Mexico - Global Exchange

Here is your chance to support limits on U.S. gun exports to Mexico that contribute to the unprecedented levels of gun violence there.

Call on your member of Congress to act and do the right thing.

Urge him/her to sign the “Dear Colleague” letter (text is below) circulated by Congressmen Grijalva and Lowenthal to prevent guns exported from the United States from getting into the hands of human rights abusers or organized crime, especially in Mexico.

These legally-exported weapons have already been used in massacres, disappearances, and by security forces that collude with criminal organizations or those who have committed serious human rights violations.

Thank you for taking action.

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Text of the letter open for Congressional signatures circulated by Representatives Raul Grijalva and Alan Lowenthal:

February 2019

Dear Secretary Pompeo:

We are concerned that your department’s plan to aggressively promote American weapons exports without a proper tracking system for end users will continue to result in weapon transfers to Mexico that arm security forces with ties to criminal organizations or that have committed serious human rights violations. We call on you to implement a comprehensive and transparent tracking system that ensures these weapons do not end up stolen, lost or placed in unauthorized hands, and request information pertaining to current exports.

The legal export of weapons and explosives from the United States to Mexico reached more than $122 million between 2015 and 2017, more than 12 times the amount of those exports between 2002-2004.[1] Legally exported weapons from the U.S. have already been used in violence, disappearances and massacres against civil society. The local police who attacked and disappeared 43 Ayotzinapa students in September 2014 were armed with AR-6530 rifles supplied by Colt Defense Industries.[2] The Mexican Army has disclosed that more than 20,000 firearms obtained by Mexican local and federal police went missing or were stolen since 2006.[3] These examples demonstrate the urgent need to ensure U.S. weapons do not land in the wrong hands.

We are concerned that an export license for the U.S. gun producer Sig Sauer to sell up to $266 million worth of firearms to the Mexican military, issued by the State Department in 2015, may reinforce the newly expanded role of the Mexican military in civilian law enforcement, or result in arming police or military units that are colluding with organized crime and have committed serious abuses. We request information from the State Department on how you will ensure this does not occur.

Firearm export controls should be subject to more rigorous oversight, tracking and accountability. This should include a policy to consult the Department’s existing INVEST database of alleged human rights violations by foreign security units, designed for use in implementing the Leahy Law, for license applications to export arms to foreign police and military units, and ensuring that such applications name all prospective end user units, not only central distribution units. Traditionally, the State Department has been tasked with reviewing and granting export licensing. Transitioning that task to the Commerce Department limits the ability to verify all prospective end user units, not only central distribution units.

We request that your department conduct an analysis to determine whether U.S.-manufactured firearms in the possession of Mexican police in Guerrero, Veracruz, Tamaulipas, Chihuahua, and Michoacán states were exported pursuant to a license that named these police as end users; if not, what steps is the Department is taking to address this issue.

Criminal organizations and human rights violators in Mexico and elsewhere should not be benefiting from a lax U.S. firearms export policy that puts civilians at risk. Every life lost is a tragedy and we must do everything within our power to ensure U.S. policies are not needlessly endangering lives around the world.

We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Raúl M. Grijalva Alan Lowenthal Member of Congress Member of Congress

[1] Mexican Commission for the Defense of Human Rights and Stop U.S. Arms to Mexico, Gross Human Rights Violations: The Legal and Illegal Gun Trade to Mexico, August 2018, https://stopusarmstomexico.org/gross-human-rights-abuses-the-legal-and-illegal-gun-trade-to-mexico/.

[2] American Friends Service Committee, Where the Guns Go: U.S. Policy and the Crisis of Violence in Mexico, 2016.

[3] Mexican Commission for the Defense of Human Rights and Stop U.S. Arms to Mexico, Gross Human Rights Violations: The Legal and Illegal Gun Trade to Mexico, August 2018, https://stopusarmstomexico.org/gross-human-rights-abuses-the-legal-and-illegal-gun-trade-to-mexico/.

Petition at bottom of page.

The lame duck administration of Mexican President Peña Nieto is negotiating to designate Mexico as a “safe third country” in a new agreement with the U.S.

The language sounds nice, but we strongly oppose the agreement because it furthers the Trump administration’s attack on the legal rights of those who seek safety — in the form of asylum — at our border.

If Mexico is deemed a “safe third party” country, asylum seekers traveling from Central America would be required to seek asylum in Mexico and the U.S. would be able to legally deny all asylum claims – even those that previously merited consideration.

