Greetings from SOA Watch in Mexico!

Dear Armando,

As a child who was born and raised on the Mexico-US border, I grew up enjoying a front yard for me to do what little children do: play.  Then one day, all of the sudden, a fence was constructed through my play area. I now needed a passport to go to my "garden of Eden."  And through my front window, I saw first hand the real meaning of militarization in what my eyes witnessed day after day. I observed how men and women were treated by US officials as if they were something other than human. As a child what surprised me most was how adults justified in the name of "security," what to me was clearly repugnable.  And I see that again today in Mexico in the "war on drugs." In this war, murder, torture, and disappearances at the hands of the state are justified by security.  In the war "against drugs" that the United States is waging in México, massacres are justified in the name of security, but is it really our security that is at risk?

My name is Evalejandra Chavez, and for the next six months I will be an the SOA Watch activante in México, a country in which the U.S. has, through the Merida Initiative, financed, trained, and funded the military, police, and other special forces under the false discourse of a war on drugs.  However, years have passed and the militarization hasn't accomplished its stated purpose but has instead trapped us in a nightmare where forced disappearances, executions, and torture by "security" forces has become the norm.  The war is in reality not against drugs but against the Mexican people, especially social movements or any kind of resistance to the neoliberal reforms being imposed.  Organized communities that stand up for their land, their resources, their dignity, their integrity, and true security are under attack.  I recently had the opportunity to join the SOA Watch delegation to Mexico, where we traveled to Chiapas and Guerrero, witnessing the human costs of the US-backed militarization.

Without a doubt, we have responsibility to our brothers and sisters in México who are being disappeared, whose lives are being taken away, and who are tortured -- by a government financed with the tax dollars that American citizens pay.  The reality I see is that the Merida Initiative has armed and trained the Mexican army to fight its own people.

As the SOA Watch movement, we must celebrate and be in solidarity with those creating alternatives to militarization, such as the community police forces in many Indigenous and rural Mexican communities.  The community police are a successful alternative security model based on traditional community values and they have proven that they can maintain a safe community without military intervention.  Morevoer, they have proven that militarization doesn't work and is in fact, all too often linked to organized crime and a threat to organized communities.  Because they don't allow organized crime and drug cartels, which are many times linked to the government, the community police are persecuted and repressed.  General Gurrola, the head of security in Michoacan and a graduate of the Ft. Benning Infantry School, publicly declared zero tolerance against community police. The same day, the military captured a leader of the community police and hours later opened fire on unarmed civilians, murdering a child and injuring several others.
As part of my activantia with SOA Watch, we are creating an

urgent action group to respond to situations as they arise as well as support freedom for the community police.  I will send alerts to this group at times when it would be helpful to have people contact officials and demand justice.  If you would like to be part of this effort, please join here.

It is time to unite our efforts because we are living in a state of emergency in Mexico.  If we don't do anything to stop the Merida Iniative, the horror will continue.  It is unbearable.
I look forward to working together and it is a great honor to be part of the SOA Watch movement as we seek to stop the massacres, disappearances, and murders of the Mexican people -- and all people -- under the false rationale of the drug war.  Stay updated at soaw.org/mexico as I post articles, alerts, and more.  I would also love to be in contact with you to share ideas or talk about how we can work together.  Feel free to be in touch with me on Facebook, Twitter, or via e-mail at Evalejandra @ soaw.org.
For a hemisphere free from militarization!

Contra el olvido y la impunidad, por la memoria y resistencia.
Evalejandra
P.S. Support SOAW's work in Mexico by clicking here!http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/32114-oaxaca-mexico-faces-police-militarization-as-governor-acts-to-preempt-education-protests#