All three of the dead were connected to the U.S. Consulate there, underscoring the risks of living and working in that city.

The State Department has authorized the families of its diplomatic personnel across northern Mexico to leave the country.

But, as Tom Ackerman of Al Jazeera English reports, the killings were just a few of dozens in Mexico this weekend.

Thirty-two leaders from the Americas agreed to create a new regional cooperation organization — the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States — would exclude the U.S. and Canada.

Many Latin American leaders have voiced their concern that America’s interests have too often dominated diplomacy in the region. The new organization’s mission will be to defend human rights in the Western hemisphere.

For more, Martin Savidge interviews Christopher Sabatini, the senior director of policy at the Council of the Americas.

Do you agree with the Latin American leaders who say the U.S. has sometimes acted badly toward Latin America?

Tell us what you think in the comments section below. Please be respectful and on-point. Malicious or offensive comments will be deleted, and repeat offenders will be banned.

These remittances are the country’s second largest source of foreign currency — after oil sales- - and their rapid decline has hit the Mexican economy particularly hard.

Remittances dropped 16 percent in 2009, and it is Mexico’s poor who are most affected by the slowdown.

For more, Daljit Dhaliwal interviews Rodolfo de la Garza, a professor at Columbia University and expert on Mexican immigration issues.

Endemic corruption in the Mexican judicial system has paralyzed the government’s ability to tackle the problem.

For more on Mexico’s drug war, Daljit Dhaliwal speaks with Maureen Meyer, a specialist on Mexico and Central America with the Washington Office on Latin America, a non-profit group that promotes human rights and social justice.

The drug war there kills an average of 8 people per day and has residents living in fear.

Thursday night, Mexican President Felipe Calderon was in the city, hearing criticism that the government was not doing enough to quell the violence.

Mariana Sanchez of Al Jazeera English reports from Mexico’s murder capital.

Can Ciudad Juarez be saved from the drug violence?

Tell us what you think in the comments section below. Please be respectful and on-point. Malicious or offensive comments will be deleted, and repeat offenders will be banned.

A policeman at the U.S.-Mexico border in Tijuana. Photo: Flickr user Nathan Gibbs

President Obama visited Mexico early in his term, and the U.S. has been active in funding the Mexican authorities in their war on drugs.

Recently, violent conflict between drug cartels and the Mexican government has been on the upswing. And today, 23 people died in a fight between rival gangs in a Mexican prison.

Many experts believe that the American appetite for illicit drugs is fueling the drug wars in Mexico.

Is the U.S. doing enough to crack down on illegal domestic drug use?

Tell us what you think in the comments section below. Please be respectful and on-point. Malicious or offensive comments will be deleted, and repeat offenders will be banned.

Our signature stories delve into issues around the world — from the long-term effects of Agent Orange in Vietnam and gang violence in Mexico to discrimination against whites in South Africa and Afghan immigrants in Iran.

Here are the 15 Signature stories most popular with viewers in 2009:

