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militarism | terrorism | security

How the Mexican drug trade thrives on free trade
17-Jul-2014 The Nation
US policy—specifically the militarization of the border since NAFTA—has strengthened cartels’ power and enabled them to diversify their operations deeper into the legal economy.
Privacy and the e-commerce chapter of the TPP
9-May-2014
US proposals for free flow of information across borders and a ban on local server requirements could hamper other governments’ ability to uphold national privacy laws and regulations for off-shored personal data
Al Jazeera sues Egypt for $150m after crackdown on journalists
28-Apr-2014 FT
Al Jazeera has lodged a $150m claim for compensation against Egypt, turning to an international investor arbitration tribunal in its latest bid to fight a crackdown by the government in Cairo.
European Parliament calls for suspension of US data-sharing
12-Mar-2014 Telecompaper
The European Parliament has called for a suspension of agreements with the US on sharing of private data in response to the revelations of wide-scale communications surveillance by the US National Security Agency. The resolution also threatens to suspend EU talks on a bilateral trade deal if the mass surveillance does not stop
Move on data protection or fail on TTIP, EU Parliament chair says
3-Feb-2014 IP Watch
On 31 January, there was a stern warning from Elmar Brok, chair of the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee, that the United States must move quicker on joint data protection standards to avoid failure of the bilateral talks between the EU and the US.
The deadly wages of free trade
15-Jan-2014 CounterPunch
The very same policies which undermined the livelihoods of the approximately 2 million small farmers in Mexico who were displaced as a consequence are devastating the Colombian country side now.
Canada signs free trade deal with Honduras amid pre-electoral repression
15-Nov-2013 Upside Down World
Canada and Honduras inked a bilateral free trade agreement on November 5, amid political repression, increasing militarization, and controversial Canadian investment in the Central American nation.
Militarization and the Trans-Pacific “strategic economic” Partnership
13-Nov-2013 Global Research
The TPP has been mostly framed as a secret free-trade agreement but it has in large part taken the form of a policy initiative called the Pacific Pivot, a shifting of military resources into the Pacific.
European Union says US spying claims could affect free trade
1-Jul-2013 Raw Story
EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding on Sunday warned that landmark negotiations with the United States to create a vast free trade zone could be affected if media reports that Washington had bugged EU premises proved true.
The horrific costs of the US-Colombia trade agreement
1-Jun-2013 The Nation
Wallach, who has been studying such agreements for twenty years with Global Trade Watch, says she has never seen the merging of a trade agreement with terror like this. Not on this scale.
Colombia to resume peace talks with the FARC amidst US and Colombian military "saber-rattling"
30-Apr-2013 Nacla
US support for the peace process would imply important changes in its policy toward the militarization of Colombia, its failed war on drugs, and a revision of its Free Trade Agreements that would allow the small peasants and subsistence economy to survive.
How the militarized war on drugs in Latin America benefits transnational corporations and undermines democracy
6-Aug-2012 Truthout
Is it an exaggeration to speculate that drug trafficking and exploitative globalized corporate practices formalized under free-trade agreements (grounded in a race to the bottom on labor costs and environmental degradation) are two sides of the same profiteering coin?
US to fight cyber wars with free trade
25-Nov-2011 Sydney Morning Herald
Selling Aussie technology to the US military just got easier.
EU Parliament resolution on the EU-India FTA calls for dialogue on Kashmir
20-Jun-2011
Although the resolution has compelled India to resume talks with Pakistan, it is not clear whether and how the outcome of these talks will affect the conclusion of the FTA. It is also uncertain whether or not the condition to settle the Kashmir issue with dialogue will be included in the final draft of the EU-India FTA, writes Ahmad Ali Ghouri
Central American integration —and militarization
5-Jun-2011
Representatives of the governments of Mexico and the Central American countries wrapped up a fifth round of talks on a regional free trade agreement last week. The negotiations took place in Mexico City, with the next round of talks to be held in August in El Salvador.
Canada seeks more free trade, security zone with US
5-Jun-2011 AFP
Governor General David Johnston said Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper would work with Washington to create a continental security perimeter around Canada and the United States "ensuring that people and goods can flow freely and safely between our two countries."
Chiquita & the Colombia FTA — Murder in the interest of profit
17-May-2011 Huffington Post
Recent documents obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University from the US Justice Department show that Chiquita Brands International, in direct contradiction of the claims of both Chiquita and the US government for many years, made illegal payments to both guerrilla groups and then AUC death squads over the course of about 14 years in return for security from these groups.
Is ‘another Egypt’ brewing in Mexico?
7-Mar-2011 Workers World
People in Chihuahua who were picked up under guidelines of the Merida Initiative on three-year-old warrants were charged not with drugs but with organizing anti-NAFTA protests!
We need to rethink, not rearm NAFTA
7-Feb-2011 IPS
Experts expect Obama and Harper to announce a “new” border partnership to ease the flow of goods and people across the border by harmonizing security, immigration and refugee, surveillance and possibly defense policy across the continent. There’s nothing new about this plan. It’s the regurgitation of the defunct Bush-led Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) without the Mexican “amigo.”
Lawsuit Would Further Expose Secretive SPP Agenda
19-Oct-2009 NAUresistance
The SPP, along with NAFTA have already laid much of the groundwork for a North American Union.