Neighbors Suspect Police Kidnapped "El Chema" and Will Kill Him

September 30 -- Early this morning, people dressed as members of the Mexican Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) kidnapped Jose Manuel Hernandez Martinez, aka "El Chema."  El Chema is one of the leaders of the Emiliano Zapata Peasant Organization (OCEZ).  His whereabouts remain unknown, and fellow OCEZ members fear that he will be killed.  Members of the organization believe that police kidnapped El Chema, although the kidnappers never identified themselves other than as CFE employees.

According to information that OCEZ member Jose Manuel de la Torre provided to Narco News, the OCEZ believes that El Chema's kidnapping is in retaliation for a successful land occupation and hunger strike that 13 OCEZ members held this past July.  As a result of the hunger strike, the Chiapan government agreed to legalize 215 hectares of the occupied lands.  The government handed the legalized lands over to OCEZ members two weeks ago. 

US Likely to Release Millions in Training and Military Hardware to Mexico Despite Failure to Comply with Human Rights Conditions

This past August, the US State Department issued a report entitled "Mexico--Merida Initiative Report."  The report is in response to two Congressional Appropriations bills, one signed into law in 2008 and the other in 2009, which form part of the funding of the Merida Initiative.  The Merida Initiative provides training, equipment, and armament to Mexico's military and federal police for that country's increasingly violent but consistently ineffective war on drugs.  With the report, the State Department hopes to release tens of millions of dollars in Merida Initiative funding that, up until now, has been held up due to Mexico's non-compliance with certain conditions attached to the bill.

"The Real Goal of the 45-Day Curfew is to Torpedo November's Electoral Process"

El Tiempo Staff Editorial translated by Kristin Bricker

With Executive Decree PCM-M-016-2009, the dictatorial government has taken off its mask and really outdone itself by keeping Honduras and the Honduras people kidnapped through its use and abuse of the State's weapons and its desire to manipulate the Constitution and the laws of the Republic. 

This executive decree, signed by the de facto head of state Micheletti in a meeting with his equally de facto cabinet, establishes a curfew for 45 consecutive days, during which practically all rights and individual freedoms are annulled, leaving the Honduran people completely defenseless before the usurpers.

From the moment this dictatorial edict went into effect, inalienable rights such as personal freedom, the right to free thought, the right to organize and meet, the right to free movement, rights to privacy in one's own home, and protections against arbitrary detentions ceased to exist in Honduras.

Lauded Polygraph Tests Have Failed to Reduce Corruption

One of the Merida Initiative's stated goals in Mexico is to help the Mexican government "root out corruption" in its police forces.  The Merida Initiative funds two efforts that are aimed at combatting police corruption: a National Police Registry and screenings of all police officers.  A report by the Mexican daily El Universal argues that police screenings are ineffective, inefficient, and useless as they are currently being carried out.

Supreme Court Decision is Part of a Wave of Decriminalization in Latin America

On August 25, Argentina's Supreme Court struck down a dirty war-era law criminalizing possession of even the smallest quantities of marijuana.  In the decision, the Supreme Court ruled that possession of small quantities of marijuana for personal use is protected by Article 19 of Argentina's Constitution, which states: "private actions that in no way offend public order or morality, nor are detrimental to a third party, are reserved for God and are beyond the authority of legislators."

(Editorial by the daily El Libertador of Honduras)

These are the coup leaders: 1) Carlos Flores Facussé; 2) Rafael Leonardo Callejas; 3) Cardenal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez; 4) Adolfo Facussé; 5) Armida de López Contreras; 6) Schucry Kafie; 7) Elvin Santos; 8) Emilio Larach; 9) Enrique Ortez Colindres; 10) Pastor Evelio Reyes; 11) Felícito Ávila; 12) José Alfredo Saavedra; 13) Jorge Canahuati; 14) Jorge Yllescas; 15) Juan Ferrera; 16) Juan Ramón Martínez; 17) Carlos López Contreras; 18) Billy Joya; 19) Ana Abarca; 20) Rafael Ferrari; 21) Juan José Pineda; 22) Vilma Morales; 23) Marcia Villeda; 24) Renato Álvarez; 25) Ramón Custodio; 26) Rafael Pineda Ponce; 27) Olban Valladares; 28) Pastor Oswaldo Canales; 29) Ricardo Maduro; 30) Romeo Vásquez Velásquez; 31) Porfirio Lobo Sosa; 32) Ricardo Álvarez; 33) Antonio Rivera; 34) Guillermo Pérez Cadalso; 35) Mauricio Villeda; 36) María Martha Díaz; 37) Antonio Tavel Otero; 38) Luis Rubí; 39) Toribio Aguilera; 40) Ramón Velásquez Nassar; 41) Elán Reyes Pineda; 42) Luz Ernestina Mejía; 43) Martha Lorena Casco; 44) Rodolfo Irías Navas; 45) Rigoberto Chang Castillo; 46) Mirna Castro; 47) Gabriela Núñez; 48) Hugo Llorens.

Militarization has wasted money and failed to decrease violence

by Notimex

Today the strategy of Joint Operation Chihuahua is changing in Ciudad Juarez, where groups of soldiers who patrol the streets will stop doing so in order to devote themselves to military intelligence and policing activities.

The Chihuahua state Secretary of Public Security, Víctor Valencia de los Santos, announced that the decision was made after a meeting with federal Public Security Secretary Genaro García Luna.

He added that violent incidents with a large number of victims that have been occurring since this past June forced him to travel to Mexico City to meet with the federal secretary of Public Security.

He stated that the thousands of soldiers and municipal police have not done anything other than march through the whole city daily, and that surveillance strategy has not produced results other than "it winds up being too expensive in terms of gasoline and diesel consumption alone."

Life in Ciudad Juarez

by Marcela Turati, Proceso
translation from the original Spanish by Kristin Bricker

Ciudad Juarez is the Calderon-style laboratory for combatting criminal organizations.  Not only drug traffickers, drug dealers, and even drug addicts, but also common citizens, above all youngsters, are involuntarily subjected to an experiment: how it would be, in Mexico, to live under military control. It has produced contradictory results: the executions, common crime, and street violence are increasing.

He Wanted to Extend President Roberto Suazo Córdoba's Term

by TeleSUR
translated by Kristin Bricker

In the rallies that were held this Friday in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, a fact rarely discussed in national and international press--but well-known throughout the Honduran population--was made public: Roberto Micheletti's attempt to modify this Central American country's Constitution in 1985. 

Community Leader David Murillo in Jail on Years-Old Arrest Warrant for Anti-Logging Organizing

The Honduras coup government has detained Jose David Murillo Sanchez, the father of Ulises Obed Murillo, who died last Sunday at the Toncontin airport when security forces opened fire on Munuel Zelaya supporters gathered to receive the president during his attempted return to Honduras.

Honduras' National Criminal Investigation Directorate (DNIC in its Spanish initials) detained Murillo Sanchez yesterday as we was leaving the offices of the Committee of Family Members of Disappeared Detained Persons in Honduras (COFADEH).  Murillo is a lawyer for COFADEH.