Drugs, Law and Conflict

Photo courtesy of Boston.com Bringas

It seems that the 2009 UN World Drug Report, available here, has inspired The Boston Globe to come up with a compelling photo essay chronicling the War on Drugs and its effects throughout the world – definitely worth a look.

A few resources on the intersection between drug policy and human rights…

• The Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN), Human Rights Watch and the International Harm Reduction Association recently came together to call for an end to the death penalty for drug offenses in Asia–perhaps one of the most serious violations of human rights related to the global drug war. See their statement here.

• A Human Rights Watch Fact Sheet: “Ten Ways Drug Policy Affects Human Rights”. Also, a wonderful overview of Human Rights Watch’s work on drug policy around the world is available here.

• Early in 2009, the International Harm Reduction Association released a report entitled “Harm Reduction and Human Rights: The Global Response to Drug-Related HIV Epidemics.” You can read the report here, and follow the work of the Harm Reduction and Human Rights program on their blog.

Monday, June 29: Mesa de Debate: “Crimen organizado, seguridad y política transnacional.”
9am, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte en la Ciudad de México (Casa COLEF), Francisco Sosa 254. Col. Barrio de Santa Catarina, Del. Coyoacán. Limited space. RSVP at 5554-3390 or 5554-3545, or to  casacolef at colef.mx

Tuesday, June 30: “Seminario Sociología del crimen organizado, derechos humanos y sociedad civil.”
9am – 3pm, Auditorio Santa Fé del CIDE. See more information here.

Human Rights Watch before the UN Human Rights Council for the Universal Periodic Review of Mexico:

Since President Calderon deployed thousands of troops to combat drug trafficking, there has been a dramatic increase in complaints of military abuses. The dysfunctional Mexican military justice system routinely takes over the investigation of even the most egregious abuses, including alleged rapes, killings, arbitrary detentions, and torture, by adopting an excessively broad definition of what constitutes an “act of service.” This broken system has led to impunity. As of April 2009, the military attorney general has been unable to provide a single example in the last ten years in which a member of the military accused of committing a human rights violation was convicted by military courts.

Read the full oral statement here.

Also check out this joint oral statement on the independence of judges, delivered with the Miguel Austin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center (Center Prodh), among others. Centro Prodh is doing some really important work on civilian control over the armed forces in the drug war here, as evidenced by their recent reports.

Media from the Universal Periodic Review is available from the OHCHR’s website.

Human Rights Watch is hiring researchers for Brazil and Mexico, two countries where they have strong work related to rights violations in the drug war.

They recently released an important 76-page report on Mexico, “Uniform Impunity,” focusing on the lack of justice for human rights abuses committed during counter-drug and public security operations. The Mexico country page features all related letters, reports and denuncias. Job description for the researcher here.

In Brazil, HRW’s work has focused on the abysmal prison system and police violence. See the country page for more information, and check out the Brazil job description here.

Part 3 of a 4-part weeklong series

**Peruvian children walk on dried coca leaves spread over a soccer field in the Vizcatán region of Peru. Photo courtesy of Moises Saman for the NYTimes.

• A resurgence of the Shining Path in Peru? Thank the cocaine trade. The revival of what was considered a basically defunct guerrilla group, however limited, highlights the essential issue of rural poverty in the Andes and the need for viable alternative crops. The New York Times reports,

The front lines lie in the drizzle-shrouded jungle of Vizcatán, a 250-square-mile region in the Apurímac and Ene River Valley. The region is Peru’s largest producer of coca, the raw ingredient for cocaine…

“There are those who say, ‘Why worry about a few hundred fighters in the jungle?’ ” said Alberto Bolívar, a counterinsurgency expert. “But they easily forget the Shining Path began their armed struggle in 1980 with just a few hundred guys. Two decades later, 70,000 people were dead.”

But the Shining Path appears to have learned lessons, too. Coca farmers here describe today’s Maoists as a disciplined, well-armed force, entering villages in groups of 20 in crisp black uniforms. Little is known about their leaders, aside from the belief that two brothers, Victor Quispe Palomino, known as José, and Jorge Quispe Palomino, alias Raúl, are at the helm.

