Drug trafficking, border violence, immigration, and other issues with U.S./Mexico ties never stand alone as isolated incidences. There are inevitable sources of imbalance causing sociopolitical conflict evidenced by interpretations of democracy and faulty leadership hierarchies between military and civilian powers.

Have you ever muddled over the differences between U.S. democracy and that of Latin America? Then, don't miss out on this insightful, yet clear discussion regarding the current state of Latin American democracy in light of current events! 

Excerpt from, "Honduras crisis shows Latin America's weaknesses" by Juan Tamayo-

The weekend ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya showed just how easily Latin American countries can plunge into crises when their institutions prove too weak to resolve stand-offs between government branches, analysts say.

''The larger set of problems highlighted by the Honduras case is that in some Latin American countries the rule of law is fragile, and the institutional framework for resolution of conflicts is very fragile,'' said Bruce Bagley, a Latin America specialist at the University of Miami.

Zelaya's ouster and expulsion to Costa Rica by the military early Sunday capped a long-simmering crisis that pitted the president against virtually every other branch of government over his plan for a nonbinding referendum that could have opened the door to constitutional reforms -- including allowing presidential reelection. The constitution prohibits any change in its ban on reelection [...]

''We are abiding by the Constitution,'' said Roberto Micheletti, elevated from head of the congress to interim president after Zelaya's ouster, arguing the president was removed legitimately -- an argument rejected by Washington and most other countries.

''Both sides committed errors,'' Bagley said. ``But the military conducted a coup. There are procedures for removing a president. Impeach him. That's the way these things should happen.But you should not get the military involved. In fact, no one has been abiding by the rules in the Zelaya dispute,'' added Bagley, ``which in any case is not unusual for Honduras and other Latin American countries where the institutions of government are weak.''

''Institutional weaknesses are a very serious problem in some parts of Latin America, and are at the root of many of the problems in those countries,'' said José Miguel Vivanco, director of Human Rights Watch-Americas, in a telephone interview.

As in Honduras, he noted, the armed forces in some Latin American countries have never been totally subordinated to civilian power. ''Even in the best of cases, the civilian governments are often forced to negotiate with the military,'' he said.

POLARIZATION

Several Latin American countries also are currently going through a period of ''strong political polarization'' in which both leaders and opponents have adopted ''inflexible positions'' that make it difficult to find compromise without authoritarian dictats or violent street protests, Vivanco added [...]

Combine those troubling factors with Latin America's traditional bent toward caudillismo -- strong one-man rule, usually by a charismatic leader -- and it's no surprise some countries in the region find it difficult to resolve conflicts that pit one part of the government against another, Vivanco added.

PUSH FOR CHANGE

The human rights activists also argued -- as have several other U.S. and Latin American academics in recent years -- that the region should abandon its generally strong presidential systems and move toward parliamentary systems where the legislative majority controls the executive branch, and early elections can be held when the ruling party suffers a significant defeat [...]

''The parliamentary system is more sensitive to the oscillations of people amid a crisis,'' he added. ``It's an option that allows you to resolve conflicts, without having to count how many generals you have in your favor, or how many street protests you can organize.''

Photo courtesy of: ESTEBAN FELIX/AP

I throughly enjoy visuals such as this which transform our perspectives... COMMENT if you have something to say!

Courtesy of stopthenorthamericanunion.com

The progressive email arrived while I was lamenting the press coverage of the shooting at the Holocaust Museum. The facts of the shooting don’t seem in much doubt. A bigot with a long history of expressing his racism finally tried to go out in a blaze of hateful glory. And, like the plans for glory of so many other hatemongers, including Hitler, his plans failed. Hitler and Pol Pot had to face the judgment of history. This killer, like Timothy McVeigh, will have to face the judgment of a jury of his peers. His actual peers, not those he might wish were his peers.

