Laura Carlsen: A Binational Effort at Resisting the Model of War in Mexico Laura Carlsen - Americas Program
go to original March 3, 2013

It has been five months since the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity led a peace caravan across the United States to end the war on drugs. Yet much has happened in that time that changes the context for our movement, or rather, collection of movements.

Two new governments have taken office - Enrique Peña Nieto in Mexico and Barack Obama in the United States. Although Obama begins a second term, he has appointed new Secretaries of State and Defense, launched new initiatives and expanded some old ones. Both governments have new Congressional representatives.

Just as there have been significant changes in the governments, there have been some major changes within our movements as well. This makes it necessary to rethink our path: where we are, where wecan move forward and what obstacles lie in the future.

We are bound together by our commitment to the two objectives laid out for this meeting: truth and justice for the victims and a change in the security model to a vision of human security. They are two separate goals yet one single path: we know that there is no peace without justice, since security must be based on justice and on our community ties, not on fighting violence with violence.

Changes in US-Mexico Security Policy?

Enrique Peña Nieto came to office with a pressing need to distance himself from Calderon’s war. The disastrous drug war played a major role in the downfall of the PAN in the 2012 elections. Since the campaign, we’ve heard talk of modifications to the war strategy and focusing more on public security and reducing violence.

Members of the Peña cabinet talk about “building peace”. The Inter-secretarial commission installed on Feb. 12 has a previously absent emphasis on social programs. The president and members of his cabinet use phrases that repeat verbatim some of what the peace movement has been saying all along. It sounds good, or at least, better.

And there are some specificactionsthat point to another approach. The approval of the Victims Law, for example, could have a real impact on the situation of thousands of victims’ families.

So the question is: Are we really seeing a change in the security model?

Unfortunately there are many elements that point to the answer being no.

Like a magician who practices sleight of hand, Peña Nieto is betting that we will watch his lips as his hands perform tricks under the table. To get a real idea of how much is likely to change, it’s more realistic to look beyond the rhetoric to the facts.

Read the whole story at the Americas Program

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