The problem is that Mexico is neither a safe or viable asylum option for many people — least of all vulnerable migrants.

Migrants continue to be abused, extorted, kidnapped, raped and murdered and death while crossing Mexico and Mexico’s asylum system is not equipped for a surge of petitions.

To date, Mexico has failed to make demonstrable progress in screening individuals for protection needs and continues to return families and children to life-threatening situations.

If the “safe third party agreement” is signed, migrants who steer clear of dangers in Mexico and choose to carry onwards to a U.S. legal port of entry will be systematically turned away without the ability to request a “credible fear” screening.

Such an agreement would legalize the already horrendous methods currently being used to deflect asylum claims. These include leaving families out in the sun and heat for days even as they wait to enter the U.S. legally.

Please write U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo and call on him to withdraw the “safe third country agreement” with Mexico. We must protect migrants fleeing violence in their home countries and not put them at risk of further abuse.

[emailpetition id=”5″]

[signaturelist id=”5″]

Letter:

Dear Secretary Pompeo:

The national media has been reporting the potential signing of a a “Safe Third Country” agreement with Mexico that would require asylum seekers transiting through Mexico to apply for protection there, rather than in the United States. It would also allow US border officials to deny all asylum applications — entrusting their safety to Mexico’s asylum system.

Mexico’s current asylum system cannot accommodate this influx of migrants. Mexico has failed to make demonstrable progress in screening individual’s legitimate safety concerns and continues to return families and children to life-threatening situations. Mexico itself is a dangerous place for vulnerable migrants seeking protection and should not be designated a “Safe Third Country”.

Please stop this “Safe Third Country” agreement and work to ensure quick and effective access review for all asylum seekers on U.S. soil, as required by U.S. law.

On July 1, Mexico holds pivotal nationwide elections. The elections come at a moment of both great internal distress and international pressure.

That is why for the first time in 12 years, Global Exchange is convening two election observationmissions – a pre-electoral mission (recently completed) and election week (June 28 – July 4th).

Join Ted Lewis, Global Exchange Human Rights Director (Wednesday June 6th at 5:30 PM pst) for a Facebook live interview with analysis on the coming election and report back from our pre-electoral observation. We’ll share our impressions from Tamaulipas last month, take your questions and discuss how the coming realignment of power may affect the future of US –Mexico relations.

Violence resulting from the drug war is at an all time high in Mexico, averaging 90 homicides a day so far in 2018. At the same time, the hostility and unpredictability of the Trump administration have put the critical relationship between the US and Mexico in toxic flux.

This is the atmosphere in which voters will choose a new president, 128 members of the Senate, and 500 members of the Chamber of Deputies. And with 30 of 32 states holding local electionssimultaneously they will be choosing more local officials — including eight governors– than in any previous Mexican election.

But what is riveting to the international community on these elections is that at a moment of both deep internal crisis and confrontation with the United States, Mexican voters appears poised to elect a left opposition president for the first time in history.

As the chart below shows, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the candidate of the Movement of National Regeneration (MORENA) has more than twice the support of his nearest rival. López Obrador, who is running for the third time, has consistently led preference polls and has extended his lead in the now final weeks of the campaign.

Global Exchange has organized ten observation missions in Mexico since 1994, including presidential, mid-term, state, and municipal elections. We have worked with hundreds of observersfrom Mexico, the US, and more than a dozen other countries.

Our observation work is not aligned with the interests of any political party. We do our utmost to uphold the principles of international democratic solidarity and unequivocally support self-determination.

Please join us tomorrow for the live update on Mexico’s elections.

P.S. We look forward to talking with you tomorrow. Please consider making a donation to help us do this dangerous, difficult, and very important work.

Over the last month President Trump has focused a stream of racists tweets and ugly comments at a “caravan” of refugees and migrants from Central America and Mexico traveling north to seek asylum in the United States.

While ignoring U.S. support for the drug war and repressive government in Honduras that gave rise to the caravan, Trump spewed invective against these asylum seekers, depicting them as a national security threat to rally his nationalist base.

150 families and many unaccompanied children have now arrived at the border. They are requesting asylum and are being processed by border agents at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. U.S. laws grant asylum seekers a fair audience with a judge after a “credible fear” interview.

