To make matters worse the United States has been destabilizing the Mexican Government by feeding military style small arms to Drug cartels in Mexico. See:
Fast And Furious (12 articles)
The Mexico Project
President Richard Nixon and Mexico's President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz shake hands at a ceremony on the Mexico side of the Rio Bravo (also known as the Rio Grande) after dedicating the Amistad Dam, in background. September 8, 1969. © Bettmann/CORBIS
Fast And Furious (12 articles)
FastAndFurious (7 articles)
_____________________________________________
The Mexico Project
The Mexico Project
Director: Kate Doyle
(kadoyle@gwu.edu)
(kadoyle@gwu.edu)
Research Associate: Emily Willard
(ewillard@gwu.edu)
(ewillard@gwu.edu)
Interns: Ashley Miller and Lydia White
Volunteer: Laura Perkins
Volunteer: Laura Perkins
President Richard Nixon and Mexico's President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz shake hands at a ceremony on the Mexico side of the Rio Bravo (also known as the Rio Grande) after dedicating the Amistad Dam, in background. September 8, 1969. © Bettmann/CORBISNew - March 9, 2010
Archival Evidence of Mexico's Human Rights Crimes / Evidencias en los Archivos de crímenes de Derechos Humanos en México
The Case of Aleida Gallangos / El Caso de Aleida Gallangos
Archival Evidence of Mexico's Human Rights Crimes / Evidencias en los Archivos de crímenes de Derechos Humanos en México
The Case of Aleida Gallangos / El Caso de Aleida Gallangos
December 2, 2008NPR Features Archive Analyst in Tlatelolco Massacre ProgramLinks to Declassified Documents from Archive FOIA Requests and Mexican Archival Research
October 2, 2008
2 DE OCTUBRE DE 1968 - Verdad Bajo Resguardo
On the 40th Anniversary of the Tlatelolco Massacre, Archivos Abiertos offers the most complete account to date of what files exist and what remains hidden bajo resguardo
2 DE OCTUBRE DE 1968 - Verdad Bajo Resguardo
On the 40th Anniversary of the Tlatelolco Massacre, Archivos Abiertos offers the most complete account to date of what files exist and what remains hidden bajo resguardo
September 30, 2008
Resources on Mexican Constitutional Reform on Access to Information
To commemorate International Right to Know Day and the beginning of the México Abierto Week, the National Security Archive’s Mexico Project publishes today on its Transparency Web Site new English-text resources on Mexico’s latest developments in the area of access to information, especially related to the new constitutional reform of Article 6.
Resources on Mexican Constitutional Reform on Access to Information
To commemorate International Right to Know Day and the beginning of the México Abierto Week, the National Security Archive’s Mexico Project publishes today on its Transparency Web Site new English-text resources on Mexico’s latest developments in the area of access to information, especially related to the new constitutional reform of Article 6.
About the Project
Since 1994, and intensively since 2000, the National Security Archive's Mexico Project has sought to identify and obtain the release of documents from secret government archives on United States and Mexico since 1960, and to disseminate those records through publications, conferences and the Archive's Web site. In order to obtain the declassified documents, we use the Freedom of Information Act to compel U.S. agencies such as the State Department, CIA, Pentagon, Treasury Department and Justice Department to review and release records relevant to the project.
Since 1994, the Mexico project, under the direction of Kate Doyle, has filed more than 1,600 U.S. Freedom of Information requests We carry out ongoing research in U.S. government holdings--including the National Archives, the presidential libraries, agency oral history collections, military holdings, and more--as well as search in Mexican archives such as the Acervo Histórico Diplomático of the Foreign Relations Secretariate. Since 2002, we have been able to consult a newly-released collection of Mexican documents on la guerra sucia (the "dirty war") open to the public in the Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico City.
The Archive directly sparked a national debate about freedom of information in 1998. On the 30th anniversary of the infamous Tlatelolco massacre of 1968, the Archive drew press coverage across Mexico by publishing on the Web and in several major Mexican magazines a revelatory set of declassified U.S. documents including U.S. embassy reporting on the massacre and the CIA's analysis of the Mexican security forces' responsibility. Those newsmaking Tlatelolco documents came from the Archive's partnership - beginning in July 1994- with the Mexican newsmagazineProceso, to open U.S. files on the past three decades of U.S.-Mexican relations. Kate Doyle's column in Proceso called Archivos Abiertos (or, Open Archives) was launched in 2003. The series draws from U.S. and Mexican declassified records on a range of issues that have included, for example: drug trafficking and counternarcotics policy, Mexican presidential elections, human rights cases and state repression during Mexico's "dirty war." Archivos Abiertos was published in a monthly basis up until April 2004. The column resumed with a posting on Tlatelolco's Dead (October 1, 2006).
