EL PUEBLO DE MÉXICO APOYA AL COMANDANTE NICOLAS MADURO

Emigran jubilados de EU a México para acudir al IMSS

Consecuencia de la crisis en los servicios de salud en su país
Emigran jubilados de EU a México para acudir al IMSS
El Seguro Social, ejemplo de cómo se debe ayudar a la gente, opinan

Grupos opositores a la reforma al sistema de salud en Estados Unidos protestan en Washington.Foto Ap

La Jornada

Nueva York, 18 de diciembre. En medio del intenso debate sobre la reforma al sistema de salud en Estados Unidos algunos ciudadanos han descubierto que para abatir los costos astronómicos y evadir las fallas cada vez más agudas en servicio y medicina deben emigrar a México.
CBS News reportó que muchos estadunidenses jubilados que enfrentan dificultades para pagar la atención médica se han mudado a México como la mejor opción para tratamiento y medicamentos.
El Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS) ofrece servicios médicos, dentales y de óptica a un precio muy por debajo de lo que se tendría que pagar a una aseguradora estadunidense. Una pareja entrevistada por CBS News informó que esa cobertura completa sólo les cuesta 600 dólares al año y, por tanto, ahora viven en Manzanillo. No hay límites en el número de visitas, deducibles ni pagos adicionales (algo casi impensable en su país).
Aunque no existen las mismas comodidades, los hospitales del IMSS cuentan con la misma y tal vez mejor calidad de atención que del lado estadunidense. El doctor Iván Ocadiz, quien labora en el hospital del Seguro Social en Manzanillo, dijo que el número de pacientes estadunidenses crece cada mes.
A pesar de largas filas, carencia de médicos y a veces de medicamentos, al parecer es preferible a lo que ofrecen las contrapartes médicas en Estados Unidos.
El IMSS inscribe a extranjeros legales en México a cambio de un cobro anual. CBS News reporta que el instituto enfrenta dificultades financieras y preocupa que los jubilados estadunidenses empeoren esta situación.
Algunos estadunidenses comentaron que los políticos de su país deberían pensar en una opción parecida. Quisiera que dejaran de argumentar y encuentren una manera de ayudar a tanta gente, como aquí, dijo Sandi Hunter, jubilada que vive en Manzanillo junto con su esposo. Ambos asisten al IMSS.
Fuente: La jornada

Audio: Manuel Zelaya en el Teatro de la Ciudad 5 agosto 09

Penuria en el paraíso

RODRIGO VERA / FOTOS: MIGUEL DIMAYUGA

Cozumel, la isla mexicana a la que cada año llegaban más de mil cruceros con alrededor de 3.5 millones de turistas, presenta sus hoteles, restaurantes y bares vacíos. Mientras la secretaria de Turismo del estado dice que están al borde del colapso, y el alcalde asegura que el ayuntamiento se halla a punto de la quiebra, algunos habitantes, que reciben mínimas despensas del DIF, consideran que el desastre de la influenza –causa por la cual Estados Unidos prohibió atracar allí a sus cruceros hasta el pasado viernes 15– ha sido peor que el de los huracanes.

