Zelaya promises to be a good boy

Oh-ho, there's an interesting development with ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. He promised this afternoon in New York he won't seek re-election if allowed to return to Honduras. That was apparently the big reason behind his ouster. He made the statement at a press conference at the UN, replying, "No, never," when asked if he would ever enter politics again. He said he will return Thursday to Honduras. And, from Buenos Aires, we learn Argentine President Cristina Fernandez may accompany him, along with officials from, among other organizations, the OAS.

So, can a defanged prez (to use a polite body part) go home again? President in name only until November? 

I didn't think of that. It would certainly be a creative solution, presumably ending the sabre rattling from Hugo Chavez. It took three years of pressure to pummel Aristide into shape (see previous posting) but this was mental massage at warp speed.

Meanwhile, Honduran officials say he'll be arrested for treason if he tries to return. Plus, rumours suggest a cocaine link for Zelaya. How original. Consider the U.S. regional drug task force based in Honduras.

Stay tuned - although I'm still betting against a homecoming.

AFL-CIO on Honduran coup

A link to the union blog.

Ousted Honduran president should be checking out real estate in Costa Rica

I hope I've gotten this one completely wrong, or should I say hope  Political Decoder's perspective is out-of-whack.

President Manuel Zelaya was ousted by a Honduran army coup on Sunday to denunciations from world leaders, including President Barack Obama, as well as rights groups like Amnesty. The knowledgable Larry Birns, director of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs, sounded optimistic about his return in an interview Monday on CBC radio's As It Happens. Military coups are a bad thing, agreed?

Odds are, though, that Zelaya will stay Costa Rica, where he was unceremoniously dumped, until a successor is chosen in the November presidential elections. That's because the coup would have been highly unlikely without, at the least, a nod and a wink from the CIA. Things of that nature don't happen in the Americas without assurances the U.S. won't pull a Panama. It's the Monroe Doctrine writ large, and Honduras is in America's backyard. The U.S. still has 600 soldiers stationed at Soto Cano military base in Honduras, also the site of a regional U.S. task force on narco-trafficking, humanitarian issues and disaster relief (read  counter-terrorism). Washington is no fan of left-wing politicians, especially one so physically close as Zelaya, with his ties to Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, and efforts to change the consitution to allow him to run for re-election.

Venezuelan President Chavez blames the entire coup on the CIA.  Maybe, but unlikely; it wouldn't have been necessary. Top soldiers in most Latin American countries, including Honduras, have done their advanced training at the School of the Americas (renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security and Cooperation), and ties to the U.S. defence elite are maintained in many ways, including in-country spooks. (A link to an organization that opposes the existence of the Institute. ) Washington gets very nervous when Latin American or Caribbean leaders lean left. If something can be done, it is. 

I first witnessed how it works when then Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a former priest, was ousted in a 1991 army coup.  The State Department immediately denounced it, as did the big world agencies - just as the U.N. General Assembly moved this week to condemn the Honduran coup. 

However, three days after the coup I walked into army headquarters in Port-au-Prince to find the local CIA agent sitting there. (Sorry, naval attaché.) He was all chummy with coup leader Lt. Gen. General Raoul Cédras. Both men regaled me with stories of Aristide's lunacy, backed by bizarre documents lifted from the president's home by a shadowy Canadian, nicknamed (yup), "The Shadow." The documents were, to me, hilarious. In the age of snail mail, real weirdos sent reporters rants that would curl your toes - sometimes literally on toilet paper - and these documents were just like that. At the time, remember, the U.S. Administration wasn't supposed to be having buddy-buddy relations with the coup leaders and later backed a United Nations embargo that crippled the country's already improverished citizenry.

That was a Thursday. The next day, a top U.S. official in Haiti met privately with a select group of American reporters in Port-au-Prince and, Saturday, the big weekend U.S. papers carried the first stories about how Aristide had been unfit for the job, the coup was necessary, blah-blah. Obviously, the "proof" lay in those same wacko documents. The media covered them as if they proved something and that coverage fueled Aristide's opponents on Capitol Hill. By the time Aristide got back to Haiti in 1994, but he was a changed man, his liberation theory plans for his country in shambles. Of course, that's why he was allowed to return.

