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Imprisoned journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal has spoken out from a prison infirmary about the police killing of Walter Scott in South Carolina. Abu-Jamal, who is seriously ill at SCI Mahanoy, rose from his infirmary bed to record the commentary after a fellow prisoner wheeled in a TV so he could watch coverage of the shooting. In a Democracy Now! exclusive, we air an excerpt from Abu-Jamal’s Prison Radio commentary about Michael Slager, the now-fired police officer who shot Scott during a traffic stop. "Is he a punk? A predator?" Abu-Jamal asks. "Or what Huey P. Newton called 'a pig'?" Abu-Jamal’s supporters say he remains severely ill after he was hospitalized recently for diabetic shock. Today his supporters have called a national day of action with protests in 10 cities to demand he be allowed to see a diabetes specialist. Abu-Jamal is in prison for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, but has always maintained his innocence. Amnesty International has found he was deprived of a fair trial.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Imprisoned journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal has spoken out from a prison infirmary about the police killing of Walter Scott in South Carolina. Abu-Jamal, who is seriously ill at SCI Mahanoy, rose from his infirmary bed to record the commentary after a fellow prisoner wheeled in a TV so he could watch coverage of the shooting. In a Democracy Now! exclusive, Mumia Abu-Jamal discussed his reaction.
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL: Remember the young man who allegedly shot—not killed—two cops in Ferguson several weeks ago? Every politician in America leaped at the chance to call the kid a punk, a thug. Now, what do you call Slager? What have you heard? Even though he’s been fired, he’s called "officer" today, or "Mr. Slager." He killed a man for a traffic citation and lied about it. Is he a punk, a predator, or what Huey P. Newton used to call, a pig? From imprisoned nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
AMY GOODMAN: And special thanks to Noelle Hanrahan of the Prison Radio Project for the recording of that commentary. Mumia Abu-Jamal’s supporters say he remains severely ill after he was hospitalized for diabetic shock. Today his supporters have called a national day of action with protests in 10 cities to demand he be allowed to see a diabetes specialist. Mumia Abu-Jamal is in prison for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, but has always maintained his innocence. Amnesty International has found he was deprived of a fair trial.
Democracy Now! co-host Juan González discusses how video of the Walter Scott killing echoes other videos of police shootings, such as Tamir Rice in Cleveland and Eric Garner in New York City. "People wonder why the Black Lives Matter movement has grown and spread so rapidly across the country," González notes, "when people are seeing these videos where people who are shot and not even given immediate aid." González writes about the issue in his new column for the New York Daily News headlined "When Will the Killings of Black Males by Cops Cease?"
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: The news about South Carolina just continues with the release of the dash cam video, Juan, and you wrote your commentary today in the New York Daily News, your column on South Carolina.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yes, I think one of the things that I tried to stress in my column is that—how many more of these heartbreaking videos are we going to be exposed to across the country before a change occurs in policing in the country? And I think the critical thing to understand is not only the videos, the videos of the actual encounters, where African-American males are killed by police, but also what happens in the moments afterward. And we now have seen several of these—the Tamir Rice video in Cleveland in November, where the 12-year-old boy is shot by a policeman who arrives within two seconds of his getting out of the car, but then for four minutes after, as the boy is lying on the ground, three police officers just stand around, walk around. No one provides him any kind of aid until an FBI agent, who happens to be in the neighborhood, comes along, and he begins to administer CPR to Tamir Rice.
AMY GOODMAN: And when Tamir’s sister came running over, who was just 14 years old—
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Right, right, she gets tackled.
AMY GOODMAN: —they tackle her—
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: They tackle her.
AMY GOODMAN: —and put her in the cruiser.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And they handcuff her, push her to the ground, handcuff her and prevent her from getting to her brother.
Then you have the situation with Eric Garner in the Staten Island video, where not only half a dozen police officers stand around as Eric Garner is gasping for breath, but then even when the EMS, the paramedics arrive, they waste four crucial minutes, while they are walking around not treating him. Those four paramedics were eventually suspended for their actions on that day.
And then, of course, now we have the South Carolina situation, where, once again, after Officer Slager shoots Walter Scott, and another African-American officer arrives on the scene, Habersham, they stand around. Habersham checks for the wounds. They talk on their radios. They discuss where is my vehicle. But they don’t administer any kind of aid to Walter Scott.
So you have this, and then people wonder why the Back Lives Matter movement has grown and spread so rapidly across the country, when people are seeing these videos where people who are shot are not even given immediate aid.
AMY GOODMAN: And police use their force to prevent bystanders from administering aid.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: When you look at Ramsey Orta’s film—and again, Ramsey Orta remains in Rikers Island, the only person arrested around the Eric Garner case, though it was in an unrelated charge. He’s the one who videoed. When you look at that video and listen, bystanders are saying, "Help him. Help him." The police use their authority to prevent anyone to help him, and then they themselves don’t help.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Right, and then people wonder why there’s such anger spreading across the country.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, of course, we will continue to follow this story, and we’ll link to your column at democracynow.org.
