Ya think? U.S. spying on Mexico?
… of course the U.S. is spying on Mexico.
The Melbourne (Australia) Herald-Sun has short overview of what’s the tip of the iceberg (to use a cliche):
The newspaper Excelsior reported that the government of then-president Felipe Calderon struck a deal with the US State Department in 2007 allowing the installation of a system to intercept, process, analyze and store phone calls as well as emails and web chats.
The federal attorney general’s office “is reviewing the documents and an investigation is underway” to determine if a crime was committed, interior ministry spokesman Eduardo Sanchez told a news conference.
The system made its way to Mexico under the now-defunct Federal Investigations Agency (AFI) and the federal attorney general’s office, in the name of combating drug trafficking and terrorism, the report said.
The equipment was sold by Verint Systems under a $US3 million ($A3.29 million) contract, the report said.
Sanchez said investigators are verifying whether the contract exists and what its status is.
Calderon’s 2006-2012 administration cooperated deeply with the United States in the fight against drug cartels, with Washington earmarking $1.9 billion in aid that included law enforcement training and equipment.
President Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office in December, vowed to continue the security cooperation but with one major change: He now requires US law enforcement agencies to filter all security matters through the powerful interior ministry instead of a previous arrangement that allowed them to deal directly with individual counterparts.
What’s not being reported much outside of Mexico is that the U.S. spying has long been known. While the history of U.S. espionage in Mexico goes back to the first U.S. ambassador, Joel Roberts Poinsett (he who stole the flowers from the Baby Jesus), and “modern” intelligence gathering began under the Wilson administration, and — without a doubt — the C.I.A. was up to their eyeballs in Mexican affairs after World War II , it was the “Merida Initiative” that gave the U.S. carte-blanche to start treating Mexico — and Mexicans — as Proceso reported (14 November 2010 .. my translation here):
Under Felipe Calderón’s administration, the United States has done what it always aspired to: embed espionage agents in Mexico City. It was the rise of drug trafficking in the country that opened the door for U.S. intelligence agencies, predominantly military, to operate from the Federal District without even the fig-leaf of diplomatic cover.
Establishment of the Office of Binational Intelligence (OBI) – which began with discussions under President Vicente Fox Quesada – was authorized by Calderon, after negotiations with Washington in meetings attended by the director of the Center for Investigation and National Security (CISEN), Guillermo Valdés Castellanos, without taking into account military objections.
The U.S. spying operation was a huge affair, with “fusion centers” in the United States and… right next door to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, so it was kind of hard to miss.
FinFisher, described as a “commercial network intrusion malware… developed by UK-based company Gamma International” had been detected on Mexican computers earlier this year, and extensively reported on. That FinFisher may have been used to mine data FOR the United States is the question now… not that U.S. espionage and eavesdropping is something new.
On a personal note, I know it’s slightly paranoid, but after reading the report from the Citizens’ Lab at the University of Toronto about FinFisher (“For Their Eyes Only“… pdf), as a start, I turned by web-camera to the wall. FinFisher is, it seems, capable of capturing data through the web-cam, even when it appears to be off. And my computer has been suspiously slow of late… but that may have to do with the heat and humidity (I hope).
So far, the response from the Peña Nieto administration has been … shall we say… tepid? Kiko was quoted on Wednesday as saying ” if allegations were proven that the United States had spied on its southern neighbor, it would be “totally unacceptable.” (the actual statement in Spanish was couched in the pretérito imperfecto subjunctivo… suggesting an action in the past that may or may not be continuing.
One very good possible result. Trust in the United States is at a world-wide low point. With the recent state elections proving a disaster for PAN, and probably convincing the left that a PRD-PAN coalition is a recipe for disaster, perhaps the Camera and the Senate will rethink the rushed pro-U.S. initiatives, both the opening of PEMEX to foreign “investors” (as opposed to the owners… the Mexican people) and the plan supported by real estate firms and foreigners to open the public beaches to privatization in foreign hands.
Here’s hoping.
U.S.: “We’ll always have Canada”
I’ve seen nothing in the U.S./Canadian media, but the Organization of American States voted to condemn the European states that denied landing rights to the Bolivian Presidential plane for refueling. I wonder if the reason for the non-coverage might have something to do with who voted against it… you got it… the U.S. and Canada.
From NTN24 in English (Bogata, Colombia)
The Organization of American States (OAS) passed a resolution expressing solidarity with Bolivian President Evo Morales whose presidential plane was refused airspace in Europe last July 2 by four European countries.
In a six point declaration, the organization condemned the actions of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal for denying the Bolivian President passage after suspicions that US whistle-blower Edward Snowden was aboard the plane.
The resolution condemns the behavior of the European countries as a violation of international law and calls on the countries to explain their actions.
Additionally, the document states that the Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, will continue to follow up on the event. “What happened on July 2 is a serious offense to a democratic president of this region, ” he said in one of his speeches.
The representative of Spain, Jorge Hevia, expressed his dissatisfaction with the final text of the document, saying it did not allow for the inclusion of a response in his country´s defense.
The United States and Canada also disagreed with the decision, arguing that the facts under which the event took place are not yet entirely clear.
