Op-ed: Immigration and the New Old Me

New America Foundation, 5/16/12

Los Angeles

Despite my family’s rootedness in Southern California, migration has had an inordinate effect on my life. Now that it has come to a virtual halt, how do I see myself? Angeleno, as always.

The news that Mexican immigration to the United States has come to a virtual halt has me thinking about all the ways that will change things. It will affect politics, culture, labor and the nation’s racial climate. And it will also change how we see each other and ourselves as Americans and as Californians, me included.

I’m one of those mythical native Californians you might have read about. I was born near the corner of Sunset and Vermont in Hollywood. My father was born in L.A. and baptized, as was I, at La Placita Church downtown. My mom was born in northern San Diego County and baptized at the San Antonio de Pala mission there. My paternal great-grandfather arrived in the U.S. — Arizona — from Mexico in 1893. My family has been American so long that sometimes I think I should wear one of those buckled Pilgrim hats.

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U.S.-Mexico Security Cooperation

Council on Foreign Relations, 5/16/12

The Council on Foreign Relations has held a panel to discuss the current security situation in Mexico, and how the United States can help combat shared security threats.

The panel featured Alejandro Hope, Project Director, ‘Less Crime, Less Punishment’ project, Instituto Mexicano para la Competividad (IMCO) and México Evalúa; Shannon K. O’Neil, Douglas Dillon Fellow for Latin America Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; Ginger Thompson, Domestic Correspondent, New York Times; and the Woodrow Wilson Center’s own Eric L. Olson, Senior Associate of the Mexico Institute.

Video of the panel may be viewed here, at the Council of Foreign Relations.

Tamaulipas: Attack against El Mañana, the seventh one in 6 years [In Spanish]

Animal Político, 5/12/2012

The attack against the journal El Mañana represents the seventh attack with explosives and firearms against the media in Tamaulipas in the last 6 years. On February 6th, 2006, El Mañana became the first journal to be victim of an attack when armed gunmen entered the journal’s offices where they threw a grenade and fired their arms, leaving a journalist gravely wounded.

Article 19 manifested its concern over this new aggression as it exhibits the ineffectiveness and absolute absence of actions to guarantee freedom of expression in Tamaulipas, where attacks of this magnitude go unpunished. Once again, Article 19 makes a call upon the Mexican state and the government of Tamaulipas to investigate this crime and carry out the necessary actions to guarantee freedom of expression for local journalists.

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Op-ed by Alejandro Hope: “Masacres (o las consecuencias de perseguir la pelota)” [In Spanish]

Animal Político, 5/13/2012
Alejandro Hope

In the context of violence from drug cartels, Hope explains how the most recent public displays of violence from these criminal groups is a product of the struggle of power between them. For criminal groups, Hope contends, the game is clear: the objective is bringing war into enemy territory. They have learned that both federal and state authorities follow “the ball” and not the man: in other words, they go to where the cadavers are instead of finding the place from which the death orders are dictated. For Hope, drug cartels follow an organizational logic that implies responding to a massacre with another blow to the zone of influence of the enemy.

Hope proposes some concrete actions to curtail the retaliation power of drug cartels, including intensive surveillance in zones of influence, closing-down of narcotienditas where drugs are sold to individuals; inspections at maritime ports; and installing mobile patrols in routes of high-risk such as Monterrey-Nuevo Laredo and Hermosillo-Nogales. Hope also proposes a counterintelligence strategy.

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Mexico’s leading presidential candidate is handsome, popular and still a mystery

The Washington Post, 5/14/12

In his campaign for president, Mexico’s handsome front-runner, Enrique Peña Nieto, looks down from towering billboards with a movie-star smile. “Tu me conoces,” he says. You know me. But the fact is, many don’t.

With the July 1 presidential vote only weeks away, Peña Nieto holds a solid double-digit lead in the polls. But Mexican voters and U.S. observers confess that they do not really know what the candidate stands for. Nor are they sure how he would govern Mexico, a vital trade partner for the United States, Mexico’s ally in the fight against drug cartels. “Do people really know him?” asked independent pollster Roy Campos. “No, but they want to get to know him.”

Disparaged by his opponents as a pretty puppet and telegenic con man, the 45-year-old Peña Nieto is a masterful retail politician who, through message discipline and sophisticated marketing, has made himself the new face of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Known as the PRI, the autocratic political machine fell from power in 2000 after running Mexico with a blend of corruption and coercion for 71 years.

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Priest who denounced abuse, kidnapping of migrants in southern Mexico flees death threats

The Washington Post, 5/14/12

An outspoken priest who runs a shelter for migrants in southern Mexico has temporarily left his facility after receiving death threats, the shelter coordinator said Monday. The “Hermanos en el Camino” shelter run by the Rev. Alejandro Solalinde said in a statement that the Roman Catholic priest is “protecting his physical safety” until state and federal prosecutors thoroughly investigate the threats.

