It is interesting to see how quickly the debate about border security has become dominated by the issue of violence and drugs. I thought i was just hearing more about it because i became interested in the parallels between the drug war and the war on migrants, turning to narco news for information, which also resulted in me getting google news alerts on the merida initiative or plan mexico. I have several articles bookmarked, waiting for me to read so i can better understand the implications of the plan mexico and other responses to the violence and the drug trade.

The drug cartel violence has been in the news in the US more lately because Hillary Clinton went down to Mexico to talk about it, and Obama recently decided to send more agents down to the border. I believe that some people are mainly afraid of the violence touching US citizens. I believe there are other stronger political motivations for getting involved.

What i have made of it so far is that the violence has increased because the drug war in Columbia caused cartels to form or grow in mexico to transport the same cocaine, along with marijuana and other drugs. The political corruption in Mexico is well known. In fact, most people figure that in the war on drugs, it's just that one cartel has been favored over the others, leading to more access to resources and impunity and therefore more war over turf. Of course the mexican government would rather control the cartels, and several within the government probably want there to be no cartels. However, since illicit drugs are the number one source of revenue in Mexico, it's no wonder that so many people, from poor youths to police officers, to the president, and from what i hear even people in the US DEA, are involved in it.

from bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Chairman testifies that border wall construction violates federal law, destroyed graves

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS -- Tohono O'odham Chairman Ned Norris, Jr., testified at a Congressional hearing that the construction of the border wall has plowed through the graves of the Hohokam and fragments of human bone have been found in the contractor's heavy equipment tracks.

The House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, led by Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona), and Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans, led by Del. Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D-Guam), held a joint oversight field hearing on "Walls and Waivers: Expedited Construction of the Southern Border Wall and the Collateral Impacts on Communities and the Environment" at UT Brownsville on Monday April 28th.

Community Resposes to the Congressional Hearing

A couple of us from Houston IMC and anti-border wall activists from through out the Rio Grand Valley came to listen to the testimony, cheer for the anti-wall speakers and congress folks and jeer at the fear mongering tactics of Tancredo, Hunter and their flunkies. Of the 8 congressmen and women, 6 were against the wall and power grab by Chertoff. The location of UTB for the hearing was interesting as the wall would put parts of the campus on the south side of the wall, and try to funnel border crossers onto the campus to make their apprehension by the Border Patrol easier.

Photos and more video below

An interesting story this weekend was that a restaurant manager made threatening/joking comments to some uniformed maricopa county sheriff's employees. The article,
Restaurant manager fired in flap with lawmen says,

someone in the kitchen made loud comments directed at the sheriff's employees that indicated "you are the guys arresting all of my kitchen staff."
The employees took that to be in reference to the well-documented arrests of illegal immigrants throughout the Valley in recent months by the Sheriff's Office.

The manager told the cops that the comments, including that he was going to "cook them something special" were sarcastic. He was fired by the company that owns Pei Wei and PF Changs.

While i don't have much simpathy for managers in general, you can guess whose side i am on. I think it's interesting that people would show such blatant disrespect for cops. The sheriff was quoted in the article.

"A lot of people don't like the sheriff because of this (immigration) crackdown," Arpaio said. "It's going to be a little problem as time goes on."

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2008/1/4/183050/2029
By Brenda Norrell,
Posted on Fri Jan 4th, 2008 at 06:30:50 PM EST
Homeland Security issued a 30-day notice to south Texas land owners, which expires Monday, January 7, 2007, to seize private lands in Texas for the US/Mexico border wall.

Lipan Apache women and elders issued a call for help to resist the seizure of their lands.

By Margo_Tamez

This is a request for immediate intervention on behalf of indigenous land title holders of the rancheria of El Calaboz, La Paloma, and El Ranchito in South Texas. I am writing to you this evening as the indigenous peoples of El Calaboz, La Paloma and El Ranchito rancherias in South Texas express grave fear for their safety, their livelihoods, and being ripped violently apart from our sacred lands held in our communities prior to contact with Spanish settlers and empresarios, and thereafter, in continuity.

I have often referenced the crimes government/law enforcement officials commit that somehow are not as important as the crime of stepping across a man-made boundary, and i have also mentioned the former who have been caught being involved in drug-running across the border. Yet again has a story come out about this, yet immigrants still bear the brunt of being stereotyped as drug-runners. Sure, there are some, but they also get punished much worse, and they're not backed by authority, arms, and money to the extent that national guardsmen, for example, are.

In addition, drug smuggling is one of the reasons for more border security, including a fence that divides indigenous land/communities and destroys the environment. Obviously immigrants are not the only ones to blame.

Brenda Norrell, who i have discovered is a great journalist covering many border-related stories, covered the most recent story of cocaine runners in her article, Arizona's 'Cokeheads' the National Guard.

There were so many Arizona National Guardsmen eager to run cocaine from the border of Arizona and Mexico to Tucson and Phoenix, that the FBI had to shut down its sting, Operation Lively Green....

