10/21/20 10/21/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> antitrust laws and strong antitrust laws are central for freedom and for a thriving economy. the highly concentrated big tech marketplaces in the existing abuses of big tech enabled other dominant positions poses a major democratic threat. amy: the department of justice and 11 states have filed a major antitrust lawsuit against google in a move that could lead to the

cash its breakup. we will speak to law professor zephyhr teachout, author of "break 'em up: recovering our freedom from big ag, big tech, and big money." plus, we will talk about her call for senate democrats to use every procedural tool possible to block the confirmation of supreme court nominee amy coney barrett. then to mexico. >> it is an unequivocal example of the decomposition of the regime, the governmental body was degraded. amy: former mexican defense secretary general salvador cienfuegos has been ordered held without bail in the united states after his shocking arrest last week at los angeles international airport for working with a major drug cartel while heading mexico's military. we will get the latest and look

at what this means for victims of human rights massacres during his time in office. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. we begin headlines with the story that includes graphic you state violence. security forces in nigeria opened fire on protesters in lagos tuesday as authorities imposed a 24-hour curfew to stem growing demonstrations against police brutality. there are conflicting accounts of how many protesters were shot. amnesty international said it had received "credible but disturbing evidence" that protesters had been killed. one nigerian police officer told "the new york times" that 11 protesters had died. dozens of protesters have also been hospitalized. some witnesses posted videos on social media where rapid gunfire could be heard. >> please help people.

please help people. amy: the killings in nigeria come two weeks after protests began against the branch of the nigerian police known as sars, the special anti-robbery squad, which has long been accused of committing torture, murder and extortion. the killings on tuesday sparked outrage from nigerians across the globe. the soccer star odion ighalo, who plays for manchester united, posted this video online. >> i'm not the kind of guy that , but ibout politics can't ignore it anymore. government, you guys are a shame to the world for killing your own citizens, sending military to the streets to kill protesters because they're protesting for their rights? it is uncalled for. amy: here in the united states, democratic presidential nominee joe biden urged nigerian authorities to "cease the violent crackdown on protesters in nigeria."

the united states reported more than 60,000 new coronavirus cases and over 900 more deaths tuesday, as a third surge of infections appears to set rival to previous peaks. on tuesday, the centers for disease control and prevtion said the number of deaths from all causes across the u.s. so far this year is about 300,000 more than expected. 31 states now qualify as red zones under the white house coronavirus task force's policies. in new mexico, governor michelle lujan grisham has ordered new restrictions on retail stores, restaurants, and bars as a surge of covid cases has left over 80% adult hospital beds in new mexico filled. health officials have ordered students at the university of michigan to quarantine in their homes and dormitories after off-campus parties were blamed for more than half of all new coronavirus cases in the city of ann arbor. on tuesday, a house committee on the coronavirus crisis released

white house reports revealing the trump administration has been aware of an alarming nationwide rise in cases for over a month, even as president trump publicly downplayed the crisis, got sick with covid-19, and held crowded campaign events that contributed to the spread of the disease. coronavirus cases continue to surge across the european union as colder weather drives people indoors and pandemic fatigue sets in. in germany, some residents of bavaria were ordered to shelter at home for two weeks in the nation's first new lockdowns since april. belgium's health minister is warning hospitals could soon be overrun by what he called a tsunami of covid-19 patients. at the vatican, pope francis wore a face mask throughout a public svice tuesday -- the first time the ponff has fully complied with vatican city protocols that went into effect on october 6. in latin america, brazil's official covid-19 death toll is

approaching 155,000, while argentina just recorded its one-millionth coronavirus case -- surpassing spain as the fifth-most affected country. back in the united states, the department of justice has sued the internet giant google in a massive antitrust lawsuit that will have major implications for the rest of big tech and could lead to googles breakup. the doj complaint was joined by attorneys neral in 11 states. it reads in part -- "google has used anticompetitive tactics to maintain and extend its monopolies in the markets for general search services, search advertising, and general search text advertising -- the cornerstones of its empire." we'll have more on the google antitrust lawsuit after headlines. in immigration news, attorneys with the american civil liberties union working to identify families that were separated at the u.s.-mexico border say they haven't been able to find the parents of 545

