Gobierno de AMLO ‘le gana’ al de Peña Nieto como el más violento; suma 170 mil homicidios

La administración de la Cuarta Transformación rebasa los 170 mil homicidios frente a los 156 mil registrados en el periodo de Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018).

Por David Saúl Vela

diciembre 26, 2023

https://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/nacional/2023/12/26/gobierno-de-amlo-desbanca-al-de-pena-nieto-como-el-mas-violento-suma-170-mil-homicidios/

El México de la 4T registra los mayores niveles de violencia para un sexenio. Y es que, de diciembre de 2018 a diciembre de 2023, cinco primeros años del gobierno de Andrés Manuel López Obrador, suman ya 170 mil 800 personas asesinadas.

Así lo revela la estadística oficial, elaborada por la Secretaría de Seguridad y Protección Ciudadana, en la que se destaca que la cifra de asesinatos por cada 100 mil habitantes es de 22.

Durante los seis años del gobierno de Vicente Fox (2000-2006) hubo 60 mil 280 asesinatos, la gestión de Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) hubo 120 mil 463 crímenes, y la de Enrique Peña (2012- 2018) 156 mil 066 homicidios.

Para la Oficina de la Organización de Naciones Unidas contra la Droga y el Delito (ONUDD), México registra una ligera disminución en la incidencia de homicidios, pero se mantiene con una de las tasas más altas de asesinatos en el mundo.

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En su “Estudio Global de Homicidios 2023″, dado a conocer en agosto pasado, consideró que la llamada pax narca podría estar jugando un papel en dicha reducción de homicidios.

Advierte que, como ocurrió en sexenios anteriores, donde los grupos criminales mostraron su capacidad para influir en el nivel de violencia en el país gracias a un mayor control de territorios y mercados.

La ONUDD advirtió que la alta tasa de homicidios en América Latina y el Caribe obedece a una serie de factores, entre ellos la presencia de grupos criminales vinculados al narcotráfico y el fácil acceso a las armas de fuego.Y en efecto, en México, según datos oficiales de la Secretaría de Seguridad y Protección Ciudadana (SSPC), el 70 por ciento de los crímenes en el país durante la actual administración fueron cometidos con arma de fuego.

Además, en 2023 hubo 302 casos de homicidios culposos, mil 351 casos de lesiones culposas y 53 mil 94 casos de lesiones dolosas que se cometieron con armas de fuego.

Esta última cifra (la de lesiones dolosas), pudo ensanchar en forma considerable la cifra de asesinatos en el país, pero no ocurrió así porque las víctimas tuvieron la suerte o buena fortuna de salvar la vida.

Según el informe de incidencia delictiva del Secretariado Ejecutivo del Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Pública (SESNSP) y del Informe de Seguridad, ambos elaborados por áreas de la SSPC, 4 mil 833 de los 170 mil 800 asesinatos de 2023 fueron feminicidios y 165 mil 967 homicidios dolosos.

Ambos son asesinatos dolosos, la diferencia es que en el feminicidio la motivación es de género, por ello, desde 2015 se inició una contabilidad por separado, con el objetivo es visibilizar la violencia contra las mujeres.

Las cifras del gobierno federal advierten que entre 2019, primer año completo del gobierno del presidente López Obrador, y 2023, hay una baja de 14 por ciento en la incidencia de asesinatos (feminicidios y homicidios dolosos).

Pese a ello, de mantener la tendencia de incidencia de dichos ilícitos, al final de sexenio se estarían rondando ya los 200 mil asesinatos durante la 4T.Las cifras del SESNSP revelan que 10 estados con mayor número de víctimas de asesinatos en el país, ocurridos durante la actual administración, en números absolutos, son:

Guanajuato (18 mil 100), Estado de México (14 mil 251), Baja California (14 mil 181), Jalisco (12 mil 74), Chihuahua (11 mil 955), Michoacán (11 mil 542), Sonora (8 mil 144), Guerrero (7 mil 873), Veracruz (6 mil 797) y CDMX (5 mil 934).En conjunto, dichas entidades concentran el 65 por ciento de los asesinatos ocurridos en el país.

Mientras que, los 10 estados con mayor número de víctimas por cada 100 mil habitantes son: Colima (99.30), Morelos (63.79), Baja California (58.77), Zacatecas (54.71), Chihuahua (49.01), Guanajuato (45.06), Guerrero (42.15), Sonora (40.07), Quintana Roo (36.06) y Michoacán (32.73).

Is Iraq really divided on resistance operations against US targets?

Baghdad grapples with a dual challenge: balancing US threats to stop attacks on its bases in Iraq and Syria, with the unwavering commitment of Iraqi resistance factions to persist until Israel’s war on Gaza ends.

The Cradle's Iraq Correspondent

DEC 22, 2023

https://new.thecradle.co/articles/is-iraq-really-divided-on-resistance-operations-against-us-targets

On 8 December, the US embassy in Baghdad was the target of a multi-rocket attack, marking a new phase in the actions of resistance factions against US forces in Iraq and Syria. This response was triggered by Washington’s unwavering support for Israeli forces in their war of aggression against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The operation was by no means isolated as Iraqi resistance factions have been conducting attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria since 17 October, utilizing drones and various missiles.