ISLA COZUMEL, Q.R.- El lujoso crucero The Seven Seas Navigator abandonó con lentitud el muelle de Punta Langosta y enfiló hacia el mar poniente, dejando atrás una larga cauda de espuma que destellaba a la luz de la luna, como si fuera la cola plateada de un cometa.Desde la costa, muchos isleños vieron alejarse a la blanca y espigada embarcación con sus turistas a bordo, hasta que se perdió en la oscuridad del Caribe. Esa noche del 25 de abril pasado el oleaje se mecía tranquilo, mientras que un viento suave arrastraba el olor del sargazo.No había indicios de alarma. Fue por eso que ni los más supersticiosos pobladores presagiaron la desgracia que se les venía encima. Nadie imaginó que, tras la epidemia de influenza, ese fue el último crucero al que las autoridades estadunidenses permitieron anclar en la isla de Cozumel durante más de dos semanas. Una prohibición cuyas secuelas aún están por verse. Don Ramón Herrera recuerda que a la agencia de buceo donde trabaja, Aqua Safari, llegaron la mañana de ese día un grupo de gringos que bajaron del crucero, pidiendo ir a bucear a los arrecifes:“Les dimos sus escafandras y los llevamos en lancha a bucear. Se divirtieron. Después regresaron al Seven Seas junto con los demás turistas. Había muy buen clima. Al crucero lo vimos partir por la noche. Nunca imaginamos que sería el último que veríamos por quién sabe cuánto tiempo”, dice.Don Ramón se levanta su cachucha, se limpia con un pañuelo el sudor de la frente y señala los comercios cerrados de la calle que corre por el malecón: “Mire las consecuencias. El malecón vacío y los comercios cerrando. Aquí vivimos sólo del dinero que dejan los cruceros. Pero ya llevamos más de dos semanas sin recibir uno solo. No podremos resistir mucho tiempo.”Con sus altas palmeras, la calle del malecón es un larguísimo escaparate de tiendas de superlujo que se levantaron para consumo exclusivo de los pudientes cruceristas. Ahí se alinean confortables comercios con aire acondicionado en los que abunda sobre todo la compraventa de diamantes. En cuestión de joyería –presumen los cozumeleños–, la isla compite con los mejores comercios de la Quinta Avenida de Nueva York.Y en un alarde de mármoles y cristales, las más renombradas firmas de moda abrieron sus boutiques en la isla: Cartier, Chemise Lacoste, Hugo Boss, Channel, Pineda Covalín…No faltan tampoco los comercios de artesanía mexicana que traen su plata de Taxco, su barro de Oaxaca, sus textiles de Chiapas o sus guayaberas de lino de Yucatán. Al producto nacional se le dio cabida… Lo mismo al cubano; proliferan las exóticas tiendas de habanos con piso rechinante de duela, olorosas a tabaco y adornadas con fotos del Che Guevara jugando golf.Pero muchas de esas tiendas de plano cerraron. En sus vitrinas hay avisos que dicen: “Closed”… “closed”… “closed”… Aún logra mantener sus puertas abiertas Gallery Istanbul, un enorme y suntuoso almacén que vende alfombras y mobiliario oriental.“Este es el local más grande de la isla. Y definitivamente, aquí sólo venía el turista de alto estatus económico y cultural que viajaba en crucero. Podía encontrar antigüedades del Tíbet, o alfombras hechas a mano en Turquía, Pakistán, Irán o China”, dice Carlos Quintal, el joven ejecutivo de ventas, mientras recorre el pasillo donde se exponen arcones, cómodas, espejos y tapetes.Se detiene un momento y dice: “Como ve, mucho de este mobiliario el turista no lo podía llevar consigo en el barco. Pero era lo de menos, nosotros se lo enviábamos a su domicilio, hasta su país de origen”.
–¿Bajaron mucho sus ventas?
–¡Muchísimo! Casi a 100%. Anteriormente vendíamos unos 20 mil dólares a la semana. Ahora, sólo alguno que otro objeto de bajo precio.