We think they should be given a fair hearing, but even before knowing the details of the cases, U.S. authorities, led by President Trump have sought to undermine the credibility of their claims.

Revealing woeful ignorance of the laws he is sworn to uphold, President Trump said they were “trying to take advantage of DACA” and DHS Secretary Nielsen said that they were trying to take advantage of “loopholes” in current immigration law.

Their anti-immigrant messaging is intended to influence the criteria of judges and the general public with false perceptions of “imminent influx of asylum seekers” with “harmful consequences”. The truth is U.S. border crossings along the southern border are at their lowest level since 1971.

These families are fleeing from organized violence in countries where U.S. policy has contributed to unlivable conditions. We owe them their human and legal rights as asylum seekers.

Call Department of Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen

(202) 282-8000

Demand Secretary Nielsen allocate the necessary resources and personnel to ensure an expedited and due process for Central American families seeking asylum in the U.S.

Photo Credit: Shannon DeCelle

From environmental justice in Ecuador, to Indigenous rights in Mexico, and revolution and change in Cuba, this summer Global Exchange is offering several Reality Tours that will highlight important issues around the world.

Join us as we meet with local leaders and movements to learn about the innovative ways communities and individuals are organizing for social change. Return with a new understanding of the issues and, perhaps most importantly, new ways to engage and support these inspiring movements from home.

Cuba: Revolution and Change

May 18-27, 2018

Be a witness to a rapidly changing Cuba, while engaging in dialogue with local economists, historians, doctors and teachers. Learn about the Cuban revolution while traveling across the country. We’ll start our historical adventure in Santiago where the Cuban Revolution began with the 26th of July Movement. While in Santiago, learn more about the events leading up to the Cuban Revolution as well as celebrate Santiago’s annual Carnival! Continue on to the Sierra Maestra mountains, beautiful Camaguey, Santa Clara and then to Havana.

Haiti: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex

June 2-11, 2018

Join us as we examine the impact that foreign actors, like NGOs and volunteers, have had on disaster relief and development in Haiti. Led by Rea Dol, a Haitian educator and grassroots activist, we will engage local organizations and individuals working to sustainably build education, health, and financial services in their communities.

Ecuador: Social & Environmental Justice from the Andes to the Amazon

July 13-21, 2018

This delegation takes a hard-hitting dive into local and international efforts to bring environmental and social justice to the Andes and the Amazon. You will visit Chevron/Texaco’s toxic waste pits and see, firsthand, the impacts of extractive industries on the environment and Indigenous communities. You’ll visit the Yasuni national park, a UNESCO declared world-biosphere reserve that is under renewed attack for its crude oil. And you will meet with a range of actors resisting in creative and powerful ways, including community run ecotourism programs that are local economic alternatives to natural resource extraction.

The Guelaguetza Festival: Indigenous Resilience in Oaxaca, Mexico

July 19-28, 2018

Explore Indigenous resilience through food, culture, and social movements in Oaxaca — home to one of the largest Indigenous populations in Mexico. During this 10 day trip, you will meet with community leaders, activists, artisans, artists, archaeologists, and experience resistance in different ways. Taste the region’s renowned gastronomic traditions rooted in farm-to-table cuisine and mezcal production. See the preservation of pre-Columbian artifacts and practices, including a visit to the Monte Alban ruins. Attend the Guelaguetza festival, a yearly celebration of the customs of Oaxaca’s Indigenous communities.

Peru: Ancient Civilizations and Modern Day Peru

July 6-17, 2018

Travel from Lima to the Sacred Valley and learn along the way about Peru’s ancient civilizations and contemporary social challenges, all while tasting the country’s world-famous cuisine. From Lima’s informal settlements to Andean villages, you will meet with Indigenous cooperatives, artisans, and NGOs working to empower women, practice fair trade, and preserve their traditions.

Chiapas: Indigenous Rights & Environmental Justice

August 3 – 11, 2018

From a base in the colonial town of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, our delegation will travel to surrounding Indigenous and campesino communities to learn about Chiapas’s long history of mass mobilization and collective resistance to the Mexican government’s repressive imposition of neoliberal agendas. We will see, firsthand, how popular movements like the Zapatistas organize for economic, environmental, and Indigenous justice while getting a unique look into their time-honored traditions.