President Obama has arrived in Panama to attend the Summit of the Americas along with other leaders from Canada, Central America, South America, the Caribbean — and for the first time, Cuba. On Thursday, Obama announced the State Department has finished its review of whether Cuba should be removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. The move would allow the two countries to reopen their embassies and move forward on historic efforts to normalize relations that were announced in December. Meanwhile, the United States faces other tensions at the summit over its recent sanctions against Cuba’s close ally, Venezuela. An executive order signed by President Obama last month used the designation to sanction top Venezuelan officials over alleged human rights abuses and corruption. This week, the United States announced it no longer considers the country a national security threat. Other topics expected to be on the summit’s agenda include trade, security and migration. We speak with two guests: Miguel Tinker Salas, professor of Latin American history at Pomona College and author of the new book, "Venezuela: What Everyone Needs to Know," and Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and president of Just Foreign Policy. His article in The Hill is headlined "Obama Could Face Disastrous Summit Due to Venezuela Sanctions."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We move now to the Summit of the Americas. President Obama has arrived in Panama to attend the Summit of the Americas along with other leaders from Canada, Central America, South America, the Caribbean—and for the first time, Cuba. Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro are reportedly due to meet informally at the summit, making this the first time presidents from the two countries have sat down since President Eisenhower met with Cuban President [Batista].
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Obama announced the State Department has finished its review of whether Cuba should be removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, but said he would wait to act until receiving final recommendations from White House advisers. He could make that announcement at the summit. Congress would then have 45 days to decide whether to override it. The move allows the two countries to reopen their embassies and move forward on historic efforts to normalize relations that were announced in December.
AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, the U.S. faces other tensions at the summit over its recent sanctions against Cuba’s close ally, Venezuela. An executive order signed by President Obama last month used the designation to sanction top Venezuelan officials over alleged human rights abuses and corruption. This week, the U.S. announced it’s backing off its move deeming the country a national security threat. In an interview with EFE News, Obama sought to tone down the confrontation, saying, quote, "We do not believe that Venezuela poses a threat to the United States, nor does the United States threaten the Venezuelan government," he said. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro responded on Thursday.
PRESIDENT NICOLÁS MADURO: [translated] We may be able to say that the statements given today by President Barack Hussein Obama could open a door to start a new era of relations among Venezuela and a free and sovereign Latin America and the empire of the United States. It could happen.
AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, fights broke out ahead of the summit Wednesday when anti-Castro Cuban demonstrators tried to lay flowers at a bust of Cuban patriarch José Martí near the Cuban Embassy in Panama City and were confronted by a group of pro-Castro activists. Cuban delegates also protested over reports that former CIA-backed paramilitary officer Félix Rodríguez, who was sent to kill Che Guevara in Bolivia in 1967, was meeting with opposition groups in Panama City. The last picture taken of Che Guevara still alive in October 1967 shows Rodríguez standing on his left. Elsewhere, pro-Venezuela protesters rallied.
PRO-VENEZUELA PROTESTER: [translated] What we are also defending is the right of free determination for the people. To us, it seems a big disrespect for a citizen of one country to come to mine to conspire against another delegation in the middle of a summit. I wouldn’t do it.
AMY GOODMAN: We are going to go to break, and when we come back, we’ll be joined by two people talking about the significance of this Summit of the Americas.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And yeah, and, Amy, I just wanted to correct, on that lede in, when I mentioned the last meeting of an American president was with Fulgencio Batista, of Eisenhower with Fulgencio Batista, not with Fidel Castro.
AMY GOODMAN: We’ll be back on the story of the OAS summit in a moment.
[break]
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Topics expected to be on the agenda at the Summit of the Americas, as it gets underway, include trade, security and migration. Panama’s president, Juan Carlos Varela, called on the heads of state to put aside their differences.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, for more, we’re joined by two guests. In Claremont, California, Miguel Tinker Salas is with us, professor of Latin American history at Pomona College. His new book is Venezuela: What Everyone Needs to Know. You can read the introduction on our website at democracynow.org. And in Washington, D.C., we’re joined by Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and president of Just Foreign Policy. His article in The Hill is headlined "Obama Could Face Disastrous Summit Due to Venezuela Sanctions."
We welcome you both back to Democracy Now! But let us begin with Miguel Tinker Salas. On this eve of the summit, the kerfuffle around whether—the possibility of Venezuela being put on the terrorist list, and President Obama pulling back from that, saying they don’t consider, while they had originally said they do consider, Venezuela a threat to national security—what’s behind all of this?
MIGUEL TINKER SALAS: Well, I think, fundamentally, it’s the changes in Latin America. The reality is that the summit is really at a crossroads. It begins in 1994, presided by Bill Clinton, as a proposal to implement the free trade for the Americas and take NAFTA into the entire region. The reality is that by 2001 in Quebec, you have Hugo Chávez at the summit criticizing free trade for the Americas and the imposition of an asymmetrical order. And by 2005, that entire process is derailed when you have the fundamental changes in Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador. So the summit is really at a crossroads in terms of what it seeks to accomplish.
The U.S. is trying to regain ground by establishing better relations with Cuba and coming into the 20th century—in fact, the 21st century—but the reality is that the arrogance of the U.S. on the question of Venezuela threatened to derail the entire process again. So I think that what is behind all this is really what is the role of the Summit of the Americas, what is the role of the OAS, at a time in which you have other institutions in Latin America, like the Union of South American Nations and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean Nations, that do not include the U.S. So I think it’s really at a crossroads in terms of what its future will be.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Mark Weisbrot, what about this? The Americas is no longer the backyard of the United States, as it was historically known as, an area that was exploited and dominated by Washington.