I learned covering the coup that U.S. policy is not monolithic - and I'm not talking here about division of powers -  and that the State Department, or even the president, can have very different objectives from the defence and intelligence communities. The latter usually wins if the issue involves security or perceived security. Witness Obama on Gitmo. Understanding Haiti would help me me see and write about the CIA hand in fabricating the "weapons of mass destruction" in the months leading up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Arguably, Dr. Paul Farmer's The Uses of Haiti is the best book on the country's tangled relations with the U.S., including the Aristide coup. Farmer is the physician and Harvard professor who spends six months of the year running a health clinic in Haiti with donated funds. (I should disclose he cites my coverage for the Toronto Star in his book.)

I wager the CIA signed off on the Honduran coup in ways that won't be proven for 30 years, if ever. Zelaya will malinger in Honduras during the  ongoing debate about his return - Will he? Won't he? - and that a new president, more pleasing to Washington's taste, will be "elected" in November. The coup has barely rippled in the public consciousness. 

I hope I'm out in left field on this one and I'll be happy to blog about it if I am. But I've seen this movie before.

* * *

The Decoder (www.twitter.com/PoliticalDecode) will be back Thursday. Have a great Canada Day!

Michael Jackson: Was everything done to save him?

There's been a mountain of speculation about what drugs Michael Jackson was on at the time of death. But I have looked unsuccessfully in all the coverage of his death for a reference to a defibrillator. Yesterday, I saw Edward Chernoff, the lawyer for Jackson's doctor, Dr. Conrad Murray, being interviewed on Dateline NBC. (He's the doctor Jackson hired to accompany him on his planned comeback tour and who'd been living at his L.A. home for 11 days.) Chernoff insisted Murray didn't give Jackson injections of Demerol or OxyContin tablets. Then, he described the circumstances surrounding the doctor finding Jackson not breathing. He said it was Murray's habit to spend time with Jackson in his room when the king of pop was in bed, and had done so last Thursday. He left the room but returned (I got the impression on NBC he was away only briefly, but I could be wrong and on NBC's Today show today, Chernoff said Murray "happened" to drop by Jackson's room). Murray apparently found Jackson not breathing and checked to find he was still warm and with a faint pulse. He immediately began CPR, with one hand behind Jackson for support and the other pumping his chest. He then put Jackson on the floor to continue the procedure until help arrived.

It surprised me he didn't first use a defibrillator, the little machine that can restore a heartbeat or the rhythm of the heart. I used to be completely oblivious to the defibrillators one sees on the walls of airports and other places — that is, until I finally got around to taking a war correspondents' course (insisted on by the Toronto Star) a couple of years ago. Among other things taught that week in my course in Virginia, the instructors emphasized the importance of defibrillators. Obviously, they didn't expect us to carry one in our backpacks in a war zone, but they wanted us to be aware of their value so we could help somebody, should the need ever arise and one be available. Increasingly, I see them in public places. I would have thought Jackson's doctor would have had a defibrillator (which, as this link shows, works by momentarily stopping the heart and, in successful cases, restoring a proper rhythm) and used it, before beginning CPR. After all, the guy is a cardiologist. In any case, I'm not a doctor, but I'm curious about what medical personnel think.

It also struck me as odd that Murray apparently reported Jackson was still warm. If he'd only left the room for the brief time suggested by the lawyer (as I heard it) on Dateline NBC, Jackson would obviously be still warm. I'm not suggesting anything nefarious here, just waiting for authorities to release more details on Jackson's death.

Also, this appears to be a clear case where an inquest is required. Only then would issues, such as whether the doctor took all the proper medical steps in his efforts to save his patient's life, be resolved. There's been no indication an inquest will be held. Without it, we'll be left with speculation, nothing more.

Here's a useful link to the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation.

 

Toronto-Danforth to Mr. Layton: Where are ye, Jack?

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Hardly a lazybones, our Jack Layton. The NDP leader spends countless hours on the road and, undoubtedbly, pounds the pavement in his Toronto-Danforth riding. I couldn't find an itinerary at Layton's website, but (to be fair) the House just adjourned for the summer and he's likely taking a break.