Bolivia: Spanish Study & Cultural Immersion

August 6-21, 2018

Looking to pair language school with cultural immersion and social justice? During this trip, we will spend mornings in class learning (or brushing up on) Spanish while exploring social justice issues through guest lectures, debates, and group discussions. During our afternoons, we will explore Cochabamba via visits with activists, scientists, journalists, artists, and government officials. On weekends, we’ll head to the Bolivian countryside and learn about climate change, food justice and the coca industry. All the while, you will live with a Bolivian family, providing an intimate opportunity to practice Spanish in everyday situations and get a better feel for the rhythm of Bolivian life.

By Laura Krasovitzky, Ted Lewis / Published on AlterNet March 25, 2016.

Starting in Honduras on March 28th, the Caravan for Peace, Life and Justice will travel through El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and the United States with the goal of reaching New York City on the eve of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on Drugs beginning on April 19.

Made up of a diverse group of people including victims of the drug war, families who have lost relatives to violence or incarceration, human rights defenders, journalists, faith leaders, activists and others, the Caravan will travel through some of the places most affected by the war on drugs with the purpose of giving way to an inclusive, collective and open dialogue on drug policy and creating alternatives to the failed prohibitionist regime.

Why Latin America?As one of the primary regions for drug production and trafficking, Latin America has become a hub of human rights violations, organized crime, systemic impunity and environmental destruction. In Central America, the legacy of brutal civil wars combined with militarization strategies funded by the U.S. has given way to some of the most dangerous cities in the world, forcing thousands to abandon their homes in search of safety and risking deportation once they reach Mexico’s southern and northern borders.

In Honduras, Garifuna, indigenous and rural communities have been hit the hardest through gang violence and drug trafficking operations encroaching on their ancestral lands. Speaking out against the drug war comes at a high cost and those who engage in social justice and environmental activism are brutally silenced, as evidenced by the recent murders of Berta Cáceres and Nelson García from the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH).

In neighboring El Salvador, between 20 and 30 people are murdered every day and approximately $400 million (USD) are paid by civilians in extortions every year. Similarly, Guatemala’s drug trafficking networks are responsible for 45% of homicides and overcrowded prisons with almost three times the people they can hold. Crossing into Mexico, over 150,000 people have been murdered and more than 27,000 disappeared since 2006, along with approximately 120 journalists who have been killed since 2000. There, the human cost of the drug war has been largely fueled by militarized national security strategies financed with a $25.6 billion (USD) budget from the U.S. as of 2016.

While Latin America has paid a heavy price for implementing interventionist drug policies, the devastating effects of prohibition are not unique to the region. In the United States, over 2.2 million people are currently incarcerated and 80% of those in federal prisons for drug offenses are black or Latino. Drug law violations have been the main driver of new admissions to prison for decades and while federal and state governments have spent $1 trillion on the drug war in the past 40 years, federal assistance for harm reduction initiatives, such as syringe access programs that would help tackle the upsurge in opioid overdoses, has been nonexistent.

Clearly, we still have a long way to go.

Why now?

After decades of punitive global drug policies revolving around UNGASS 1998’s unrealistic pledge of a “drug free world“ and the 1961, 1971 and 1988 International Drug Control Treaties, many governments and civil society organizations alike are calling for a different approach to drug policy that prioritizes human rights, public health, harm reduction and sustainability.

As people from around the globe convene in New York for UNGASS 2016, the Caravan aims to shed light on the human faces and heartrending stories of the U.S.-driven drug war and its impact across the Americas.

Making its final stop in New York City on April 18, some of the actions planned for that day include a walk from City Hall to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan in order to highlight the ties between drug policy and criminal justice reform, a gathering outside the U.N. with families of drug war victims from around the globe and an evening event at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem bringing together faith leaders opposed to the drug war.

Twenty-two days, five countries, one message: end the drug war. If the people lead, the leaders will follow.
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Laura Krasovitzky is the Drug Policy Alliance representative for the caravan. Ted Lewis, human rights director for Global Exchange is the coordinator general of the ‘No More Drug War’ Caravan to Visit Five Impacted Countries on way to UN Session in NY

By Ted Lewis and Janice Gallagher

A body of independent experts (GIEI), appointed by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, rejects the government’s conclusions about key elements of last year’s attacks on unarmed students during which six people were killed and 43 forcibly disappeared. The report underlines coordination between local, state, and federal police, as well as the Army during the hours of the attacks and cites official obstruction of justice in the months since the crimes took place.

Families of the disappeared reaffirm ongoing struggle and announce major mobilization on September 26^th, the first anniversary of the state crime.