	MOROCCO Moroccan single moms cope with hostility, shame	Young Muslim women who become pregnant out of wedlock face intense pressures. They are often shunned and scorned. Hoda Osman, Rebecca Haggerty, Megan Thompson and Reda Fakhar report on how mothers are coping.
	HAITI Dirt poor Haitians eat cookies made of mud	The cookie recipe — dirt, butter and salt — has been passed down through the generations, despite a lack of nutritional value. Benno Schmidt and Ara Ayer report on how these dirt cookies are managing to keep Haiti’s poor alive.
	JORDAN Oprah brings taboo topics to Middle East	The Middle East’s MBC-4 began airing “The Oprah Winfrey Show” more than four years ago, and the program now reaches about 6 million viewers in the Arab world each day. Kristen Gillespie reports from Jordan on the ”Oprah effect.”
	VIETNAM Agent Orange devastates generations of Vietnamese	During the Vietnam War, the U.S. dropped millions of gallons of Agent Orange, a toxic defoliant. Generations of Vietnamese civilians have suffered the consequences. Mark Litke and Ara Ayer report on the devastating effects the toxin has left behind.
	MEXICO Gangsters spill blood and spread fear in Tijuana, Mexico	Over the last year, more than 6,000 people have been murdered in Mexico’s drug wars, more than 700 of them in Tijuana alone. John Larson, Bryan Myers, Megan Thompson and Ivette Feliciano report from Tijuana.
	SOUTH AFRICA Poor white South Africans blame reverse discrimination	To some extent, the economic playing field has been leveled since the end of apartheid 15 years ago. Martin Seemungal reports on South Africa’s white community, where poverty has doubled since 1994.
	JAMAICA One island, two Jamaicas and a ‘whole heap’ of difference	A public debate erupted when graphic Dancehall music lyrics and images were banned from Jamaican radio and TV. Lisa Biagiotti, Micah Fink and Gabrielle Weiss report on how the ban highlights the divide that dates back centuries.
	ISRAEL Israeli company builds infrastructure for world’s electric cars	One Israeli company is designing an entire system to service electric cars with battery charging stations. Many other countries are expressing great interest. Michael Greenspan, Yuval Lion and Ara Ayer report from Israel.
	LIBERIA Liberia, “America’s stepchild,” searches for own identity	Liberia was settled by freed American slaves, and now, as Lynn Sherr and producer Megan Thompson report, the nation is trying to re-shape its identity. Liberia, a small country in West Africa, has longstanding ties to the U.S.
	LATVIA Empty stores, offices tell tale of Latvia’s economic fall	Until the global recession, Latvia was experiencing rapid economic growth. During the past year, it has tumbled down, with unemployment around 14.5 percent. Daljit Dhaliwal, Sally Garner and Ara Ayer report on the scope of Latvia’s fall.
	IRAN Afghan immigrants find refuge in oil-rich Iran	Though the West has branded Iran a nuclear outlaw and supporter of terrorism, Iran is a model of stability compared to its neighbors. Three million Afghan immigrants in Iran are low-skilled laborers. Richard O’Regan reports from Tehran.
	DENMARK Taxes curb Danish oil use, promote energy independence	In Denmark, a Ford Focus costs $51,000 — $34,000 of which is in taxes. John Larson explains how taxing energy and subsidizing alternative technologies have reduced the country’s dependency on oil and created thousands of jobs.
	INDIA India’s “untouchables” trudge through sewers	While India has largely transformed into a modernized economy, the country remains strongly tied to the traditions of the caste system, which often governs the jobs that people hold. Martin Himel reports on India’s lowest class of laborers.
	TURKEY Rising Islamist movements challenge secularism in Turkey	Secular critics are branding Turkey’s growing conservative groups as fundamentalist. Gizem Yarbil and Bryan Myers report on how traditional religion and modern democracy are trying to coexist.
	PHILIPPINES Journalists risk their lives reporting in the Philippines	Today in the Philippines, journalism is robust. But more than 70 journalists have been murdered since 1986. Mark Litke and Ara Ayer report on the risks that many reporters face doing their jobs — from Manila to rural areas.

Today, gunmen assassinated several family members of a Mexican sailor killed during a raid against drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva.

Rodolfo de la Garza of Columbia University joins Edie Magnus to discuss the ongoing violence and the U.S. response.

However, WHO officials are warning that the pandemic will hit poor countries especially hard. At the United Nations meeting in New York later this week, those officials plan to ask wealthy countries to contribute to a special fund for the developing world.

Michael Novacek, the provost of science at the American Museum of Natural History, joins Daljit Dhaliwal to discuss the dangers and the production and distribution of vaccines.

In China, a massive campaign to vaccinate people against swine flu began in Beijing on Monday. It is thought to be the first nation to begin inoculating its population against the H1N1 virus.