But, I've lived in Layton's riding for five years, during which time we've had three federal elections, and he's never been to my door. Now, I admit I could have missed him, but I doubt it. NDP volunteers have been around and, like other political parties, left "Sorry, we missed you" tags. I've never found one saying the leader had been by. (Of course, for my job, I've talked to him countless times.)

I raise this because earlier this week, I opened my door on a steamy Toronto day to meet Adriana Mugnatto-Hamu - the Green Party's new candidate in the riding. She wanted to introduce herself, pass out some information and assure me she'd be back over the summer. Her card notes that, as a mother of five, she's "increasingly concerned about the climate and resource challenges my children will face." She lists groups she's involved with, including Post Carbon Toronto, Amnesty International and JustEarth. 

The underdog does the gruntwork and Mugnatto-Hamu is no exception. In Toronto-Danforth in last October's election, Layton sailed to victory with 20,416 votes (45 percent) to Green Party candidate Sharon Howarth's third place finish with 5,995 votes (13.2 percent). Liberal Andrew Lang was second (13,291 and 29.3 percent). There's virtually no chance an unknown like Mugnatto-Hamu could sneak up on a party leader like Jack Layton in the next federal election.

Right?

Hey folks, win a chat with Iggy

Who dreams this stuff up? I mean, it's a cute idea, but . . .

Alf Apps, president of the federal Liberals, is offering Canadians a chance to see Leader Michael Ignatieff this summer. It's a longshot, but if you don't enter, you can't win. As Apps says in a recent email:

With Parliament having recessed for the summer, the immediate threat of an election has faded, but the Liberal Party still has work to do to make sure it is ready when the time does come. Throughout the summer, Michael Ignatieff will be traveling all across Canada, meeting with Canadians and sharing his vision for the future of our country.

Would you like for one of those meetings to be with you? We are planning two special stops on the tour, and we¹d like to give you a chance to win one of them for your riding. And all you need to do is become a member of the Liberal Party of Canada.

If you join on-line before Canada Day, you¹ll be entered in a draw for one of the two special visits. If your name is chosen, a visit to your riding will be added to the Leader¹s itinerary, and the agenda for that visit will include an opportunity for you to sit down in a private meeting with Michael  a unique opportunity for you to share your ideas for the future of the Liberal Party and for Canada.

The greater our numbers, the more effectively we can make a difference and get our great country back on track. Help us make Canada better. Join the Liberal Party today.

Thank you,  

Alfred Apps
President, Liberal Party of Canada

Let me get this straight. Two ridings get a special visit. Two? One person gets a private meeting? That's the prize? Let's hope Iggy's people at least provide a decent picnic basket.

I suppose other Liberal ridings get not-so-special visits - or none at all.   

Ginger the Pit Bull and the Law

Animals again. On a week with no garbage pickup, no day care and, possibly, no liquor, let's turn to animals to make sense out of life.

Frankly, I was surprised last week when the City decided to appeal the Ontario Court Justice ruling that, as my colleague Nick Aveling wrote, would have saved Ginger the pit bull's life. Two months ago, Ontario Court Justice Mary Hogan set aside a 2007 order to have Ginger destroyed, noting her "concern that such a dog would be ordered destroyed in circumstances where the dog had no culpability whatsoever."

She didn't accept the original findings about the fight between Ginger and a German shepherd cross, Buddy. In late 2005, Ginger was accused of attacking Buddy in a Toronto park and, following a 2007 trial before a Justice of the Peace in the Ontario Court of Justice, was ordered destroyed. Her owner, Philip Huggins appealed the death sentence and Hogan ruled Buddy had attacked Ginger, tearing off the pit bull's muzzle.

That's not the part of the ruling that makes the appeal by the City and Ontario Attorney-General's Office seem surprising to me. 

It's what has been said about the legislation itself. In granting the appeal last week, Court of Appeal Justice Russell Juriansz said the law is ambiguous.