children in u.s.ustody, most of those parents have already been deported to central america. nbc news reports the aclu and other legal groups were appointed to help reunite children taken from their parents under a trump administration 2017 zero tolerance pilot program which separated over 1000 families. only about half of them have been reunited. a number of the children the government does not know their whereabouts, either. an investigation by "the l.a. times" found that since 2017, at least 265 calls to police reporting physical and sexual violence against asylum seekers inside california's four privately run immigration prisons, were not prosecuted. half of those reports were cases of rape and sexual assault, and the rest were reports of assault and battery. one case involves an asylum seeker from el salvador who was

beaten by an immigration and customs enforcement deportation officer in 2018 after the agent threatened to "f- him up" if the asylum seeker refused to sign paperwork. the asylum seeker says the agent then slammed him into a concrete wall. altogether, only three cases of prisoner abuse were prosecuted. in chicago, early voting got underway saturday for hundreds of prisoners at the cook county jail. they're among 20,000 pretrial prisoners in illinois given access to absentee ballots, and in some cases, voting machines at jails. >> voice my opinion and let everyone know we are still human beings and we still have to deal with the same things everybody else has to do when it comes to society and living and our rights. amy: a recent report by the sentencing project found 5.2 million u.s. citizens are forbidden from voting due to laws that disenfranchise people with felony convictions. one out of 16 african americans of voting age is disenfranchised. in texas, a federal appeals

court has ruled that election officials can void people's ballots if they determine a signature on the ballot cannot be verified. under the court's ruling, officials don't have to inform voters that their ballots were rejected until after the election. in minnesota, the council on american-islamic relations is suing the private security company atlas aegis for recruiting ex-u.s. military special operations soldiers to deploy to polling places, calling it illegal voter intimidation and a breach of the voting rights act. michigan's secretary of state is ordering a ban on the open carrying of firearms within 100 feet of polling places. in florida, miami's police department says it will discipline police officer daniel ubeda after he was photographed in uniform wearing a pro-trump mask and a holstered firearm outside a voting site. this all follows donald trump, jr.'s call for volunteers to deploy to democratic precincts to "join army for trump's election security."

joe biden's transition team is vetting several prominent republicans for cabinet positions. politico reports the candidates include former ohio governor john kasich, corporate executive meg whitman, massachusetts governor charlie baker, former arizona senator jeff flake, and former pennsylvania congressmember charlie dent -- who's been working as a healthcare industry lobbyist since resigning from congress in 2018. this comes as "the new york times" reports the biden campaign has raised almost $200 million from donors who gave at least $100,000. the campaign is also refusing to reveal the names of so-called bundlers who organize and collect checks from other major donors. president trump campaigned in pennsylvania on tuesday, where thousands of supporters ignored social distancing guidelines to pack a rally at erie international airport, where many were not wearing masks. first lady melania trump was due to join the event but remained at the white house. her chief of staff said the

first lady has a lingering cough as she continues to recover from covid-19. president trump railed against "60 minutes" and its host leslie stahl on tuesday after he cut short an interview with the cbs news program at the white house. after the interview, trump tweeted -- "for the sake of accuracy in reporting, i am considering posting my interview with lesley stahl of '60 minutes,' prior to airtime! this will be done so that everybody can get a glimpse of what a fake and biased interview is all about." separately on tuesday, trump ordered attorney general william barr to lach a probe of the bidens over unverified claims of corruption tied to hunter biden's time spent on the board of a ukrainian oil company. this is trump speaking on fox news tuesday. >> will you be appointing -- pres. trump: we have to get the attorney general to act. he has to act fast. iesco point somebody.

