win its war with the drug cartels.

Rodolfo de la Garza of Columbia University joins Martin Savidge to discuss U.S. concerns about Mexico, Mexico’s military strategy and issues relating to the economy and immigration.

For more perspective on Obama’s trip, read Worldfocus editorial consultant Peter Eisner’s analysis: No room for optimism in Mexico’s war on drugs.

Police corruption is one problem facing Mexico. Photo: Megan Thompson

U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to venture to Mexico on Thursday for talks with President Felipe Calderon. Officials from the Obama administration say the president will work to curb the flow of U.S.-made firearms to Mexican drug traffickers.

Worldfocus editorial consultant Peter Eisner writes to argue that unless political leaders are willing to commit to real change and take the resulting flak, it will be impossible to alleviate Mexico’s drug problem. See more on our coverage of Mexico’s Drug War.

When President Obama meets with Mexican President Felipe Calderon in Mexico on Thursday, how many people will be thinking about the history of efforts by the two countries to deal with drug trafficking? Anyone who does will have to be listed as a skeptic about possibilities for real change.

Mexico has been stuck in the middle of modern drug trade ever since the rise of the Colombian cocaine and marijuana cartels more than three decades ago. But the United States preferred to look elsewhere. The Reagan administration declared a war on drugs and spent billions of dollars on eradicating crops in Colombia and Peru; the first President Bush invaded Panama, and imprisoned Manuel Antonio Noriega claiming he was a drug dealer. The United States also helped hunt down and kill Pablo Escobar, and even blamed Fidel Castro and Raul Castro for the drug trade. Cynicism abounded and little, if anything, was accomplished.

All the while, the Mexican narco industry was thriving and growing, and no one came up with the key to change the reality –- drug dealing and the associated violence in Mexico operates with impunity. The Mexican drug business is successful because of corruption, weak justice and police structures in Mexico, and because of the driving market right across the border.

Consider this report from the Washington Office on Latin America, prepared in the leadup to Obama’s one-day trip:

The ability to identify, prosecute, and punish drug traffickers is a key element in containing the drug trade. There were over 10,000 drug-related killings in Mexico in the past three years. As staggering as these numbers are, it is noteworthy that the majority of these murders may never be solved. The Mexican Citizen Institute for Research on Insecurity (INCESI) found that initial investigations are begun for only 13 percent of the reported crimes and in only 5 percent of these crimes are the alleged perpetrator brought before a judge. (1) The same institute estimates that of every 100 investigations, only 4 cases result in sentencing the person responsible.

What are the real prospects for change? Well, the American president is stymied by mistrust from the Mexican side –- where officials and the public always feel the United States is trying to bigfoot Mexican government policy. And at home, there’s no possibility on the horizon of ever decriminalizing drugs to puncture the market.

Meanwhile, what American politician would ever get away with curbing the sale of guns, which Mexican traffickers can easily haul in and use in their murderous business? Without meaningful change brought on by officials who see the reality and are willing to take the political flak, there isn’t much room for optimism.

- Peter Eisner

During the last year, more than 6,000 people have been murdered as a result of Mexico’s escalating drug violence, which is now more deadly than the war in Afghanistan.

The Worldfocus signature series on Mexico’s drug war ventured to Tijuana, featuring its fearful residents, its corrupt officials and the popularization of “narco” culture among youth.

Drug violence is especially heavy on border cities like Tijuana or Ciudad Juarez, and has spilled over into the U.S. American officials have reported a spike in kidnappings and killings connected with Mexican cartels.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has placed some of the blame on the U.S., pointing to growing American demand and U.S. guns coming over the border illegally. He stated that the drug problem is “not an exclusively Mexican problem; it is a common problem between Mexico and the United States.”

Under the three-year Merida Initiative, the U.S. has pledged $1.4 billion to Mexico to help fight drug trafficking. But as violence continues to soar, critics worry that the money will end up in the hands of corrupt police or politicians.

Worldfocus.org’s weekly radio show explored Mexico’s drug wars, life on the border and U.S. policy in Mexico. Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge hosted a panel of guests.

Natalia Almada is a Mexican-American filmmaker who splits her time between Mexico and the United States. Natalia and her family have lived in Sinaloa, Mexico for six generations. She directed and produced the award-winning feature documentary “Al Otro Lado - To The Other Side.” The film looks at immigration and drug trafficking through Mexico’s tradition of Corrido music. Her latest documentary film, “El General,” received the best director award at this year’s Sundance film festival and will be broadcast on PBS’s documentary program P.O.V.

Tony Payan is an associate professor of political science and an active researcher who resides on the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. He teaches subjects such as foreign policy of the United States, the politics of Mexico, Latin American politics and border issues, among others. His research agenda focuses on United States-Mexico relations and border issues, including border security and cross-border cooperation. He has written several articles on these subjects as well two pertinent books, “Cops, Soldiers, and Diplomats: Explaining Agency Behavior in the War on Drugs” and “The Three U.S.-Mexico Border Wars: Drugs, Immigration and Homeland Security.”

Ambassador Andrés Rozental has held numerous positions in the Mexican government, including deputy foreign minister, ambassador to the United Kingdom and Sweden, and permanent representative of Mexico to the United Nations. He served as ambassador-at-large and special envoy under President Vicente Fox, representing Mexico to surrounding nations, and in 2006 and 2007 he advised Felipe Calderón on foreign policy issues. He is also the founding president of the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti, Katie Combs and Stephen Puschel

Americans used to flock to the city, but now largely avoid it. In 2005, a banner year for tourism, some four million people visited Tijuana.  Last year, the number dropped to around 400,000. Residents, too, are fleeing in fear. 