MARK WEISBROT: No, that’s right. And the Obama administration hasn’t really recognized that. I think that’s the big thing. You know, Rafael Correa, president of Ecuador, responded to the March 9th sanctions executive order, saying, you know, "This reminds us of the darkest hours of our America, when we received dictatorships from imperialism. And don’t they understand that Latin America has changed?" he said. And they don’t. And that’s been the problem all along, and that’s the problem with these summits.
You know, in 2012—and Miguel gave a very nice history—in 2012, everybody said, including the President Santos of Colombia, that there wasn’t going to be another summit without Cuba. So, Obama comes along in December and says, "Well, you know, we’re going to give them a Christmas present. We’re going to, you know, begin the process of normalization, normalizing relations with Cuba." And then he comes with these sanctions on March 9th. And everybody realized, well, he’s not really changed anything at all.
And you get these statements from CELAC, which includes every country in the hemisphere except for the U.S. and Canada, saying, you know, he’s got to rescind this executive order, and then from UNASUR, as well. So now you see the White House backing off, and you see the White House saying, "Well, no, we didn’t really"—you know, we not only said that Venezuela was an extraordinary threat to national security, but we actually declared a national emergency because of this threat. That was written in the executive order. And now the White House says, "No, you know, it’s not a threat at all."
Well, first of all, what does that say about the rule of law in the United States? I mean, this was an executive order. They had to put that in there for—because that law is there for a reason. You’re not supposed to impose unilateral sanctions. Actually, it violates that OAS charter, among other things, unless there is a real security threat. So this was a real admission—this was a real defeat for them. And they’re backing off, just like the, you know, coming into the 21st century on Cuba is backing off. But they still don’t really recognize that there’s a new reality in the region. And that’s why I think it doesn’t look that good yet going forward.
AMY GOODMAN: Among those attending the summit is U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobson. Last week, she said she was surprised few countries had defended U.S. sanctions against Venezuela.
ROBERTA JACOBSON: I was a bit, I will confess, disappointed that there weren’t more who defended the fact that, clearly, this was not intended to hurt the Venezuelan people or the Venezuelan government, even, as a whole, and did not more clearly explain or elucidate, as we did for them, in advance, because we did talk to governments in advance on the sanctions, that this was really very, very narrowly targeted.
AMY GOODMAN: In March, all 33 members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, known as CELAC, expressed opposition to the U.S. sanctions against Venezuela. Miguel Tinker Salas, your response to one of the representatives, the U.S. representative? Of course, President Obama will be there, too, in Panama.
MIGUEL TINKER SALAS: Well, I think it merely mirrors what happened in the 2012 summit in Colombia. There’s a certain arrogance behind a statement that you’re disappointed about the fact that Latin American leaders did not support the U.S. on sanctions. Did they really think that Latin American leaders were going to ally with the U.S. and support sanctions against Venezuela? They may criticize Venezuela privately. They may—Colombia, Mexico, which are the clearest allies the U.S. has in Latin America, no doubt, may criticize Venezuela, but they’re not going to publicly express that criticism. So if the U.S. is disappointed, it really reflects an arrogance concerning Latin America and their inability to comprehend how in fact the region has changed.
This is not just about Venezuela. This is about Latin America. This is about a region declaring its independence, declaring its autonomy, its respect for the rule of law, its respect for sovereignty, its respect for democratically elected governments. And I think that when Roberta Jacobson and others in the administration or the Washington think tanks criticize other leaders in Latin America, it’s a refusal to recognize the extent to which Latin America has changed, to which it’s not willing to be the backyard, to which there are other players in the region. China is an important economic actor in the region. So are European countries. And I think it really does reflect that sense that Latin America is still our backyard, and then, therefore, they’re really trying to backpedal, because they really want to avoid a repeat of what happened in Cartagena, where Obama was isolated on Cuba, isolated on immigration, isolated on the question of the drug war, criticized by friends and foes alike, and he came back and fired his national security adviser on Latin America. So I think that there really should be some heads to roll here as a result of what has happened, the debacle the U.S. has got itself into. And I think that really does reflect the arrogance that still exists on the part of the U.S.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Mark Weisbrot, on this issue of damage control that’s been occurring in the last week or two, we reported yesterday here on the decision of the United States government to extradite—to deport General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, who was linked to the—not only to torture, but then to the killings of the churchwomen, the four churchwomen in El Salvador, and also the decision to initiate extradition proceedings against Colonel Inocente Orlando Montano Morales, who was implicated in the killing of Jesuit priests, Spanish Jesuit priests, and who is now facing a judicial—a potential trial in Spain. So you have these two actions just in the days before Obama heads to the summit, and also the reports that Secretary of State Kerry sent an emissary to Venezuela to try to patch things up privately. Can you talk about that?
MARK WEISBROT: Yeah, I think they really realized they made a big, big mistake. And, you know, Miguel is right. I mean, they live in some kind of bubble. I don’t know who they’re talking to in these governments. You know, I remember talking to a foreign minister a couple years ago. I won’t mention his name or country because it was a private conversation. But he said, you know, "When the U.S. is going to do something in Africa, they at least talk to the governments in the region and ask them what they think about it. And they don’t even do that in Latin America." And, you know, this is how everybody sees it. There’s a huge gap between what any government knows in the region about U.S. policy and what you have in the media—and therefore what most people know. It’s enormous.