The photo slide show by Peruvian photographer Moises Saman is beautifully mind-blowing, and an absolute must-see.

• Mexican government claims drug-related violence down 26% in the first quarter of 2009. Milenio cites President Calderón saying that narco-executions have decreased in two of the country’s most violent cities–Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez–by a dramatic 78% and 82% respectively since October-December 2008. See the graph provided:

The Washington Post points out that claims of human rights abuses by the military in these entities have increased, with the exceptional nature of Calderón’s strategy:

The military occupation of Juarez, an industrial city of 1.3 million across the Rio Grande from El Paso, is the most extreme example of Calderón’s high-risk strategy of using the army to confront Mexico’s powerful drug cartels. Besieged city officials signed an agreement surrendering responsibility for civilian law enforcement to the military.

The Juarez police department is now under the command of a retired three-star general and a dozen top military officers handpicked by Mexico’s defense secretary. Soldiers are the cops — they write traffic tickets, investigate domestic disputes, arrest drunks and run every department, including the jail, the training academy and the emergency call center.

More than 10,000 soldiers and federal agents patrol Juarez’s gritty streets. Dressed in green camouflage and carrying automatic weapons, they stage raids, detain suspects, and search travelers at the airport and border crossings, assuming unprecedented law enforcement duties.

• Obama in Mexico last week. The White House released a press release citing advances in the bilateral relationship following Obama’s visit to Mexico City. Most interesting, perhaps, is the designation of the Sinaloa Cartel, Los Zetas (not the Gulf Cartel), and La Familia Michoacana as “Significant Foreign Narcotics Traffickers,” thereby “exposing them and their associates to financial sanctions under the U.S. Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act.” The LA Times explains that Alan Bersin, an “aggressive former federal prosecutor credited with taming a once-lawless area of the region,” is to be named Obama’s border czar. Also, the Mexican government has approved Carlos Pascual as the new US ambassador; he now awaits Senate confirmation.

• El Chapo Guzmán: the world’s most controversial billionaire? Forbes named Mexico’s most wanted drug trafficker on its annual billionaires list, to much chagrin. (A Slate blogger questions how much money El Chapo and other traffickers could actually be raking in.) In what has become a major scandal, Durango-based Roman Catholic Archbishop Hector Gonzalez claimed over the weekend that “everyone knows” where El Chapo lives in this state and yet the government does nothing. (Does this lend power to the claims of La Reina del Pacífico?)

• The capture of Don Mario: “One capo goes down, another takes his place.” TIME reports on the potentially violent fall-out from the Colombian government’s successful capture of Medellín-based narco-paramilitary Don Mario. The Center for International Policy’s Plan Colombia and Beyond blog has links to media coverage and a profile of Don Mario.

• Building walls around Rio’s favelas: protecting the environment, or defending against narcos? El Pais reports (in Spanish) on the security wall constructed around the favela of Morro Dona Marta, which appears to serve a dual purpose. Dona Marta is one of the favelas occupied by the military police last year as part of the government’s aggressive new clear-and-hold strategy. The Guardian featured an interesting op-ed on the wall issue a few months back, clearly pointing out the rights issues involved.

• A decade of the drug war in numbers. From Adam Isacson at the Center for International Policy, “a compendium of drug war statistics.”

• New resources: The Citizens’ Institute for the Study of Crime (ICESI; Instituto Ciudadano de Estudios sobre la Inseguridad) has released its 5th annual victimization survey, a well-respected project which serves to help understand the incidence of crime in Mexico and its reporting. Also, Brookings’ Vanda Felbab-Brown published last month a fascinating paper entitled “The Violent Drug Market in Mexico and Lessons from Colombia”–a recommended read.

The International Harm Reduction Association is hosting its 20th annual international conference this April in Bangkok, Thailand. This year’s conference has as its theme “Harm Reduction and Human Rights,” and includes plenary sessions featuring speakers such as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, the Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, etc.

Information about scholarships to cover conference expenses is here; financial support appears to favor practitioners from developing countries.