The Mexico Project is actively involved in the movement for freedom of information rights in Mexico--a struggle which achieved its first success with the enactment of a landmark freedom of information statute in June 2002. The new access to information law passed in 2002 represents a vital element of Mexico's democratic transition. The project also seeks to join the debate currently underway in Mexico about the country's transition to democracy--in particular, to support the work of citizens' groups promoting greater transparency, openness and accountability in government. To this end, the Archive works closely with scholars, lawyers, freedom of information activists, NGOs, human rights groups and the press to design strategies for advancing the people's right to know in Mexico. Emilene Martínez Morales coordinates our transparency programs.
 |
| Archive Launches New Web Page on Mexico's Freedom of Information Program |
From the Archives "Tlatelolco 68: Todos los documentos de Inteligencia de EU"By Carlos Puig Milenio (Mexico) September 14, 1998 |
| Previous postings |
FOI in Practice: Analysis of the Mexican FOI System Measuring the Complexity of Information Requests and Quality of Government Responses in Mexico Official Report Released on Mexico's "Dirty War"Government Acknowledges Responsibility for Massacres, Torture, Disappearances and Genocide LITEMPO: The CIA's Eyes on TlatelolcoCIA Spy Operations in Mexico The Dead of TlatelolcoUsing the archives to exhume the past Draft Report Documents 18 Years of "Dirty War" in MexicoSpecial Prosecutor: State Responsible for Hundreds of Killings, Disappearances After the RevolutionLázaro Cárdenas and the Movimiento de Liberación Nacional The Blind Man and the Elephant Reporting on the Mexican Military Prelude to DisasterJosé López Portillo and the Crash of 1976 Dear Mr. PresidentLessons on Justice from Guatemala The Dawn of Mexico's Dirty WarLucio Cabañas and the Party of the Poor Mexico's Southern FrontGuatemala and the search for security The Tlatelolco Massacre New Declassified U.S. Documents on Mexico and the Events of 1968 "Forgetting Is Not Justice" Mexico Bares Its Secret Past (Reprinted with permission of the World Policy Journal) The Nixon Tapes Secret recordings from the Nixon White House on Luis Echeverría and much much more Before DemocracyMemories of Mexican elections The Corpus Christi Massacre Mexico's attack on its student movement, June 10, 1971 Reporting on TerrorHuman Rights and the Dirty War in Mexico Operation InterceptThe perils of unilateralism Double DealingMexico's foreign policy toward Cuba |
Kate Doyle served as an expert witness in the Mack trial. The documents used in the trial and dozens of other declassified US records on US policy in Guatemala may be found at the website of the National Security Archive.
Mexico's first freedom of information initiative, signed into law by
President Vicente Fox on June 10, represents a growing popular challenge
to governments throughout Latin America to end corruption and guarantee
openness and accountability. It also contrasts with attempts by the Bush
Administration to hinder public access to government information.
President Vicente Fox on June 10, represents a growing popular challenge
to governments throughout Latin America to end corruption and guarantee
openness and accountability. It also contrasts with attempts by the Bush
Administration to hinder public access to government information.
In addition to the new law, Fox recently opened up a lode of secret
police, military and intelligence documents from the early 1950s through
the mid-1980s. They promise to shed light on the long and dirty war the
government fought against its left-wing opponents, of whom more than 500
are thought to have been disappeared, tortured and killed by the state.
Mexico's new openness is especially significant because it arose from
public pressure rather than being imposed from on high. The catalyst
behind the freedom of information bill was a campaign by a collective of
reporters, editors, academics and nongovernmental organizations dubbed
the Grupo Oaxaca, for the Mexican city where eighteen months ago they
kicked off their drive. Once members of Congress indicated they were
prepared to introduce a bill last fall, the group drafted and submitted
one, getting it to legislators more than two months before Fox's
government came up with its own proposal.
police, military and intelligence documents from the early 1950s through
the mid-1980s. They promise to shed light on the long and dirty war the
government fought against its left-wing opponents, of whom more than 500
are thought to have been disappeared, tortured and killed by the state.
Mexico's new openness is especially significant because it arose from
public pressure rather than being imposed from on high. The catalyst
behind the freedom of information bill was a campaign by a collective of
reporters, editors, academics and nongovernmental organizations dubbed
the Grupo Oaxaca, for the Mexican city where eighteen months ago they
kicked off their drive. Once members of Congress indicated they were
prepared to introduce a bill last fall, the group drafted and submitted
one, getting it to legislators more than two months before Fox's
government came up with its own proposal.