That was Hogan's conclusion too. She criticized the Ontario legislation requiring pit bulls that bite, attack or pose a menace to humans or animals be automatically put down. She called it both ambiguous and absurd. You'll remember the legislation is the work of former attorney-general, Michael Bryant. Under his stewardship, the  Dog Owner's Liability Act (DOLA) was amended to forbid ownership of pit bulls in Ontario. It allowed existing animals to live with restrictions, including mandatory destruction for biting.

City and A-G lawyers went ahead with their appeal despite comments about "ambiguity" that suggest there's a problem with the law and with rulings based on the law. Justice Juriansz said the "ambiguity raises a question of law alone, that in my view is significant enough to warrant consideration by the court."

Does a pit bull that bites to save a baby's life from attack have to be put down? What about a dog that fights off a coyote? Justice Hogan pointed out the legislation means a pit pull that attacks a burgler must be euthanized. Should a dog that bites in self-defense be put down?

It is going to be an interesting decision. Clayton Ruby, the Toronto criminal and constitutional lawyer who's taken on Ginger's case for Huggins, says he's optimistic. He argues if the Appeal Tribunal (of three judges) agrees the law is ambiguous, the court could set conditions for determining what constitutes a bite, i.e. it can't be defensive or a rescue action. That would then have to be taken into consideration whenever the law is applied.

For now, Ginger is back with Huggins after being in custody with Toronto Animal Services for more than three years. The City of Toronto, says Ruby, had no power to take the dog away in the first place.

* * *

Interesting analysis on the role of social networking in Iran from DailyDish blogger and former skeptic, Andrew Sullivan.

Fate of Toronto's 400 shelter animals during the strike

During the city strike, spare a thought for the animals housed at the city's four shelters. Animal lovers in this city are concerned about what's going to happen to them with unionized staffers on strike. The good news, according to Kevin Sack, communications director for Toronto, is that "the City is a lover of pets and animals and we'll do what we have to do to look after them — day and night."

Provisions have been made, according to Sack. First, normal operations have been suspended. One of the four centres is closed for the duration — the Horse Palace, Exhibition Place — and the other three have gone to shortened hours, 12:30 PM to 3:30 PM, Monday to Saturday, closed Sunday. The three open shelters are:

146 The East Mall (West Region)

13000 Sheppard Ave. W. (North)

821 Progress Ave. (East)

In an interview today, Sack said there are currently 400 animals in the care of Toronto Animal Services. There is, he added, "no change to our policy for the protection of these animals, as long as they are healthy and we don't run out of room." Asked what would happen if TAS ran out of room, he said the city would bring in more people to ensure animals are cared for. Under no circumstances, would more animals be euthanized. He stressed: "That is absolutely not the case . . . It's not part of our plan."

With two unions out, Sack said shelter animals are being looked after by management staff, which includes managers and non-unionized staffers from the animal centres, as well as other City staffers who have been re-assigned, and would have received proper training. He did not elaborate.

"They have more than they need," Sack said, of people looking after shelter animals during the strike. "Don't forget, these are dedicated people. They really care about the animals and will do whatever is required to protect their health and welfare." It goes without saying, he added, "they'll be incredibly busy."

* * *

Perhaps one of the best sources during the strike is a great blog — onebarkatatime — written by a volunteer for Toronto Animal Services.  He has informed comment about the potential impact of the strike on the animal centres . My favorite part of this blog by "Fred" — really? — is his non-profile profile. (Maybe botox does work on sweaty feet, Fred. Of course, you'll never walk again.)

Hillary Clinton on Canadian Water: What's yours is ours

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon pledged to update the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, during a visit Saturday to Niagara Falls. They made the announcement at the Rainbow Bridge to mark the 100th anniversary of the Canada-U.S. Boundary Waters Treaty, then met for about an hour on the Canadian side.

The 1909 Treaty, said Clinton, made official what people on both sides of the border had always known: "The rivers, lakes, the streams, the watersheds along the boundary do not belong to one nation or the other, but to both of us, and we are therefore called to be good stewards in the care of these precious resources."

Translation: "What's ours is ours and what's yours is ours."

Be afraid, be very afraid.

* * *

Going fishing until June 22.

It's 2009 and the RCMP will have "real time" access to INTERPOL's databases. Yikes! Just now?