–¿Planean cerrar?
–Los dueños decidirán. Por lo pronto, ellos se sostienen con sus sucursales en Estados Unidos. Hasta en Alaska tienen una. Para los 80 mil habitantes de la isla el golpe fue brutal, pues las familias dependen de los meseros, camareros, taxistas, jardineros y demás empleados turísticos cuyos ingresos provenían de las embarcaciones turísticas del extranjero.En los hoteles y restaurantes se aplica un paliativo de emergencia: los empleados se turnan para laborar un día y descansar otro, por lo que su trabajo se redujo a la mitad, lo mismo que su salario. Y esta medida –aseguran algunos– no podrá sostenerse por mucho tiempo.Carlos, un joven mesero del hotel Casa Mexicana, muestra el restaurante vacío y se lamenta: “¡Vea! Todo está muerto. A pesar de que nos turnamos para trabajar cada tercer día, somos mucho personal para atender a los poquísimos turistas. De seguir las cosas igual, el hotel cerrará y nosotros nos quedaremos sin empleo”.La situación empeora para quienes no tienen un salario fijo, como Álvaro Dzib, un hombre moreno de origen maya que se vino de Izamal, Yucatán, atraído por la bonanza que dejaban los cruceros. Bajo el sol ardiente, Dzib permanece de pie a un lado de su calesa, enganchada a un caballo escuálido de ojos legañosos. Dzib espera sin suerte la llegada de por lo menos un turista que le pague unos cuantos pesos por un paseo en el carruaje.
–Por lo menos un turista. Por lo menos uno. Por lo menos uno –murmura en letanía, para darse ánimos.
–¿Cuánto cobra por el paseo?
–Cobraba 350 pesos. La mitad se va para el dueño de la calesa y el caballo, y la otra mitad para mí. Pero la cosa se puso tan mal, que tuvimos que bajar el precio a 250 pesos. Y ni aun así. Llevo cinco horas esperando a que me caiga un cliente.
–¿Todos los caleseros están pasando por una situación como la suya?
–Todos, todos. Ninguno se escapa. Lo peor es que sólo nos permiten trabajar hasta las seis de la tarde. Se va llegando esa hora y no quiero regresar a la casa sin un centavo. Ahí me esperan mi mujer y mis tres hijos, que necesitan comer.
Álvaro Dzib observa a una pareja que supone son turistas y se abalanza sobre ella. “Un paseo, patrones, un paseo”. La pareja escapa a paso rápido.Dzib regresa a la calesa, desesperado. Palmea el lomo del flaco caballo y vuelve a repetir: “Por lo menos uno… por lo menos uno”.Los más de mil taxistas viven también desesperados. Era uno de los gremios más favorecidos por el turismo. Ahora, aquí y allá, se ven taxis y más taxis estacionados en hilera, aguardando a algún pasajero.Miguel Cimé está recargado en su taxi de franjas rojas, que pertenece al sitio de Punta Langosta, el ultramoderno muelle estilo Tec –con sus tiendas Duty free incluidas– al que diariamente llegaban miles de turistas.“No nos dábamos abasto subiendo pasaje –recuerda Cimé. Antes aquí había un hormiguero de gente. Nosotros éramos los que movíamos al turismo a todas partes. Los restaurantes y bares nos daban comisiones por los turistas que les llevábamos. Yo ganaba un promedio de mil 500 pesos al día.”
–¿Y ahora?
–Ahora ni para comer nos alcanza. La cosa está para llorar. Con decirle que a los taxistas el gobierno ya nos empieza a dar despensas de comida. Pero éstas no alcanzan para mantener a la familia. Imagínese la crisis por la que estamos pasando.“Y esto es una cadena. Si yo estoy construyendo un cuarto en mi casa, pues tengo que decirle a los albañiles: ‘Párenle porque no tengo dinero’. Y así se va la cadena, jalando parejo con carpinteros, herreros y electricistas. Tenemos que apretarnos el cinturón al grado de que ni siquiera les damos dinero a nuestros hijos para que vayan a la escuela.”