The Permanent Council special meeting, which lasted about nine hours, was convened by Bolivia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Ecuador.
Guns for hire
PHoto by Rob Ganson for Indian Country News (http://www.indiancountrynews.com/index.php/tv/indian-country-tv-com/13869-hired-guns-in-the-penokee-mountains-6min)
I’ve thought before that Latin America is often used by U.S. companies to see what they can get away with before trying it out on their own people. Looks like hiring paramilitaries to protect mining operations from indigenous owners has
come to the United States.
Heavily-armed, masked paramilitary forces descended upon the Gogebic Taconite mining site in Wisconsin over the weekend, much to the chagrin of local residents and elected officials.
[…]
The mining site they’re protecting in the Penokee Mountains is highly controversial and critics say in violation of a treaty with Native Americans.
Video shot by Wisconsin-based website Indian Country TV over the weekend featured at least one of the paramilitaries wearing full camoflage and a military-style net over his face — an image that would have been completed by an assault rifle, if he hadn’t left it sitting on the passenger’s seat of his vehicle, right next to a cameraman.
Holy Smokes!
Mexican Naval overflight of Popocatepetl… so that CENEPRED (the National Center for Disaster Preparedness) could get a look at the new lava dome forming inside the crater
Sombrero tip to Christine Potter
Character assassination
I’d said that the Calderón Administration was using narcotics prosecutions for political reasons, something I noted when the charges against several mayors (all from the PRD) arrested in Calderón’s home state of Michaocán on charges related to corruption and narcotics trafficking were all released for lack of evidence… as soon as state elections were over.
Following what was described as an attack on U.S. diplomatic personnel by “rogue police officers” in January 2012 (though the U.S. “diplomats” being “contractors” for some U.S. security firm who were spirited out of the country before the alleged crime could be properly investigated, it was hard to tell what happened), which seemed to be spun as the fault of the PRD-controlled Federal District administration, , six high ranking military officers were arrested and charged in May 2012 with working for the Beltran-Leyva gang (page 9 of the PDF) .
The ex-Prez was called Fecal for a reason
The six — an undersecretary of defense, two generals, a major and Lieutenant-Colonel Silvio Hernández Soto were recently exonerated of all charges, and Lt. Col. Hernández is claiming that he was threatened by the Federal Narcotics Prosecutors (SIEDO, for its initials in English) in an attempt to make him implicate then Presidential Candidate Andres Manuel López Obrador.
The invasion continues….
So much for that meme that tourists had stopped coming to Mexico:
The number of international tourists who arrive in Mexico by air increased by 7.5 percent in the first five months of 2013 as compared to the same period in 2012, according to figures from the National Migration Institute. The Tourist Secretariat (Sectur) issued a press release on Thursday stating that 5,237,035 visitors flew into Mexico during the first five months of 2013, up from 4,871,029 in the previous year.
By far, the largest number of tourists come from the one country where people say “I’d never go to Mexico”: From January to May, 2.8 million visitors arrived from the U.S., more than half of the total number of tourists.
Mexico’s next-largest source of tourists was Canada, with 944,000 tourists, followed by the United Kingdom, with 154,000, Argentina with 129,000 tourists and Brazil, with 113,000.
A rose by any other name… stinks?
The State of Colima legislature voted overwhelming yesterday to create a special legal classification and process, enlace conyugal (marital bond), for couples of the same sex.
What’s in a name? Quite a bit.
Despite assurances by PRI Deputy Martín Flores Castañeda that the new judicial form provides “the same rights and obligations in regulatory law, including inheritance and social security law [as a marriage], federal law — when it does not specifically use the word “matrimonio” refers to esposa/o (spouse), or concubina/o (spouse in a “free union”). Nowhere in federal regulatory or other law does the term “enlaces conyugales” exist. While the Supreme Court decided in August 2010 that a marriage (or “free union”) in a state which allows same-gender marriages is valid everywhere in the Republic, there is no guarantee that an enlace conyugal will be valid anywhere outside Colima, or that persons entering into an enlace will be covered by federal law.
The PRD’s Francisco Rodríguez García is seeking a federal injunction to either force the state to simplify things and just call an enlace conyugal matrimonio… or to overturn the new law altogether.
Vladimir Parra Barragán, the state president of Morena, has offered his party’s legal assistance to same gender couples who want to seek an injunction against the new law and have a matrimonio, not an enlace conyugal.
Source: Pedro Zamora Briseño, Aval en Colima a “enlace conyugal” entre parejas gay (Proceso, 4 July 2013)
Caught in the act
Here’s a perp photo you wouldn’t expect:
An arrest for… wait for it… attempted vote buying! That’s a man bites dog story if ever there was one.
According to Tijuana’s Cadena Noticias, citizens called 066 (the Mexican police emergency number) to report a man “delivering groceries and political propaganda”. State Preventative Police tailed a green 1997 Dodge Dakota with no license plates, which was pulled over. Therein, the officers discovered 220 dispensas [packages of food and household staples] “bearing the Soriana logo.”
