A well-known Mexican border state politician and social activist called this week for international human rights observers to come to the state of Chihuahua.

Interviewed on CNN’s Aristegui program, Victor Quintana, Chihuahua state legislator for the center-left PRD party and advisor to the Democratic Campesino Front, said the Mexican government’s anti-drug Joint Operation Chihuahua failed to end narco-violence, encouraged human rights abuses and left the citizenry defenseless, as evidenced by the kidnap-murders this month of Mormon community activist Benjamin LeBaron and his brother-in-law Luis Widmar in northern Chihuahua.

“This is a sign of the failed state we are living in,” Quintana contended.

In a 24-hour period from the afternoon of July 14 to 15, seventeen people were reported slain gangland style in Ciudad Juarez and other parts of the state of Chihuahua.

According to the longtime political leader, people uninvolved in the fight between rival drug cartels are increasingly falling victim to bands of criminals on the one hand and Mexican security forces on the other. The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) does not have investigators specifically assigned to monitor Joint Operation Chihuahua, Quintana told host Carmen Aristegui.

“We need peace brigades and people from the international community to act as witnesses,” Quintana said. “It is not a (political) party, ideological question but a profound, ethical one, and the first step is to rescue the principle of the sacredness of life, even the lives of those who don’t respect it.”

Recent developments including the LeBaron-Widmar murders have led many in Chihuahua to urge a rethinking of Joint Operation Chihuahua, Quintana said.

“A generalized clamor exists in Chihuahua to change the model of Joint Operation Chihuahua,” Quintana added. “It’s time that Felipe Calderon render an accounting to the people of Chihuahua.”

The lawmaker’s comments coincide with a rising tide of public opinion in Mexico that views President Calderon’s drug war as literally going down in flames.

Backed by Washington, Operation Joint Chihuahua and similar campaigns rely on massive deployments of army troops and Federal Police, militarization of civilian police functions, restrictions on the constitutional right to free transit, and random searches of the citizenry. The result, according to the CNDH and independent human rights organizations, is the widespread violation of human rights.

Alleged human rights abuses by federal forces prompted the US-based Human Rights Watch this week to request U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suspend 15 percent of the funds destined for anti-drug, binational Merida Initiative, or Plan Mexico as it is called by some, in reference to a similar US aid package for Colombia.

Human Rights Watch’s appeal was seconded by the All Rights for All network, a grouping of leading Mexican human rights groups. Edgar Cortez, executive secretary for the organization, joined others in recommending that the Calderon anti-crime strategy see a “revision.”

Cortez suggested that curtailing money laundering and cross-border arms trafficking could be a more effective strategy than the current one of displaying overwhelming shows of force and making entire communities suspect. “Perhaps there would be more damage to these (crime) groups,” Cortez said.

Recent gun battles and other manifestations of extreme violence in Michoacan and other states have likewise encouraged key Mexican lawmakers to call for revamping the drug war strategy.

While agreeing it was necessary to keep the army involved until adequate police forces are available, Sonora Sen. Manlio Fabio Beltrones of the PRI party said the anti-crime fight should be subject to constant reevaluation and updating. The success of federal operations, Beltrones said, should not be measured solely on the basis of daily body counts.

Supporters of Operation Joint Chihuahua and the broader drug war were also outspoken in recent days. Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz told reporters that the military operation has reduced crimes including auto thefts, commercial robberies and bank heists.

“We have to make adjustments, but there is no radical change in the method of operating,” Reyes said, adding that the municipal government was examining whether to request a six-month extension of the army’s presence until March 2010. “We can’t say the operation has been a failure, because it hasn’t concluded,” the mayor said in separate comments.

Murder is one crime that definitely has not gone down since the initiation of Joint Operation Chihuahua. The latest press accounts report more than 1,000 people murdered in Ciudad Juarez alone during the course of 2009 -- a rate much higher than in 2008 before the reinforcement of the army and federal presence in the border city.

In multiple declarations this week, President Felipe Calderon vowed to stay the course. Mexico, Calderon said, “won’t take and should not take a step backwards.” The anti-drug offensive, the Mexican president insisted, was touching off “desperate reactions” by crime groups feeling the pressure of the federal boot.

Despite the president’s upbeat assessments, drug cartels significantly escalated their confrontations with Mexican security forces this week. In a broad swath of attacks in Michoacan and other states, La Familia drug cartel in particular demonstrated a sophisticated level of coordination and tactical ingenuity.

As of July 15, at least 15 members of the Federal Police had been slain in Michoacan since the arrests last week of two mid-level La Familia leaders, “La Minsa” and “El Chivo,” in Morelia, Michoacan, and Petatlan, Guerrero, respectively. In one fiery attack, dozens of police vehicles were torched.

Elsewhere, pitched daytime battles that included explosions and resembled scenes from Gaza or Baghdad erupted in Nuevo Leon and Veracruz, leaving at least 8 suspected gunmen dead.

Since President Calderon assumed office in December 2006, more than 11,000 Mexicans have perished in narco-related violence.

Monte Alejandro Rubido Garcia, technical secretary for the National Security Public System, said this week that approximately 90 percent of the victims were delinquents, with the remainder belonging to the security forces. Citizens who are not involved in drug trafficking or other criminal activities should rest assured that they are not “the target of violent actions of delinquent groups,” Rubido said.

The federal official’s body count ignored the growing number of civilians killed or injured in cross-fire, including the man and his 10-year-old daughter who were recently slain in Chihuahua City when the truck they were riding in was strafed by bullets from gunmen blasting away at each other on the street.

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Sources:
-- Lapolaka.com, July 15, 2009.
-- Milenio TV, July 15, 2009.
-- CNN en Espanol, July 13, 2009.
-- El Diario de Juarez, July 14, 2009. Articles by Araly Castanon, Orlando Chavez and Luz del Carmen Sosa. Televisa, July 13, 2009.
-- La Jornada, July 8, 14 and 15, 2009. Articles by Miroslava Breach, Ruben Villalpando, Mauricio Navarro, Ernesto Martinez, Elorriaga, Victor Ballinas, Enrique Mendez, Claudia Herrera Beltran, Gustavo Castillo Garcia, Alonso Urrutia, Carolina Gomez Mena, correspondents, and the AFP news agency.

Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news Center for Latin American and Border Studies New Mexico State University Las Cruces, New Mexico

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