this is major corruption and this has to be known about before the election. amy: the fiancée of the slain washington post columnist jamal khashoggi has filed a civil lawsuit in washington, d.c., against saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman for ordering his torture and killing two years ago inside the saudi consulate in istanbul. the lawsuit also names more than two dozen other saudis who the lawsuit claims were part of a plot to "permanently silence" khashoi, who had begun writing articles critical of the saudi royal family. in colombia, two leaders with the leftist political movement colombia humana were assassinated tuesday in two different regions of the country. eduardo alarcón was shot to death reportedly at his home by assailants on a motorcycle. and gustavo herrera was fatally shot while out on the street. this comes as thousands of indigenous and other social leaders are planning a national strike in bogotá today protesting against the government's social and economic

policies and demanding the government of right-wing president iván duque end the violence and murders against social leaders in colombia. in the caribbean, environmentalists are warning of a looming oil disaster as a stricken tanker threatens to unleash a spill that could rival the 1989 exxon valdez disaster. images of the ship show it listing drastically to starboard as it continues to take on water not far from trinidad and tobago. the venezuelan-flagged tanker has 80 million gallons of oil on board. the ship has been idled in the gulf of paria since the trump administration imposed an embargo on venezuela's petroleum industry in january. in kentucky, a member of the grand jury that heard evidence in the case of breonna taylor's killing says jurors were never given the opportunity to consider homicide charges against the louisville police officers who shot taylor to death as they served a no-knock warrant in taylor's home last march. in a statement issued through their lawyer, the anonymous juror wrote --

"the grand jury didn't agree certain actions were justified, nor did it decide the indictment should be the only charges in the breonna taylor case. the grand jury was not given the opportunity to deliberate on those charges." the associated press has revealed supreme court nominee amy coney barrett served for nearly three years on the board of a private christian school which barred openly gay teachers and effectively barred admission to children of same-sex parents. trinity schools brand schools in indiana, minnesota, and virginia. it is affiliated with a secretive religious group people appraise, which barrett is a long time member. they teach students that homosexuality is an abomination against god. the senate judiciary committee is planning to vote on barrett's confirmation thursday despite protests by democrats who accuse republicans of rushing her confirmation ahead of the election. we will have more on that later in the show. and a new report looking into the presence of lead in tap

water shows that of nearly 800 families from across the country included in the study, most homes had detectable lead in their tap water and at least 15% had levels of lead that could potential cause a drop in the iq of infants who are exclusively fed with formula mixed with tap water. the study also found that black babies are at a higher risk of being exposed to lead in tap water. and those are some of the headlines this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman in new york joined by my co-host juan gonzález in new brunswick, new jersey. hi juan. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: the department of justice sued the internet giant google in a massive antitrust lawsuit that will have major implications for the rest of big tech and may even lead to the company's break-up. 11 states joined the lawsuit, the largest of its kind against a tech company in more than two decades.

it accuses google of engaging in illegal practices to maintain a monopoly on the market, including by snding billns of dollars each year on deals with apple and other companies to appear as the default search engine on hand-held devices and browsing services. through these practices, google "owns or controls search distribution channels accounting for roughly 80% of the general search queries in the united states," according to the department of justice. the doj complaint reads in part -- "the google of today is a monopoly gatekeeper for the internet, and one of the wealthiest companies on the planet. google has used its anticompetitive tactics to maintain and extend its monopolies in the markets for general search services, search advertising, and general search text advertising -- the cornerstones of its empire." the complaint continues -- "absent a court order, google will continue executing its anticompetitive strategy, crippling the competitive process, reducing consumer

choice, and stifling innovation." for more, we're joined by zephyr teachout, professor of law at fordham university and author of the new book "break 'em up: recovering our freedom from big ag, big tech, and big money." earlier this month, professor teachout testified at the subcommittee on antitrust, commercial and administrative law judiciary committee investigation into competition in digital markets. zephyr teachout, welcome back to democracy now! can you talk about the significance of this lawsuit and what it means? >> thank you for having me. it is an incredibly important lawsuit and clearly just the beginning of what should be a series of both lawsuits at the federal anstate level -- keep your eyes on the states -- and legislation to deal with this incredible democratic crisis we have big tech really becoming a , for-profitate

government that is taking over 70 parts of our lives. as you mentioned, it has been decades since we have seen antitrust case of this ki, not just against big tech, but in general. the last big what was microsoft. as most people understand, the case against christoph was essential in leading to the innovations that followed in silicon valley but in the last 10, 15 years, you have seen these big tech giants consolidating power and then protecting their power through illegal means. what this complaint lays out is years and years of illegal practices of google coming to not just dominate, but illegally protect its monopoly in this area. just being a person in the world, you know what a monopoly google is.

