AFL-CIO opposes helping Mexico fight drug thugs

Miami Herald:

A major U.S. counter-drug aid package for Mexico is under attack by U.S. organized labor, which says Congress should reject the initiative unless tough human rights conditions are included, according to a letter revealed Friday.

The opposition by the AFL-CIO and other labor groups adds another obstacle to a three-year, $1.4 billion program for Mexico known as the Mérida Initiative. It already faces cutbacks for budgetary reasons and objections by human rights groups that say Mexican security forces have a history of abuses.

In an April 30 letter to House Foreign Affairs Committee members Reps. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and William Delahunt (D-Mass.), the AFL-CIO says fighting drug trafficking is ``an important and legitimate foreign policy objective.''

But the group cites labor abuses in Mexico and considers the strategy ''ineffective.'' Providing eight military helicopters -- meant to quickly move security forces to remote places where drug gangs operate -- was ''of questionable value,'' the letter said.

This marks the second blow to the Mérida Initiative in recent days. House appropriators are expected to cut the first part of the Mérida funding from $500 million to less than $300 million.

Mérida Initiative supporter Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the western hemisphere subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said at a hearing Thursday he was ''disappointed'' at the funding cut and would attempt to overturn the decision.

But with U.S. unions now firmly opposed, passing Mérida will become even harder, congressional aides acknowledge. Key senators are also wary.

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If the AFL-CIO was really interested in human rights they might talk to Rogaciano Alba whose family was murdered when he was not found in his home.

Somebody wants to kill Rogaciano Alba.

Dozens of gunmen attacked the house of the local political boss, killing his sons and kidnapping his daughter in a weekend rampage that left 17 dead. With Alba in hiding, the motive remains unclear, lost in the tangle of drugs, land disputes and rebellion that lurks amid Mexico's glittering beach resorts.

''If anybody has something against me, let them tell me to my face,'' Alba raged in a call to a local radio station. ``But [the victims] didn't steal or do anything to anybody. There was no reason to kill them like that.''

Alba is easily the most powerful man in Petatlán, a Pacific coast town near the resorts of Ixtapa and Zihuatenejo that was dependent on coconut plantations and cattle ranching until drugs and illegal logging pushed them aside in the 1980s.

Mexico's drug underworld has become ever more violent in recent years, with gunmen beheading victims and carving threats into their bodies. But almost like a code of honor, hit men targeting ranchers, businessmen, journalists and rival drug smugglers have largely left the victims' families alone.

The attack on Alba broke all the rules.

On Saturday, seven ranchers were killed as they returned from a union meeting led by Alba. The following day, gunmen disguised as police showed up at Alba's ranch. When they didn't find him, they lined up 10 of his relatives and friends in front of his sturdy, two-story brick house and mowed them down.

Alba's sons Alejandro and Rusbel were among the dead, and his 18-year-old daughter, Ana Karen, disappeared and is believed kidnapped, although no ransom has been requested. Alba immediately went into hiding.

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The program is intended to fight this kind of killing, but the union bosses would rather seen the drug insurgents succeed if one has to judge by their opposition to helping Mexico fight this. They should be ashamed as should the Democrats who have gone along with this travesty. Eliot Engel appears to be a voice of sanity among Democrats on this issue.