China has been among the world’s leaders in developing a swine flu vaccine, with no fewer than five Chinese drug makers involved in the effort. Chinese officials hope to vaccine 65 million people by the end of the year — about five percent of that country’s population.

In Mexico, officials are predicting as many as five million cases of swine flu this winter, with some 2,000 deaths. Earlier this year, Mexico was ground zero for the pandemic, but was able to bring it under control by shutting schools and businesses for several weeks.

This time, Mexican officials are promising such closures will be more focused; just recently, some 1,400 schools in one northern city in Mexico were closed after a reported outbreak.

Swine flu has hit South America hard. Brazil is now reporting some 900 deaths due to the pandemic, more than any other country in the world. According to the World Health organization, there are now nearly 300,000 case of swine flu worldwide, with nearly 3,500 deaths.

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

Issues on the agenda included trade, the H1N1 flu pandemic and the battle against illegal drugs.

Shannon O’Neil, a fellow in Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the summit and the biggest challenges ahead for the U.S.-Mexico relationship.

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.

Many Iranians feel disenfranchised by the results from last Friday’s election.

One day about 27 years ago, I was riding on the campaign bus with Miguel de la Madrid, the shoo-in candidate as next president of Mexico. His party, PRI — the Institutional Revolutionary Party — controlled the country from the end of the Mexican revolution until the year 2000.

De la Madrid was more interested in watching a soccer match – piped onto the bus via satellite–than in talking to a foreign correspondent. His victory, unlike the game, was a foregone conclusion. He looked up at me every once in a while when I asked a question. It was hard to get him to focus, but at one point I asked, ”Do you expect to win by a wide margin?”

He turned to me from the screen and with a smirk said that he expected to win “about 71.3 percent” of the vote. He then returned to the soccer match.

The election was held about a month later — what a surprise, he guessed down to the decimal point!

The boilerplate in our news stories back then used to say something like “The Institutional Revolutionary Party has monopolized Mexican politics since 1929.” Code words for the obvious: They were rigging the elections.

This of course is an echo of what’s happening in Iran these days, where the members of another revolutionary party look like they’re trying to rig the elections too.

In the case of Mexico, they used to say that the government could get away with the fraud because people were afraid of a return to the bloodshed they suffered during their revolution. More than one million people died in the Mexican revolution. The PRI, to its credit, peacefully accepted electoral defeat in 2000 and now is in the opposition.

Where is the tipping point when people in any country — fundamentalist, socialist, conservative, liberal, red state, blue state — won’t accept the results of a fraudulent election? The balance involves fighting for freedom and democracy on the one hand, while knowing that uncertainty, even violence lie ahead on the road to get there.

-Peter Eisner

Find our complete coverage of the Iranian elections at Voices of Iran.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user ehsan khakbaz under a Creative Commons license.

Deborah Bonello is a multimedia journalist based in Mexico City who works for The Los Angeles Times. She blogs at Mexico Reporter, where she writes about attending a survival training session. 

Training Day 

My breath is tearing out of my lungs and my leg muscles are screaming for a reprieve. I just scaled a 60-degree hill coated in thorny brambles and poisonous plants whilst being pounded by rain. In the dark. I thought it couldn’t get any worse, but it did. Later that night, my fellow journalists and I were kidnapped by masked guerillas who jumped onto our bus.

Our only comfort? That none of this was real. But it could have been, which is the point of the survival course 18 journalists who live and work in Mexico attended last week in Toluca, just outside of Mexico City.

During the five day survival program, the journalists dodged tear gas and Army tanks and learned how to survive in the wilderness. The psychological stresses were addressed, too; they learned strategies for dealing with emotions.

In Mexico these days, that may be the most important lesson of all.

“Once in Apatzingan a cameraman and I were taken,” says Miguel Garcia Tinoco, a 40-year-old journalist and owner of the Notivideo video news website based in Michoacan.