And, you know, in 2009, of course—and I’m thinking about this because you might get a handshake and a picture between Raúl Castro and President Obama in this summit, and you had that with Obama and Chávez in 2009, and it went all over the place and actually upset some of, you know, the administration’s right-wing allies. And so, the very next day, they poured cold water all over it and made sure—made it, you know, with some insults, and made sure that this wasn’t going to lead to any thawing of relations. Then, of course, there was a military coup in Honduras in 2009 in June. And after that, after the U.S. did everything it could to support, to make sure that coup succeeded and to legitimize the elections that nobody else in the hemisphere would recognize, for that dictatorship, that was really it. You know, then everybody realized, well, this wasn’t going to change; this was really as bad, and possibly even worse, as the Bush policies in Latin America. Now, you know, Obama is concerned about his legacy—
AMY GOODMAN: Mark, I want to interrupt for one minute, before we really get into the significance of Cuba being there. You wrote about Hillary Clinton’s involvement in the coup, or at least in support of the coup, in Honduras. Now, this weekend, she’s going to be announcing that she will be a candidate for president of the United States. Can you just briefly summarize, as secretary of state, what was her position at the time?
MARK WEISBROT: Well, it was interesting. I mean, she wouldn’t say. You know, like a couple days after the coup, she was asked by the media if restoring democracy in Honduras, which she said she supported, meant restoring the democratically elected president, and she wouldn’t answer that question. And, of course, the White House had put out a statement on the day of the coup, which didn’t even oppose the coup. That told every diplomat in Washington, of course, that, you know, that was the strongest statement you can make in the 21st century in favor of the coup. And, you know, President—
AMY GOODMAN: The ousting of Zelaya.
MARK WEISBROT: Yeah, the ousting of Zelaya. You know, Zelaya was on your show, you remember. He said the U.S. was actually involved in the coup, and there’s every reason to believe that, given what they did in those six months following it. And then, in her book, she very much admits that she acted with others, you know, her few allies in the OAS, to—I think she used the word—render the question of Zelaya’s return moot—in other words, to make sure that that wasn’t going to happen. And they used the OAS, and that’s why you have—I think that’s the main reason why you have the Community of Latin American and Caribbean Nations without the U.S. and Canada, specifically, formed, because of her manipulation of the OAS to stop them from taking stronger action, which everyone else—just about everyone else in the hemisphere—supported, to restore Zelaya to office.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Miguel Tinker Salas, I’d like to ask you about the issue of Cuba. But this is President Obama speaking Thursday about whether the U.S. will remove Cuba from its terrorist watch list.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: As you know, there is a process involved in reviewing whether or not a country should be on the State Sponsor of Terrorism list. That review has been completed at the State Department; it is now forwarded to the White House. Our inter-agency team will go through the entire thing and then present it to me with a recommendation. That hasn’t happened yet.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Miguel Tinker Salas, what about this removal of Cuba from the list of nations sponsoring terrorism?
MIGUEL TINKER SALAS: Well, a list that the U.S. created, and the U.S. put Cuba on it. I think it’s really a political fig leaf on the part of Obama. He wants to be able to hide behind something, come to the summit, deliver something. The reality is that the U.S., for—Cuba, for the U.S., really became an impediment. It creates its isolation in the region. The U.S. has other interests in the region. They would really like to have a discussion about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. They would like to have an alliance about the free trade for the Americas. They would like to promote what are really their economic interests, so that the issue of Cuba is really a vestige of the past. It is part of a Cold War legacy. It has both national implications in the U.S., but it has, more importantly, international implications. The U.S. is isolated on Cuba in the U.N. Only two countries vote for its support of an embargo. It’s isolated in Latin America. It’s isolated in Europe, Africa, Asia. So, really, the Cuba issue has become really an impediment, a block for the U.S. in the region.
So the U.S. has increased its military presence in the region. It would like to really have a discussion about the FTA and economic interests. So I think that it essentially jettisoned the old Cuba policy, while trying to maintain sanctions, while trying to keep Cuba on a terror list, really put it in a contradiction. Latin Americans reject the idea of the U.S. putting Latin American countries on a terror list. They also reject the U.S. putting Latin American countries on a list of which ones are allies on the drug war, when the U.S. is the largest consumer of illegal drugs in the world, a sort of a hypocrisy there. So I think that there is a rejection to that. That’s why you’ve had the Union of South American Nations; the Community of Latin American and Caribbean Nations; the ALBA, the Bolivarian Alliance. And that’s why you’ve had such a rejection to the Obama policy of sanctions on Venezuela, because the real effort was to make Venezuela the new Cuba, to relieve sanctions against Cuba, to open relations with Cuba, to normalize relations, while at the same time keeping some aspect of sanctions against Venezuela, placating the right in the U.S., placating the right within the Democratic Party. And the whole issue has backfired and threatened to derail the entire summit.
AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you both for being with us. Of course, we’ll continue to cover this historic summit that’s taking place in Panama. Miguel Tinker Salas, professor of Latin American history at Pomona College, his new book is called Venezuela: What Everyone Needs to Know. And you can read the introduction at democracynow.org, and we will link to his article in The Progressive headlined "U.S. Alone Once Again at Americas Summit." And thanks so much to Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, president of Just Foreign Policy. We’ll link to your piece in The Hill, "Obama Could Face Disastrous Summit Due to Venezuela Sanctions," though clearly the U.S. has pulled back on those.
This is Democracy Now! When we come back, a Democracy Now! exclusive. A father of one of the Mexican young men who disappeared in the state of Guerrero last September. Stay with us.