Missives rapidly arrived from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and CIA Director William Burns, with warnings that Baghdad will face "serious consequences" if measures are not taken to stop the attacks. Blinken announced that Washington would "respond to any hostile acts targeting American personnel or the armed forces of the mother government."

These strikes have placed Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa al-Sudani in a confrontation – real or sham – against his country's resistance factions, prompting him to call the attacks "acts of terrorism" that "endanger Iraq's internal security." The comments were welcomed by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin who spoke with the Iraqi premier that day. 

Although security forces swiftly apprehended those behind the attacks, Kataeb Hezbollah (KH), a major faction within the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), while not claiming responsibility, vowed further operations against US forces until the Gaza aggression ceased, calling the resistance acts the start of “new rules of engagement.”

Government response and ongoing investigations 

After the embassy incident, Sudani issued a statement in which he emphasized that his government would continue to protect diplomatic missions:

“The perpetrators of these attacks are committing an insult to Iraq, its stability and security, and that these unruly, lawless groups do not represent ... or reflect the will of the Iraqi people, and it does not reflect the national Iraqi decision expressed by the Iraqi government on several official occasions.”

In the statement seen by The Cradle, Sudani added that “tampering with Iraq’s stability, abusing internal security, attempting to jeopardize Iraq’s political reputation, and targeting safe places protected by the force of law, customs, and international agreements, are acts of terrorism.”

On 14 December, the Iraqi government announced the arrest of individuals involved in the embassy attack. Major General Yahya Rasool revealed that “after an intensive intelligence effort,” security services made several arrests. However, the government remained tight-lipped about their identities and affiliations.

A high-level Iraqi security source informs The Cradle that 13 individuals were detained, including main executors and logistical support personnel. The detainees provided no information about their affiliations during initial investigations. 

The source also reveals ongoing efforts to apprehend a group in Sinjar planning missile strikes on a US base in Syria's Hasakah city.

Economic and military threats from the US 

Since 2021, Washington has stationed approximately 2,500 soldiers in Iraq as part of the International Coalition to Combat ISIS, extending their presence well beyond the timeframe of the terror group's defeat. Despite Baghdad’s assertion that this is only within an advisory capacity, these foreign forces have engaged in combat missions, targeting areas such as Abu Ghraib, Jurf al-Nasr, and Kirkuk. 

Political sources close to decision-making circles in Baghdad tell The Cradle that Washington has delivered messages to the Sudani government, most of which were veiled threats that referred to international economic sanctions on Iraq and direct military intervention if the government was unable to stop resistance operations against US military bases in the country. 

The sources also reveal that the US has been pressuring Iraq by manipulating the flow of dollars to the Central Bank, risking a severe economic crisis. Simultaneously, the US has threatened to withdraw US oil companies from Iraq. 

Political analyst Imad al-Atrash characterized this dynamic, stating:

“America treats Iraq as its backyard, using economic leverage to coerce decisions in foreign relations, disregarding the preferences of the Iraqi government. This necessitates a robust government with effective tools to counter Washington’s aggression.”

Washington's threats and pressures have created a rift in the Iraqi political establishment – the question that remains is whether these divisions are real or merely to placate the US. One faction, associated with the Coordination Framework, the largest Shia political bloc from which Sudani emerged, aligns with political groups directly linked to the resistance factions. 

The other faction opposes any confrontation with Washington, even diplomatically, seeking to neutralize the resistance factions and enforce a policy of silence and non-confrontation.

A divided house 

Despite The Cradle’s attempts to obtain an official government comment, Prime Minister Sudani's team refused to divulge details of the steps taken to arrest the perpetrators or the government's stance on potential confrontation with armed factions. However, government spokesman Bassem al-Awadi, tells The Cradle: 

“The presence of the international coalition in Iraq, including the American forces, has training and advisory missions, and any armed activity targeting those forces outside the military institution can be considered an act outside the scope of the law."

Yet, illustrating the political divide on the matter, Member of the Parliamentary Security and Defense Committee, Waad al-Qaddo, insists that:

“The Islamic resistance factions are an integral part of Iraq’s political and security structure. Without them, Iraq would not have been liberated from the terrorist organization ISIS … the factions’ attacks against the American forces would not have occurred.” 

The Al-Fatah Alliance, led by politician Hadi al-Amiri, describes the resistance operations against US forces as “natural, and coming in response to Washington’s support for Israel.” As the leader of the coalition, Ali Hussein, explains to The Cradle:

“The strikes of the Islamic resistance factions on the American forces cannot be stopped, and they do not only come within the framework of supporting Gaza, but rather they are part of the plan to thwart the Israeli plan aimed at dividing the region, controlling it, and reaching the dream of a greater Israel.” 

Diplomatic efforts to curb the resistance 

Private sources indicate that efforts by the Iraqi government to mediate with the resistance factions, urging them to cease targeting US bases, have faced resistance. An undisclosed source informs The Cradle that during the initial days of the Gaza war, the Sudani administration mediated with various figures. 

