Legalize It - From Mexico to Bolivia, Demands for Drug Reforms
El Norte Digest
New California Media, News Digest, Compiled and Edited by Marcelo Ballve, Posted: Feb 27, 2003
“El Norte” is a weekly report on news and views from the Latino press and communities. Traducción en Español
- Legalize it - From Mexico to Bolivia, Demands for Drug Reforms
- Possible Iraq War Complicates Life Along U.S.-Mexico Border
- L.A. Church Scandal - Are Catholic Immigrants Too Meek?
- Mickey Mouse Grabs the Maracas for Latino Kids
In Latin America, where the U.S.- sponsored war against drugs still rages, a chorus of voices has emerged advocating decriminalization of drugs as an antidote to the violence associated with the narcotics trade and anti-drug efforts.
The Mexico-based website www.narconews.com, which covers the drug war, co-sponsored a multinational drug decriminalization conference in Merida, Mexico called “Out from the Shadows: Ending Prohibition in the 21st Century.”
“The drug war is lost,” said Mexican Congressman Gregorio Urrías. “If we can’t even discuss an alternative, if we can’t even admit the drug war is a failure, then we’ll never solve the problem.” Urrias, who has authored legislation to decriminalize possession of marijuana, gave the keynote address of the conference, according to the Feb. 25 narconews.
The mid-February conference was co-sponsored by the Autonomous University of Yucatán and Mexican daily newspaper Por Esto! Increasingly powerful indigenous politicians from Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia who favor decriminalization or legalization also attended. Throughout the Andes, Indians consider coca leaves—legally traded and chewed as a mild coffee-like stimulant, but sometimes used to make cocaine — a sacred plant and integral part of local economies. In Bolivia, U.S.-sponsored eradication of coca has sparked mass protests. The United States is spending billions fighting “narcoterrorists” in Colombia.
Cries for drug decriminalization even spread to Communist Cuba, reported CubaNet.org, a Florida-based news website featuring the island’s independent media.
In Havana, fans at a reggae concert began chanting slogans in favor of marijuana legalization, defying police who began detaining concertgoers smoking pot. It may have been the first public demand by island youth for legalization of the plant, according to reporter Patricia Fontanar in the Feb. 17 story.
Possible Iraq War Complicates Life Along U.S.-Mexico Border
A possible war against Iraq, and the related surge in terror fears, has impacted life along the U.S.-Mexico border, where vehicle traffic was backed up for hours at border crossings because of stepped up security checks and officials fretting about a bio-terror attack on rivers, reports Frontera NorteSur, a New Mexico-based daily news service on border issues.
The delays for cars seeking to cross into the United States were the longest since immediately after Sept. 11, according to a Feb. 21 article in Frontera NorteSur. In Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, the wait was as long as three hours.
In Tijuana, Mexican federal agents are increasing scrutiny of Iraqi Christian refugees who use the city as their entry point into California, where there is a large Arab community, Frontera NorteSur reported. For many U.S.-bound immigrants, including Middle Easterners, it is often easier to get into Mexico and then try to gain entry into the United States, rather than attempting to enter directly. Along the border, Mexican checkpoints were reinforced with intelligence officers.
The El Mañana daily newspaper in Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Texas, said Mexican officials were working closely with U.S. counterparts to monitor the Rio Grande, the source of water for many along the Texas-Mexico border, in case of a bio-terror attack
Despite the precautions, Mexican Army General Harold Henry Rabling Torres said soldiers were still focused on drug trafficking as their first priority, Frontera NorteSur said.
The fears of war also destabilized the Mexican peso, which has decreased in value lately, meaning border dwellers earning pesos are at an increasing disadvantage if they shop in U.S. stores. Many U.S. border cities depend on Mexican shoppers for retail sales.
L.A. Church Scandal - Are Catholic Immigrants Too Meek?
The focus of the clergy abuse scandal has shifted from Boston to Los Angeles, where a flood of lawsuits is rising this year against the country’s largest Catholic diocese, made up of large numbers of Latino and Asian immigrants.
One journalist has asked why the public uproar in Southern California has not equaled the furor in Boston, which in December forced Boston Cardinal Bernard Law to resign. Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony has weathered the crisis so far - earning him the nickname of “Teflon Cardinal” - despite aggressive investigations.
Arthur Jones, editor-at-large of the influential Kansas City-based weekly National Catholic Reporter offered answers in a recent cover article: first, Latino and Asian immigrants tend to be less critical of Church hierarchy. “They have a more traditional view of the Church than the Anglo population, (who) are … accustomed to the right of speaking out,” he said in a February interview with El Norte Digest.
Also, unlike Boston, where Catholics are dominant in the city’s business, political and media worlds, the nearly 4 million Catholics in the L.A. archdiocese are not yet predominant in the power structure, Jones said.
However, he said new cases are emerging because of a California law that altered statutes so employers of sexual molesters can be sued in 2003. Jones said lawyers are pressing for full disclosure of details, which may increase pressure on Mahony.
Last year, Los Angeles Spanish-language daily La Opinión, with 600,000 daily readers, editorialized approvingly on Mahony’s public apology and promises to defrock abusive clergy.
Mickey Mouse Grabs the Maracas for Latino Kids
Recent headlines in California media noted that Latino newborns now account for over half the total births in the state. One company that seems to be paying attention to this growing market is Walt Disney, which released two sing-along records in February aimed at Latino children, reports El Tecolote.
In its Feb. 26 issue, the San Francisco-based bilingual biweekly featured a review of the two CDs. “Cantar y Jugar,” or “Singing and Playing,” is a compilation of old Spanish-language Disney children’s songs and features an illustration of Mickey Mouse shaking maracas on the cover. “Favoritas de las Princesas de Disney,” or “Disney Princesses’ Favorites” features Spanish-language versions of popular songs from recent movies.
Disney, based in Burbank, Calif., well known as an entertainment brand in Latin America, has slowly begun to target Latinos, unrolling a Spanish-language website for its theme parks in 2001 and starting to issue movie soundtracks in Spanish for the U.S. market.
Pedro Tuyub, managing editor of El Tecolote, wrote in his review of the CD music how the old Disney songs reminded him of his childhood in Yucatan, Mexico listening to some of the tunes. One song “Naranja Dulce,” or “Sweet Orange,” is played in the style of Aztec and Taraumara ritual music. “The tic-tac-tic-tac sound of the cascabeles and the hollow call of the ocarina gave me these cold chills I always felt whenever I visited the Mayan pyramids in the Yucatan Peninsula,” he wrote.
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