words of love and despair

December 5th, 2012

Take Action! Tell Harvard to Rescind Felipe Calderón’s Fellowship

Felipe Calderón left Mexico less than 3 days after leaving office, arriving at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport on Tuesday at approximately 2:20 p.m., local time, reports Reforma.

Calderón is expected to begin a Fellowship at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in the coming weeks, but many are outraged that Harvard would disregard reports from Human Rights Watch, the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Mexico’s Human Rights Commission, and several civil organizations that have condemned the violence and human rights violations under his administration.

Calderón’s drug war leaves more than 100,000 dead, 25,000 disappeared, 250,000 displaced, and a countless number of traumatized children.

“In awarding Mr. Calderón a high-profile fellowship, the Kennedy School is telling the world that former leaders, however questionable their leadership, are worthy of recognition. It is an unfortunate and dangerous message,” wrote Marion Llyod in a piece for the Chronicle for Higher Education titled “Why Harvard Should Not Welcome Felipe Calderón.”

A petition started by retired US Border Patrol agent John Randolph calls on Harvard University president Drew Gilpin Faust to rescind Calderón’s Fellowship invitation.

It’s time to act and not allow Harvard University, or any other US institution, to give shelter to a man directly responsible for the skyrocketing amount of violence, torture, corruption, and impunity that Mexico lived through in the last six years.

Enrique Peña Nieto will do everything in his power to protect Calderón, therefore it’s imperative for those outside of Mexico, especially those in the United States, to take action and speak for the millions being silenced within Mexico’s media monopoly.

If you or your family was affected by Calderón’s drug war, if you’re a student or alumni of Harvard, you’re voice should be heard.

Call or email President Faust, and Dean Ellwood, and tell them Calderón’s Fellowship should be rescinded immediately.

Harvard’s School of Government says Calderón’s Fellowship will continue through December 2013. Those at Harvard concerned with seeking justice for the thousands of victims and millions of children and civilians affected by Calderón’s negligent and belligerent offensive are in a unique position to pressure the university, and should contact us if interested in working towards his dismissal.
Stay tuned for more information on those seeking to prosecute Calderón at The Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Sign the Petition Here.

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(via thinkmexican)

October 9th, 2012

thinkmexican:

Mexican Farmers Revive Organic Gum Traditions

Mexican farmers are looking to the past to create something new to sink their teeth into.

Farmers have revived a 1,000-year-old tradition that dates back to the Mayan Indians, who used natural gum in religious ceremonies and to clean their teeth.

The comeback was initiated by nearly 2,000 chicleros who have joined forces through co-operatives to produce the first organic *chewing gum.

*The word chicle is the hispanized version of the Nahuatl word “tziktli,” which literally means gum or “sticky stuff.” It’s one of the thousands of Nahuatl words carried over into Mexican Spanish.

(Source: aljazeera.com, via thinkmexican)

October 6th, 2012

thinkmexican:

Hands Off Our Corn, Monsanto!

Read more corn posts Here.

Photo via Flickr user Mr. Theklan

(via thinkmexican)

October 1st, 2012

thinkmexican:

Petition Calls on UT Austin President Not to Hire Calderón

“Calderón is responsible for the deaths of thousands of children, don’t let him teach in the U.S.,” says Angélica Ortíz Garza of Indio, CA, who posted this petition on the popular social advocacy website Change.org on September 22.

The petition calls on UT Austin President William Powers Jr. not to hire Felipe Calderón, citing a February 2011 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child report, which expressed a “great concern at the high number of child victims … as a result of the fight of the [Mexican] army against organized crime.”

At the time, 1,000 children were believed to have been killed in Felipe Calderón’s drug war offensive. A later report estimated 1,300. Many believe more 2,000 children will have been killed in this drug war by the end of Calderón’s term.

The petition also makes reference to Calderón’s calling of drug war victims “collateral damage,” and the criminalizing of their families’ by suggesting almost all of the estimated 80,000 dead were criminals.