While some factions, such as the Imam Ali Brigades, were persuaded to adopt diplomatic methods, others, including Ansar Allah Al-Awfiyya, Al-Nujaba Movement, Sayyid al-Shuhada Brigades, and KH, rejected these mediations.

It is worth noting that the Imam Ali Brigades are one of the four pro-Sistani factions that split from the PMU back in 2020, purportedly over disagreements on steps the PMU was taking since the territorial defeat of ISIS. 

The Secretary-General of KH, Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi, said in a statement seen by The Cradle, that:

“The Brigades are continuing with their approach against the occupation, unconcerned with the pressures and obstacles, bearing the cost of their resistance work, and steadfast on the path to breaking the thorn of the occupation and expelling it from Iraq.”

The leader of the Sayyid al-Shuhada Brigades, Abu Alaa al-Wala’i, commented to The Cradle through a response from his office:

“We in the Sayyid al-Shuhada Brigades respect all mediations and appreciate their [the government’s] keenness to communicate with the resistance factions and their leaders, and we believe in the movement of some political figures, but this issue cannot be discussed until the Gaza crisis ends.”

But Aqeel al-Rudaini, a leader of the Victory Coalition, says the Sudani government will continue to stick to a middle ground:  

"The government has a firm position on the Gaza issue as announced at the United Nations, and is trying to exploit its relationship with Washington to push it to resolve the Gaza crisis and alleviate the suffering of the Palestinians, on the one hand, while lifting the embarrassment from them in front of the resistance factions, on the other hand." 

He adds that Washington "should understand the anger of the Iraqi people, which was demonstrated through peaceful protests at times and with weapons at other times.”

Persistent resistance 

Security and strategic expert Fadel Abu Ragheef describes ongoing negotiations between the Sudani government and Iraq's resistance factions. The objective, he says, is to persuade them to halt attacks on bases housing US forces, as Washington intensifies pressure on Baghdad.

Ihsan al-Shammari, head of the Center for Political Thinking, does not hold out much hope that these negotiations will succeed, saying:

“The armed factions’ escalation of their military operations against the American forces occurs for many reasons. The first stems from the nature of the accumulated hostility towards the US from these factions, and the second comes within the framework of the slogan of unity of the arenas with which it was launched.” 

“These factions are to support Gaza, and a double pressure card toward America in two arenas: the Palestinian arena to limit Washington’s support for Israel, and the Iraqi arena with the aim of pressuring the exit of US forces from Iraq,” he explains.

As Shammari predicts, recent events suggest that US efforts to curb resistance faction attacks have failed, despite extraordinary pressure applied on the Iraqi government. 

Pentagon sources have revealed that US force bases have been subjected to at least 102 attacks since mid-October, highlighting the resilience of the resistance factions against external pressures and their commitment to the Palestinian cause – along with other key members of West Asia's Axis of Resistance. 

Yemen Ready to Stare Down a New Imperial Coalition

PEPE ESCOBAR • DECEMBER 20, 2023

https://www.unz.com/pescobar/yemen-ready-to-stare-down-a-new-imperial-coalition/

No one ever lost money betting on the ability of the Empire of Chaos, Lies and Plunder to construct a “coalition of the willing” whenever faced with a geopolitical quandary.

In every case, duly covered by the reigning “rules-based international order”, “willing” applies to vassals seduced by carrots or sticks to follow to the letter the Empire’s whims.

Cue to the latest chapter: Coalition Genocide Prosperity, whose official – heroic – denomination, a trademark of the Pentagon’s P.R. wizards, is “Operation Prosperity Guardian”, allegedly engaged in “ensuring freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.”

Translation: this is Washington all but declaring war on Yemen’s Ansarullah. An extra US destroyer has already been dispatched to the Red Sea.

Ansarullah sticks to its guns and is by no means intimidated. The Houthi military have already stressed that any attack on Yemeni assets or Ansarullah missile launch sites would color the entire Red Sea literally Red.

The Houthi military not only reaffirmed it has “weapons to sink your aircraft carriers and destroyers” but made a stunning call to both Sunnis and Shi’ites in Bahrain to revolt and overthrow their King, Hamad al-Khalifa.

As of Monday, even before the start of the operation, the Eisenhower aircraft carrier was around 280 km off the closest Ansarullah controlled latitudes. Houthis have Zoheir and Khalij-e-Fars anti-ship ballistic missiles with a range of 300 to 500 km.

Ansarullah Supreme Political Council member Muhammad al-Bukhaiti felt compelled to re-stress the obvious: “Even if America succeeds in mobilizing the entire world, our operations in the Red Sea will not stop unless the massacre in Gaza stops. We will not give up the responsibility of defending the Moustazafeen (oppressed ones) of the Earth.”

The world better get ready: “Aircraft carrier sunk” may become the new 9/11.

Shipping in the Red Sea Remains Open

Weapons peddler Lloyd “Raytheon” Austin, in his current revolving door position as head of the Pentagon, is visiting West Asia – mostly Israel, Qatar and Bahrain – to promote this new “international initiative” for patrolling the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandeb strait (which links the Arabian Sea to the Red Sea) and the Gulf of Aden.