The RCMP put out a press release this morning announcing Canada is set to become one of the first countries in the world to provide police officers nationwide with technology to gain immediate access to INTERPOL'S "vast international criminal database."

Now? Now they're doing it. Decoder doesn't want to be picky but didn't James Bond have access to "real time" Interpol files three decades ago?  And what about Criminal Minds? Those guys have everything. I thought "real time" access 24/7 to INTERPOL information helped keep no-fly lists current so mistakes are never made. (Joke.)

Seriously, it's a surprise to learn law enforcement agencies didn't have this tool eons ago. On a ride-along with the B.C. Integrated Gang Task Force recently, it looked like they could launch a satellite from their onboard computer.

Well, it's good to know the RCMP is getting it now. We're only coming up on the eighth anniversary of 9/11. As Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan says: "This project will have a positive and immediate impact on Canada's ability to fight global crime. We are providing law enforcement with the tools they need to prevent attacks on our security and make communities safer."

Good to know.

On anniverary of residential schools apology, isn't something missing?

Today is the first anniversary of the monumental event. A year ago, Prime Minister Stephen Harper stood in the House of Commons and apologized for the treatment of indigenous children forcibly removed from their communities and taken to religious schools where many endured both physical and psychological torture. The odious practice that continued for over a century in Canada is to be investigated by the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The Commission is part of a legal settlement that provided $1.9 billion to victims and their families. After long delays, it took a step forward yesterday with the announcement of new leadership.

But there's something missing, something important - I just can't put my finger on what it is amidst all the self-congratulation on the part of Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl (apology setting the tone for the future, etc.). He chose the eve of the apology's anniversary to announce the new executive of the Reconciliation Commission. Now, what is it that's missing?

Oh yes, Canada was one of only four nations to oppose endorsing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in September, 2007. The overwhelming vote in favour was 144-4. Canada joined Austalia, New Zealand and the U.S in a hardline position maintained today by only 2 1/2 nations (so to speak).  One country changed its mind (along with its government) when Australia endorsed the declaration earlier this year. New Zealand is reconsidering its position.

On May 1, 2008, a group of 101 Canadian lawyers, scholars and other experts appealed to the government in a letter that argues the Declaration in no way counters the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as claimed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government. The U.S. government backs the Canadian position, maintaining the Declaration does not apply to nations who haven't endorsed it. That claim, too, is challenged in the letter.  These experts argue nations don't get to pick and choose which international UN declarations apply to them, noting the failure to endorse a resolution guaranteeing indigenous rights is the first time Canada has ever claimed exemption from such a document. Advocates for the Declaration (see links to other documents and letters) say it contains rights already established in international and Canadian law. The Declaration guarantees indigenous rights to self-determination, land, cultural identity and protection against genocide and discrimination.

The Residential Schools Commission is set to move forward. It's unfortunate there's unfinished business on another important issue.

Lisa Raitt attacks another woman - how unique

Without commenting on anything else on Lisa Raitt's unscripted taped conversation with her then-press secretary Jasmine MacDonnell, I have a question: Why are some women so eager to diss other women?

It gets so-o-o boring. Natural Resources Minister Raitt  takes a stab at sugarcoating her putdown of Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq with, "She's so capable. "

There's a "but."

Raitt goes on to say, "but it's hard for her to come out of a cooperative government into this rough-and-tumble."

Now there's a double whammy. Translation: It's not real politics up there in Nunavut (where Aglukkaq sat in the Legislative Assembly).

Raitt continues: "She had a question in the House yesterday, or two days ago, that planked. I really hope she never gets anything hot."

Oh yes, of course, that's exactly what she hopes.

The whole thing is such a female putdown. She's not strong enough, can't take the heat. Would Raitt have chosen the same approach to slam a male health minister?

The best women support other women and, thankfully, my life is full of these great people. But enough already with holdovers from prehistoric times. A tedious mindset. Stick a fork in it, it's done.