In early August, the Dallas Morning News reported Felipe Calderón was in talks with the University of Texas at Austin to possibly teach this coming fall. Stanford, Harvard, and Georgetown were reportedly also on the list.

Rumors that Calderón was bidding for a job at the UN or at a US university have long been held. Included were reports of Margarita Zavala home-buying in the States. In March, we wrote about Calderón’s plans to leave Mexico once out of office over fears of lawsuits and assassination.

Members of YoSoy132, Morena, and other organizations say they’re ready to organize more protests like the one they had for Alejandro Poiré, Mexico’s Secretary of the Interior, on September 21.

You can sign the petition HERE.

(via thinkmexican)

September 22nd, 2012

thinkmexican:

Drug War Death Angel

At US Embassy in Mexico City, performance artist stands in front of an American flag depicted in dripping blood and skulls and crossbones.

See Performance Here.

(via thinkmexican)

September 11th, 2012

thinkmexican:

End the Drug War? Not if They Have Anything to Do With It!

Artist: Tim Kelly

(Source: thinkmexican)

July 4th, 2012

Dear Barack Obama:

thinkmexican:

Obama, I’m so disappointed in you for congratulating Peña Nieto when the election results are not yet official and the whole country is protesting what was an obvious case of electoral fraud. You congratulated a man who bought the election, who while governor is believed to have ordered the rape and beating of women and children and then congratulated himself for it, you congratulated the man representing the party that has ordered countless mass murders of the people who dared to speak out against them, you congratulated a man who, when a homosexual teacher asked him for help when he was fired for being gay allegedly said, “the government doesn’t want fags,” you congratulated a man who couldn’t name 3 books that he’s read when he was asked AT A BOOK FAIR, you congratulated a man who bought the media to disparage his opponents the way Republicans do with you.
You has congratulated the man who killed Mexico’s democracy.

You congratulated a man who stands for everything you supposedly are against.

You gave him and this fraudulent election validation in the eyes of the world.

I know it is not your obligation to help us, after all you are the president of the US and have no obligation to the Mexican people, but why congratulate him? Why so soon when there’s only 6% difference between him and the leftist candidate? Why when there are no official results? Why, when only 38% of the country voted for him? Why, when common citizens who wanted to watch over the election process where detained [by police] the whole day?

I just want to know why. You among all people, you the leader of the “free world,” you the “president of change,” why, while the Mexican people fight for its democracy and dignity, do you hit us with that?

Or is it that democracy and dignity only matters to you when it belongs to the citizens of the United States?

Written by paigemcullers

Note: This post was slightly edited for style and clarity. Links were added by Think Mexican as a reference. See original post here.

Read president Barack Obama’s statement here.

(Source: sapphicmix, via thinkmexican)

July 3rd, 2012

Mexican citizens who allegedly received supermarket gift cards from the Institutional Revolutionary Party [PRI] in exchange for their vote, are going on a “panic-stricken” shopping spree, La Jornada reports.

According to the Mexican newspaper, some card holders are afraid that credit on their cards might be confiscated by officials investigating allegations of vote-buying. Others fear that the credit on the cards might be cancelled because the PRI politician who distributed them may not end up winning local elections in the municipality of Nezahualcoyotl.

Last week, the leftist PRD party accused the PRI of distributing 1.8 million of these cards in Mexico State. The cards, which can be used at the Soriana supermarket chain, carry the logo of the CTM, a union affiliated with the PRI. Last week a PRD spokesman showed journalists gift cards that the PRI allegedly distributed in exchange for votes. La Jornada reports that at first, the party was offering cards with 100 pesos, ($7) worth of credit, but as election day approached, the amount on cards offered was raised to 300, 500, and even 700 pesos. Rocio Ugalde told La Jornada that even on election day (Sunday), PRI operatives were distributing these cards. She explained how the process worked: you go into the box, vote, take a picture of that ballot that you voted in favor of the PRI candidate, showed the photo to a PRI representative, and you received a gift card. Not all the cards that were handed out had full value; as people lined up to check the balance of their card, many had already been reported out of funds.