While he was being questioned, an unidentifed person in a Dodge Nitro pulled up, fingering Méndez as “the guy in the Dodge Dakota he’d seen on Avenuda Los Torres in Colonia Río Vista, passing out propaganda for the PRI, and soliciting votes for the Compromiso por Baja California [the PRI led coalition slate in Sunday’s state election] in exchange for the dispensas.”
Mexican crime reports are usually written by stringers, paid by the word. They have a charm all their own, giving us a plethora of details… except maybe the most important.
Who was the guy in the Nitro?
Couldn’t have done it without this Mexican guy
Happy Fourth of July!
American Independence, brought to you in part by the bureaucrats of Nueva España:
Via VOXXI
General Bernardo de Galvez was perhaps one of the most important and influential Hispanic figures in the American colonists’ war against Great Britain. As the Spanish governor of the Louisiana territories in 1777, he would become instrumental in General George Washington’s fight against British soldiers who were advancing into the southwestern regions. Even before Spain had declared war with Great Britain, Governor de Galvez was helping the American independence movement by blocking British access to the Mississippi River; allowing colonials to transport provisions and weapons freely on the river; and granting unrestricted use of the New Orleans port to colonialist soldiers.
Once Spain became officially involved in the war against Great Britain in 1779, he organized a multicultural militia comprised of 1,400 Native Americans, freed blacks, Spanish soldiers and Mexican cavalry and drove the British out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Natchez, Mississippi; and eventually Mobile, Alabama in 1780. But the culmination of his efforts would be realized in 1781 during one of the most significant battles of the American Revolution — The Siege of Pensacola — where he and his men forced the British to run up the white flag and concede control of Florida once and for all, freeing the Gulf of Mexico and west of the Appalachian Mountains from British influence.
By most historical accounts, de Galvez was motivated as much, if not more, by personal convictions regarding American independence than by Spain’s national interests. His reputation for being an energetic and clever military commander is well known among historians. One American historian called the siege of Pensacola “a decisive factor in the outcome of the Revolution and one of the most brilliantly executed battles of the war.”
Hear no evil, see no evil
Julio Hernández López in today’s Jornada... translated by Reed Brundidge for Mexico Voices.
VThe thinly disguised silence of the Peña Nieto administration in the face of grievances and abuses from the White House is significant and shameful. In a dangerous combination of colonial mentality, historical ignorance and cunning pragmatism, Los Pinos [The Pines, the Mexican ‘White House’] has implemented as official policy the false diplomatic posture of an ostrich (a version of ”hear no evil, see no evil”) in order not to fully state the facts that require firmness from Mexico and solidarity with Latin American countries who face the imperial arrogance.
VThis has followed upon the evidence that, as with many other countries, the U.S. has spied on Mexico. The Secretariat of Foreign Affairs, which is under the charge of an 
economist [José Antonio Meade], has said that it prefers to address these issues in a “direct” manner with its gringo counterpart. This is, at heart, an excuse, a lack of imagination, in order to refrain from publicly expressing a position demanding explanations from nosy Uncle Sam (this image has been taken from the way the editor of La Jornada has titled all information related to the Internet snooping practiced by the United States).
VThe same awe by Mexico’s ruling elite has been maintained in response to the empty gesture of “friendship” which was announced by Washington in the context of the tricky and very long term immigration reform, which has served as minimum bait for acceptance of militarization of the border, the completion of the dividing wall and the installation of spy and warning equipment whose targets will not be just travelers who are looking for work. …
It should be no surprise that the “leadership” of Latin America has fallen to other nations, with Mexico sacrificing the political innovations and creativity of 1920s and 30s for increased penetration of the U.S. market. That Mexico seems willing to also give up its limited political independence as well is likely to spell disaster, as this country will never be treated as an “equal partner” of the United States, and the political leaders of this country are foolish to expect such.
Border Patrol Body Slam
Back in 2006, when Jack Black made a travesty of the moving story of Father Sergio Gutierrez Benitez, the Tepito-born ex-junkie philosophy professor turned orphanage administrator … and professional lucha libre performer, I wrote:
What fascinates people about Lucha Libre is not so much that the great stars go on forever and ever, nor that it’s just a weird pop culture entertainment, but that :
“There are so many ties to mythology, to people in the news, to politicians, to stars, to science-fiction characters,” said Lourdes Grobet, a photographer who has documented lucha libre for 26 years and who advised producers on “Nacho Libre.”
“In Lucha Libre, I found the true Mexico,” she added. “I discovered a marvelous world.”
That “marvelous world” is in no way a simplified world. Luchadores like El Ecologista bring environmentalism to the ring. Two that I’ve previously written about struggle for the human worth of gays and transvestites (with good humor and panache). Superbario “made his name leading marches demanding better public housing for the poor” ([Julie Watson wrote in an AP article at the time]).
El Demonio Azul, Jr. has a less exhaulted view, calling it merely “The cheapest therapy in the world,” but whether as therapy, political statement, a morality play a reinterpretation of cultural traditions, or all of the above, luche libre is here — and there — a living embodiment of our hopes and fears
(Sombrero tip to Latino Rebels)
mexfiles.net 