The shelter said Solalinde is expected to return to his work, but didn’t say when. “International human rights organization that work closely with Solalinde suggested he go away for a while,” said Jose Alberto Donis, who coordinates activities at the shelter.

Donis said the most recent threat came on April 15. Prosecutors in southern Oaxaca state have said they are investigating and are providing police security for Solalinde. Solalinde has become widely known in Mexico for publicly denouncing corruption and abuse of mainly Central American migrants who cross into Mexico seeking to reach the United States.

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Mexico candidate blames opposition as bodies pile up

Reuters, 5/14/12

The main opposition political party is at the root of the violence engulfing Mexico, ruling party presidential candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota said after one of the worst atrocities in the country’s drug war. Fighting to close a big gap with Enrique Pena Nieto, the front-runner for the July 1 election, Vazquez Mota sharpened her attacks on his Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, saying it had made life easy for brutal drug traffickers in Mexico.

Support for her conservative National Action Party (PAN) has been eroded by the rising tide of brutality that has swept across Mexico since President Felipe Calderon sent in the army to fight drug gangs soon after taking office in December 2006. In an interview late on Sunday after 49 decapitated bodies were found on a highway outside the northern city of Monterrey, Vazquez Mota said the origins of Mexico’s violence can be traced to years of neglect or collusion during decades of PRI rule.

“Seven out of 10 murders committed by organized crime happen in states governed by the PRI, which is an unequivocal sign that there has been omission, indifference and complicity that must be proven by the proper authorities,” she told Reuters.

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Fallen Journalists Honored at Newseum Ceremony

Newseum, 5/14/12

The names of 70 international journalists who died covering the news in 2011 were added to the Newseum’s Journalists Memorial in a poignant ceremony held May 14 in the Knight TV Studio.

Two additional journalists who died in previous years and were brought to the Newseum’s attention in 2011 were also recognized. Their names have been added to a separate panel in the memorial, and their stories are included in the interactive kiosks in the Journalists Memorial Gallery. With these new names, there are now 2,156 journalists honored on the memorial, dating from 1837. The annual ceremony drew family, friends and colleagues of the fallen journalists. In his welcoming remarks, James C. Duff, chief executive officer of the Newseum, called the Journalists Memorial “one of the most powerful and important galleries in the Newseum.” “This dedication renews the Newseum’s commitment to remember these brave journalists for generations to come,” he said.

Alejandro Junco, president and chief executive officer of Grupo Reforma, the largest print media company in Latin America, was the keynote speaker. In a speech titled “Burning the Fog,” Junco talked about journalists who aren’t afraid to publicly expose wrongdoing, despite the personal dangers.

“For 40 years, I have worked alongside journalists working to burn away the fog of anonymity,” Junco said, “working to help eliminate those bad influences on people’s lives — the bad incentives, the bad systems, the bad practices.”

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AL DÍA: ¿Qué opinan? Firmas del día: 5/14/12

The Mexico Institute, AL DÍA: News and Analysis from the Mexico Institute, 5/14/12

Each morning, through the Mexico Portal feature, “¿Qué opinan? Firmas del día”, we will bring you an assortment of op-ed pieces from five major Mexican dailies: Reforma, El Universal, La Jornada, Excelsior and Milenio. Enjoy!

Cada día, por la entrada titulada, “¿Qué opinan? Firmas del día”, vamos a traerles un surtido de artículos de opinión de cinco periódicos populares de México: Reforma, El Universal, La Jornada, Excelsior y Milenio. ¡Que lo disfruten!

Most Mexicans want U.S. to take a bigger role in fighting violence, poll finds

The Dallas Morning News, 5/13/12

Weary of the drug-stoked violence that has swept their country and buffeted the Texas border, more than half of Mexicans want the U.S. to take a more direct role here in battling organized crime. Some even support deployment of U.S. troops and drug agents into Mexico, where more than 50,000 people have died in drug violence since 2006.

Those are the main findings to emerge from a new poll of Mexicans, who appear poised to again embrace the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which they turned out of office 12 years ago after more than seven decades in power. The poll, conducted for The Dallas Morning News, its Spanish-language publication Al Día and the Mexican newspaper El Universal, found voters were not only ready to reverse course politically but also to ease up on old suspicions of their northern neighbor.

“That’s a little shocking given the history between the United States and Mexico,” said Eric Olson, a security expert at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute. “But the political reality is none of the politicians, particularly presidential candidates, will stand up and ask for more U.S. involvement. “

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