Exclusive: Father of 1 of Missing Mexican 43 on How Drug War Aid "Being Used to Annihilate Students"
As the Summit of the Americas commences, several U.S.-based groups and university officials have signed a letter to President Obama questioning his response to the 43 students missing from the Mexican state of Guerrero for over six months. The letter asks why the Obama administration has placed sanctions on Venezuela, but maintained normal relations with Mexico, despite the students’ disappearance. Mexican authorities have declared the 43 students dead, saying local police acting on the orders of the mayor of Iguala attacked them and turned them over to drug gang members, who killed and incinerated them. But so far the remains of only one of the 43 have been identified, and reports have pointed to the involvement of federal authorities. We are joined by two relatives of the missing students who live here in New York: Antonio Tizapa is the father of missing student Jorge Antonio Tizapa Legideño; and Amado Tlatempa is the cousin of another missing student, Jesús Jovany Rodríguez Tlatempa. "What I would tell President Obama is to stop supporting Plan Mérida, because the weapons, the arms that are supposedly supporting the war against drugs, those arms are being used to annihilate our students," Tizapa says.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: As the Summit of the Americas commences, several U.S.-based groups and university officials have signed a letter to President Obama questioning his response to the 43 students missing from the Mexican state of Guerrero for over six months. The letter notes, quote, "In Venezuela, during protests in February and March of 2014, 43 people from both sides of the political spectrum died. In Mexico, 43 normal school students were disappeared by government forces. Why should one incident serve as a precedent to impose sanctions while the other is overlooked?"
AMY GOODMAN: Mexican authorities say local police, acting on the orders of the mayor of Iguala, attacked the students and turned them over to drug gang members, who killed and incinerated them. But so far, the remains of only one of the 43 students have been identified, and reports have pointed to the involvement of federal authorities.
Well, two relatives of the missing students, who live right here in New York, recently joined us on Democracy Now! for a radio-television broadcast exclusive. Antonio Tizapa is the father of Jorge Antonio Tizapa Legideño, who is one of the 43 missing students. We’re also joined by Amado Tlatempa, who is cousin of another of the missing students, Jesús Jovany Rodríguez Tlatempa. I began by asking Antonio what he thinks has happened to his son.
ANTONIO TIZAPA: [translated] What has happened, well, he has disappeared, together with his other companions. And what we don’t understand is why they did it. They are young. They are students from a rural normal school for teachers. They are young people from poor means. And the majority, 90 percent of the students, that are disappeared are first-year students. They only had two months of being integrated into the school. The reason for why they don’t appear, we don’t know. And that is why we are here, so that they can give us an explanation, through this medium, and other mediums, that can pressure the government. And I thank this medium, I thank Democracy Now!, because it’s the first that has given me the opportunity to speak to the American audience. And thank you.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Now, the government says that the youths are dead, but you still believe that your son may be alive?
ANTONIO TIZAPA: [translated] Absolutely, 100 percent. Like the rest of the parents, we are sure that they are alive. Independently, that what others say, that is completely false. We know that they are alive. We know that they are holding them alive, because they are being detained. We don’t know the reason. We do not know the reason.
AMY GOODMAN: What has the Mexican government told the families? Why don’t you believe it?
ANTONIO TIZAPA: [translated] Because the government says that this is a case that is a closed case. However, there is no evidence. There is no evidence that show us, that prove what the government says happened to them. And while there is no proof, we maintain that they are alive 100 percent.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Tell us something about your son, what were his hopes and dreams, and a little bit about his life.
ANTONIO TIZAPA: [translated] Well, yes, his dream was to continue studying. He had various options. One option was to go to Mexico City also to study in a normal school or to stay in Ayotzinapa, which is where we are from. He went to do the exam at the school for entrance, but he said, "If I have a choice, I want to stay in Ayotzinapa, because I want to stay close to my mother and my family." I, as a father, and his mother said, "It’s your decision, son. We are here to support you." And he decided to go to Ayotzinapa. He loved the relationship to children. That’s why he wanted to—made the decision to become a teacher.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to bring Amado Tlatempa into this conversation. You are the cousin of one, perhaps two, of the young men who went to the school, who were abducted? And you grew up together with them in Tixtla? Amado, why would the government target the students?
AMADO TLATEMPA: [translated] This is an old problem, that has decades, of the school and the government, because the students fight for their rights to gain a better life, to gain better housing, better food, better education. What they do is they take to the streets to be heard. And the government treats them like delinquents. So this is a problem that’s been going on for decades.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us about your cousin Jesús? And tell us about growing up in Tixtla, since that’s where you grew up. You’re both roughly the same age.
AMADO TLATEMPA: [translated] We were born, and we were raised. There are not many opportunities for progress, and that is why the majority of the youth look for that type of school, where school is almost free. But lately, the Mexican government has privatized education, so only the people with more resources have access to education. This is the repression, not against the middle class, but against the poor.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Antonio, I wanted to turn to a clip of your wife, Hilda Legideño, speaking about your son in a video that was produced by TeleSUR.