that search is an essential part of our lives. it is an essential gateway through which everybody has to pass. after themes right major report by cicilline, the house antitrust sub committee report, which really took pretty direct aim at enforcers for their pathetic failure to do their job with existing antitrust laws and called for congress to act because of the nature of the democratic crisis we face. , i wantedyr teachout to ask you about some of the relations in the complaint -- revelations in the complaint, specifically that close ties between some of these tech giants like google and apple. on one hand, google is arguing that the default -- that its use

of search as a default on apple equipment is not a big deal because the user can switch it. but at the same time, it was revealed that spending eight to $12 billion paint apple eight to 12 you nosy or just to have google's search be a default on all apple equipment? >> this is an important revelation. there are some aspects of this lawsuit where those of us who have been watching the field are saying, this suit should have been brought along time ago. a lot of google's behavior is obvious. there is an obvious monopoly and obvious it has been using its monopolymaintain its using its contractual power to do so. looking at the relationship with apple is really important. you have google paying apple. i think it helps clarify something argued in my book, which is we are dealing with

something akin to mafia power where you have a handful of big companies that theoretically compete, but there also supporting each other in a growing their power and they are effectively competing against democracy. it is an alternate form of governance. here you have apple getting rich off of google maintaining its monopoly. what i think this points to is the importance of people understanding that this suit only is the beginning and has to only be the beginning. the antitrust subcommittee, cicilline's investigations, was absolutely revelatory. this was a house committee with five staffers going up against these four big tech firms. we learned about behavior on amazon's part, the way apple operates. we have enforcers who have been

sitting on the sidelines for decades kind of acting as if there's something magical about tech -- i think in two ways. one, there's something magical about tech that if we enforce basic laws that you can't have nice things. tech will go away. history suggest the opposite, that antitrust is essential for innovation. this is something these who talks about. but it also shows just how deeply both democrats and republicans have bought into this really dangerous idea that we don't have an antimonopoly problem unless you can precisely point to consumer prices going up. i want to talk about the har here because i think it really important to understand how this relates to the moment we are living in. ask you,anted to though, in terms of this issue of democrats and republicans, could you comment about the decision of attorney general william barr toring this

lauit just before the elections? apparently, many of the lawyers who are workingn this case felt they were not yet ready but for some reason, the attorney general moved forward? and also, there was an investigation of google back during the obama years where, apparently, some obama era justice offials felt they should be moving forward on antitrust but tt did not happen back then. could you talk about how the repuican administration is dealing with the, how obama dealt with this several years ago? >> we had a real revving door problem with obama and google in particular. and a failure during t obama years to bring antitrust cases, to be aggressive enforcers, and this is one of the things -- this is a lien report really lays it out, decades of nonenforcement. reallycicilline report lays it out, decades of the enforcent. impeached. be

he has undermined the rule of law. i have been regularly calling for his impeachment and have zero respect there. but this is a pretty narrow slamdunk case. i would be wary of underanding it in partisan terms. i want to point to the statement of attorney general tish james yesterday, very powerful statement, which is clear there going forward with the google investigation. i will be interested toee if they even expand it beyond what this kind of pretty narrow but pretty central claim. i also want to say something that amy mentioned that is important to understand about this case. when we are talking about remedies, what do you do when you have a search engine which has become basically public israstructure but it profit-seeking, data mining, privacy-destroying, small

business-crushing infrastructure? what do you do? the legal recourse we have under current law is to break it up. that is not off the table in this suit. in fact, structural remedies, when you see structural remedies, that is code for breaking up, is meioned in the lawsuit. but one of the thingthis moment -- this lawsuit does is while it is going forward, he pushes the ball back to congress. have adecide, we want to search engine that we all share, we just shouldot have it be profit-seeking, nontransparent self-serving. we might want to then mo to a public utility model where you can have a search engine, but the sech engine does not lie on targeted ads and the sucking personal -- byl the way, political -- data in the way that it currently does. this lawsuit squarely puts

