Tag: Chihuahua

Mexico
narcotanks

Corporate cannabis targets bleeding Mexico

JNIMAlarming reports that Nigeria has established "concentration camps" for the Fulani ethnic minority cast an ironic light on Nigeria's tension with the Sahel states of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso to the north. These three regimes have broken from the Western imperial camp (to embrace the nascent Russian imperial camp)—but are likewise subjecting their Fulani minorities to persecution and massacre. With the recent shock rebel offensive in Mali, the "terrorist" stigma that attaches to the Fulani and Tuareg peoples across the imperial camps makes their position more precarious than ever. Meanwhile, prominent voices on the both the right and the (supposed) "left" are spreading propaganda about the struggle in West Africa that is alarmingly wrong, because it exclusively views the crisis through a campist lens. In Episode 327 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg tries to provide some clarity on these fast-escalating and grossly under-reported conflicts. (Photo: Az-Zallaqa via LWJ)

Mexico
Servín Herrera

Language rights advocate slain in Chihuahua

CowichanThe Law Society of British Columbia warned that the provincial government's intention to amend the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) may erode judicial independence and improperly constrain the power of the courts. The proposed amendment would limit the role of the judiciary in matters related to DRIPA's implementation, and follows two landmark court rulings upholding Aboriginal rights and title last year. The BC Supreme Court held in August that the Cowichan Tribes have established Aboriginal title in the city of Richmond, meaning that the province is obliged under the DRIPA to "reconcile" fee simple interests in the city with tribal authorities. In December, the BC Court of Appeal held that the provincial mineral tenure system—allowing registration of mineral rights online without notifying or consulting the Gitxaała and Ehattesaht nations—is impermissible under the DRIPA, which commits the province to upholding principles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. (Photo: Wikipedia)

Mexico

Mexico: AMLO declares drug war ‘over’ —but is it?

Chiapas eradicationAlready officially studying the possibility of cannabis legalization, Mexico's new populist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has now announced a formal end to the "war on drugs" that has only seemed to fuel the narco-violence over the past 10 years. However, military troops are still being mobilized for narcotics enforcement from Chiapas to Chihuahua—including marijuana eradication. (Photo: Sexenio)

Mexico

Tarahumara leader assassinated in Chihuahua

Julian CarrilloJulián Carrillo Martínez, a Tarahumara indigenous leader at the community of Coloradas de la Virgen, Guadalupe y Calvo municipality, in northern Mexico's Chihuahua state, was assassinated by unknown assailants, according to local advocacy group Alianza Sierra Madre. Carrillo Martínez was leading an effort by Coloradas de la Virgen to recover usurped traditional lands, with a case pending before the Agrarian Tribunal for the local district 5. Community residents were also petitioning Mexico's Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) to halt logging operations in forested areas of the disputed lands. Several community residents have been assassinated in Coloradas de la Virgen since the community began its land recovery effort. (Photo: Amnesty International)

Mexico

Mexico: AMLO-Trump populist convergence?

AMLOAndres Manuel Lopez Obrador—known by his initials AMLO—will be Mexico's next president, following his victory in the July 1 election. This marks the first time a Mexican presidential candidate of the left has had his victory honored. An obvious question is how AMLO will deal with Donald Trump—who attained office by demonizing Mexicans and pledging to build a wall on the border (and make Mexico pay for it). Last year, AMLO actually filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights against Trump's proposed wall. But he also hired Trump's current crony Rudolph Giuliani as anti-crime czar when he was mayor of Mexico City in 2002. As populists and opponents of free-trade economics, there may be unlikely common ground between the two men. (Photo: El Txoro)

North America

Trump order lays ground for indefinite detention

detention facilityTrump's executive order officially calling for an end to separating migrant families on the border actually contains provisions laying the groundwork for the indefinite detention of intercepted migrants. Entitled "Temporary Detention Policy for Families Entering this Country Illegally," it instructs the Secretary of Defense to provide "any existing facilities available for the housing and care of alien families" to Homeland Security—a clear reference to placing detained migrants in military bases. It also charges the Defense Department with responsibility to "construct such facilities if necessary…" (Photo: BBC World Service via Flickr)

Mexico

Rights groups call on ICC to investigate Mexico

SedenaSeveral human rights organizations presented a report to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court concerning possible crimes against humanity committed by the Mexican Army in the context of its Chihuahua Joint Operation (OCCh). The report outlines the murders, torture, sexual violence and forced disappearances of more than 121 victims committed by the Mexican military in the state of Chihuahua that "have still not been investigated, prosecuted, or punished." The 2008-2010 OCCh was part of the military's drive against narco-gangs in northern Chihuahua state. (Photo: La Opción de Chihuahua)

Mexico

2017 deadliest year in Mexico’s modern history

MexicoOfficial figures reveal that narco-violence made 2017 the deadliest year in Mexico's modern history. The grim total surpassed that of 2011, when the militarized drug war of then-President Felipe Calderón led to 22,409 homicides. A total of 23,101 homicide investigations were opened in the first 11 months of 2017, according to figures from the Governance Ministry, which has been tracking the yearly kill count back to 1997. (Map: CIA)

Mexico

Nightmarish narco-violence in Chihuahua

MexicoAn armed clash at a mountain village in Mexico's border state of Chihuahua left at least 25 dead—the latest indication that narco-gangs are stronger than the government across much of the country's drug-producing sierras. The shoot-out erupted in the pueblo of Las Varas, in the foothills of the Sierra Tarahumara—Mexico's prime cannabis and opium cultivation area.

Mexico

Mexico: fugitive narco-governors snared

Javier Duarte, the ex-governor of Mexico's Veracruz state, was detained by Interpol in Guatemala—the latest in a string of fugitive Mexican ex-governors to be arrested abroad.

Mexico

El Chapo one step closer to extradition

Mexico's imprisoned top drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán came another step closer to extradition when a judge turned down five requests for an injunction to halt it.