Egypt Election: Muslim Brotherhood Candidate Could Face...
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Stop the Drug War: Mexican Poet Javier Sicilia Condemns U.S. Role in Widening Drug Violence
We end the week with part two of our interview with renowned Mexican poet Javier Sicilia. Last year, Sicilia’s 24-year-old son, Juan Francisco, was murdered by drug traffickers in Cuernavaca, Mexico. In his son’s memory, Sicilia created the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity to urge an end to the drug war....May 11, 2012 | Story -
Mexican Poet Javier Sicilia Leads U.S. Peace Caravan to Expose Drug War’s Human Toll
One of Mexico’s best-known poets, Javier Sicilia, laid down his pen last year after his 24-year-old son was murdered by drug traffickers in Cuernavaca, Mexico. In his son’s memory, Sicilia created the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity to urge an end to the drug violence — violence that has left an...May 10, 2012 | Story -
Death on the Border: Shocking Video Shows Mexican Immigrant Beaten and Tased by Border Patrol Agents
A new PBS documentary exposes the tasing and beating death of a Mexican immigrant by U.S. border agents in California and has renewed scrutiny of what critics call a culture of impunity. In May 2010, 42-year-old Anastasio Hernández-Rojas was caught trying to enter the United States from Mexico near San Diego. He had previously...April 24, 2012 | Story -
Drug War Profiteers: Book Exposes How Wachovia Bank Laundered Millions for Mexican Cartels
As protests continue against Wall Street and the nation’s biggest banks, we speak to British journalist Ed Vulliamy, author of "Amexica: War Along the Borderline." Vulliamy exposes how one bank, Wachovia, made millions in the Mexican drug war. At the time, Wachovia was the nation’s fourth-largest bank. It...October 27, 2011 | Story -
ATF Whistleblower: U.S. Gun Sting "Fast & Furious" Has Left Trail of "Crime Scenes and Dead Bodies"
A botched operation to track the flow of guns from the United States into Mexico has prompted the removal of the acting director of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the resignation of the U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona. Under the once-secret program known as "Operation Fast and...August 31, 2011 | Story -
Mexican Denied Consular Rights Faces Texas Execution Tonight Despite White House Opposition
The Obama administration has urged Texas to delay tonight’s execution of a Mexican national, saying it would put the U.S. in breach of international obligations. Humberto Leal García is set to be executed for the 1994 kidnapping, rape and murder of Adria Sauceda, a 16-year-old girl. After his arrest, Leal was provided...July 07, 2011 | Story -
"Failed War on Drugs: Fast, Furious and Fueled by the U.S." By Amy Goodman
A grim irony of Mexico’s failed offensive against drug trafficking is that the US has supplied cartels with guns – deliberately even.June 15, 2011 | Blog Post -
New Report: U.S. Encouraged Gun Sales to Drug Cartels, 70% of Seized Mexico Guns Are from U.S.
Some 70 percent of guns seized in Mexico from 2009 to 2010 came from the United States, according to a new report from three U.S. senators. The report finds Mexican drug cartels are arming themselves with U.S. military-style weapons and urges a strengthening of U.S. regulations to stem the flow of guns to Mexico. It comes as...June 15, 2011 | Story -
Mexican Peace Caravan Arrives in U.S. to Call for End to Deadly Drug War Policy
A caravan of Mexican anti-violence protesters arrived in the United States over the weekend calling for a massive shift in U.S. drug policy. Mexican poet Javier Sicilia led the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity following the brutal murder of his 24-year-old son by drug traffickers earlier this year. The caravan’s...June 15, 2011 | Story -
Obama Calls for Immigration Reform amidst Record Levels of Deportations
On Tuesday, President Obama visited the U.S.-Mexico border for the first time since his election in 2008 to deliver a major policy speech on comprehensive immigration reform. Meanwhile, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and 38 New York state lawmakers have asked to withdraw from Obama’s flagship immigration enforcement program, Secure...May 11, 2011 | Story -
"A War on Civilians": Mexico’s Drug War Draws Protests as Grueling Death Toll Grows
A march against the U.S.-backed war on drugs drew 20,000 people into the streets of Mexico City on Sunday, calling attention to the country’s gruesome drug war-related violence that has claimed more than 38,000 lives since Mexican President Felipe Calderón launched the campaign against drug traffickers and cartels in 2006....May 11, 2011 | Story -
Mudslide Buries Scores of Homes in Indigenous Mexican Town, But Massive Toll Said to Be Averted
An indigenous town in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca has been buried in mud and stones after incessant rain triggered a landslide early Tuesday morning. Access to the remote and impoverished town of Santa María Tlahuitoltepec has been restricted, with roads and bridges washed out by the rain or blocked by the landslide....September 29, 2010 | Story -
Independent Journalist Jean Friedman-Rudovsky on "Juarez’s children: Drugs, death, and fear."