Mexico can't keep the lid on anymore: narco war kills 16 in Acapulco

This weekend marked the official takeover of tourist paradise by the kind of narco war carnage that has terrorized the country, with an estimated 12,000 dead, over the past three years. A two-hour shootout with heavy weaponry erupted when police attacked a drug cartel HQ a few blocks from the main Acapulco strip of Boulevard Miguel Aleman and claimed 16 lives (some reports said18).  At least one police officer died, according to reports, and four officers were later found gagged and bound in the house, but alive. This kind of public shootout in a tourist haven like Acapulco shines a public spotlight on Mexico's narco wars in a way that will surely impact on tourism. Associated Press released a video:

  

This has been coming for a long time in Acapulco, as it has been in other cities popular with tourists. The Mexican and U.S. governments argue the full-scale violence over three years results from the Felipe Calderon government's crackdown on the narco trade. Drug-trafficking experts in Mexico, as well as NGOs, see other reasons behind the government's military response to the drug cartels. I've gone into that in other blogs. In any case, with this weekend's violence at one of the country's most popular tourist sites, any attempt to maintain an image that killings occur largely in border cities and among the cartels themselves - with little impact on tourists - has been shattered.

In Guerrero state, with its Pacific beach resorts of Acapulco, Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa and Puerto Vallarta (which readers correct as being on Jalisco/Nayarit border), the cartel rivalry is thought to be mainly between the established Bertran Leyva gang and the Sinaloa Cartel muscling in from the north. A top Beltran Leyva gunman was believed to have been in the Acapulco house and killed.

There will be a price beyond human life to pay and, unfortunately, it will impact upon poor Mexicans who eke out a living from the tourist business. It's becoming increasingly clear that throwing the army at the problem is not working. Narco-trafficking as a parallel economy, with cadres of supporters in high places, is too entrenched in the fabric of the country. Moreover, social problems at the heart of the narco epidemic - from farmers who depend on sales of marijuana or poppy to unemployment and social rootlessness - must be addressed. Otherwise, expect more than lids blowing up; expect the entire stove to explode.

Here's Universal's report on the shootout.

And scratch what I said yesterday about not writing about narco-trafficking for a time.

A video on "Lord of the Skies"

Amado Carrillo Fuentes - the Lord of the Skies - died in 1997, before YouTube videos could actually show footage of him. However, here's an offering (in Spanish) to give you a sense of the guy's power and legend. Maybe he died in his hospital room in Mexico City after a bad reaction (really bad) to plastic surgery that lasted 14 hours. Maybe, as authorities believe, he was murdered by his bodyguards. Or, perhaps, as the myth goes, he escaped in a giant scam. The plastic surgery in a Mexico City hospital was supposed to give him a new life, and maybe it did. Wait for the movie. Tarantino?

* * *

A big reason drug lords are so much a part of Mexican pop culture is their taste for beautiful women. The standard for escapades set by Raul Salinas, the brother of former president Carlos Salinas, still stands. He was in jail in 1995, charged with murder and various crimes related to narco-trafficking, and needed money. So his fourth wife, the beautiful Paulina Castanon de Salinas (a Catherine Deneuve lookalike) sailed forth and breezed into a Swiss bank and tried to withdraw $84 million U.S. in cash one afternoon.

She was arrested and, at the time, magazines were filled with glossy photos of Paulina in Raul's arms, Paulina posing on his yacht, etc. etc. The public ate it up, as they do photos of celebrities "linked" to the drug trade by rumour. (Salinas was convicted in 1999 of having masterminded a murder and given 50 years in prison, later reduced to a 27-year term. His sentence was overturned and he walked out of prison a free man in 2005. He still faces illegal enrichment charges related to drugs but those charges will likely evaporate with time.)

After Castanon's arrest, Salinas gave an interview insisting, rather hilariously, he was innocent.

* * *

It's easy to find video online about narco-trafficking in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada - the focus for our recent series - as well as analysis of the fallout in society at large, whether reports in NarcoNews, human rights documents, congressional investigations and various articles.  You can easily find videos on YouTube and other sites showing recent arrests.

What I'm waiting for is the definitive book on who facilitates narco-trafficking in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada, with exposes on all the politicians, business tycoons, civil servants and the layers of facilitators in law enforcement , the judiciary and other organizations.  But I suppose the chances of a writer with the real goods surviving to publication is slim to none. 