The Guardsmen were not the only soldiers and law enforcement officials smuggling cocaine. During sentencing, nearly 100 others emerged, ranging from a Nogales police officer and a prison guard to US Air Force squadsmen at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson patrolling the border by air and smuggling cocaine.

Which brings us to the present, and the fact that Arizona National Guardsmen are helping build the border wall on the Tohono O'odham Nation. While an Indigenous Peoples' delegation was at the border on Tohono O'odham land, near San Miguel, on Nov. 8, 2007, the National Guardsmen were part of the crew building the wall.

Please also read my post called The Drug-Smuggler Stereotype.

By Brenda Norrell
Narcosphere
Sun Nov 25th

The grassroots organization O'odham Voice Against the Wall has denounced the ongoing genocide of the O'odham people in the United States and Mexico, where the border wall and development has resulted in the digging up of graves and the final resting places of their ancestors.

A delegation of Mohawks, Oneida, Lakota and Acoma Pueblo recently voiced their sadness and outrage over the border wall under construction on Tohono O'odham lands in Arizona and the "cage" where migrants are imprisoned.

Further, the Mohawk delegation was horrified to watch the US Border Patrol arrest Mayans in front on them, as they tried to intervene, and also to learn of the hundreds of Indigenous Peoples dying on Tohono O'odham land each year for want of a drink of water.

The delegation also learned that the graves of the O'odham ancestors were recently dug up for the border wall under construction by contractor Boeing. The Tohono O'odham Nation government has declined to release a public statement regarding the ancestors' remains being dug up and removed in 2007 for the border wall.

After the Mohawks' comments were released, a few Tohono O'odham Nation government officials objected and defended the border wall and their policies, which criminalizes aid to migrants.

Please please please read these two pieces of information which are two different stories, but very much related in context:
Urgent: Homeland Security preparing to seize Apache lands
"Today We Experienced America:" Arresting Indigenous People on the Border

On August 16th, email alerts were circulating that Oaxaca governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (URO) and other governors from Mexico were visiting Mexican Consulates in Chicago on August 17th, New York City on the 18th and Dallas on the 19th to discuss migratory reform. Activists quickly organized demonstrations in solidarity with the people of Oaxaca, and all of Mexico, as well as the millions of Mexican migrants living on the northern side of the US/Mexico border.

A flyer passed out in New York City labeled Ruiz Ortiz, “a co-conspirator with the US government and multinational corporations in the imposition of a political economy, which forces entire communities from his state to migrate north in search of better lives.” The flyer, composed by the Ulises Ruiz Welcoming Committee, also explains that, “Ruiz has attempted to quell social unrest through the criminalization of dissent, the militarization of communities, and the direct support of paramilitary groups in his state.”

To those familiar with the cowardliness of Ruiz Ortiz, it was not a big surprise that he failed to show up with the delegation. Even though he was the focus of the demonstrations, his absence did not prevent activists from protesting the rest of the Mexican Governors and representatives of URO who were with the CONAGO (National Conference of Mexican Governors) delegation. Read More

Calls to Action | Chicago Protest Against Repression in Mexico | Ulises Ruiz Ortiz Unwelcome in Nueva York | Protest of Mexican Governors’ Meeting in Dallas

“During the Planning Meeting Aug. 17, Yaqui from Vicam Pueblo Offered to Help In Any Way They Could to Ensure the Success of the North American Regional Summit”

By Brenda Norrell
Special to The Narco News Bulletin

August 19, 2007
RANCHO EL PENASCO, Sonora, Mexico—Yaqui Zapatistas from Vicam Pueblo met with O’odham in Sonora and reached out to the world’s Indigenous Peoples, extending a warm invitation to come and support the Zapatistas’ regional and international summits to be held in October.

Vicam Pueblo Gov. Loreto Ramírez Mapoumea and Pueblo Mayor Florentino Buitimea Yoquihua meet with O’odham in Mexico Lt. Gov. Jose Garcia in Rancho el Penasco, to plan upcoming Zapatistas regional and international summits. D.R 2007 Brenda Norrell

Gathered with O’odham at Rancho el Penasco, a dozen Yaqui Zapatistas from Vicam Pueblo, including Gov. Loreto Ramirez Mapoumea and Vicam Pueblo Mayor Florentino Buitimea Yoquihua, urged Indigenous from Alaska, Canada and the United States to join with Indigenous Peoples in northern Mexico for the North American Continental Regional Conference here, Oct. 8—9, 2007.

“What happens here will determine how effective the Intercontinental Indigenous Summit is in Pueblo Yaqui,” Gov. Ramirez said, speaking in Spanish through an interpreter.

“We are in solidarity with one another, and we want to be in solidarity with all of the Indigenous Peoples,” Gov. Ramirez said during the reunion and planning meeting held Friday, Aug. 17.

The North American Continental Summit, Oct. 8 – 9, is one of four regional conferences. There are also Indigenous summits being held in Oaxaca, Oct. 4—5, Atlapulco, Oct. 6 –7 and Michaocan, Oct. 6 – 7, 2007.