congress i did the position to say, what kind of public communications infrastructurdo we want to have? seniorphyr teachout, vice president of google affairs kent walker responded to the "asuit in an article titled deeply flawed lawsuit that would do nothing to help consumers." in it, walker writes -- "people use google because they choose to, not because they're forced to, or because they can't find alternatives. this lawsuit would do nothing to help consumers. to the contrary, it would artificially prop up lower-quality search alternatives, raise phone prices, and make it harder for people to get the search services they want to use." if you could respond to this and the real-life harms? >> it is not a surprising press release, it is the same thing that microsoft said in 1998. basically what standard oil was saying.

look, people are choosing us, even though we are forcing our with whom wehose contract with. but i do want to talk about the real-life harms. with the complaint talks about is the harms innovation. and the harms to privacy. aboutnow if you are angry how google is gathering up your data, if you are angry about the -- google is basically basically, it is an ad company, but it makes its money through model.geted ads business the recourse is to go bag google to be better. we know how well that goes. when you actually have a with being orrket yahoo!, actually competing on grounds and sang, we are going to protect your privacy better, we're going to do search in way that isn't self-serving, is it based on targeted ads, you

actually lead to both more innovation and better consumer protection. the direct harm the complaint does not talk about is beuse of google's monopoly, it charges an enorms amount, outrageous amounts to people who need to advertise on it. that is when we are thinking about the small businesses who are currently struggling. those small businesses then having to pay more just to get seen, to get known, push that cost under their workers. there is recent research showing that the ways in which monopoly power is the major driver of inequality. that is something that is not in the suit but we need understand. when you have monopoly chokepoints at the center of our economy, they use that power to at a businesses who then turn it around and push that harm under workers. amy: we wanted to get to part two of this conversation and that is not about google, but

supreme court justice nominee amy coney barrett. today's headlines, we said the associated press has revealed supreme court nominee barrett served for nearly three years on the board of a private christian school which barred openly gay teachers, effectively barred permission to children of same-sex parents. trinity schools run schools in indiana, minnesota, virginia, affiliated with a secretive religious group of which barrett is a longtime member. .hat is just the latest news the school teaches, sexuality is an abomination against ash homosexuality is an abomination against god. proceeded to plucker nomination. why? >> a barrett nomination is a catastrophe. we don't know infraction about her. this is like getting married in three weeks except it is not getting married, it is choosing someone who is going to decide the rules of our democracy, the

rules governing our bodies, our intimate relationships for 50 years. we don't need to know that much tendo a 6-3 majority on the a bomb comingally at what is left of our protections against corruption in politics, against corporate money. what is left of the voting rights act. 10 alarmn absolute fire and the democrats have not been, for instance denying anatomists consent at every single book for sending to deliver everything will senator every single moment. there are techniques that have -- opportunities that have passed. for instance, the democrats could have had week by week continuing resolutions to keep the government going, forcing mcconnell to produce his

vulnerable senators. and there wilbe moments coming up this thursday. but what i hear from the democrats, well, that is not sure to work or not likely to work on stuff that is not the question. chancee is a one in 500 that it our delay caused by impeachment, let alone a day delay caused by impeachment of b billarr residence, lead to enough disruption that never republican senators would say, mcconnell, are asking too much, i'm not going to be there for you, then we would not be leading into this catastrophe. i think we really need to see in these last few days democrats aligned on a very clear message about the altogether illegitimacy of this process and the catastrophic danger of this nomination. , and thehyr teachout eventual teachout she is confirmed, there is been increasing debate over what can be done to counter the court

packing that has been going on now for someone years on the part of the republicans in the federal judiciary. i am wondering your thoughts on this whole issue of expanding the supreme court if joe biden is elected and the democrats in control of both houses? >> i have been arguing for rebalancing the court for a long time. small democratic necessity. it is suddenly constitutionally grounded. -- sidly constutionally grounded. justice roberts and a grotesquely innovative, which is theory,e made it up, struck down the voting rights act. it became very clear that we needed rebalancing of the court and a new understanding of this institution, as well as thinking about shorter terms for justices.