“Al borde del colapso”

Al desembarcar en Cozumel, los turistas de los cruceros solían recorrer la carretera costera de la isla. Ver la arena blanca contrastando con el azul transparente del mar. Caminar por las rocas de las playas. Sentir la brisa en la cara. Chapotear entre las olas. Rentar motocicletas para hacer el recorrido. Pero ya sin turismo, las pequeñas arrendadoras de estos vehículos están en quiebra.Sentado en el quicio de su negocio, desde donde se atisba al fondo, alineada, la flotilla completa de motonetas, Rafael Chávez comenta: “Antes rentaba un promedio de 15 motonetas diarias. Ahora aquí no se paran ni las moscas. Ya no puedo sostener el changarro. Tendré que cerrar”.César Zepeda, presidente de la Asociación Nacional de Operadores de Actividades Acuáticas y Turísticas, asegura que los pocos turistas extranjeros que deambulan por la isla son sobre todo buzos que arribaron por un medio de transporte distinto al crucero:“Los buzos tienen espíritu aventurero, no los detiene la alerta sanitaria por el virus de la influenza. Y llegan aquí porque saben que Cozumel ofrece muchas ventajas a ese deporte, empezando por su gran variedad de arrecifes.”Reconoce Zepeda que, sin embargo, el buceo también decayó:“En la isla había alrededor de 600 buzos por día, el mayor número que cualquier otro lugar en el mundo. El buceo era una mina de oro; ahora ya no.” Y sí, en las costas de la isla puede verse a los pocos buzos extranjeros embutidos en sus escafandras. Se tiran al agua y observan el fondo rocoso a través del visor. A su lado, se balancean las lanchas en cuyo interior están dispuestos los tanques de oxígeno de repuesto.La cozumeleña Sara Latife, secretaria de Turismo de Quintana Roo, asegura preocupada:“Cozumel es el destino turístico más afectado en el país. ¡Está paralizado! Ni en la peor pesadilla imaginamos que nos ocurriría esto. La ocupación hotelera se desplomó. Estamos al borde del colapso.”Mientras que el alcalde de Cozumel, Juan Carlos González, no duda en decir: “Estamos ante una emergencia social, pues Cozumel era el líder mundial en arribo de cruceros, y lo que antes era motivo de orgullo, hoy es nuestra mayor desgracia, pues toda nuestra economía gira en torno a los cruceros. Hoy la gente no tiene ni para pagar la luz. Hasta el ayuntamiento está en crisis; hemos dejado de recaudar impuestos.”–¿Qué escenario vislumbra?–Tenemos temor de que, debido al desempleo, comience el pillaje. Pero los ladrones no tendrán a quién vender lo robado. Ni cómo huir. Vivimos en una isla.Carnival y Royal Caribbean eran las dos principales compañías navieras que surtían de cruceros a la isla. Con base en Miami, Florida –su llamado home port–, estos descomunales “hoteles flotantes” llegaban a transportar cada uno hasta 6 mil pasajeros y tripulantes. Durante un día completo desparramaban a sus turistas en Cozumel, para luego recogerlos y proseguir su viaje por otros puertos del Caribe.Aquí se veía con mucha familiaridad a esos lujosos cruceros equipados con piscinas, casinos, teatros, pistas de baile, salas de cine y gimnasios: Monarch of the Seas, Explorer of the Seas, Liberty of the Seas, Majesty of the Seas… Javier Zetina González, director de la Administración Portuaria Integral (API) de Quintana Roo, recuerda los prósperos tiempos:“Cada año llegaban a Cozumel más de mil cruceros. Nuestros tres muelles siempre estaban ocupados por estas embarcaciones, principalmente en temporada alta.”Anualmente, agrega, en los cruceros venían aproximadamente 3 millones 500 mil personas –entre pasajeros y tripulación–, y cada persona dejaba a la isla una derrama de 50 dólares en promedio. “Nosotros en la API también estamos perdiendo, puesto que cada crucero nos dejaba 70 mil pesos. En fin, hoy estamos padeciendo nuestra dependencia del extranjero”, se lamenta Zetina.Efectivamente, las compañías navieras tienen su sede en Estados Unidos. Y fue el Centro de Control y Prevención de Enfermedades (CDC, por sus siglas en inglés) de ese país el que, a finales de abril, prohibió a los cruceros atracar en los puertos mexicanos. Cozumel ha sido el más afectado. El pasado viernes 15 de mayo, el secretario de Turismo mexicano, Rodolfo Elizondo, anunció que la CDC levantaba su prohibición. ¿Para cuándo las navieras restablecerán sus rutas a Cozumel? ¿Todos los cruceros que llegaban volverán a venir? ¿Se normalizará la actividad económica 100%? Aún no se sabe. Elizondo anunció que lanzará una campaña de promoción internacional para limpiar la mala imagen que se tiene de México en el extranjero.Mientras tanto, largas filas de personas se forman en torno a las oficinas del DIF municipal para recibir su “despensa básica”: un kilo de frijol, un kilo de arroz, un kilo de azúcar, dos kilos de Maseca, una botella de aceite y una bolsa con sopa de pasta.“Por lo menos la despensa sirve para no traer la panza vacía. La falta de cruceros nos dejó más amolados que los huracanes”, comenta doña Lucía, una cincuentona que hace fila en la calurosa explanada del DIF.Cada noche, después de cerrar su pequeño local de artesanías donde no se para ni un cliente, don Amado Arévalo sale con sus dos hijos a las playas del norte de la isla. Ahí –oculta entre los matorrales– tienen una ligera lancha de aluminio tumbada panza arriba. La arrastran a la playa, se introducen remando al mar y se ponen a pescar pargos con cordeles enrollados en carretes.“Si no fuera por la pesca ya nos hubiéramos muerto de hambre”, dice don Amado, al momento de lanzar el cordel con el anzuelo.

Mexico: Military’s Battle Against Mexican Drug Cartels Terrorizes Civilians

Mexican citizens face the constant threat from organized crime and the force that is supposed to protect them: the military.

By José Luis Sierra , New America Media.

