Despite nearly 30,000 drug-related homicides, a huge increase in human rights violations by the armed forces and growing citizen opposition to the bloody “war on drugs,” the U.S. Congress is once again considering the allocation of U.S. public funds to Mexico to support the failed counter-narcotics policy. Please consider adding your name to a petition calling on the Obama Administration and the US Congress to suspend United States support for Mexico’s military.
US support, channeled to the Mexican military through the Merida Initiative, enables a reckless strategy that has led to massive bloodshed in Mexico and failed to achieve goals to reduce illicit drug flows, assure public safety or significantly weaken cartels. With 45,000 troops in the streets as the core feature of this militarization strategy, the Mexican armed forces have been implicated in murders, rapes and violations of human rights—the vast majority of which have never been prosecuted.
This petition began circulating October 27th on the 4th anniversary of the killing of independent journalist Brad Will by paramilitary forces in 2006 while he was documenting the teacher’s strike in Oaxaca. Brad Will’s murder –- like that of so many thousands of Mexicans slain in the four years since his death – remains unpunished by a legal system which rewards incompetence and routinely confers impunity to criminals with connections to money and power.
Global Exchange joins the initial signers of the petition who include Kathy and Hardy Will (parents of Brad Will), the Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña “Tlachinollan”, General José Francisco Gallardo, and Reporters Without Borders, and the Center for International Policy.
Please consider signing on as an organization or individual.