As al-Bukhaiti remarked, Ansarullah’s strategy is to target any ship navigating the Red Sea linked to Israeli companies or supplying Israel – something that for the Yemenis demonstrates their complicity with the Gaza genocide. That will only stop when the genocide stops.

With a single move – a de facto maritime blockade – Ansarullah proved that the King is Naked: Yemen has done more in practice to defend the Palestinian cause than most of the key regional players put together. Incidentally, they were all ordered by Netanyahu in public to shut up. And they did.

It’s quite instructive to once again follow the money. Israel has been hit very hard. The port of Eilat is virtually closed, and its income fell by 80%.

For instance, Taiwanese shipping giant Yang-Ming Marine Transport Corporation originally planned to re-route its Israel-bound cargo to the port of Ashdod. Then it cut off any shipments to any Israeli destination.

It’s no wonder Yoram Sebba, President of the Israel Chamber of Shipping, revealed himself to be puzzled by Ansarullah’s “complex” tactics and “unrevealed” criteria that have imposed “total uncertainty”. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan have also been caught in the Yemeni net.

It’s crucial to keep in perspective that Ansarullah only blocks ships that are going to Israel. The bulk of maritime shipping in the Red Sea remains wide open.

So shipping giant Maersk’s decision not to use the Red Sea, alongside other global shipping behemoths, may be pushing the envelope too fast – as in nearly begging for a US-led patrol to be in effect.

Enter CTF 153

So far, on one side we have Yemen virtually ruling the Red Sea. On the other side, we find UAE-Saudi-Jordan tandem, in the form of an – alternative – cargo land corridor set up from the port of Jebel Ali in the Persian Gulf across Saudi Arabia to Jordan and then Israel.

The corridor uses logistical tech from Trucknet: that’s truck-based overland connectivity in practice, reducing transport time from 14 days via the Red Sea to a maximum of 4 days on the road, 300 trucks a day, everyday.

Jordan of course is in, operating the trans-shipment from the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

The overarching framework for all this is the

One Israel plan, enthusiastically promoted by Netanyahu, whose key aim is a link with the Arabian peninsula and most of all the NEOM tech metropolis to be built theoretically up to 2039 in the northwestern Tabuk province in Saudi Arabia, north of the Red Sea, east of Egypt across the Gulf of Aqaba, and south of Jordan.

NEOM is MbS’s project to modernize the country, which is incidentally bound to feature Israel-operated AI cities.

This is what Riyadh is really betting on, much more than developing closer relations with Iran under the framework of BRICS+. Or to care about the future of Palestine.

On the planned naval blockade of Yemen though, the Saudis were way more circumspect. Even as Tel Aviv directly asked the White House to do something, anything, Riyadh “advised” Washington to exercise some restraint.

Yet as few things matter most for the Straussian neocon psychos who currently direct US policy than to protect the trade interests in the Red Sea of its aircraft-carrier in West Asia, the decision to set up a “coalition” was all but inevitable.

Enter the latest – actually fourth – incarnation of the Combined Maritime Force (CMF): a multinational coalition from 39 nations established in 2002 and led by the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.

The task force already exists: it’s CTF 153, focusing on “international maritime security and capacity building efforts in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb and Gulf of Aden”. That’s the basis for Coalition Genocide Prosperity.

Members of CTF 153 include, apart from the usual suspects US, UK, France and Canada, Europeans such as Norway, Italy, Netherlands and Spain, superpower Seychelles and Bahrain (the Fifth Fleet element).

Saudi Arabia and UAE, crucially, are not members. They know, after a seven-year war, when they were part of another “coalition” (the US was sort of “leading from behind”) what it means to fight Ansarullah.

All Aboard the Northern Sea Route

If the Red Sea situation turns really red, it will instantly shatter the Riyadh-Sanaa ceasefire. The White House and the US Deep State simply do not want a peace deal. They want Saudi Arabia at war with Yemen.

The Red Sea turned red will also send the global energy crisis into a tailspin. After all at least four million barrels of oil and 12% of total global seaborne-trade to the West transits the Bab al-Mandeb every single day.

So once again we have graphic confirmation that the Empire of Chaos, Lies and Plunder only calls for ceasefires when it’s losing badly: see the Ukraine case.

Yet no ceasefire in Gaza – supported by the overwhelming majority if UN member-states – runs the risk of metastasizing into an expansion of the war in West Asia.

That may fit into the clumsy imperial rationale of setting West Asia on fire to disturb China’s commercial BRI drive and the entry of Iran, Saudi Arabia and UAE into the expanded BRICS next month. Simultaneously, and in tune with the absence of real strategic planning in Washington, that does not take into consideration an array of appalling, unintended consequences.

So according to imperial optics, the only path ahead is further militarization – from the Mediterranean to the Suez Canal, the Gulf of Aqaba, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. That fits exactly into the framework of the War of Economic Corridors.

An axiom should be set in stone: Washington would rather bet on a possible, deep global recession than simply allowing a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The recession may well turbo-charge a widespread economic collapse of the collective West, and an even more rapid rise of multipolarity.