* * *

With this offering, the Decoder turns again to matters other than narco-trafficking.

The man who showed me how the drug trade works

You only need to get it once, and I got it from Jorge Aguirre Meza who was executed by drug thugs with AK-47s in front of his little girl in his front yard in Sinaloa state in 1997. He died more than a decade ago, but with his life and death showed me nothing would change in the drug business, not without a revolution in thinking and that hasn't happened.

He was a federal drug agent working from headquarters in Mexico City when he cracked a big case on the Arizona border, with suspects on both sides. He was excited, called his superiors and rushed back to the capital, expecting kudos and involvement with the team of agents that he assumed would take over the investigation and, he hoped, make wide-scale arrests, shutting down the tunnel he'd discovered and scoop up the evidence he'd compiled against individuals.

Instead, as he entered the attorney-general's office in DF, he met an army contact who told him he was in deep trouble - and he was. His boss told him to keep quiet, nothing was ever done, he realized his superiors wanted information about drug operations so they could demand bigger bribes from their cartel contacts, he quit and went back to his home state on the west coast to practice human rights law. He was an excellent contact for the short period before his assassination and I visited him a few times, met his family - notably a red-haired rirebrand of a daughter - and shared meals and laughs. When I wrote about his death in the Toronto Star (I was Latin America bureau chief based in Mexico City) the president's office called to express their condolences, as if the loss had been all mine and had nothing to do with Mexico and the war against drugs.

So I got it.

Since then, there have been a couple of drug czars arrested with great hoopla for working for the cartels - General Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo and Noe Ramirez - but it's all just "seen it before" for me. Nobody's serious about cleaning it up and I can see why: for the corrupt, it's too lucrative; for the honest, it's too dangerous. People get killed for telling the truth.

 * * *

Recent reports on human rights in Mexico:

Amnesty International USA, 2008

U.S. Department of State

Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada (see various links)

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (no human rights reports by country but generic responses to questions from parliamentary committees. Thin gruel.)

* * *

Tomorrow, the Star wraps up a series on the hemispheric drug wars - "Lethal Connections" with a first link to the stories - that looks at social costs, fallout in Mexico as neighbour and NAFTA partner and the violence that kills innocents. I sought an interview with a Canadian official so I could report for readers on the government's perspective and concerns.

 Peter Kent, Foreign Affairs minister of state, was not available.

* * *

Final posts on drug wars over the weekend.

Handy-dandy drug cartel/narco-trafficking research guide

Big topic, so this is merely a taste for beginners.

Ready to turn over a narco-lord or henchman to the FBI? All set for the Witness Protection program? In that case, go to: www.narctip.com

* * *

Travelling to Mexico?

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada posted a report on Mexico. Swine flu altered the picture for a few weeks earlier this spring.

Ditto for U.S. State Department report on Mexico (includes at-a-glance country information), and a recent Washington Post public service guide for readers on the neighbour to the south.

* * *

Drug lord of the day: "America's Most Wanted" on El Chapo Guzman

* * *

For starters - two good research sites on Mexico and Latin America

Washington Office on Latin America: WOLA

Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada 

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For readers with a real appetite to learn more about narco-trafficking, I'll wrap up the series, "Lethal Connections," after Saturday's last story with a weekend of blogging at PoliticalDecoder. If you're reading this, in all likelihood you already have the address.

How'd you like to have U.S. Border Patrol drug-check your car for the media?

I'd be nervous if I were carrying an aspirin.

How's this for bad timing? It's a sunny May day in Southern California, you're in a traffic line heading south into Mexico at Tijuana, you look up and a big media line is watching to see if U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents check out your car properly for drugs. U.S. border chief Alan Bersin is there, as is the hierarchy from Homeland Security, the Coast Guard, you name it. Sound like fun?