i think that is absolutely necessary. you finally, and i know have to go, the supreme court decision that just came out around voting rights, the supreme court issued a 44 ruling on a voting rights case in pennsylvania, so significant because this was a victory for voting rights advocates. it shows the court is evenly divided on these issues. of course, the election is going to be key. if amy coney barrett is confirmed, she would break that tie. the significance of this? and long-term significance of this is extraordinary. this is about the court reviewing state constitutional decisions about what those local state constitutions require. and you have this very dangerous, radical perspective by four members of the supreme court, which amy coney barrett

would join, which would jump in and second-guess those states decisions,nal based which have been important in allowing people's votes to be counted in the selection. so we could see a justice barrett being a tiebreaker in suppressing votes in this upcoming election and changing the outcome of the votes that for theening right now november 3 election. amy: why haven't democrats pushed harder, do you think? >> i am pulling my hair out about this. sorry to be so -- well, not sorry to be so blunt. there is such a deep misunderstanding of risk in short-termism and failure to understand the scope of the catastrophe and complacency and sclerosis. what i hear is people say things like, that is not likely to work. well, i will tell you whether

deathlk to a serious penalty lawyer defending their client on death row or a serious corporate lawyer defending against a corporate takeover, their answer to that question is, if we have a one in 100 chance, we're going to file that motion. we don't have that approach in the senate or the house. you zephyr teachout, thank for being with us, professor of law at fordham university and author of the new book "break 'em up: recovering our freedom from big ag, big tech, and big money." this is democracy now! when we come back, and shocking arrest in los angeles airport. the former mexican defense chief, the defense secretary. we will talk about the implications of this for the drug trade as well as human rights abuses and murders of activists in mexico. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. we spend the rest of the hour looking at mexico, as former defense secretary general salvador cienfuegos has been indicted in new york on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to distribute drugs in the u.s. from 2015 to 2017. cienfuegos is accused of working with the beltrán leyva cartel to arrest and torture rivals in exchange for bribes. on tuesday, a judge ordered cienfuegos be held in u.s. custody without bail, saying he is a flight risk. the judge also ordered the former defense secretary be sent to new york from los angeles, where he was arrested at los

angeles international airport on thursday. cienfuegos served as defense secretary from 2012 to 2018 under mexican president enrique peña nieto. on monday, the current mexican president andres manuel lopez obrador said he would ask the u.s. to share all formation about ties between the former defense secretary and cartels. general salvador cienfuegos has long been accused of human rights abuses in mexico, including refusing to allow investigators to interview soldiers who may have been involved in the 2014 disappearance and likely massacre of 43 students from a teachers' college in ayotzinapa, guerrero. cienfuegos also defended soldiers who were accused of massacring nearly two dozen people in the town of tlatlaya in the state of mexico in 2014. for more, we are joined by two guests. anabel hernández is an

mexican investigative journalist . she received so many death threats to the national human rights commission in mexico assigned her two full-time bodyguards. despite the danger, she has continued to report. her most recent book "traitor: , the secret diary of mayo's son," about the son of one of the most powerful mexican drug lords, ismael el mayo zambada." also with this, john gibler, author and independent journalist based in mexico. his book on the 2014 attacks against the ayotzinapa students is called "i couldn't even imagine that they would kill us." he is also the author of "to die in mexico: dispatches from inside the drug war" and more recently, "torn from the world: a guerrilla's escape from a secret prison in mexico." welcome both of you to democracy now! anabel hernández, we will just say your summer in europe.