JUAREZ, Mexico -- "Alfa," as he wants to be called, remembers his ordeal well. His story is not uncommon in Mexico's drug wars.
"I was kept blindfolded and they stripped off my clothes again and wrapped me in a blanket like a taquito, and they wet the blanket and connected [two] electric wires, one to each testicle. They made sure they were in place and took an instrument that sounded like a small refrigerator or a battery charger and started giving me electric shocks.
"They would also sit me in a chair and cover my head with a plastic bag and close it until I almost suffocated. Then they would remove the bag and let me breath again and begin the questioning."
But Alfa is not talking about Mexico's notorious drug lords. In his testimony to the Chihuahua Human Rights Commission, Alfa is describing being abducted by the military -- the forces that are supposed to protect the civilians in President Felipe Calderón's war against drug cartels.
The body count has dropped since Calderón deployed troops to patrol Ciudad Juárez. But the fear of being arrested for practically no reason, "disappeared" for days, and tortured by the very force that is supposed to protect the population, is on the rise.
Alfa continued his story:
"I was detained very early in the morning by members of the army who got into my house by breaking the front door. Besides arresting me, they searched all my belongings and kept all the valuables for themselves. I remember hearing one of the soldiers ask another one for a gold chain, claiming that it would fit his daughter and would be a nice birthday gift. They didn't find any drugs or anything illegal, but they took a Jeep Cherokee and a Dodge car.
"They blindfolded me and took me to a place where I could hear the sound of helicopters and other military roaming around. I was kept blindfolded for several days, and I noticed that one side got brighter in the afternoons, so I think it was a window.
"I could feel that there were another 10 or 20 other people there. Now and then, soldiers would come inside and start hitting people, saying things like: 'No te hagas pendejo (Don't be a fool). Where are you hiding the drugs for Azucena Street? Or where is the hiding place for [alleged drug dealer] "El Chivo"?'
"They tortured them, but when they got an answer [it seems to me that] they let them go. They started to torture me, and I told them that I could lead them to the place and that the only thing I knew was that they used to sell drugs in the 'hood. But the soldier in charge of the torture seemed to know more, and he would tell me, 'No te hagas pendejo.' "
Between January 2008 and March 2009, the Juarez Human Rights Office has collected hundreds of reports from people stopped at checkpoints or in their homes who claim that the "Operación Conjunta," -- the joint operation of the federal police, municipal police and military forces -- has resulted in violations of their civil liberties.
While the figures suggest that the heavy presence of the military has indeed reduced the number of executions, extortions and kidnappings, it has not been able to eliminate the violence. The difference is that this time, forces in charge of public safety are being fingered as the perpetrators of the crimes once attributed to the drug cartels.
"We went from reporting 20 to 25 killings a month, to reporting 40 killings a day, all related to the drug wars," says Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson, chief investigator of the state's Human Rights Commission. Now, he says, "the number of killings has decreased, but the claims of human and civil rights violations have increased, and most of them are attributed to the police and military forces … the very same people in charge of protecting us."
De La Rosa and other lawyers claim that Juárez and other cities subjected to the same military operation are living in a de facto "state of exemption," a legal term that implies that all civil rights and liberties have been suspended, and police and military forces are free to detain and search individuals without cause.
The operation began in March 2008 and is scheduled to end by 2013, but lawyers and local civil rights activists complain that it has not provided results and that the price tag is too high.
"We are supposed to be protected by over 9,000 soldiers and federal police who are strangers to this city, don't know our customs and frankly don't care about our way of life. And now these same forces are stopping us anywhere they please, and arresting people for almost no reason at all!" says Genaro Armendariz, a community leader at a local church in the city's west side neighborhood known as Villa Miseria, roughly translated as Misery Village.
"They stop thousands of people a day, but usually in the very low-income areas of the city. Affluent neighborhoods are hardly visited," says Hector Pedraza Reyes, a professor at the local university.
According to estimates from the local Human Rights Commission, out of every 300,000 people searched by the police, only 10 are arrested, most of them for driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs.
On April 18, Maria Rosa Ontiveros Garay told local authorities that her son, Jesús Tejada Ontiveros, was arrested "illegally" by members of the army, when soldiers entered his home without a search warrant or any other legal document.
They entered the house at 9:30 a.m. to search for drugs, and kept Tejada Ontiveros' wife and children in one bedroom while they ransacked the house. Ontiveros Garay says the soldiers bound her son and covered his head while they searched the property. Later, Tejada Ontiveros was removed from his home and taken to an undisclosed location where he was allegedly tortured for information about drugs he was suspected to be selling.
Tejada Ontiveros remained sequestered in an undisclosed location for three days, without being able to communicate with his family. On Tuesday, he was finally turned over to the PGR (Federal Attorney's Office), on charges that he was found in possession of 10 bags of cocaine for sale. His lawyer says each bag contained the equivalent of a daily dose for one person.
"He could get up to 10 years in jail, but there is no evidence that he was indeed in possession of the drugs.
"Besides, he was arrested in his home, without a legal warrant or search document to enter the house. They found no drugs there, and he was kept incommunicado for three days before he was turned over to the proper authorities for prosecution," says his lawyer.
The attorney general's office declined to comment about this case, or any other claims, arguing that all cases are currently under investigation.
In the same week, three men declined to testify in front of a judge after being charged with crimes unrelated to their arrest order.
There are hundreds of stories of people being detained in their homes or while driving and charged with drug possession. The majority of them claim that police or soldiers took their valuables, including jewelry, TV sets, electronics or cash, and never reported the seizures, so the owners are unable to get them back.
"I have reports that they opened the fridge and took the food inside," says Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson, chief investigator of the state's Human Rights Commission, says in an interview in his makeshift office in a converted two-story house. "We live in a state of constant violations of civil and human rights and the violence doesn't stop."
Luz Elena Mears Delgado, head of the Juárez Human Rights Office agrees. "We just don't have the resources to investigate every claim, but it's nonstop."

