The War in Mexico

The anti-war movement in the United States has failed to respond to the war in Mexico. Mainstream media have only reported isolated stories of exceptional violence, promoting fear in racist tones.

Most Americans don't know there is a major war happening right now in Mexico. Cuidad Juarez, the city with the most deaths from the war, is less than 2,000 miles from Rochester. When the war broke out in December 2006, as the newly elected president, Felipe Calderon, sent 6,500 troops to the historically self-governing state of Michoacan, few people outside Mexico even noticed, and this reporter was unable to find evidence of any significant international protest.

Currently, 45,000 Mexican troops are battling drug cartels whose combined force is estimated at 100,000 fighters. The United States is a major player in the Mexican Drug War. Bush and Obama have been strong supporters of Calderon's war, supplying the Mexican military with more than $1.4 billion dollars in weapons, training and intelligence. But drug war deaths are only mounting: 2,477 people were killed in 2007, 6,290 in 2008, 7,724 in 2009, and--stunningly--more than 1,000 people have lost their lives already in 2010. The war in Mexico is the deadliest armed conflict occurring in the world right now, except for the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

One reason the US government supports the war is so American corporations can maintain their control over Mexican workers. US corporations like Reebok and Nike operate more than a few sweatshops in Mexico. People who get their income from the drug trade are less likely to work for the sweatshops. Therefore, one more drug cartel member is one less sweatshop worker.

Another reason the US government supports the war is to hinder the drug cartels' ability to overpower the Calderon regime, which is friendly to US interests. Mexico has large quantities of oil in the ground and is the third largest supplier of oil to the United States.

Human life is more important than oil and corporate profits. The people of Mexico have a right to self-determination; indeed, people everywhere have a right to control their own lives. This includes being free of oppressive sweatshops, factories, corporations, governments, military conscription and warfare. War for oil, money, and other resources is always wrong. Calderon's war must end; it is a war for US domination of Mexico, and it is a crime against humanity.

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