To offer much needed relief of so much insanity: almost casually, President Putin recently remarked that the Northern Sea Route is now becoming a more efficient maritime trade corridor than the Suez Canal.

Desaparecer a las personas desaparecidas

Ricardo Raphael

Ciudad de México / 23.12.2023 

https://www.milenio.com/opinion/ricardo-raphael/politica-zoom/desaparecer-a-las-personas-desaparecidas

No hay menos personas desaparecidas. Los datos son inocultables. Hasta el mes de agosto de este año existen 110 mil 964 registros. No se trata de una base elaborada de manera arbitraria. Ese censo se constituye gracias a la información proporcionada por instituciones oficiales: las fiscalías y las comisiones de búsqueda.

 

La nueva estrategia nacional de búsqueda, presentada por el gobierno de Andrés Manuel López Obrador, añadió nuevas capas de clasificación que sirven para comprender mejor la dimensión del fenómeno, pero no ignoró el número global de desapariciones.

¿Por qué se indignaron entonces los colectivos de víctimas? ¿Por qué organizaron la noche del jueves una velada en distintas ciudades para manifestar su desaprobación?

 

Hay tres argumentos que merecen ser escuchados. Primero, hay agravio porque las personas familiares de las víctimas no fueron tomadas en consideración a la hora de diseñar la nueva metodología. Segundo, porque el tono que utilizó el Presidente —el día que la secretaria de Gobernación, Luisa María Alcalde, presentó los números— no fue empático con la gravedad del dolor. Y, tercero, porque las capas añadidas para la clasificación despiertan dudas que debieron ser abordadas sin atacar, en automático, a quien las expresó.

A lo anterior se suma una declaración infame y cometida con dolo. Quien afirmó que únicamente hay 12 mil 377 personas desaparecidas, en vez de 110 mil 964, pronunció una grave mentira.

 

Tiene razón el Presidente cuando dice que este tema no debería tocarse a partir de argumentos sobrepolitizados. El problema es que él mismo ha contribuido a ese abordamiento equivocado. No sólo sus supuestos adversarios abrazan tal actitud, también él ha promovido una retórica encendida que contribuyó a lesionar la legitimidad de la nueva estrategia.

 

El jueves pasado, durante la mañanera, el periodista Ernesto Ledesma —cuya voz rigurosa suele cuestionar los temas sin filias ni fobias— probó con elegancia y tino las falacias empleadas desde Palacio Nacional.

Antes el mandatario había dicho que Karla Quintana, ex titular de la Comisión Nacional de Búsqueda, ofreció una entrevista a la periodista Carmen Aristegui para desestimar la nueva metodología. Ledesma retó al Presidente para que presentara pruebas sobre esa afirmación ya que Quintana no ha dado entrevistas desde que fue despedida de su cargo.

 

También el mandatario acusó al Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro de defender a los presuntos perpetradores de la desaparición de los normalistas de Ayotzinapa. Ledesma igualmente desafió esa declaración mostrando los documentos que habían sido tergiversados por el mandatario. Nunca el Pro celebró la excarcelación de esos sujetos, sino el que se haya desvirtuado la llamada “verdad histórica” de tan polémico caso.

Cabía esperar una respuesta puntual del Presidente ante esos razonamientos. En vez de ello, el mandatario despidió la mañanera aduciendo que tenía una llamada pendiente con el presidente Joe Biden de Estados Unidos. Ayer viernes habría sido una buena ocasión para que retomara el tema. Sin embargo, el Presidente prefirió el silencio y con ello mantuvo vivo el incendio de la insana politización que rodea al nuevo censo de desapariciones.

 

Este asunto merece la máxima responsabilidad, no sólo respecto a los datos y su manera de interpretarlos, sino también a propósito de su comunicación. López Obrador ha criticado a Karla Quintana por haber sido irresponsable respecto de los registros. Irresponsable, en todo caso, fue mezclar la presentación de la nueva metodología con sus manías estigmatizantes.

Entrando al fondo, el problema de la nueva metodología es que únicamente despejas dudas a propósito del 26 por ciento de los registros. El restante 74 por ciento permanece aún en el terreno de la ambigüedad.

 

De acuerdo con los datos presentados por la secretaria de Gobernación, la nueva estrategia permitió localizar formalmente a 16 mil 681 personas que antes estaban desaparecidas. A este número hay que sumar 12 mil 377 confirmaciones de desaparición. En efecto, en total se tiene certeza de 29 mil 058 casos.

 

La disputa sobre los números tiene su origen en los otros 79 mil 955 registros, los cuales fueron clasificados, de acuerdo con la metodología citada, a partir de etiquetas ambiguas.

La categoría más sospechosa es una que se denomina “Registros sin indicios para la búsqueda.” Bajo este rubro se encuentra el número más abultado que es de 36 mil 022 casos. El sentido común dicta que una cosa es no contar con indicios para la búsqueda —de acuerdo con la metodología recién implementada— y otra muy distinta es asumir que no se trata de personas desaparecidas.

 

Aquí la palabra “indicio” es muy importante. Según el gobierno, tales indicios deberían obtenerse de alguna de las bases de datos alternativas empleadas para esta investigación. Por ejemplo, el padrón único de beneficiarios del gobierno, los registros ante el IMSS, los datos de vacunación o la base del Servicio de Administración Tributaria.