Here are ten takeaways from the experts’ 560-page report:

1) Yes: it was the state

Mexico’s own police forces killed six people, disappeared 43 students, and wounded more than 40 on the night of September 26th, 2014. While the involvement of a (police-affiliated) drug cartel is alleged, it is undisputed – even by the Mexican state – that members of two different local police forces perpetrated this violence.

What remains in question is the involvement of federal forces – specifically the federal police and the military. The expert group found that the federal police detained one of the five buses the students were traveling in – a fact denied by the Mexican officials. The experts also found that the military participated in the monitoring of the student movements, and that members of military intelligence were present at two locations where the students were killed and disappeared during the course of the evening.

2) The students were stalked and then killed and/or disappeared by local police forces

When the students attempted to return to their school, about 1 ½ hours away, local and federal police forces blocked their exit and attacked. Police and military forces followed the movements of the students throughout evening of September 26th: they observed the students from the time they left their school at 6pm, until the local police first attacked them at 10pm – and until the attacks ended after midnight.

In one case, the students locked themselves inside one of their bus after being stopped and surrounded by the police. The police then broke off branches from nearby trees, broke the windows of the bus, and threw pepper spray and tear gas inside the bus. The students came out with their hands up, and were forced to lie on the ground. The municipal and federal police forcibly disappeared all the students on this bus, while military intelligence observed.

3) The attack was coordinated and sustained

The attack did not happen in an isolated burst of violence – rather over the course of more than three hours in nine different locations.

The attack was not chaotic: different police and military forces regularly communicated throughout the night, and the expert group suspects that a policeman in downtown Iguala was issuing commands to the various participating groups. The records of communication from that group, called C4, went missing during the height of the attack. There are different explanations of why these records are missing: perhaps they were communicating on an encrypted network, or perhaps the Secretary of National Defense has control of those records.

At no point did municipal, state preventive or soldiers intervene to protect students or other civilians. In a widely reported case, members of the military refused to help a student with a bullet wound to the face who had sought medical attention at a health clinic.

4) Students wanted to raise money and arrange for transport – not disrupt a speech

The students had planned to peacefully commandeer several buses on the night of September 26th, and also to ask for donations from motorists along the highways.

The expert group reports that the practice of commandeering buses and fundraising from motorists “has been traditional amongst the different normales [rural teachers’ colleges] in Mexico,” and had happened for years generally without violence, arrests or legal charges being brought. Bus companies, in response to these practices, developed guidelines for their drivers: they pay them their salary during the time when their bus is taken over, and in turn expect them to stay with their bus.

Despite initial reports claiming the students wanted to disrupt the speech of the mayor’s wife, whose brother is a leader with local criminal group Guerreros Unidos, her speech was in fact over before the students arrived in the town of Iguala.

5) The state’s explanation that the disappeared students were incinerated at the Cocula trash dump was demonstrated to be patently false, even scientifically impossible.

In January 2015, the then-Attorney General of Mexico, Jesús Murillo Karam, claimed that the state had solved the case: the “historical truth”, he said, was that the municipal police had handed over the 43 students to the Guerreros Unidos criminal gang, who then killed them and burned the bodies in the Cocula trash dump.

José Torero, a leading fire expert engaged by the expert group, found that the destruction of 43 corpses in an open air dump would have required many conditions that simply did not exist: 500 cords of wood or 100s of tons of tires; very high heat that would have scorched the surrounding earth and vegetation (they were not scorched); and a fire that would have burned for more than two and a half days — far longer than any of the “witnesses” claimed it had taken. In addition, such a large fire would have produced a plume of smoke hundreds of feet high visible for miles around. No local residents reported seeing such a thing.

6) The official investigation has been discredited by errors, lies, destruction of evidence and the likely use of torture to obtain testimony

It started when officials identified mass graves said to contain the bodies of the Ayotzinapa victims. Closer investigation revealed that those graves held other murder victims.

Then, as former Attorney General, Jesús Murillo Karam sought to gain control over the politically explosive case, the lies deepened and the story about the incineration of bodies at the Cocula trash dump (entirely based on likely coerced testimony) was presented as fact. That lie now stands in ruins as does the entire edifice of the official story.

Faith in the authorities was further undermined by revelations that various CCTV video recordings made on the night of the disappearances – which had been sent to the state investigators handling the case – were destroyed.