But while the nation fastened its attention on the shooting of a guard in Washington D.C., the Associated Press was trying to circulate a story about another murder by racists. The story was about a Latino father and his young daughter who were gunned down by right-wing, border “militiamen,”carrying badges and pretending to be enforcing U.S. sovereignty. The story got no traction.

Ever wonder why non-Anglo children who are kidnapped or heinously murdered never receive equal fanfare as little white girls do? Ever wonder why media coverage of racist murders gravitates toward interesting, sexy, famous places like the Holocaust Museum instead of, for example, private homes of hispanic border families? While Mr. Hall's article covered a wide range of topics, his discussion of race politics and the differences between the Arizona/Holocaust Museum shootings captured my attention-

The father was a legal resident. He was employed. He was doing what the right wing says it wants legal immigrants to do. But he and his daughter are now dead, shot in their home by self-proclaimed “patriots”. That’s right, shot in their home, not while working as guards in a public facility. But like the guard, shot because they were “racially inferior” in the eyes of their killers.

Are they also racially inferior in the eyes of all those who believe that a killing by a madman in a famous venue is more important than the killing of a Latino family, in their homes, by an organized group of right-wing zealots?

Similar questions get asked every time a little white girl is kidnapped and murdered. As the news trucks gather and pundits spew, a few minority voices cry out asking why we don’t give equal coverage to the regular killing of children of color. And we have to ask it as we see the intense coverage of an attractive Iranian woman, gunned down by the religious secret police for the crime of being where people were demonstrating for democracy.

"Empathy for the Common Man" also helped distinguish the different kinds of bigots, racists who commit crime against immigrants and foreigners. Not all are motivated by religious beliefs, and not all are political activists... However, they are all united by one common denominator: ignorant hate.

The murders in Arizona were different from these political murders. The killers were not religious fanatics trying to impose their viewpoint. They were members of “respectable” militia groups. “Respectable” bigots. The accused leader of the kill squad is a woman whose hate writings remained posted on a “respectable” militia website after the murders until the AP started asking about it. Now that she’s been arrested, the “respectable” bigots are trying to run from their association with the killers.

[...]Where did they learn to kill little girls in their own homes? Our own Pentagon has refused to punish soldiers who rape and kill Iraqi and Afghani little girls, as long as the rapes and murders are in “combat zones.” These militia killers pretend they are fighting a war against racially inferior Latinos in our country. “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel” said Dr. Johnson in 1775. And so it remains today. This is neocon courage.

How many Latino families like the one gunned down in Arizona are working to improve themselves? Without press fanfare, they mow our lawns, tend our children, and clean our offices at night. And without press fanfare, they die from the violence of racist killers pretending to be “protecting the good people.” They suffer and die while “the liberal media” ignore them and wait for the next JonBenét.

The facts remain: a hispanic family 10 miles from the U.S./MX border is slain in their home during a home invasion by a team of white racist bigots posing as US Marshals. In the same month, an elderly white supremacist male walks into the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. and mercilessly shoots and kills an African-American security guard. Each story is indeed horrendous. Interestingly,  the Holocaust/D.C. event clearly receives more national media attention while the Immigrant/Arizona story (arguably more brutal) is slow to catch and barely circulated with the same furrosity. Thanks Tom Hall. 

Photos courtesy of Change.org

This audio clip featured on CNN does all the talking, figuratively and literally... Often times we read or simply hear about atrocities committed against foreigners and immigrants. Rarely, however, are we afforded the opportunity to orientate ourselves directly to such human experience through hearing or seeing for ourselves.

By clicking here you can listen to the 911 call made by a woman after she had witnessed her husband, Raul Flores, and daughter murdered during a home invasion by Arizona Minutemen. Please listen carefully and tune into the experience as though it were you making the call. Read the article excerpt "Rogue Minutemen leader held in fatal home invasion" by CNN's Patrick Oppmann below- 

Raul Flores thought federal agents had barged with guns drawn into his home in Arivaca, Arizona, in the middle of the night.