Stop Subsidizing Mexican Drug Gangs

The horrifying drug-war violence south of our border with Mexico continues to worsen, and we're the ones subsidizing it.

By Bruce Mirken, AlterNet.

The horrifying drug-war violence south of our border with Mexico continues to worsen: beheadings, killings that now number several thousand at least, honest officials in fear for their lives. It's time to put an end to U.S. policies that subsidize these murderous drug gangs.According to U.S. and Mexican officials, some 60 percent of the profits that fuel these thugs come from just one drug, marijuana. While much is smuggled over the border, an increasing amount is produced in the U.S. by foreign gangs operating on American soil -- often in remote corners of national parks and wilderness areas.Every year, we read more headlines about clandestine marijuana farms being uncovered on these precious, environmentally sensitive public lands. These rogue farms not only pose a threat to hikers and the environment, they cost taxpayers more than a billion dollars each year in eradication and clean-up efforts.This appalling situation, which now carries a real risk of destabilizing Mexico, is not just happenstance. It is the direct result of U.S. policies.Like it or not, marijuana is a massive industry. Some 100 million Americans admit to government survey-takers that they've used it, with nearly 15 million acknowledging use in the past month.That's a huge market -- more Americans than will buy a new car or truck this year, or that bought one last year. Estimates based on U.S. government figures have pegged marijuana as the number one cash crop in America, with a value exceeding corn and wheat combined.Our current policies are based on the fantasy that we can somehow make this massive industry go away. That's about as likely as the Tooth Fairy paying off the national debt.We haven't stopped marijuana use -- indeed, federal statistics show a roughly 4,000 percent rise since the first national ban took effect in 1937 -- but we have handed a virtual monopoly on production and distribution to criminals, including those brutal Mexican gangs.There is a better way. After all, there's a reason these gangs aren't smuggling wine grapes.We've seen this movie before. During the 13 dark years of alcohol Prohibition, ruthless gangsters like Al Capone and “Bugs” Moran had a monopoly on the lucrative booze market. So lucrative, in fact, that these scoundrels would routinely gun each other down rather than let a competitor share their territory. Sound familiar?Today, the bloodbath is taking place in cities like Tijuana and Juarez, Mexico, but it's beginning to spill across our border. Prohibition simply doesn’t work – not in the 1930s and not now.The chief of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Mexico and Central America Section recently told the New York Times that marijuana is the “king crop” for Mexican cartels. He added that the plant “consistently sustains its marketability and profitability.”The situation is so intolerable that three former presidents of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil have recently joined the chorus calling for a shift in U.S. marijuana policy.There is no reason to believe that our nation’s current marijuana policies are reducing the use and availability of marijuana. Indeed, in the Netherlands -- where, since the mid 1970s, adults have been permitted to possess and purchase small amounts of marijuana from regulated businesses -- the rate of marijuana use is less than half of ours, according to a recent World Health Organization study. More importantly, the percentage of teens trying marijuana by age 15 in the Netherlands is roughly one-third the U.S. rate.By taking marijuana out of the criminal underground and regulating and taxing it as we do beer, wine and liquor, we can cut the lifeline that makes these Mexican drug gangs so large and powerful. And at the same time we'll have a level of control over marijuana production and distribution that is impossible under prohibition.

Sacan a turistas de Teotihuacan para que se pasee Sarkozy

Turistas son desalojados de Teotihuacán por visita de Sarkozy

Los mandatarios franceses y mexicano caminan en este momento por la Calzada de los Muertos. AP

Elementos del EMP expulsan a turistas para que Sarkozy pudiera pasear por las pirámides de manera privada

Al lugar arribaron decenas de elementos del Estado Mayor Presidencial
Molestos, visitantes de Venezuela, Colombia, Italia, Japón se inconformaron porque no les permitieron continuar de visita a la zona arqueológica.