HILDA LEGIDEÑO VARGAS: [translated] I’m the mother of a missing student. His name is Jorge Antonio Tizapa. He’s 20 years old. We are originally from here, Tixtla, a small town, apparently tranquil, but now corrupted, like many cities, by the delinquency of the government. My son worked driving a van. At three in the morning, he had to go to work. Sometimes I’d go with him so he wasn’t alone, and if not, I’d tell him, "Be careful." We had a time when a lot of youths were kidnapped here in Tixtla. I told him to study so you can offer something to your family, your daughter, because he has a young daughter. She’s one-and-a-half years old. We didn’t expect this was going to happen. What we’re waiting for is the return of our children. We’re going to keep looking. We’re not going to stop.
AMY GOODMAN: Your wife, Hilda Legideño, is one of the leading organizers for the students. What message do you have, living in the United States, to President Obama in our relationship with Mexico?
ANTONIO TIZAPA: [translated] Well, what I would tell to President Obama is to stop supporting Plan Mérida, because the weapons, the arms, with those weapons that are supposedly supporting the war against drugs, those arms are being used to annihilate our students. I ask him to stop that aid. That is what we ask of him, the parents and all the citizens of Mexico, because we are going through a very difficult situation. It is not possible that just because one is a student, they assassinate you. So, please, no more aid to Mexico in the weapons system.
AMY GOODMAN: If you can talk about the history of Ayotzinapa, the school, and its significance in Mexico?
ANTONIO TIZAPA: [translated] Yes, of course, with pleasure. Well, like I had commented, I am from here, as well as Amado. What I can say about the normal rural school is that it’s a school that was created for—specifically to help the children of campesinos, fieldworkers, and that way integrate the most marginalized people. The students that attend these schools are sent from regions where there is no water, there’s no electricity and no way to get to school—they have to walk four to five hours to be able to get to school—and also to educate people, because there are some places where there is no—people can’t read, practically, and in that way, to instruct the people and also to understand the laws that we have. The story of Ayotzinapa was that it was founded many years ago with that goal in mind.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, what are you hoping now that the United States government—or could do to be able to assist you in finding a solution to what has happened to your son and to the other youths?
ANTONIO TIZAPA: [translated] I am hoping that the government will open its heart, the government of the United States will open its heart and put some pressure on the Mexican government. And at the same time, there are parents here in the United States that are doing some conferences in schools to bring to light this case, so that there is more pressure on the Mexican government, so there’s a solution. At the same time, we have also—the mother of my child was one of the people who went to Geneva, the United Nations, to build international pressure. That is really the only way that we can attain a resolution. So this is the invitation we make to our American friends so they know the problem that’s happening in our country, Mexico. And we appreciate. We are so thankful.
AMY GOODMAN: And your final message here, Antonio?
ANTONIO TIZAPA: [translated] Well, I have my message. Well, as a father, I thank everyone. I thank everyone here. And please don’t forget to support us. Believe me, it is very difficult, the situation. I would not wish it upon anyone. Thank you for your support.
AMY GOODMAN: Antonio Tizapa is the father of Jorge Antonio Tizapa Legideño, one of the 43 students missing from the Mexican state of Guerrero since September; and Amado Tlatempa, the cousin of another missing student, Jesús Jovany Rodríguez Tlatempa. The Mexican government has declared the students dead, saying they were attacked by local police and killed by a drug gang. A number of the parents of these students from Mexico are traveling in the United States in caravans, condemning the U.S. government for its role in the drug war. They believe the students are still alive. Special thanks to Alex Franco for the translation. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
An explosive new report reveals the federal government secretly tracked billions of U.S. phone calls years before the 9/11 attacks. According to USA Today, the Justice Department and Drug Enforcement Administration collected bulk data for phone calls in as many as 116 countries deemed to have a connection with drug trafficking. The program began in 1992 under President George H.W. Bush, nine years before his son, George W. Bush, authorized the National Security Agency to gather logs of Americans’ phone calls in 2001. This program served as a blueprint for NSA mass surveillance. We speak with Brad Heath, the USA Today investigative reporter who broke the story.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We end today’s show with an explosive new report that reveals the federal government secretly tracked billions of U.S. phone calls years before the 9/11 attacks. It reveals Justice Department and Drug Enforcement Administration collected bulk data for phone calls in as many as 116 countries deemed to have a connection with drug trafficking.
AMY GOODMAN: The program began in 1992 and served as a blueprint for mass surveillance by the National Security Agency. For more, we go to Washington, D.C., to Brad Heath, the USA Today reporter who broke this story, headlined "U.S. Secretly Tracked Billions of Calls for Decades."
Brad, welcome to Democracy Now! Explain what you found.
BRAD HEATH: Sure. The Justice Department announced, or revealed, I guess, back in January that it had been gathering up telephone metadata, the same stuff that’s on your phone bill, for calls to designated foreign countries. And it left a lot of unanswered questions. And what we found in looking at it was that this is a program that was older than I expected and ended up being a lot broader than I expected. You know, I guess it’s no surprise that they were looking at Colombia and Mexico. But 116 countries is a pretty expansive list. And for a long time, they were keeping records of basically all calls from the United States to all of those places, as a way, at first, to try to find drug cartels and their networks in the United States, and then it became a much more expansive thing.
The case in which they finally revealed it was a guy who was charged with trying to export electrical equipment to Iran, so not a drug case at all. And the thing that really surprised me the most was that, you know, when the DOJ and the DEA first said they’d been doing this, a lot of people speculated, well, here’s another example of kind of war on terror tactics that are being applied to domestic law enforcement. And it’s actually the other way around, that this started nine-and-a-half years before September 11th in George H.W. Bush’s administration, and this was the blueprint for a lot of what NSA started doing after September 11th.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Brad Heath, we’ll link to your report, investigative reporter at USA Today.