Shawna Forde, 41, denies involvement in the shooting deaths of an Arizona man and his daughter.
The woman and two men wore uniforms and identified themselves as U.S. Marshals. They claimed the house was surrounded. They said they were looking for an escaped prisoner, Flores' wife told a 911 dispatcher.

But there was no backup waiting outside, and no fugitive. The marshals were imposters.

As the intruders searched his home, Flores asked one of the men why his handgun was taped. The man responded by shooting and killing Flores.

"Someone just came in and shot my daughter and husband," Flores' wife frantically told 911. She tells the police operator that she was shot and left for dead with her husband, Raul Flores, 29, and daughter Brisenia, 9, who were both shot in the head.

Police are not releasing the woman's name to protect her identity. But her 911 call, released to the media by the Pima County Sheriff's Department, tells the story of a deadly home invasion by a rogue band of impostors.

As she describes the initial attack, the intruders return to the house. The door can be heard opening.

"They are coming back in! They are coming back in!" the caller screams. She has armed herself with her husband's handgun.
"Get the f--- out," she barks. The order is followed by the explosive sound of gunfire traded as the wounded woman and her would-be killers fire on each other. A man -- one of the intruders -- is hit and groans loudly. The attackers retreat and leave the woman alive and alone with her slain family... 

TMC offering maternity packages to Mexican women, raising questions on birthright
A Tucson hospital's health-care package promises affluent Mexican women the chance to have their babies in posh surroundings with access to the latest medical equipment.
But the marketing materials leave out a key draw in the arrangement: U.S. citizenship for the newborn.
Tucson Medical Center's "birth package" gives an official nod to a generations-old practice of wealthy Mexican women coming to U.S. hospitals to give birth. Mexican families do the same thing at all local hospitals, but TMC is the only one actively recruiting their business.
The practice is legal, but offensive to some advocates of tougher U.S. immigration standards.
"What it really amounts to," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, "is buying U.S. citizenship."

"This is different from any other kind of medical treatment," said Krikorian, whose Washington, D.C.-based think tank studies the impact of immigration on the United States. "If you come for cancer treatment … there's no consequence for the United States. You pay your money, you go home."
The Mexican consul general in Tucson said parents naturally want to give their children every advantage and securing U.S. citizenship is something a small percentage of Mexican families can afford.

"This is not a new phenomena," said Juan Manuel Calderón Jaimes, who says he's seen the practice for almost 30 years. "Many families of means in Sonora send their wives here to give birth because they have the resources to pay for the services."
Expectant mothers can either schedule a Caesarean section or arrive a few weeks before their due dates to give birth at TMC. It is one of 13 packages aimed at Mexican families, some of which include a stay at a local resort and shopping excursion...

Here are a few of the article's comments on the Arizona Daily Star's site-

5.Comment by Joe C. (Indepublicrat)
""Hopefully, we can create agreements between private hospitals on both sides of the border.""
Yep, I'm sure there'll be a huge number of NATURAL BORN AMERICANS makin' a run south of the border to deliver their kids....NOT!!
TMC, you need to close your doors! I didn't spend almost 22 years in the military so that you could SELL MY COUNTRY TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER!!
It's bad enough that an illegal alien can spit in our face by breaking and entering into our country......and then if they have a kid on our soil....they get REWARDED for breaking our laws by their kid being an anchor baby...
...now you're actually MARKETING AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP TO THE HIGHEST FRICKIN' BIDDER!!
Tucson Medical Center....I sincerely hope that you go BANKRUPT!! 

7. Comment by Jeffrey H. (flibber)
Solution: End birthright citizenship.
The bright side of this practice, is that, like the wealthy Cubans who fled Castro, these kids will be coming from an upper class background and likely not be a drain on the country. But I only wonder if this story isn't "making a movie script" with its tales of private jets and massages. It seems as if even those poor Mexicans can scrape up a few grand to pay the people-smugglers for their ticket into the U.S. This story doesn't tell the whole truth, it's a bit fishy... (read more)