7) Widespread practice of enforced disappearance by state forces facilitated the attack

Why did state officials think they could get away with this attack on unarmed civilians? Human rights groups have recently documented what they call “a cycle of impunity and violence.” In this cycle, crime rates continue to increase as the justice system falls further behind in punishing those responsible for committing crimes, especially if those responsible work for the government. This impunity emboldens perpetrators to commit more crime. This cycle has landed Mexico at number two in a worldwide impunity index, and in a recent survey, Mexicans reported that a perpetrator had been indicted in only 7.5% of all crimes.

8) Devastating impact of survivors and families:

The poor handling and dishonesty of the official investigation has added to the pain experienced by the families of the Ayotzinapa disappeared.

At the press conference held by the Ayotzinapa families after the GIEI report launch, Mario César Gonzalez Contreras, the father of one of the missing students commented that, “it became very clear that the garbage dump at Cocula was government theater….the [state version that our children were burned at the] dump has always tortured the families of the 43 disappeared.”

Another family member summarized: “the first death was when we knew our son had been disappeared; the second when they [the state] wanted to turn over the first graves they found; the third death happened when they found even more graves; the fourth when they [claimed our son had been burned in] the Cocula dump.”

9) Context of war on drugs fuels corruption and violence

The state of Guerrero, like all of Mexico, has been deeply affected the drug war. Iguala, where the abductions took place is, according the report, “an important place for heroin trafficking.” The dynamics of the drug war have ensured the profitability of the illicit drug trade and frequently have led to the kind of state-criminal collusion seen in Guerrero. The GIEI report recommends further investigation of the possibility that one of the busses commandeered by the students was (unbeknownst to them) carrying a load of drugs. In the opinion of the experts, this might explain the unprecedented ferocity of the attack on the students.

If this theory –that the students inadvertently commandeered a bus with drugs or cash — is true, the implications about the nature of the Mexican state and U.S. sponsored drug war are politically explosive, given that state actors committed the violence and led the cover up that ensued.

10) The case fueled massive protest – and the report could reignite citizen outrage

Last fall the Ayotzinapa case fueled a massive backlash against President Enrique Peña Nieto. Enormous solidarity marches took place across Mexico and around the world and Peña Nieto’s standing tumbled. Peña Nieto survived with support from Washington, but this new report comes at a moment when his hold on power is further weakened by a falling peso, low oil prices, a resurgence in drug war violence, and the fact that he is entering the traditional weaker second-half of his six year term. Representatives of the Ayotzinapa community who spoke at a press conference Sunday invoked the example of neighboring Guatemala where persistent street protests recently brought down a corrupt president.

…

Ted Lewis is the Human Rights Program Director at Global Exchange.

Janice Gallagher is a postdoctoral fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. She works on issues of governance, human rights and violence in Latin America.

Note: This article originally appeared on The Huffington Post

…

Last June, I traveled to Honduras to confer with civil society leaders about organizing a five-nation, “end the drug war” caravan — all the way from Central America to New York City.

The “caravan” aims to stir debate in places profoundly damaged by the drug war and to bring people and their stories from those regions along the route to New York City just prior to the convening of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drug Policy (UNGASS) next April.

We knew this trip was guaranteed to be challenging. Honduras has been hit very hard by the drug war. The dramatic profits available to those who traffic in prohibited drugs have fueled the growth of criminal organizations, spurred violence, underwritten pervasive corruption, and bolstered the institutionalized impunity that enables all of it.

But there was a big, hopeful surprise awaiting us in Honduras: the stunning emergence of a powerful civil revolt against government corruption that took to the streets while we were there, and that has been calling for the President’s resignation ever since.

As I was preparing to travel I had read of allegations that funds were pilfered from the country’s social security and health system. This seemed really bad, but I was so focused on travel details and our safety that I failed to understand the depth of discontent that this would unleash.

We were, after all, mapping out an itinerary that included San Pedro Sula — currently one of the world’s most violent cities. From there we’d head to a community meeting with Garifuna leaders, seven hours (and hundreds of kilometers east of my comfort zone) in the sweltering, mafia-dominated lowlands near the Caribbean coast.

On reflection, it’s not really surprising that discontent has boiled over in Honduras. Extreme poverty is widespread and just a few oligarchs control most of the country’s lands and wealth.

