[narconews] Carlsen: A Primer on Plan Mexico
 
Date: Mon, 5 May 2008 20:29:07 -0500 (CDT)


May 5, 2008
Please Distribute Widely

Dear Colleague,

In recent months, there has been much speculation about the Bush
administrations intent to forge a Plan Mexico through which US
taxpayer dollars would go to police and military corps and equipment
to militarize the drug war (and simultaneously criminalize peaceful
social movements).

Legislation to approve Plan Mexico is attached onto the Iraq War
supplemental bill, soon to be voted on by the US Congress.

Journalist Laura Carlsen now provides the most definitive guide to
date about what Plan Mexico means and precisely how it will
militarize Mexico in the name of fighting drugs and terrorism.

Carlsen reports:

Soon the U.S. Congress will vote on the Initiative, popularly called
Plan Mexico The little-known appropriations request has been tagged
on to the multi-billion dollar Iraq supplemental bill and has been
presented as an unprecedented effort to fight burgeoning drug
trafficking and violence related to organized crime in Mexico. But
the regional security cooperation initiative goes far beyond
cooperation in stopping the flow of illegal drugs. It would
fundamentally restructure the U.S.-Mexico binational relationship,
recast economic and social problems as security issues, and
militarize Mexican society.

Under the rubric of Counter Narcotics, Counter Terrorism and
Border Security the initiative would allocate $205.5 million for the
Mexican Armed Forces. Over 40 percent of the entire packet goes to
defense companies for the purchase of eight Bell helicopters (at $13
million each, with training, maintenance and special equipment) for
the Mexican Army and two CASA 235 maritime patrol planes (at $50
million each, with maintenance) for the countrys Navy.

Carlsen goes on by showing how the plan will in-affect armor NAFTA,
the North American Free Trade Agreement. Once again, from Carlsens
report:

Thomas Shannon, Sub-Secretary of Western Hemisphere Affairs for the
State Department put it bluntly in a speech on April 8, saying that
the SPP understands North America as a shared economic space and
that as a shared economic space we need to protect it, and that we
need to understand that we dont protect this economic space only at
our frontiers, that it has to be protected more broadly throughout
North America. And as we have worked through the Security and
Prosperity Partnership to improve our commercial and trading
relationship, we have also worked to improve our security
cooperation. To a certain extent, were armoring NAFTA.

Carlsen continues by explaining in detail the faults of Plan Mexico
and the opposition developing to oppose it. To read the extensive
report in its entirety, find it online at Narco News:

http://www.narconews.com

 From somewhere in a country called Amirica,

David B. Briones
Webmaster
The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com
webmaster@narconews.com

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