Univision News Tumblr: Mexico: PRI supporters go on “panic-stricken” shopping spree

As Roberto Lovato stated on his Facebook, “Imagine what the coverage of fraud allegations would be like if global media were talking about Iran, Egypt, Venezuela or some other, less ‘friendly’ country [instead] of Mexico. Imagine…”

(via thenoobyorker)

I really don’t know what to think of this entire situation. Would it be surprising if the PRI won after the last 6 years Mexico has undergone? Not really, but the PRI is notorious for election fraud and Mexico’s unfinished path towards democratization has yet to cement in a stable electoral system.

It’s a shame this is not being covered more because it’s incredibly important, not only due to our ties with Mexico but the welfare of the Mexican people, who have endured so much, quite a bit of which is directly our fault. Don’t question those elections though.

(via mohandasgandhi)

June 28th, 2012

Bojórquez is as sapient as they come, and no conspiracy-theorizing pundit. His sources in government and the criminal underworld are extensive. He is also very prudent, a necessity when as many people want you dead as want him dead. Yet he takes it as a given that the ATF intentionally supplies the Sinaloa cartel with guns. U.S. agencies have long been in bed with the Sinaloans, he explained to me, and this scheme to move massive numbers of weapons into the country is more of the same. He noted that it coincides directly with the cartel wars of the late 2000s. Project Gunrunner and later Fast and Furious were, Bojórquez is sure, a way for America to arm Chapo, with whom it’s in business. To him, this connection is as clear as day.

Bojórquez is not alone — most Mexican journalists I speak with, and many average Mexicans, take Washington’s collusion with the Sinaloa cartel for granted.
This interpretation of events owes partly to Chapo’s reputation. A folk hero of mythic proportions, the man’s very name has incantatory powers in Mexico. When it’s uttered around Culiacán, it’s usually in a whisper. Or people refer merely to “Him.” Everyone knows who is meant. Mexicans tend to have very little faith in their government’s abilities, aside from its ability to be corrupted — and Chapo’s competence in this regard is so obvious as to not need mentioning. Many Mexicans assume he essentially runs the country, and it’s easy to see why. Since President Felipe Calderón took office in 2007, a steady procession of high-raking government, military, and police officials has been revealed to be working for Chapo or his deputy, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.

The interpretation owes partly to a contempt for and fear of American power and arrogance that go back to the 19th century. An editorial in La Prensa last year cast Fast and Furious as the latest attempt at Manifest Destiny. The reasoning may have been off, but the sentiment was understandable: Americans do, after all, smoke, snort, swallow, and shoot up the great majority of drugs produced or moved through Mexico, and Americans export almost all the guns used in the murders there, with or without the help of the ATF.

Then there’s the long collusion between the U.S. government and drug-trafficking organizations, as Mexican students of history are quick to point out. Aside from the CIA’s machinations in neighboring Central America, they refer to the U.S. Army’s reliance on Sinaloan poppy-growers during World War II to keep up morphine supplies. More recently, the New York Times detailed the DEA’s program for laundering and moving money for Mexican traffickers in order to trace where it goes (like Fast and Furious, but with bills, not guns).

James Verini, The Fast and the Ridiculous

Here’s a fun read.

Revelations like these, combined with the failure of the Mexican government to capture Chapo and El Mayo, lead people like Bojórquez to the same conclusion: The Sinaloa cartel cut a deal with Calderón when he came into office, whereby it would help Mexico City go after other cartels, such as the Zetas, in exchange for some amount of immunity. Calderón could only have done this, the argument goes, with high-level approval from Washington — and Fast and Furious, a way to help Chapo, is evidence of that devil’s bargain.

(via mohandasgandhi)

June 11th, 2012

rubodewig:

(via Jot Down Cultural Magazine | Los hypars de Félix Candela (y II))

(via rubodewig)