Decades of a heavy U.S. military footprint in the country — and more recently, Hillary Clinton’s back-channel support of a 2009 military coup — have encouraged the enemies of democracy in Honduras.

Since the 2009 coup, gang violence has surged — adding to the economic pressures that prompt thousands of desperate families to emigrate, or sometimes even send their kids north alone, despite the terrible risks involved.

But the trigger for this summer’s peaceful uprising was the revelation that hundreds of millions of dollars were stolen from the national health system, much of it channeled directly to ruling party political campaigns. Thousands of Hondurans died needlessly due to shortages of medical personnel and medicines. These are the facts behind the outrage that has propelled multitudes of discontented, torch-carrying citizens into the streets.

As we traveled and spoke with organizations and leaders across Honduras we encountered deep opposition to the militarization and corruption of public life that have accompanied the drug war.

We were especially interested in speaking with Garifuna and other indigenous leaderswho have been among the most outspoken critics of the drug war — even as they have confronted smugglers encroaching on their ancestral lands.

The Garifuna are descendants of escaped African slaves and indigenous peoples who intermarried and settled along Central America’s Atlantic Coast in the 1700’s. They were once isolated, but in recent years have come under intense pressure from unscrupulous tourist development and sprawling African Palm plantations.

Last year, Garifuna in the tiny settlement of Vallecito found a drug-smuggling airstrip built and being operated on their territory.

Miriam Miranda, leader of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) stepped in to document and protest the intrusion. OFRANEH pressured the government to shut down the airfield. The army eventually complied, dynamiting large holes to disable the dirt runway.

But that was not the end of the story. The smugglers returned and started filling the hole with logs and dirt.

When OFRANEH leaders began to document the refurbishing of the airfield, they were seized at gunpoint by sicarios on motorcycles. They were released long hours later, but only because other members of their party had eluded the gunmen, alerted media, and triggered an international campaign for their freedom.

Now, a year later, OFRANEH boldly maintains a permanent encampment on the site to keep traffickers away.

This year, as protests were mounting across the country, OFRANEH held their national leadership meeting at the remote encampment. They invited us to come there to talk with them about working together to end the drug war.

We agreed about a lot of things: The drug war is a disaster and it is past time to break the taboo on speaking honestly about its impact on people, families, communities, countries, and entire regions.

They explained how parasitic criminal organizations that grew from the hyper-profits of the prohibited drug trade now run other enterprises, like extortion rackets and human trafficking. They launder ill-gotten funds through investments in mining, hotels, agriculture and other superficially legitimate industries.

The OFRANEH leaders are interested in promoting an international discussion of how we could starve the beasts of the drug war through realistic regulation of drugs that aims to dramatically reduce the illegal trade.

We talked about how human rights, public health, and harm reduction practices should be the guideposts of any new, reformed drug policies. But to be clear, no one thought ending the drug war or dismantling the powerful criminal organizations whose money and influence derives from it would be easy. Nor will it be easy for Hondurans to restore democracy and curb the power of the oligarchy.

Open public debate and scrutiny is needed to reveal the truth about the drug war: it is a deadly, decades-long international mistake that cannot be solved by any country on its own. Pragmatic drug policy reforms require concerted international cooperation.

Such reforms will not resolve all the deep tensions roiling Honduras and other countries, but freezing the drug war profit machine via incremental regulation of today’s illicit markets is a critical step toward reducing violence and weakening the networks of corruption and impunity that undermine democracy and deny justice.

The morning I left Honduras I took a taxi from my hotel in San Pedro Sula to the airport. I was in the mood to chat and asked the taxi driver if he ever felt scared doing his job in this most violent of cities. He told me that, “Yes,” he was often afraid and that (pointing to a police car), “the worst part is that you can’t rely on the authorities for help because many of them were working with the criminals. Do you know about the war tax (impuestos de guerra)?” he asked.

“Every business in this city”, he explained, “has to pay a tax to the gangs.”

“Everybody pays”, he emphasized.

“Whether you run a sandwich stand, a dry cleaning shop, a hotel, or a travel agency, you have to pay–or die. In our case, we have about 150 members in our taxi collective and we have to pay 10,000 Lempira [about 500 dollars] a week.”

“What terrifies me,” he continued, “is that the authorities are involved.”

“Let me explain,” he said.

“Every week we take our ‘contribution’ to the local jail. I am not joking,” he insisted.