La lógica indicaría que si no hay indicios es porque la persona está desaparecida y no a la inversa. Argumentar que no está desaparecida porque no hay “indicios” es un absurdo.

 

Esa casilla, que significa el 32 por ciento del total de registros, debería titularse de manera distinta. Cabe proponer “Desapariciones sin confirmar a partir de otras bases de datos”.

 

Luego vienen los casos clasificados como “Registros sin datos suficientes para identificar.” En este rubro la palabra clave es “datos” y son sólo aquellos que aparecen en el registro nacional de búsqueda. Contrastan con los indicios que se encuentran en las bases alternativas utilizadas por la metodología.

Según la secretaria Alcalde, entre los datos faltantes estarían, entre otros, los apellidos (materno o paterno), información de contacto de la persona denunciante, fecha de nacimiento o el lugar de residencia. Aquí el argumento vuelve a ser similar: que falten datos no implica que la persona no haya desaparecido.

 

Por último, están aquellas personas clasificadas como ubicadas, pero no localizadas. Es decir que sus datos existen en las bases alternativas, pero no ha sido posible confirmar su existencia con toda la formalidad. Son registros, pues, en vías de localización.

 

No es posible desestimar la metodología, pero tampoco vivir con ella a satisfacción. Es perfectible, siempre y cuando no se preste al juego sucio de la retórica polarizante o a la descalificación automática de siempre.

THE MIGRATION CRISIS AND WHAT MEXICO CAN REALLY DO

Yesterday, President Biden spoke on the phone with the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to agree on stricter measures that will help reduce the uncontrolled flow of migrants that cross the border between Mexico and Guatemala, move through Mexican territory and reach the border with the United States.

Tens of thousands of migrants enter Mexico every month, whose goal is not to stay in the country, but to head for the United States.
Since the Donald Trump administration, the López Obrador government has pledged to use the National Guard to try to stop this flow of migrants. Currently, of the 120,000 members of the National Guard, 32,000 are dedicated to stopping undocumented migration, both on the border with Guatemala and in the center and north of the country.

However, both the Central American and Mexican non-governmental organizations that support such migration, and the criminal organizations that benefit from it, have changed their strategy. Instead of bringing migrants into Mexico illegally, they prefer to do so legally, through asylum applications, which in 2023 alone reached 136,934, an increase of 30% compared to 2022.

The spokesman of the National Security Council of the United States, John Kirby, said at a press conference that the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, and the adviser to the president, Liz Sherwood Randall, will travel to Mexico in these days to agree with President López Obrador new measures to stop the flow of migrants, such as more checkpoints on railways and roads and a greater involvement of the Mexican armed forces in immigration control.

President Biden is under a lot of pressure from the immigration crisis, as Republicans are gaining sympathy among the US electorate by highlighting the Biden administration’s “failed” strategy to stop the tide of illegal migrants entering the country, and this is leading to further disorder in how the crisis is managed.

For example, Texas Governor Greg Abbot, with the support of the state legislature, enacted a new law to allow state security agencies to detain and deport migrants, which is clearly the exclusive power of the federal government.

On the other hand, the Biden government has closed two railroad crossings (at El Paso and Eagle Pass), to slow down the flow of migration to the United States, which has caused losses to American and Mexican businessmen amounting to $400 million.

Surely López Obrador’s government will comply with all the “recommendations” made to it by President Biden’s envoys, and that will not stop the flow of migrants to the United States.
It is not going to be Mexico that will solve the immigration problem for the United States.

The US political and economic elites must decide once and for all what they want on the issue of migration.

And there are only two possibilities:

One possibility is that they define that migrants are needed to make the U. S. economy more competitive in its strategic competition with China. If this is the case, then a regulatory framework must be created to allow such migration, in the forms and quantities that the U. S. economy needs. And once that is achieved, establish strict control and an expedited process of deportation of all people who have not applied and legally entered U. S. soil.

The second option is to define that the US labour market is already saturated and that only a very limited number of asylum-seekers can be accepted. If this is so, then the U. S. must send a clear and unequivocal message to the world that it will not accept any more migrants on its territory for any reason or circumstance and that it will ruthlessly expel them once they enter the country illegally.

If the US elites cannot clearly define what they want regard to migration, then this crisis will not only continue, but deepen. And you can rest assured that Mexico is not going to solve the US migration problem.

War on Gaza: Israeli journalist says army should have killed 100,000 Palestinians

Zvi Yehezkeli, Channel 13's Arab affairs correspondent, said Israel should have pushed a more 'fatal' assault after 7 October

By MEE staff

Published date: 20 December 2023 

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-israeli-journalist-says-army-should-have-killed-100000-palestinians

A prominent Israeli journalist has said the Israeli army should have killed 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza.

Zvi Yehezkeli, Channel 13's Arab affairs correspondent, was speaking on the channel on Tuesday when he made the suggestion.

"In my opinion the IDF should have launched a more fatal attack with 100,000 killed in the beginning, yes, there are Hamas members, there are 20,000 Hamas members," he told the presenter.