Headlines:
U.N.: Yarmouk Refugee Camp in "Deepest Circle of Hell"
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned of an "epic humanitarian catastrophe" in a Palestinian refugee camp invaded by the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Syria. Speaking Thursday, Ban said Yarmouk resembles a death camp.
Ban Ki-moon: "The Yarmouk refugee camp is the deepest circle of hell. After more than two years of a merciless siege, 18,000 Palestine refugees and Syrians are now being held hostage by Daesh and other extremist militants. A refugee camp is beginning to resemble a death camp. The residents of Yarmouk, including 3,500 children, are being turned into human shields. They face a double-edged sword — armed elements inside the camp and government forces outside."
Palestinian officials have rejected the possibility of joining with the Syrian government to oust the ISIL militants. The statement from the Palestine Liberation Organization contradicts an earlier statement from the PLO’s envoy to Syria suggesting the Palestinians would join in military action.
Iranian Leader Khamenei: No Guarantee of Final Nuclear Deal
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said there is no guarantee of a final nuclear deal after Iran and world powers reached a historic framework agreement last week. In his first comments since the agreement was reached, Khamenei declared all economic sanctions on Iran must be lifted on the day any final deal is signed, and said foreign inspectors would not be allowed into military sites.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: "If you ask me if I support or oppose the nuclear agreement, I neither support it nor oppose it, because nothing has happened yet. Nothing has been done yet. The whole issue lies in the details that they are meant to discuss one by one."
Khamenei’s remarks may have been designed to placate hardliners opposed to the nuclear deal. Negotiators will seek to reach a final agreement before a June 30 deadline.
Massive Tornadoes Hit Midwest
In the United States, massive tornadoes have torn through Illinois and other swaths of the Midwest, destroying homes and leaving heaps of debris in the street. At least one person was reportedly killed in Fairdale, Illinois, where most of the town’s buildings were damaged.
SC Police Shooting Dash Cam Video Released; Activists Call for Review Board
South Carolina authorities have released police dashboard camera video from the day North Charleston police officer Michael Slager fatally shot Walter Scott. Slager is charged with murder after a bystander’s cellphone video showed him shooting Scott in the back as he fled. The dash cam video did not capture the shooting, but does show Slager approaching Scott’s vehicle after pulling him over for a broken brake light. The two converse, and after Slager returns to his cruiser, Scott gets out of his car and begins to run. His family has said he may have fled because he was behind on his child support payments. Meanwhile, activists in North Charleston are calling for a citizen review board for police and city officials, saying the shooting is evidence of a longstanding pattern of racial bias. Scott’s brother, Anthony Scott, said the pattern applies to both people of color and the poor.
Anthony Scott: "Well, I wouldn’t say it was just an African-American thing; it would also be a minority thing. It would be a racial profiling type of thing, and in the city of North Charleston. And, I mean, if you’re a Hispanic or if you are a, I would say, low-income white American, it’s — they would be affected just as well as an African American. But, yes, I think they do stereotype, in the city of North Charleston, people of this sort."
St. Louis County Courts Agree to Reform Fines, Court Costs
In St. Louis County, Missouri, municipal courts have agreed to adopt a uniform standard for fines and court costs. The move is part of an overhaul following the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson and a Justice Department report which accused police of acting as a "collection agency" to run the city off exorbitant fines. The municipal court in Ferguson issued 10,000 more arrest warrants in 2013 than there are people in the city, mostly for driving-related offenses.
Mississippi: 2 White Women Sentenced to Prison in Hate Killing of Black Man
In Mississippi, two young white women have been sentenced to prison for their role in the 2011 murder of an African-American man. Shelbie Brooke Richards and Sarah Adelia Graves admitted to recruiting fellow teenagers to travel around the Mississippi capital of Jackson looking for black people to assault. Both were in a pickup truck when the driver mowed down James Craig Anderson, killing him. Richards admitted she yelled a racial slur and encouraged the driver to beat Anderson and run him over. The driver was previously sentenced to 50 years in prison, and five other white men received lesser terms. On Thursday, Richards was sentenced to eight years and Graves to five years.
New York: Man Who Filmed Eric Garner’s Death to Spend Another Weekend in Jail
In New York City, Ramsey Orta, who filmed the police chokehold death of Eric Garner in Staten Island, will spend another weekend at Rikers Island jail after a prosecutor demanded scrutiny of donations used to pay for his bail. Orta’s supporters raised nearly $40,000 to pay for his bail bond so he could be released from Rikers, where is being held on a drug charge. But Orta’s lawyers say the district attorney demanded a "bail source" hearing to determine if the funds were obtained illegally, even though they were publicly raised through the website GoFundMe. Orta and his family say police have targeted them over Orta’s filming of Garner’s death. (Click here to watch Thursday’s interview on Democracy Now! with Ramsey Orta’s attorneys and his aunt.)
California: Black Activist Faces "Lynching" Charge for Trying to Free Protester
In Sacramento, California, an African-Amercan activist is facing up to four years in prison for "lynching," after she allegedly tried to pull a fellow protester away from police. Under a 1933 California law designed to protect black people from white mobs, the act of attempting to free someone from police custody can be defined as "lynching," a felony offense. The law has been used repeatedly against activists, including Maile Hampton, who was arrested for her actions at a protest against police brutality. On Thursday, protesters packed a court hearing to support Hampton, who returns to court again on April 30. Following an outcry, local and state officials have vowed to remove the word "lynching" from California law.
