{"id":15185,"date":"2012-05-25T10:57:07","date_gmt":"2012-05-25T18:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=15185"},"modified":"2012-05-25T11:00:51","modified_gmt":"2012-05-25T19:00:51","slug":"mexican-troops-commit-crimes-with-us-support-the-dea-hears-no-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/25\/mexican-troops-commit-crimes-with-us-support-the-dea-hears-no-evil\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexican Troops Commit Crimes with US Support. The DEA Hears No Evil."},"content":{"rendered":"

The State Department report<\/a> on human rights says that U.S.-trained security forces in Mexico have “engaged in unlawful killings, forced disappearances, and instances of physical abuse and torture” in the U.S.-led war on drugs. Mike Riggs at Reason contacted the DEA looking for some sort of statement. Here is the email exchange<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Riggs<\/strong>: The State Department recently released a report on human rights abuses in Mexico. That report found that Mexican military and LEOs\u00a0“engaged in unlawful killings, forced disappearances, and instances of physical abuse and torture” while fighting TCOs.<\/p>\n

I was wondering if your office could provide me with a statement about the new report in light of Administrator Michele Leonhart’s earlier claim, made to the Washington Post, in which she said, “It may seem contradictory, but the unfortunate level of violence is a sign of success in the fight against drugs….[cartels] are like caged animals, attacking one another,” as it seems cartels are not the only people in Mexico committing violence.<\/p>\n

DEA<\/strong>: We will let the State Department and Mexico speak to this rather than us<\/p>\n

Riggs<\/strong>: If the DEA won’t comment on the report, can you at least tell me if Administrator Leonhart stands by her claim that the “the unfortunate level of violence is a sign of success” in the war on drugs?<\/p>\n

DEA<\/strong>: She has been consistent that the violence represents the pressure cartels feel from Mexican law enforcement\/military and the U.S.<\/p>\n

Riggs<\/strong>: But [she] has no comment on violence perpetrated by DEA partners in Mexican military and law enforcement?<\/p>\n

DEA<\/strong>:\u00a0nope<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s important to point out that Mexican security forces have been committing crimes with U.S. backing for some time now. And it is well known.\u00a0Human Rights Watch back in November of last year\u00a0released a report<\/a>\u00a0providing evidence that Mexico\u2019s security forces participated in \u201cmore than 170 cases of torture, 39 ‘disappearances,’ and 24 extrajudicial killings since Calder\u00f3n took office in December 2006.\u201d And these are just what they could confirm.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of reducing violence, Mexico\u2019s \u2018war on drugs\u2019 has resulted in a dramatic increase in killings, torture, and other appalling abuses by security forces, which only make the climate of lawlessness and fear worse in many parts of the country,\u201d said\u00a0Jos\u00e9 Miguel Vivanco of\u00a0Human Rights Watch. What\u2019s more, claimed the report, is that most of these crimes are committed with impunity. Security forces are by and large immune from any accountability for these actions.<\/p>\n

President Calderon\u2019s policy to deploy 50,000 Mexican troops and thousands more federal police officers \u2013 forces that are\u00a0trained by the United States<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 has only increased the violence, which has left more than 50,000 dead since about 2006. The Mexican drug cartels – \u00a0which the Washington Post reported yesterday<\/a> are at war with each other – have dug in their heels and terrorized Mexico with progressive cruelty following every increase in hardened drug war policy (directed by Washington<\/a>, of course).<\/p>\n

\u201cGeorge W. Bush backed Calder\u00f3n\u2019s militarization with a $1.8 billion package of helicopters, police training, and intelligence cooperation,\u201d\u00a0wrote\u00a0The New Yorker\u2019s<\/em>Steve Coll recently<\/a>. \u201cObama has continued the program.”<\/p>\n

See other recent drug war coverage on this blog here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The State Department report on human rights says that U.S.-trained security forces in Mexico have “engaged in unlawful killings, forced disappearances, and instances of physical abuse and torture” in the U.S.-led war on drugs. Mike Riggs at Reason contacted the DEA looking for some sort of statement. Here is the email exchange: Riggs: The State […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-15185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15185"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15187,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15185\/revisions\/15187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15185"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=15185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}