"But I know those 100,000 will not all be Hamas members. I don't know who was involved and wasn't involved and who is or isn't innocent."

Asked by the presenter whether he really wants 100,000 people killed, Yehezkeli said that following the killing of Israelis by Hamas on 7 October the army should have launched "such a fatal attack" arguing that it would have led to a ceasefire and the release of hostages earlier on.

The attack October attack killed around 1,200 Israelis, according to the official government figure. Around 240 people were also taken hostage.

In response, Israel launched a war on Gaza that began with a wide-ranging aerial bombardment of the enclave followed by a ground invasion.

Israel's military campaign has so far killed at least 19,667 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Thousands more are missing under the rubble.

Israel's bombing campaign has targeted residential areas, schools, hospitals, mosques, churches, civilian infrastructure, and UN shelters.

Despite calls for humanitarian pauses and ceasefires from international figures, a number of high-profile Israelis have called for the army to maintain or intensify its attack on the enclave.

On Monday, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said that he would leave the governing coalition if the military offensive doesn’t continue at full strength, according to Israeli media.

Ben Gvir criticised the government's handling of the war and added that Hamas remains undeterred after 73 days of war.

“You don’t make pauses and don’t allow our enemies to set shocking conditions for the release of the hostages,” he said. 

 

The Moral Bankruptcy of US Policy in Palestine

by M. Reza Behnam Posted on December 20, 2023

https://original.antiwar.com/Reza_Behnam/2023/12/19/the-moral-bankruptcy-of-us-policy-in-palestine/

Among the many memories I have of growing up in Tehran are of my elementary school days in Ms. Naji’s class.  On one occasion, she assigned a poem by the celebrated 13th century Iranian poet and mystic, Saadi Shirazi.  Our class was asked to write our reflections on Saadi’s poem from his book, the Gulistan (flower land).  Little did I know then of the relevance of his poem to our world today; he wrote (in translation):

“Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul.
If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain.
If you have no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you cannot retain.”

Saadi’s poem, which speaks to our common humanity, graces the entrance to the United Nations building in New York.  His words are more poignant than ever as the world bears witness to the inhumanity of the “war” being waged in the Gaza Strip by the U.S.-backed Israeli regime.

Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza has exposed the glaring need for moral leadership from Washington and a change in policy toward Palestine and Israel.

It will be impossible to return to the status quo that existed before Hamas commandoes broke free from their Israeli-constructed prison on 7 October.

Returning to “normal” won’t work, because “normal” was the problem.  For over 55 years, the United States has invested monetarily and militarily, in a morally bankrupt Israeli state.  Its unwavering support for it has created disorder and chaos in the Middle East.

The Palestinian fight for survival and quest for freedom and self-determination can no longer be suppressed and ignored; accords between Arab Gulf dictatorships and apartheid Israel cannot go forward and Israel cannot continue to be given free rein to brutalize Palestinians and annex all of Palestine.  The political landscape Washington has envisioned for the region, with Israel as its anchor, has been shattered by the devastation Israel has created in Gaza under the false flag of security.

Joe Biden, who promised if elected president to “restore the soul of America,” showed no shame when he resumed “business as usual” with the anti-Palestinian, supremacist far-right regime that Benjamin Netanyahu had assembled to become prime minister in December 2022.  In so doing, Biden helped mainstream Netanyahu’s regime and signaled America’s continued support regardless of its racist ideology.

With his embrace of Prime Minister Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on 18 October, Biden has given his, and thereby America’s, imprimatur to Israel to carpet bomb, conquer and carve up Gaza.  The administration further implicated the United States in genocide by its lone veto on 8 December of a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza after more than two months of destruction. This is the second time the United States has been the only opposing vote on such a resolution.

Ironically, in a 20 October letter to the U.S. House of Representatives requesting funds for the war in Ukraine, the White House stated that the United States must send an unmistakable message that in the 21st century, “a dictator cannot conquer or carve up his neighbors’ territory.” In the 21st century, Russia may not, but Israel is allowed.

While the administration urges Israeli leaders to minimize civilian harm, it has provided them with thousands of weapons, including 15,000 bombs – over 5,000 with 2,000 pound warheads – 57,000 artillery shells and 2,000-pound buster bunker bombs to drop on the people of Gaza.

Israel has dropped more than 22,000 U.S.-supplied bombs on Gaza in the first month and a half of the “war.”   Additionally, with Palestinian deaths at close to 20,000 and a reported 49,500 injured, on 9 December, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, invoking emergency powers, approved the transfer of nearly 14,000 high explosive tank rounds to Israel at an estimated cost of $106.5 million.  In addition to bypassing Congress to supply the munitions, the administration has neglected continual assessments of whether Israel has been committing war crimes in Gaza.

Israel learned long ago that it could carry out its destructive policies, as it is doing today, with little fuss or repercussions from Washington.  Its future immunity from punitive action was firmly established on 8 June 1967, during the Six-Day War.