That was the day recently for an unlucky few lines of cars going south to Mexico while Bersin and crew gave a press conference on the American side of the Otay Mesa crossing into Tijuana, a few kilometres south of San Diego. Toronto Star photographer Carlos Osorio worked as agents stripped cars and drug-sniffing dogs went through everything. (Some pretty weird canine specimen with CBP these days - although it's hard to find a dog I don't like.) While they took some drivers away for questioning, others stood around looking bored and pissed off - but smart enough to keep it buttoned. How's that for choosing the day you DON'T want to cross the border? These agents were itching to make a show for the mucky-mucks; it's human nature. Didn't look as if they found much to me, although (as we documented) they sure had drugs and a mini-gun arsenal on display.

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Bersin made local news in San Diego after U.S. President Barack Obama appointed him earlier this year. (Warning for Hollywood hounds: any resemblance to "Anchorman" is purely coincidental.)

Why film "Traffic" still the best on narco-trafficking from Mexico

You may have noticed we're running a series on narco-trafficking this week (today's installment) and Decoder is offering a behind-the-scenes look all week.

Many of my Mexican colleagues don't like the film, Traffic and will say why. They cite everything from another town (Juarez, I think) being used for Tijuana, skewed Mexican and American authorities and the whole Hollywood theme with the drug czar's daughter on a downward drug spiral. From a Mexican perspective, they're right, but for Canadians who want a realistic sense of what's going on in the narco-wars, it's an education. Look at it as really good for a Hollywood flick.

It's still worth checking out.

There really was a General Arturo Salazar, played by Tomas Milan. In the movie, he's the army general who goes head-to-head with Benecio del Toro's good cop, Javier Rodriguez. In reality, General Jesus Gutierrez Rebello, head of the Mexican equivalent of the Drug Enforcement (DEA), worked for the Juarez Cartel. He'd had access to the highest levels of political power in the United States, yet was using the army to fight the Arrellano Felix Bros. around Tijuana on behalf of his benefactors in Juarez. He was arrested in 1997 and got something like 100 years in jail. At the time, his boss was Amado Castillo Fuentes, called "Lord of the Skies" for his gang's mastery of trafficking by air and his penchant for luxury jets. He made the Juarez Cartel the most powerful in the country in his era, opening up drug routes to Europe and Africa as well as the U.S., and grooming people — including family members — as financiers, lawyers and marketing experts needed in his massive international business enterprise. He died suspiciously in a hospital bed after 14 hours of plastic surgery in Mexico City. According to legend, he's not deceased. The year was 1997, the same year they took down Rebollo.

Del Toro's character embodies the good cop, and that's the point to remember about the narco-wars. There is rampant corruption in Mexico, as every expert on criminal organizations and ties to power will attest, but there are also police officers who stand up to the cartels and pay with their lives, along with those of their family members. They are found mutilated and burned, part of the carnage that has swept Mexico.

The film's sub-plot about the daughter of the U.S. drug chief (Michael Douglas) fighting her own little addiction war — yeah, okay. It shows the rot within the American Empire and the vital role of consumers in the whole operation. But it's pretty heavy-handed. Hollywood. (I haven't seen the 1989 British miniseries, Traffik that friends say is superior.)

There are more fairly accurate depictions in Traffic."Cristina Palacios Hoyodan, who heads an organization fighting impunity in Tijuana, says a character is a composite of her son, Alejandro, 35, who was kidnapped (likely) by the cartels in 1997 and never seen again. He knew the Arrellano Felix brothers (they were neighbours in a wealthy suburb of Tijuana when drug lords tried to fit in) and his mother knows he was mixed up with drugs. In the film, he's believed to be Carlos Ayala (Steven Bauer), who's arrested by the DEA in San Diego for drug-trafficking Catherine Zeta-Jones plays his wife, Helena. Parts of the movie were shot at the old courthouse in San Diego.

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Some light background reading for readers who want to know more:

Last year's congressional report on drug-trafficking

Reporters Without Borders site with links to the murder of journalists, internationally and by country

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A post-script on Saturday's story (see link at top) about Constables Mike Clark and Phil Gomes, from the Integrated Gang Task Force in Vancouver:

Clark talks about the "Spidey sense" they develop after a time on a dangerous beat — a new Spiderman reference for me.

Plus, their their favorite movie is Super Troopers, which meant I spent the night in the back of the copmobile without getting most of the references.