Worldfocus correspondent John Larson, producer Bryan Myers and field producers Megan Thompson and Ivette Feliciano explore Tijuana, beginning in a hospital that not only treats the victims of drug violence, but that operates in fear that its own people will get caught in the battle.

While many Mexicans would be revolted by the grisly murders, there is also a popular subculture that celebrates this sort of violence.

Worldfocus correspondent John Larson, producer Bryan Myers and field producer Ivette Feliciano report on “narco” culture. Megan Thompson shot the piece.

One Tijuana business owner who refuses to be named, pictured or recorded without voice modification tells the story of how he was kidnapped by organized crime and ransomed to his family.

There is also the growing problem of people simply vanishing. Known as the “disappeared,” Mexico’s kidnapping victims are often never heard from again — 97 percent of the country’s kidnapping cases go unsolved by police.

Worldfocus correspondent John Larson, producer Bryan Myers and field producers Megan Thompson and Ivette Feliciano report from Tijuana.

Teodoro Eduardo García Simental, “El Teo,” is a major player in Tijuana’s drug war, a larger-than-life figure who has escaped the law and left gruesome corpses in his wake.

Worldfocus correspondent John Larson, producer Bryan Myers and field producers Megan Thompson and Ivette Feliciano spend five days in Tijuana, where life in El Teo’s reach is surrounded by death.

Since 2006, investigators from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at one plant have reportedly “turned up reams of laboratory tests that were inaccurate or missing information,” according to the Food and Drug Administration.

Peter Eisner, the former deputy foreign editor of the Washington Post, produced and reported the Worldfocus signature story Contaminated drug imports threaten Americans. He joins Martin Savidge to discuss the threat level posed by this particular generic drug manufactured in India, the FDA’s role overseas and prospects for improvement.

The retiring Central Intelligence Agency chief said last week the drug violence in Mexico could pose a bigger problem for President Obama than Iraq. Another report by the U.S. military says Mexico is at risk of “sudden collapse.” 

Meanwhile, Cuban President Raul Castro has expressed an interest in working with President Obama — while Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Monday that the new Obama administration already has what he called the “stench” of the Bush administration.

Shannon O’Neil, a specialist on Latin America at the Council on Foreign Relations, joins Martin Savidge to discuss how President Obama might tackle Mexican drug violence and relations with Cuba and Venezuela.

Read more about world reactions to Obama’s inauguration: The world watches as President Obama takes office.

Mexican drug trafficking organizations represent the “greatest organized crime threat” to the United States, according to a recent government report [PDF], and drug-related violence — which has already reached unprecedented levels — is expected to increase in the coming year.

Carol Wise, an associate Professor of international relations at the University of Southern California, joins Martin Savidge to discuss how the abductions and killings in Mexico have seeped across the border into the U.S. and how the incoming Obama administration can work to combat the escalating violence.

See more coverage of the Mexican drug wars, including video interviews and blogs.

Below, read what bloggers are saying about the Obama-Calderón meeting.

The “Security in Latin America” blog writes that the meeting between Obama and Calderón will be all talk and no action.

Worldfocus contributing blogger Greg Weeks argues that details are less important than the tone of the meeting, which he hopes reflects urgency.

The “Pura Vida” blog writes that Mexico should be Obama’s number one security concern, even eclipsing Iraq or Afghanistan.

A blogger at “Mex Files” claims that no one in the Obama administration is interested in or committed to Latin American affairs.

Sinaloa is home to top drug leaders.

On Tuesday, armed gunmen attacked a Mexican television station reporting on drug-related violence, which is reaching unprecedented levels.

At least 5,300 drug-related slayings were reported in 2008, and violence may escalate this year.

Sinaloa, Mexico, is home to some of the country’s top drug leaders, and many local government and police officials are corrupt. In the past, the drug culture — and its money — have brought status to the state.

Clayton Worfolk and Jordan deBree with the Pulizter Center on Crisis Reporting are in Sinaloa and write about the changing views of the state’s residents in the “Untold Stories” blog.

Sinaloa: The birthplace of the drug cartel system

Even before the latest iteration of this drug war kicked off in December 2006 (when President Felipe Calderon launched his offensive against the cartels), Sinaloa state had the reputation of being a violent place. It was home to bandits and smugglers who took refuge in the Sierra Madre mountain range on the state’s eastern border.

One writer told us that men here used to settle disputes by locking one arm to each other and, with a knife held in their other hand, dueling to the death. Another man we interview attributes Sinaloans’ reputed propensity for violence to a diet of too much meat and seafood, too much testosterone.

It’s a reputation that many here have nurtured. For some, the fact that Sinaloa is the birthplace of the Mexican drug cartel system only adds to the state’s romantic allure. For decades, the narco-traffickers nurtured a sort of Robin Hood reputation around Mexico — violent and power-hungry, yes, but generous with their earnings. Culiacán — from its high-end car dealerships, to its lavish estates, ­to its well-dressed young men and women — was built and still runs on drug money that came down from the Sierras. If this isn’t a point of pride for all Sinaloans, it has certainly over the years enhanced the state’s cachet in the country and made clear that Sinaloans are to be respected — sentiments that all here seem to relish.

But as the Mexican drug war enters its third year, things may be changing. Residents’ feelings about the drug trade are a little more complicated now, to say the least. Pinned down by the government and undergoing seismic shifts in their leadership structure, the narcotraffickers have changed the rules. Wives, children and civilians are no longer off-limits, and people here know it.

To read more, see the original post.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user  patotenere under a Creative Commons license.