you face so much enormous personal threat for your work on exposing drug cartels in mexico. can you talk about the significance of the arrest of the former defense secretary of mexico cienfuegos? >> good morning, amy. nice to hear you. that thet i can see is arrest of this general is not a case insulated. you have to see all the pieces -- all the pictures. processedurt wa -- 2018l chapo in 2008 20,019, he was sentenced to life in prison. then this court, the same vsorney general question

office ordered t -- attorney general's offe orderethe arrest of another former secretary of security, public of philippi mexico called her on now you had this third important arrest of the general. so if you see the picture, you can see the process against the corruption and the administration of the drug traffickers inside the government. that is what i see. now the two attorney generals in these three cases have a bigger picture about how penetrate was the mexican government made the last 18 years by the cartels. 2010a reveal in my book in now in this--

court, this historic moment. juan: anabel hernández, you mentioned luna, who is not only a top official under philippi called her o in terms of fighting drugs, but also atop law enforcement official under the previous president listen to fox. these are people who united states drug authority, enforcent authorities, worked closely with over the years. what does it say about the ability of the united states in terms of dealing with combating drugs new mexico that these t officials work cloly with them and now we are finding out they were part of the problem? me, it is -- question.

for the u.s. government, of course, for the dea, the department of justice, how did they get understand that these people were working for the drug cartels? -- thery of luna complicity of cienfuegos. cienfuegos did just start to do and 2017, he2015 cartel to protect the and brothers according with documents that i have, according with positions of members of the cartel in front of the attorney general office in mexico may 20 10, 2011. was alsoienfuegos other since 200

also the government of fox. cienfuegos was the head of the guerrero,at region i in mexico city when these two parts were absolely under control of the are tells. the question is, if i is a journalist were ever to discover these two men, head of the government, were involved with the cartel, what happened with the dea? theyhappened with other -- let them work? would happen. now ia question till can't answer. juan: i think we have john gibler also with this,

independent journalist. i'm wondering if you can talk about the role of former defense minister fuego's in terms of the massacre riots and his legacy there? >> of course. i hope everyone is doing well. was head of defense 2012-22. was chief of the army in so-called drug war during those years when several major massacres happened across mexico. you mentioned the murder of 22 come the mexico state heads of army soldiers, as well as the murder of six people in the forced disappearance of 43 students from ayotzinapa in late september 2014. cienfuegos, like the other high-level officials, initially dismissed the importance of , immediately

dissuaded any analysis of state participation, of military participation at those events, but much later when the family members of the disappeared first, and then second, the human rights organizations come the independent international experts that arrived to assist the families entity investigation, requested the ability to interview soldiers stationed where most of the attacks took place to interview them about what happened, where they were comeverything that happened that night. salvador cienfuegos himself repeatedly refused to allow the families or their legal representatives and the independent experts access to interview them. not only did he refuse that, but he went so far as to say that even talking to those soldiers would be criminalizing them.

so now you have a person who is being charged in new york with three counts of international drug trafficking, one count of money laundering, refusing to let parents looking desperately for their children forcibly disappeared by police in an ration carried out over hours a mile and have half away from major military base, refusing to let them speak to the soldiers. just speak to them. saying that would criminalize the soldiers. amy: we're going to go to break and come back to this discussion and talk about another massacre, as well as what it means in the united states, billions have gone to the drug war and the mexican government, what -- who has pocketed that money, how many of them are now under arrest for drug trafficking themselves? anabel hernández and john gibler are our guest. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez.

about the latest news, we're looking at mexico where last month authorities brought criminal charges against military soldiers for the first time in the ongoing investigation into the 2014 disappearance and likely massacre of 43 students from a teachers college in ayotzinapa. mexican officials announcing they had issued at least 25 arrest once against suspects believed to be the "material and intellectual authors of the disappearance, including a former head of the federal police." week on theis past former defense secretary of mexico was arrested in los angeles airport. so we want to turn to families of the disappeared students who have long maintained the military was involved in the mass abduction. this is the father of missing student christian alfonso rodriguez. the previous government led by peña nieto segment little

soldiers are untouchable. with this new government, we have managed intimate -- into the military barracks in iguala. we have managed to do something we could not before for example, the arrest of police officers. amy: for more, we continue with journalist john gibler and anabel hernández. annabelle, if you could talk further about the human rights abuses in mexico, the u.s. money that went into the so-called drug war, millions if not billions of dollars, and not only the ayotzinapa massacre of 2014, but as well another massacre that took place where 22 people were killed in the town of kukla in mexico. and if you can relate this to the general who was just arrested. >> absolutely.