Obama Arrives in Panama for Summit of the Americas
President Obama has arrived in Panama to attend the Summit of the Americas along with other leaders from Canada, Central America, South America, the Caribbean — and for the first time, Cuba. Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro are reportedly due to meet informally at the summit, marking the first time presidents from the two countries have sat down since 1956. Meanwhile, on Thursday Obama announced the State Department has finished its review of whether Cuba should be removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, but said he would wait to act until receiving final recommendations of White House advisers.
President Obama: "As you know, there is a process involved in reviewing whether or not a country should be on the State Sponsor of Terrorism list. That review has been completed at the State Department; it is now forwarded to the White House. Our inter-agency team will go through the entire thing and then present it to me with a recommendation. That hasn’t happened yet."
Fights broke out ahead of the Summit of the Americas Wednesday when anti-Castro Cuban demonstrators tried to lay flowers at a bust of Cuban patriarch José Martí near the Cuban Embassy in Panama City and were confronted by a group of pro-Castro activists. Cuban delegates also protested over reports that former CIA-backed paramilitary officer Félix Rodríguez, who was sent to kill Che Guevara in Bolivia in 1967, was meeting with opposition groups in Panama City. We will have more on the summit after headlines.
Mexican Activist Who Lost U.S. Asylum Bid Shot Dead in Guerrero
An immigrant rights activist who was deported six months ago, after warning he could be killed if he returned home to Mexico, has been fatally shot in the Mexican state of Guerrero. Constantino Morales reportedly served as a police officer in Mexico, where he denounced drug trafficking and faced attempts on his life, before coming to United States to seek asylum. He was deported in September after his asylum bids were rejected. He leaves behind six children. Morales’ former activist group, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, called on Congress to pass immigration reform: "There are too many of these preventable stories."
Clinton to Announce Presidential Candidacy; Report Questions Ties to Colombian Oil Firm
Hillary Clinton is reportedly poised to announce her candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination this weekend. The move comes as a new investigation has revealed Clinton’s close ties to a Canadian oil company with a history of alleged violence in Colombia. The International Business Times reports while Clinton was secretary of state she backed a Colombian free trade pact she had previously opposed over concerns about labor rights, after the founder of oil giant Pacific Rubiales pledged millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation. The founder, Frank Giustra, now serves on the Clinton Foundation’s board. Labor leaders say Clinton ignored accounts of attacks on union organizers in Colombia, instead backing the trade pact which benefited Giustra and other foreign investors.
Former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee Mulls Presidential Bid
The former governor of Rhode Island has announced he is exploring a run against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. Lincoln Chafee served in the Senate as a Republican and later became governor as an independent, before becoming a Democrat in 2013. He has criticized Clinton over her support for the Iraq War. Chafee’s father, John Chafee, also served as a senator and governor of Rhode Island, as well as secretary of the U.S. Navy.
Georgia Allows Hormones for Transgender Prisoner
Georgia has agreed to end its blanket ban on hormone treatment for transgender prisoners after the Department of Justice intervened on behalf of a transgender woman denied hormones for three years. The Justice Department voiced support for Ashley Diamond’s lawsuit over deprivation of the hormones she took for 17 years before her imprisonment. State officials say Diamond is now receiving the treatments.
19 Arrested at Yale as Fossil Fuel Divestment Protests Grow
Nineteen people have been arrested at Yale University in Connecticut for their role in a sit-in calling for Yale to purge its nearly $24 billion endowment from fossil fuel corporations. The students want school officials to reopen the discussion after deciding not to divest in August. Yale’s endowment is the third largest in the country. Students there join a growing number across the country who are demanding divestment from companies that drive global warming. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology hosted a debate on divestment Thursday. Student activists covered the windows of a university building with colored paper spelling out the word "divest." And Harvard Heat Week begins on Monday. Harvard Heat Week is the divestment efforts of students and professors at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Exclusive: Ailing Mumia Abu-Jamal Comments on Walter Scott Killing from Prison
Imprisoned journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal has spoken out from a prison infirmary about the police killing of Walter Scott in South Carolina. Abu-Jamal, who is seriously ill at SCI Mahanoy, rose from his infirmary bed to record the commentary after a fellow prisoner wheeled in a television so he could watch coverage of the shooting. In a Democracy Now! exclusive, Abu-Jamal discusses his reaction.
Mumia Abu-Jamal: "Remember the young man who allegedly shot — not killed — two cops in Ferguson several weeks ago? Every politician in America leaped at the chance to call the kid a punk, a thug. Now, what do you call Slager? What have you heard? Even though he’s been fired, he’s called 'officer' today, or 'Mr. Slager.' He killed a man for a traffic citation and lied about it. Is he a punk, a predator, or what Huey P. Newton used to call, a pig? From imprisoned nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal."
Special thanks to Noelle Hanrahan at Prison Radio for the recording of that commentary. Mumia Abu-Jamal’s supporters say he remains severely ill after he was hospitalized for diabetic shock. Today his supporters have called a national day of action with protests in 10 cities to demand he be allowed to see a diabetes specialist. Abu-Jamal is in prison for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, but has always maintained his innocence. Amnesty International has found he was deprived of a fair trial.
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