Exodus/Éxodo by Charles Bowden and Julian Cardona.

Few subjects stir passions and fears more than illegal immigration along the border between the United States and Mexico. Yet most on either side of the issue are uninformed or worse yet, misinformed.

Hello readers:

A recent opinion piece in La Nacion (Buenos Aires) makes a short comment on a piece of advice a high level Mexican government official offered to a high level Argentine government official. The note was prompted by a logistics phenomenon now developing between Argentina and Mexico. The root is the price differential between the price of ephedrine (efedrina) in Argentina, and its price in Mexico. There is a significant difference in the price per kilo between both locations. It appears the Sinaloa cartel is already establishing a presence in Argentina, to acquire shipments of efedrina for its operations in Mexico. The link to the op ed piece is offered below. After about 30 days, the article will be available only to registered users of La Nacion.

http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=1076020

THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF CHIAPAS : TOURIST DEVELOPMENT, MINING, “BIO”FUELS, AND NOW OIL

1. OIL

What Hermann Bellinghausen calls the ‘four horsemen of Chiapas’ have come into focus again with the announcement that Pemex are to start prospecting and drilling for oil in the Lacandon Jungle, among other areas in the Mexican South-East. In 2009, private companies will be invited to tender for this work. During her visit to Chiapas, the Mexican Energy Secretary Georgina Kessel predicted that the Chiapas oilfields could be producing 500,000 barrels of oil a day from 17,000 new wells by 2021. The Zapatistas have always predicted that this prospecting would happen, especially in their heartland area of La Garrucha, invaded by the Mexican army in June 2008. The announcement generated opposition from indigenous communities, and two days later, Ms Kessel denied her previous statement: “I never said there were going to be oil explorations in the Selva Lacandona”. When asked where Pemex’s new refinery would be situated, she replied that this was a ‘highly technical’ matter.

A Mexican police trainer fired for hitting a female cadet has been hired by another police force in Guanajuato

La Jornada has revealed that some of the trainers responsible for the torture classes given to Leon, Guanajuato, Special Tactics police are San Diego, California, police officers from that city's SWAT team.  Other trainers came from the private Mexican company Sniper, according to the Mexican government.  The government released the names of the following trainers: Carlos Guillermo Martinez Acuña, Gerardo Ramon Arrechea de la Vega (the Cuban-Mexican trainer whom Narco News revealed is a high-ranking member of the anti-Castro Cuban paramilitary organization Comandos F4), Francisco Javier Jaramillo Barrios, Alfredo Torres Solano, and Martin Gonzalez Cabrera.  La Jornada reports that the government did not disclose the trainers' nationalities nor their respective employers. 

By Brenda Norrell

Photos by Lisa Wolf (Update at end of article)

CRESCENT VALLEY, Newe Sogobi (Nevada) -- While most Americans enjoyed Thanksgiving this week, Western Shoshone protested the devastation on their sacred Mount Tenabo, as Barrick Gold ripped out pine trees by the roots on this ceremonial mountain for gold mining.

As Barrick Gold continues its practice of genocide, targeting Indigenous Peoples territories around the world, Barrick is destroying Mount Tenabo for one of the United States largest open pit gold mines. The Cortez Hills Expansion Project is at the flank of the mountain where Shoshone carry out sweatlodges and other ceremonies. (See protest photos at http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com )

Shoshone called for help and an immediate encampment to protect sacred Mount Tenabo.

by Diego Enrique Osorno, Milenio
translation by Kristin Bricker

The man who supposedly murdered the US videographer agrees that he participated in the APPO protests, but he maintains that he never met the journalist.

"I didn't kill Brad Will," says Juan Manuel Martinez, the young man the Federal Attorney General's Office officially accused three weeks ago of allegedly murdering the US Indymedia videographer.

"It doesn't matter how much they pressure me; I'll never agree to the lie that they want me to agree to.  I never even had the privilege of meeting him (Brad) and I wasn't even in the place where they killed him," he reiterates from the Santa Maria Ixcotel Penitentiary in Oaxaca where he awaits the final evaluation of his case by Rosa Iliana Noriega, 5th district judge.

The government likely knows that murder charges won’t stick in a fair trial, so it hopes to imprison Martinez for firearms possession

Oaxacan newspaper Quadratín reports that the Federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR in its Spanish initials) has opened a new criminal investigation against Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno in the Brad Will murder case.  Martinez is the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) activist that the Mexican government has charged with murdering Will on October 27, 2006, as he filmed clashes between APPO supporters and paramilitaries affiliated with the Institutional Revolution Party (PRI). 

A new piece about everyones favorite immigrant-rounding up Sheriff, Joe Arpaio.  And theres a 30 minute radio version too.  This guy just won re-election, and shows no sign of slowing down.

Heres the radio version, on Making Contact:  http://www.radioproject.org/archive/2008/4608.html

And heres the print piece, published in In These Times

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3973/the_selma_of_immigration_rights...

The Selma of Immigration Rights

In Arizona, immigrants protest Sheriff Joe's nativist agenda

The battle began in front of a furniture store.

Like hundreds of other street corners, the intersection at 36th Street and Thomas Road in Phoenix was where immigrant workers arrived before dawn, hoping that someone would pick them up for a day's work in construction. But last October, the parking lot of Pruitt's furniture became more than a pick-up spot. First, the store's owner hired off-duty sheriff's deputies to act as security guards, claiming that the laborers were causing a disturbance.

Federal prosecutors charged George Wills and Robert Catalano, the owners of Puck Technology makers of the Whizzinator with conspiracy in Pittsburgh, PA in October. The two men plead guilty to two counts of conspiracy on November 24, and face up to eight years in prison and a $500,000 fine; their sentencing will take place in February of next year.[1] The prosecutors claimed the two had conspired to defraud the federal government’s drug testing programs:

“On October 14, federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh won a 19-count indictment against the owners of Puck Technology, maker of the Whizzinator, for fraud and selling drug paraphernalia. Prosecutors allege that by manufacturing and selling the Whizzinator, company president Gerald Wills and vice president Robert Catalano conspired to defraud the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which administers federal workplace drug testing programs. The government is seeking forfeiture of all of the company’s assets, including its Internet domain names.” [2]

by Ricardo Ravelo, Proceso
translation (from the original Spanish) and notes by Kristin Bricker

Federal police say Garcia Luna's bodyguards witnessed the head of Mexico's Public Security Ministry discuss an "agreement" with a drug cartel gangster

The Secretary of Public Security, Genaro Garcia Luna, who is considered untouchable and Felipe Calderon's "spoiled official," has maintained numerous public officials accused of having links to drug traffickers--El Mayo Zamabada in particular--in his inner circle.  An investigation carried out by agents who are opposed to the proposed police integration[1] assure in a letter sent to Congress, which Proceso has a copy of, that this past October numerous armed men intercepted Garcia Luna on a highway and disarmed members of his escort while a gangster warned him, "This is the first and last warning so that you know that, yes, we can get to you if you don't follow through on the pact..."  The document adds that then Garcia Luna withdrew from the spot for four hours in order to negotiate with the gangster...