“They took us to talk with a drug-trafficking boss on a street in Apatzingan, and they wanted to make us write what they wanted, what they wanted to communicate.”

This group of traffickers gained infamy three years ago when they tossed the severed heads of six enemies onto the dance floor of a nightclub.

“They wanted us to publish an explanation of why they’d murdered those six people. What we told them was that we couldn’t make a decision in terms of what we published or didn’t publish in the newspaper - that it was up to the editor. And in the end my editor decided not to publish anything at all.”

To read more, see the original post.

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

Mexico’s Social Democrats Party has a strong online presence.

As the confirmed number of H1N1 flu cases worldwide surpasses 2,000, Mexico is returning to normal as businesses and schools reopen.

But as a Worldfocus contributing blogger writes, the epidemic may have a lasting impact on internal Mexican politics, as the country approaches congressional elections in July.

With the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in control of Mexico’s Congress, President Felipe Calderón may try to use his handling of the flu crisis to promote his National Action Party (PAN).

At the height of the H1N1 outbreak, with public gatherings banned, many politicians turned to the Web, using Twitter, Facebook and other social networking tools to spread their message.

Richard Grabman is an American author living in Mexico. He writes at “The Mex Files“ blog to explore how “flu-fallout” will impact the country’s political scene.

Viral campaigning in a time of viruses

The official campaign season for the 2009 elections started last Sunday, and there has been concern that the Calderon Administration is using the “sanitary contingency” to control either control the opposition parties ability to reach the voters, or to surpress voter turnout — which would presumably benefit PAN.

PAN Party Chair German Martinez had floated the suggestion of delaying the election, but found little support for such an obvious ploy.  Most parties agreed to certain “temporary” restrictions — supposedly voluntary — that limit candidate meetings to small gatherings between 10 A.M. and 3 P.M. (which basically means workers wouldn’t be attending) and limiting campaigning to a media campaign.

While election and media laws require the television and radio broadcasters to run campaign material during prime time for all the parties, and even the minor parties are given equal access, it does limit the effectiveness of some campaigning, which has always been more hands-on in Mexico.

BUT… There are no restrictions on Internet advertising.

The Social Democrats (SD), a very small party and always in danger of losing their registration, seems to be “winning” the on-line campaign.  At least it’s SD advertising which pops up most regularly on my screen when I look at a site with random advertising.  The SD ads push a “progressive” social agenda (drug legalization, abortion rights, gay and lesbian equality) and pays less attention to economic policy, perhaps appealing for the geek vote — which may be enough to keep their party registration.

[...] I expect more “flu-fallout” will emerge in the next few days as the campaigns get more heated.  And, I expect that the broad support for the Calderon administration’s proactive approach to the flu will somewhat limit the expected fall in PAN support, but it may not all be to the advantage of PRI… though with a stronger left, the Administration will be forced to make more concessions to the left in legislative iniatives.

To read more, see the original post.

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

Ask an expert your questions on the H1N1 flu virus.

Laurie Garrett, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, discusses how quickly the H1N1 virus is spreading, how world governments have responded to the crisis and the potential for a vaccine.

Eric Klinenberg, a professor at New York University and author of “Fighting for air: The battle to control America’s media,” discusses how U.S. and foreign media have fared in terms of covering the H1N1 outbreak.

Asia has suffered through a series of health crises in recent years — most recently the SARS outbreak in 2002 and 2003. Simon Tay, the chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs and member of the Asia Society, discusses how the crisis is playing out in Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam and China and looks at which countries are best prepared to deal with the H1N1 outbreak.

Of course, no country has been affected by the H1NI outbreak so deeply as Mexico. Mexico has also suffered a great deal of economic damage, and it has concerns about how other countries are reacting to the epidemic. Christopher Sabatini, the senior policy director of the Council of the Americas, discusses economic damage from the flu, complaints that Mexicans are being discriminated against and how Mexico’s southern neighbors view its handling of the crisis.