“But it is even worse than that.” he told me. “One week we had trouble getting our payment together and we arrived late to the jail. The guards told us visiting hours were over and we could not enter. We started freaking out because a missed payment can mean sudden death. So, we called the cell phone of our contact inside the jail. A few minutes later the guards came back out and invited us in to deliver the ‘tax’ payment.”

“So,” he said, “You can see who is really running the show.”

As he dropped me off to catch my flight I was still thinking over the nightmarish implications of what he’d told me. For people trapped in this criminal maelstrom there is really no way out.

The enduring lesson of the 13 years of alcohol prohibition in the United States in the early 20th century is that, whether we approve or not, people will seek out mood-altering substances. We can regulate alcohol, but trying to eliminate it simply incentivized crime and fueled the growth of domestic mafias.

In the early 1930s the U.S. ratified an amendment to the Constitution to rectify the mistake.

Today, there is a growing consensus that the international war on drugs is a similar fool’s errand.

The United Nations Special Session next year is a good forum to push this conversation ahead, but it will take a longer, concerted effort to democratically change minds, hearts, and policies.

That’s why we will travel from Honduras to NYC next year. We invite you to join us, in-person, on-line, and around the world.

**
For more information: ted(at)globalexchange.org or caravana2016@gmail.com

Yes, you heard that right. We are offering $200 off select trips this fall using the discount codes listed below.

From Fair Trade in Palestine, to indigenous rights in Mexico, to the Rights of Nature movement in India, this fall we have several great trips that will highlight important issues around the world. Join us as we meet with local leaders and movements to learn about the innovative ways communities and individuals are organizing for social change. Return with a new understanding of the issues and, perhaps most importantly, new ways to engage and support these inspiring movements from home.

But don’t miss out – discount codes expire September 1st!

Cuba: Sustainability and Community
October 10 – 17, 2015
$2,450
Promo Code: CubaGXfall15

During this historic time of change between the US and Cuba, we invite you to join us for a week-long People-to-People trip to learn from Cubans of the amazing work they are doing in and around Havana to create sustainable communities for all. This unique itinerary will look at sustainability via development, restoration, community programing and programs in the arts for the people.

Palestine: Fair Olive Harvest
October 24 – November 3, 2015
$2,500
Promo Code: PalGXfall15

Learn how Fair Trade cooperatives are restoring hope and providing economic alternatives to the Palestinian people. Stay with a local farming family and then harvest olives with farmers who use organic practices. Witness community-building traditions and cultivate a greater appreciation and understanding of Palestinian culture and pride. More importantly, you will learn first-hand from Palestinians about the impact of the occupation on farm lands, the economy, tourism and day-to-day life.

Oaxaca, Mexico: Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos
October 28 – November 5, 2015
$1,450
Promo Code: OxGXfall15

If you’ve never been to Oaxaca during its famous Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos celebrations, you really should. Join us as we make our annual pilgrimage to Oaxaca at the end of October. Dating back to the Aztecs, this celebration is a family event to remember departed souls and to celebrate the resurrection of their spirits. In addition, explore Oaxaca’s rich culture through excursions to historical archeological ruins, mezcal palenques, and artisan workshops. Meet with local social organizations and indigenous leaders, and learn about fair trade/free trade and globalization in Oaxaca.

India: Rights of Nature

November 1-11, 2015
$2,550
Promo Code: IndiaGXfall15

Travel to and stay at renowned activist and author Dr. Vandana Shiva’s Navdanya Biodiversity and Conservation Farm while learning about rights of nature in India and the power of the seed. While many over the past decades have explored the idea of living in balance with the planet and limiting the role of unfettered corporate power in all aspects of life, the rights-based movement that seeks to change fundamental law and culture is both relatively new and rapidly growing. It has kept pace with the realization that the current corporate-led global economic framework has brought us to the brink of economic and ecological disaster, and that true change will only come from the grassroots.

Venezuela: Community Development

November 21 – 30, 2015
$1,900
Promo Code: VzGXfall15

Travel with Global Exchange to dig past the headlines and explore the changes occurring in Venezuela, Latin America and the hemisphere as a whole. You will meet with human rights activists, rural agricultural workers, labor unions, community activists, journalists, government officials and opposition figures, and see for yourself the unprecedented social change that is occurring at this historic time in Venezuela and the region.

We hope you can take advantage of this great opportunity and travel with us this fall!

Check out our full list of travel opportunities

www.globalexchange.org/reality-tours

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