That kind of citizen lobbying is rare in Latin America, but it appears
to be catching on. In Peru a consortium of media owners, the Peruvian
Press Council, has rallied to the cause, taking the unprecedented step
of holding discussions with the armed forces in an effort to preclude
military opposition while hammering out national security exemptions
that will permit the greatest openness possible on such sensitive issues
as human rights. In Paraguay news organizations and NGOs are preparing
to present an initiative before their Congress, and Guatemalans have
been pressing for several years for the right to request personal files
from a government notorious for intelligence operations targeting
citizens.
to be catching on. In Peru a consortium of media owners, the Peruvian
Press Council, has rallied to the cause, taking the unprecedented step
of holding discussions with the armed forces in an effort to preclude
military opposition while hammering out national security exemptions
that will permit the greatest openness possible on such sensitive issues
as human rights. In Paraguay news organizations and NGOs are preparing
to present an initiative before their Congress, and Guatemalans have
been pressing for several years for the right to request personal files
from a government notorious for intelligence operations targeting
citizens.
Now that the bill has been passed, Mexico faces its real battle:
convincing the public to use it. In a country where a powerful executive
branch has historically overshadowed a weak Congress, a dysfunctional
judicial system and a malleable press, citizens are not used to
demanding and receiving their rights. Supporters of the Fox government's
new openness say it will give them the leverage they need to expose
painful episodes of the recent past, like the state's role in the dirty
war of the 1970s and '80s, when the military abducted and disappeared
hundreds of guerrillas and suspected subversives. An even more pressing
mystery is the October 2, 1968, killing by Mexican security forces of
hundreds of students protesting for democratic reform in Mexico City's
Tlatelolco.
convincing the public to use it. In a country where a powerful executive
branch has historically overshadowed a weak Congress, a dysfunctional
judicial system and a malleable press, citizens are not used to
demanding and receiving their rights. Supporters of the Fox government's
new openness say it will give them the leverage they need to expose
painful episodes of the recent past, like the state's role in the dirty
war of the 1970s and '80s, when the military abducted and disappeared
hundreds of guerrillas and suspected subversives. An even more pressing
mystery is the October 2, 1968, killing by Mexican security forces of
hundreds of students protesting for democratic reform in Mexico City's
Tlatelolco.
The Tlatelolco massacre offers the most acute example of the Mexican
government's obsession with secrecy. Hours after the confrontation
between demonstrators and soldiers, then-President Diaz Ordaz had the
plaza scrubbed and cleaned to efface all signs of the indiscriminate
firing. Soldiers descended on the city's newsrooms and confiscated
undeveloped rolls of film, so that no image of the violence would
survive. Many questions remain as to who ordered the massacre, and who
began the shooting.
government's obsession with secrecy. Hours after the confrontation
between demonstrators and soldiers, then-President Diaz Ordaz had the
plaza scrubbed and cleaned to efface all signs of the indiscriminate
firing. Soldiers descended on the city's newsrooms and confiscated
undeveloped rolls of film, so that no image of the violence would
survive. Many questions remain as to who ordered the massacre, and who
began the shooting.
But the real test for Mexico's new law will be much more mundane. This
is a country where citizens have no access to the most fundamental
government information affecting their daily life. Local school budgets,
crime statistics, antipollution controls, the salaries of public
officials, the number of police patrols, the contracts awarded by the
state and much more are out of reach for ordinary citizens. The same
civil society groups that organized and fought for their right to basic
information must now mobilize to educate people on how to use the law in
their favor.
is a country where citizens have no access to the most fundamental
government information affecting their daily life. Local school budgets,
crime statistics, antipollution controls, the salaries of public
officials, the number of police patrols, the contracts awarded by the
state and much more are out of reach for ordinary citizens. The same
civil society groups that organized and fought for their right to basic
information must now mobilize to educate people on how to use the law in
their favor.
Ironically, Mexico's incipient efforts toward greater transparency come
as the Bush Administration moves resolutely in the opposite direction.
The freedom of information law in Mexico--indeed, the effort to
challenge government secrecy and corruption throughout Latin America--is
perceived by citizens as an indispensable tool for exercising their
rights in the hemisphere's new democracies. Perhaps the oldest democracy
in the region could learn a thing or two from its neighbor.
as the Bush Administration moves resolutely in the opposite direction.
The freedom of information law in Mexico--indeed, the effort to
challenge government secrecy and corruption throughout Latin America--is
perceived by citizens as an indispensable tool for exercising their
rights in the hemisphere's new democracies. Perhaps the oldest democracy
in the region could learn a thing or two from its neighbor.
No comments:
Post a Comment