Journalist Jean Friedman-Rudovsky traveled to Ciudad Juarez to find out how children are coping with the staggering levels of violence in the region.September 23, 2010 | Blog Post -
"Explain to Us What You Want from Us"–Juárez Newspaper Publishes Editorial Addressing Cartels After Another Reporter Gunned Down
In Mexico, the editors of a local newspaper in the town of Ciudad Juárez have set off a national debate after they published a front-page editorial directly addressing the drug cartels that have terrorized the city. El Diario de Juárez published the piece after a young photographer at the paper was shot dead. "Explain...September 23, 2010 | Story -
Former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda on the Drug War, Legalization, Immigration and Free Trade
Jorge Castañeda, one of Mexico’s best known public intellectuals and the country’s former foreign minister, joins us to discuss Mexico’s drug war, the debate on legalization of drugs in Mexico, immigration, free trade and more. Castañeda was Mexico’s foreign minister between 2000 and 2003. He’s...September 23, 2010 | Story -
With 28,000 Killed Since 2006, Movement for Drug Legalization in Mexico Takes Hold
The Mexican government’s policy against drug trafficking over the past few years has been to increasingly militarize the conflict with the only tangible result being a skyrocketing death toll. Now a growing movement in Mexico to legalize drugs, particularly marijuana, is taking shape. Four proposals that aim for varying...August 19, 2010 | Story -
Obama Signs $600M Bill to Increase Militarization of US-Mexico Border
President Obama has signed into law a $600 million bill to deploy some 1,500 new Border Patrol agents and law enforcement officials along the border, as well as two aerial surveillance drones. The bill was quickly passed by Congress in a rare display of bipartisanship. We speak to Arnoldo García of the National Network for Immigrant...August 19, 2010 | Story -
Mexican Teenager Shot Dead on Mexican Soil by US Border Agent
US authorities have said fifteen-year-old Sergio Adrian Hernandez Güereca was part of a group of boys throwing rocks at Border Patrol agents who were trying to detain two people at the border crossing. But a cell-phone video obtained by the Spanish language network Univision shows otherwise. The grainy footage shows the Border...June 10, 2010 | Story -
Paramilitaries Kill Two Human Rights Activists in Oaxaca
In Mexico, two human rights activists have been shot dead in the state of Oaxaca. The victims have been identified as Beatriz Cariño, director of the Mexican human rights group CACTUS, and Jyri Antero Jaakkola, a human rights observer from Finland. They were traveling as part of a convoy attempting to deliver aid to a town that’s...April 30, 2010 | Story -
John Ross on "El Monstruo: Dread and Redemption in Mexico City"
Independent reporter, activist and poet John Ross has been covering social movements in Mexico and Latin America for nearly fifty years. He is the author of ten books; his latest is El Monstruo: Dread and Redemption in Mexico City. Ross moved to Mexico City in the aftermath of the massive 8.1-magnitude earthquake in 1985 and...April 27, 2010 | Story
Job Openings
Columns
By Amy Goodman with Denis Moynihan
Gen. John Allen, commander of U.S. Forces Afghanistan, spoke Wednesday at the Pentagon, four stars on each shoulder, his chest bedecked with medals. Unlike Allen, many decorated U.S. military veterans left the streets of Chicago after the NATO summit without their medals.
Web Exclusives
In an extended interview, David Bronner, president of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, discusses the history of the company, why they put sustainability and social justice ahead of profits, the organic and GMO labeling movements, the U.S. war on hemp, and why they refuse to sell out. [includes rush transcript]
Human Rights Watch’s Kenneth Roth examines why the U.S. has not pressured Bahrain to release pro-democracy activists. He also discusses Syria and the conditions in Israeli jails and courts that prompted 1,550 Palestinian prisoners to go on a hunger strike. [includes rush transcript]