TEOTIHUACÁN, MÉXICO.- Desde las 15:00 horas, personal de la Zona Arqueológica de Teotihuacán empezó a desalojar a visitantes nacionales y extranjeros, debido a la visita del presidente de Francia, Nicolas Sarkozy, lo que provocó el enojo de miles de turistas.Con megáfono en mano, los vigilantes pidieron a los turistas que ya no ascendieran a la Pirámide del Sol, “por primera vez cerrarían más temprano de lo habitual”.Molestos, visitantes de Venezuela, Colombia, Italia, Japón se inconformaron porque no les permitieron continuar de visita a la zona arqueológica.Al lugar arribaron decenas de elementos del Estado Mayor Presidencial, quienes acordonaron el acceso principal a la pirámide del Sol y ayudan a desalojar la zona arqueológica.Extra oficialmente, a las 17:00 horas arribará a la zona arqueológica el presidente galo, acompañado de su esposa Carla Bruni.
Turistas mexicanos y de otros paises que visitaban la zona arqueológica de Teotihuacan fueron desalojados a las 3 de la tarde de hoy por personal del gobierno federal para que se pudieran pasear de manera privada el presidente de Francia, el derechista Nicolás Sarkozy, y su esposa, la ex-modelo Carla Bruni.
Turistas mexicanos y de otros paises que visitaban la zona arqueológica de Teotihuacan fueron desalojados a las 3 de la tarde de hoy por personal del gobierno federal para que se pudieran pasear de manera privada el presidente de Francia, el derechista Nicolás Sarkozy, y su esposa, la ex-modelo Carla Bruni, reportó un diario local.
Con megáfonos, personal del gobierno federal expulsó a los turistas que visitaban la zona arqueológica dos horas antes de que arribara Sarkozy, quien además fue acompañado por el ex-candidato presidencial panista Felipe Calderón.
La zona fue acordonada por decenas de elementos del Estado Mayor Presidencial, quienes también desalojaron a los turistas.

Could a Sudden Collapse of Mexico Be Obama's Surprise Foreign Policy Challenge?

By Bill Weinberg, AlterNet.

Free-trade politics and the drug war created a social crisis in Mexico, and a militarized response to it may push events to an explosion.