since the plan was signed between the u.s. and mexican government 2008, 2 thousand nine, the collaboration between the u.s. government and mexico were stronger. supposedly against the cartels. now you see part of the government -- that was the story they told to us. the general cienfuegos has always been inside the system. he was a member of a strong and the defense secretary. decided peña nieto cienfuegos be the defense

a these politics, all ese decisions about the closed underrugs the order of cienfuegos. this war a key part of against drugs and the government of uric opinion? nieto.que pena the army abused their power. they disappeared many people, hundreds of people in mexico. -- from 2020, we have been seeing how the army participates in massacres, disappeared people, abuses of

human rights and all these things. with the war against drugs, on julylace of mexico killedhe army massacre 21 people just like that. the official version was supposedly a comeback between supposed members of the cartel and the army and all the members .f the cartel were murdered just two days before the attack and the disappearance of the students in iguala, just two had tofore, the army

confess, yes, we killed those people. we killed them. and start to be uncomfortable for the government of peña nieto and for cienfuegos and a face these crimes. then when -- what happened in iguala, when these students were attacked by the federal police, by the army, but the local police -- by the local police, the government of peña nieto, instead revealing the truth about the case, instead investigate to the army -- remember, the army participate, they cover-up the crime. they create a fake story about what really happened that night. the is why this is one of

reasons why until now these parents cannot hug again to their boys. to their children. ask john, can to you talk aut wha president obrador has done? he has promised to would be no more impunity with the military. justast month, mexican authoritiesrrested -- issue dons of arrest warrants for lice and soldiers connected to the ayotzinapa massacre or disappearances of the students. how has lopez obrador dealt with the situation? looks lopez obrador made a specific commitment to the families actually when he was still campaigning, the families innfrontative

iguala and he made an explicit commitment to investigate the case, to find their children, find the truth of what happened that night and do justice. he was elected and reiterated his commitment. he from the presidential commission to investigate the case, and then later -- many months later, they named a special prosecutor who is someone who actually worked with the independent experts earlier during the peña nieto administration, so someone intimately familiar with the details of the case. since then, the family members have said to me that while they believe in the commitment the president has made, they feel inevitably that anguish of how long it is taking. the new government has issued arrest warrants for several federal officials, including the former police official supposedly in charge of investigating the attacks

against the students but was one of the chief architects of the lie, diverse and the government insisted on for several years that the students had been confused by rival cartel and taken out in his open-air trash your town of kukla and incinerated during a rainstorm over the course of similac. that was based on confessions extracted throh torture. several videos of those torture sessions have since come out and it is impossible to sustain the veracity of those confessions. one thing that is important that the new government is very clearly distancing itself from this previous administration's coverups or acts of administrative forces -- forced disappearance of students for so many years. president lopez obrador, i think for the first time, explicitly said the attacks against the

students had been a crime of state. the president articulated what has been for years the call of the families and the protesters in the street, a crime of state. amy: we just have 30 seconds. how would you relate the u.s. finding of the drug war to that mass migration a mask since just mexicans into the united states? >> i think u.s. drug war has not always been a great ne-yo -- it is never been about controlling substances dangerous for communities. the arrest is one more example of how the highest level of federal officials in charge of supposedly policing the drug industry are the ones administering a post of this the back to the 1990's when cauldron administration and luna and now cienfuegos. the u.s. is obsessed with controlling perpetuating this drug war, which leads to terror

on communities. migrants that are fleeing situations of terror that are provoked by the u.s. drug war. amy: we want to thank you both for being with us, john gibler and anabel hernández. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

thank you for joining us. from our studio in tokyo, this is nhk "newsline." we start with an update on the anti-government protests roiling thailand. the country's prime minister says he's ready to lift the emergency debris in bangkok if there's no violence. >> translator: the only way to a lasting solution for all sides is to discuss and e