On that date, off the Sinai coast, Israeli jet fighters and torpedo boats ferociously attacked the USS Liberty, killing 34 American servicemen and wounding 171.  Although the vessel was in international waters and flying a highly visible American flag, it was deliberately assaulted.  Two Navy fighters who were on their way to help were ordered by then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to stand down, because in his words “President Johnson is not going to go to war or embarrass an American ally over a few sailors.”

In his 1979 book, Assault on the Liberty: The True Story of the Israeli Attack on an American Intelligence Ship, Lt. Commander James M. Ennis, Jr., who survived the attack, stated that the cover-up and efforts to protect Israel began immediately.  He recounted that a total news blackout was quickly imposed and surviving crew members were threatened with court martial, prison or worse if they ever repeated what happened.

Interviewed in 1983, Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, Chief of Naval Operations (1967-70) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1970-74), stated, “I’ve never seen a President – I don’t care who he is – stand up to them [Israelis].  It just boggles the mind…. If the American people understood what a grip those people [Israelis] have on our government, they would rise up in arms.”

After 36 years of foot-dragging, in 2003, an Independent Commission of Inquiry, chaired by Admiral Moorer, concluded that Israel had committed an act of war against the United States, and that the initial official U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry was a “cover-up without precedent in American naval history.”

George Ball, Undersecretary of State and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, astutely understood the consequences of Washington’s failure to act, when he later wrote:

“The ultimate lesson of the Liberty attack had far more import for Israel than the U.S., [because] Israel’s leaders concluded that… if America’s leaders did not have the courage to punish Israel for the murder of American citizens, then their American friends would let them get away with almost anything.”

And America has.

George Ball’s words are especially significant and relevant today.  The question for U.S. officials is what price they are willing to pay, domestically and internationally, to continue guaranteeing Israel’s exemption from sanctions and international law.

Israel has shifted its brutal bombing attack into southern Gaza.  Their goal appears to be to kill as many Palestinians as they can, forcing the rest into Northern Sinai.

A leaked document from the Israeli Intelligence Ministry explicitly states that the Israeli regime’s desired outcome of the “war” is the transfer of all Palestinians from Gaza.  It also points out the necessity of enlisting the United States in the process.

While Palestinians are struggling to stay alive under Israeli bombing, Biden administration officials, have been working to engineer the future of Gaza, demonstrating as it has in the past America’s insular approach to the region.

Biden, Blinken and Brett McGurk, a senior official in Biden’s Security Council, and the man chosen to lead the planning process for post-governance in Gaza, continue in the colonial mindset of Sykes-Pikot – the imperious belief that external powers, in this case, the United States not Britain and France, have the right to decide the future for Palestinians.

Ironically, McGurk served as senior Director for Iraq during the Bush administration.  As lead negotiator from 2005 to 2009, he played a key role in restructuring Iraq; policies which eventually led to the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and to the chaos that has followed.

Since mid-October, McGurk and his team have been meeting with Palestinian Authority, Israeli and Arab representatives to plan for an “acceptable” Gaza, without Hamas.  They envision a “revitalized” or “reformed” Palestinian Authority – opaque terms signifying a U.S.-Israeli controlled PA – to ultimately take over Gaza.

The Biden administration has again raised the specter of the two-state solution in its “planning” for Gaza.  For 56 years, Washington and Tel Aviv have used the mythical two-state solution to ensure that the Palestinians never realize their rights.

Biden has supported Israel’s objective of eliminating Hamas; seen by Washington as an obstacle to their misguided two-state solution strategy.  Administration officials have assumed that Hamas will be defeated, knowing full well that it cannot be destroyed without razing all of Gaza, which Washington seems willing to see happen.

Creating a Palestinian state made up of non-contiguous bantustans – which was the core of past U.S.-Israeli “peace” proposals – is not the solution.  There is only one resolution to the historical injustices that Palestinians have endured for over 75 years.  It is the complete dismantling of the Israeli apartheid state and creation of a real democracy, with full equal rights and privileges for all.

Israel is a dangerous and destabilizing force in the Middle East.  It was formed in war and has lived and survived by perpetual warfare since its “declaration of independence” in 1948.

Militarism and war are embedded in and have shaped Israel’s political culture.  Without a constitution to establish fixed borders, it has been able to continue its ruthless “settler” colonial project in Occupied Palestine, Syrian Golan Heights, and in southern Lebanon from 1982, until expelled by Lebanon’s Hezbollah in 2000.

The United States has had no qualms in financing and shielding a militaristic Israel.  American dollars are the sinew of Israel’s occupation and wars.  And in Gaza today, without U.S. support, Israel would be fighting a war of survival on two or three fronts.

Gaza has concentrated our attention, like it or not, on who we are as a people.

In service to Israel, the United States has mortgaged the country’s moral and ethical values.  Its politicians have instead become dependent on florid and empty human rights rhetoric.

The Biden administration has forfeited America’s political and moral standing on the world stage when it threw its full weight behind Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people.  It is doubtful that America’s international image and stature can be restored until we come to understand and act upon the words of the poet written centuries ago – all humans are members of a whole, of one soul and the pain of one is the pain of all.

Dr. M. Reza Behnam is a political scientist specializing in the history, politics, governments, and culture of the Middle East.