A year-end report by the Pentagon's Joint Forces Command names two countries as likely candidates for a "rapid and sudden collapse" -- Pakistan and Mexico.
The report, named "JOE 2008" (for Joint Operating Environment), states:
"In terms of worse-case scenarios for the Joint Force, and indeed the world, two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico. The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and press by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state."
Mexican officials were quick to deny the ominous claim. Exterior Secretary Patricia Espinosa told reporters that the fast-escalating violence mostly affects the narco gangs themselves, and "Mexico is not a failed state."
Enrique Hubbard Urrea, Mexico's consul general in Dallas, actually boasted improvement, asserting that the government has won the war against the drug cartels in certain areas, such as Nuevo Laredo -- one of the border cities that has been the scene of recent nightmarish violence.
But U.S. political figures were also quick to react -- using the Pentagon's lurid findings to argue for increased military aid to Mexico. As President-elect Barack Obama met in Washington with Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Jan. 12, the former U.S. drug czar, retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, just back from a meeting in Mexico of the International Forum of Intelligence and Security Specialists, told a Washington press conference: "Mexico is on the edge of the abyss -- it could become a narco state in the coming decade." He praised Calderon, who he said has "launched a serious attempt to reclaim the rule of law from the chaos of the drug cartels." The International Forum of Intelligence and Security Specialists is an advisory body to Mexican federal law enforcement.
Also weighing in was Joel Kurtzman, senior fellow at the Milken Institute, who warned in a Wall Street Journal editorial: "It may only be a matter of time before the drug war spills across the border and into the U.S." He hailed Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff for his "plan to 'surge' civilian, and possibly, military law-enforcement personnel to the border should that be necessary…" He also lauded Calderon's deployment of 45,000 military troops to fight the drug cartels -- but raised the possibility of a tide of refugees flooding the U.S. Southwest. "Unless the violence can be reversed, the U.S. can anticipate that the flow across the border will continue."
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., joined the chorus. On Jan. 11, the day before Calderon arrived in Washington, Gingrich told ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos: "There is a war under way in Mexico. More people were killed in Mexico in 2008 than were killed in Iraq. It is grossly undercovered by the American media. It's is on our border. It has the potential to extend into our country side. … The illegal narcotics teams in Mexico are in a direct civil war with the government in which they are killing the police, killing judges, killing the army ... [I'm] surprised that no one in the American system is looking at it very much. It's a very serious problem."
Gingrich doesn't have his facts quite right. The Iraq Body Count Web site puts the number of just Iraqi civilian deaths last year at a maximum of 9,028 (compared to 24,295 in 2007). The Mexican daily El Universal reports that according to its tally, there were 5,612 killings related to organized crime in Mexico last year -- more than double the 2007 figure, and the highest since it started keeping track four years ago.
Yet even if Gingrich is exaggerating, and the Pentagon is paranoid, there is definitely cause for concern. The violence -- at its worst in the border cities of Juarez and Tijuana -- is reaching spectacular levels redolent of Colombia.
In Juarez (and elsewhere across Mexico), severed heads are left outside police stations in chilling numbers; mutilated, decapitated corpses left outside schools and shopping centers -- or hanging from overpasses as a warning to the populace.
A man recently arrested in Tijuana -- charmingly nicknamed the "Stew-maker" -- confessed to disposing of hundreds of bodies by dissolving them in chemicals, for which he was paid $600 a week. A barrel with partially dissolved human remains was left outside a popular seafood restaurant.
Bombs hurled into a crowd celebrating Mexico's independence day in Michoacn on Sept. 15 left seven dead.
The mysterious wave of femicide, which has haunted Juarez for more than 15 years, has spiraled hideously. Authorities report that 81 women were killed in the city this year, breaking all previous records -- in fact, more than doubling 2001's record and bringing the total since 1993 to 508.
And the cartels' agents have penetrated the highest levels of Mexican federal power. Several high-ranking law-enforcement officials were detained last year in Operacion Limpieza ("Operation House Cleaning"), aimed at weeding out officials suspected of collaborating with the warring drug lords.
Cartel hit squads operate in the uniforms of Mexican federal police agents, and in towns such as Nuevo Laredo, the local police became so thoroughly co-opted that the federal government dissolved their powers. It is questionable whether the Mexican bloodletting is really a war of the cartels against the state or among cartels for control of the state.
State security forces are hardly less brutal than the drug gangs they battle (and overlap with). Mexico's National Human Rights Commission issued several recommendations last year calling on the defense secretary to punish those responsible for torture and gratuitous killings. Up until now, those recommendations have been ignored.
Despite the blatant corruption, the U.S. is pouring guns into Mexico -- an illicit trade from north of the border arming the cartels (and their paramilitary units like the notorious "Zetas," made up of military veterans) with assault rifles and rocket-launchers, while Washington is beefing up the Mexican army and federal police over the table. "Mexican law enforcement and soldiers face heavily armed drug gangs with high-powered military automatic weapons," warns McCaffrey, oblivious to the incestuous interpenetration of these seeming opponents.
McCaffrey, who was an architect of Plan Colombia 10 years ago, is today a booster of its new Mexican counterpart -- the $1.4 billion, multiyear Merida Initiative. At his Washington press conference, he decried that this is "a drop in the bucket compared to what was spent in Iraq and Afghanistan. … We cannot afford to have a narco-state as a neighbor."
The first $400 million Merida Initiative package was approved by Congress in June, and the first $197 million of mostly military aid sent south in December. Although it differs in not actually introducing U.S. military advisors, the Merida Initiative is clearly modeled on Plan Colombia, and is dubbed "Plan Mexico" by its critics.
It has moved apace with the Homeland Security's ambitious plans to seal the border. And indeed, Plan Colombia's supposed success in bringing a tenuous "stability" to Colombia has done nothing to dethrone the nation from the dubious honor of both the hemisphere's worst rights abuser and biggest humanitarian crisis -- nearly 3 million internally displaced by political violence, with the rate of displacement growing since the intensive U.S. military aid program began in 2000.
With all eyes on Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine, this is the grim situation that Obama inherits on the nation's southern border. But he also faces an active resistance to the "Plan Mexico" model and concomitant border militarization -- both sides of the line.
Obama, who was famously made an honorary member of Montana's Crow Indian nation last year, received a letter just before he took office from women elders of the Lipan Apache, whose small south Texas reservation is to be bisected by Homeland Security's border wall. The letter calls the land seizure unlawful, and urges Obama to call a halt to the wall. Texas ranchers also have litigation pending against the seizure of their lands for the wall.
Environmentalists are incensed at the border wall's exemption from EPA regulations, and one -- Judy Ackerman of El Paso, Texas -- was arrested in December for blocking Homeland Security's construction equipment in an act of civil disobedience.
Elvira Arellano, a deported Mexican woman, who in 2006 took sanctuary for weeks in a church in Obama's hometown of Chicago to highlight immigrants' rights, held a press conference at the U.S. embassy in Mexico City two days after he took office to ask the new president to call a halt to Homeland Security's coast-to-coast immigration raids.

In order to read the whole article HERE.

PROGRAMA COMPLETO DE CARMEN ARISTEGUI. VIERNES 23 DE ENERO