PETITION CLOSED

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Tell President Obama To Stop Funding The Merida Initiative
  1. Signatures
    157 out of 5,000
    Petitioning
    1. The President of the United States
  2. Created By
    Sarah Menkedick
    Pittsburgh, PA, Mexico
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates

President Obama recently withheld 26 million dollars from the 1.6 billion George W. Bush promised under the Merida Initiative to fight the "war on drugs" in Mexico. This is a step in the right direction; however, until the U.S pulls funding entirely for this flawed and diastrous initiative, Mexicans' human rights will continue to be violated in grave and egregious ways by the Mexican army.

In the time since Calderon took office in 2006 and declared a full-on war against the Mexican cartels, tens of thousands of soldiers have been deployed across Mexico. These soldiers are held accountable to no one but military courts, which quickly exonerate them of wrongdoing. They have gang-raped women, murdered families at checkpoints, tortured detainees, and stolen from and terrorized the population. Mexicans have protested the army's presence in many major cities in the north of the country, and more than 5,000 human rights complaints have been filed (hardly any of which have been investigated).

The United States continues to fund the Mexican army even as it violates the rights of Mexican citizens with impunity. It is time for President Obama to pull funding from the Merida Initiative until these human rights complaints are investigated and the army can be held accountable for its actions.

 

Recent Signatures

Stop Funding The Merida Initiative

Dear President Obama,

More than 5,000 human rights complaints have been filed against the Mexican army in the years since the Merida Initiative was signed by George W. Bush, and more and more are filed every day. Fewer than 5% of these complaints are ever investigated, and those that are investigated are frequently dismissed, or the soldiers involved are given a quick military trial and exonerated from responsibility.

The Inter-American Human Rights Court recently held Mexico responsible for the violent gang rapes by Mexican soldiers of two indigenous Mexican women in the state of Guerrero. The soldiers were given military trials, where they were declared not guilty and freed. Only eight years later, after extensive efforts on the part of the women to obtain justice, did the Inter-American Human Rights Court step up and issue a verdict holding the Mexican government responsible for failing to defend its' citizens human rights and colluding with the army to cover up rights violations.

This is the fourth such issuance from the court to the government of Mexico. Recently, two children - ages five and nine - were gunned down by Mexican soldiers at a checkpoint, and four underage women were raped during a raid on a community in Michoacan. Videotapes of police practicing torture techniques in Leon, Guanajuato have surfaced, as well as initial evidence that the American military contractors are abetting the Mexican military in torturing detainees. Reports about human rights violations and torture have been published in both Ciudad Juárez and Tijuana, detailing hundreds of gruesome incidents in each of those cities. Mexican periodicals "Proceso" and "La Jornada" have also brought attention to dozens of other incidents in which Mexican citizens have been robbed, raped, and/or assaulted by soldiers.

The Merida Initiative demands that crimes committed by soldiers against civilians be tried in civilian court and that human rights complaints be investigated in a timely and transparent manner. Neither of these demands are being met in Mexico, as the recent ruling by the Inter-American Human Rights Court reveals. The United States must pull funding for the Merida Initiative until current human rights complaints are investigated, the Mexican military and government are held accountable for their actions, and transparent systems are set in place to deal with future complaints and to prevent the military from acting with impunity: otherwise, the United States is funding and helping to wage a violent and brutal war against the citizens of Mexico.

[Your name]

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