Flying protest banner intrudes on Mexican president's graduation speech at Stanford [Updated]

President Felipe Calderon of Mexico delivered the 2011 commencement address before 30,000 people at Stanford University on Sunday. The event made headlines in Mexico after an unidentified airplane carried a banner over Stanford Stadium during the president's speech with a protest message directed at Mexico's drug war.

"40,000 DEAD!" the banner read. "HOW MANY MORE?"

In a video that Calderon's office released of the speech, the sound of a light aircraft is heard at about the 15-minute mark into the 18-minute address, which Calderon delivered in English.

The president appears either to ignore or not notice the plane with a few quick glances he makes toward the sky, the video shows. Here's an amateur YouTube clip showing the airplane flying over the stadium. Several amateur photos of the plane and banner also quickly popped up on Twitter.

The banner was marked with the logo of an antiwar group in Mexico known as "No más sangre," or, "No more blood." Yet as of Monday, no one had come forward claiming responsibility for the intrusion on Stanford's commencement, and a spokeswoman for the group in Mexico City said they were not involved.

"We would have loved if it were us, but it was not," spokeswoman Nelly Muñohierro told La Plaza on Monday.

"Obviously it had to have been someone with a lot of cash, possibly even a political party, maybe the PRI," she added, referring to the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which dominated institutions in Mexico until 2000 and was the brunt of fierce criticism in Calderon's speech. 

Another member of the collective organization, the Mexico-based political scientist John Ackerman, said the group is "not in any way a structured or financed movement that in any way could pay for an airplane over there."

[Update: 11:50 a.m. June 14: Activist poet Javier Sicilia suggested in a press report on Monday that the San Francisco-based organization Global Exchange was behind the protest banner. However, Ted Lewis, human-rights director at Global Exchange, said in an interview Tuesday that the banner was not directly financed by the organization but by a group of "local citizens, Mexican and U.S. citizens, that decided they wanted to ask the president that question."]

The incident was the first signal that Mexico's nascent grassroots peace movement had made inroads with like-minded activists in the United States and is willing to engage in political publicity stunts to get its message across to U.S. voters and policymakers. The "No + sangre" insignia was designed by a political cartoonist in Mexico and has been taken up as a rallying symbol by many different branches and organizations represented within the country's antiwar movement.

U.S. media reports from the commencement at one of the country's premiere private universities barely mentioned the stunt, but the incident was being parroted by news outlets and on social networking sites in Mexico as Calderon faces sustained pressure to change his government's strategy against the powerful drug cartels. The San Jose Mercury News reported some protesters were present outside the event, with one holding a sign that read: "Calderon stay here. Mexico is better off without you."

An estimated 38,000 people -- but possibly many more -- have been killed since Calderon dispatched the Mexican military to take on the country's main drug-trafficking organizations. Opponents of the government's campaign against the cartels say 40,000 have been killed in the past 4 1/2 years since Calderon took office.

The Mexican president exhorted Stanford graduates to stick to their ideals no matter the odds, citing his own political upbringing as a young activist for the National Action Party, or PAN, in his native state of Michoacan. Following in his father's footsteps, Calderon worked for the PAN during a period in which the PRI machine was at its strongest and most corrupt.

"You must never stop defending your ideas and dreams," said the president, whose term ends in 2012. "Do not hesitate in your efforts because in the end man's power to create is bigger than his power to destroy."

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: An image via Yfrog showing a small airplane carrying a banner reading "40,000 Dead! How Many More?" Credit: Twitter user Sopitas.

Comments

[Felmmando]

Beast: "Why would anyone pick a loser to speak at a commencement ? That guy has destroyed Mexico utterly, and turned it into a war zone." Yeah, it takes an utterly misguided president to combat organized crime. However, while I agree with you that the blame for the chaos does not lie with the criminals, I'm not sure it is entirely Calderon's either: he seems to just be toeing the line set by by his American overlords. That's why they invite him over.

[Jake]

@Chris: "we only have burglaries because it is illegal" *Sigh*. Are you really still touting that strawman argument? Someone smokes Cannabis in their own home, relaxes, enjoys it, no problem. But that was a crime.. but where is the victim? (and please don't say those effected by drug trafficing as that is the result of a policy decision). Now, you rob someone's house.. you take from someone = victim. Consuming drugs is a victimless crime. Theses are two different crimes 'malum in se' vs. 'malum prohibitum'. If drug use leads to e.g. violence as with Alcohol, there are laws ALREADY in place to deal with that. Also, the large part of the problem with Alcohol is its social acceptance and high prevalence. How about banning all marketing for that dangerous drug and putting a minimum price per unit on it to deter consumption, just as with Tobacco. Are you really suggesting we prohibit it to make it safer? In light of the past failures I would love to hear your explanation of how prohibiting Alcohol could make it safer, and by proxy, how strict legal regulation (no marketing, age restrictions and better education) could be worse for currently illicit drugs.

Also, "how is it that they are not able to organize and fight these criminal gangs and corrupt officials".. well, as I said, when $30bn a year goes to the cartels and ~$1.6bn to fight them the cartels can outbid anyone.. that or they just murder opposition.. ever hear "Plata o Plomo" - Silver or Lead - take the money or take the bullet.. just be thankful you haven't had to live through that kind of situation. The US prohibition policy is beneficial for the US http://www.fpif.org/articles/two_three_many_colombias , at the expense of others. It ravages foreign societies so much that there is no way to make a living without getting involved in illicit drugs.. Now, how does one strip the cartels of power.. go after them with limited funds, take out the top leaders just to let them be replaced by more brutal and viscous leaders.. NO, you take away their revenue. If drugs were able to be legally produced, supplied and used their funding would dry up overnight, no money, no power.

Remember, all of this, the whole drug war, is over taking the sovereignty of ones mind away from oneself. I can LEGALLY partake in many many activities that as dangerous, if not more, than taking drugs. Why does someone have the right to tell me what I can't put in my own body? Is it to prevent addiction of the few because criminalising and jailing the most vulnerable certainly hasn't improved the situation. No, prohibition is merely a form of control, it gives the government near carte-blanche to segregate, discriminate and monitor citizens for no other reason than they choose to use a different substance to relax with than certain elites have decided is acceptable. The amount of harm doesn't even relate to their schedules http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/11/drugs_cause_most_harm. The drug war is just another form of oppression by the ruling elite, I guarantee that if white people were arrested at the rate of blacks in the USA (when usage levels are slightly higher among whites) this drug war would have been over long ago. It is a vile, racist and ineffective policy that causes harm, violence and misery to millions of people world wide. It is unsustainable and will eventually end... and in the future we will look back on it with the same disdain as we do with Alcohol prohibition in the 1920's...

[James P. Evanhoe & Kevin A. Petersen]

THE US MILITARY is running all over the global to keep in place
failed leaders to their public, leaders such as the Saudi Royal Family,
let the people throw them out...and make our troops come home and
work as National Guardsmen to seal our border with Mexico and inspect
cargo coming into the USA. Stop wasteful US military spending where
we should not be...Iraq, Afghanistan and supporting dictators such as
the Saudi Royal family. End years of military waste and over spending!
Throw out the politicians who keep the American People broke,
unemployed, uneducated, communities failing, states going broke....
stop US Military Intervention....
go after corruption on Wall Street and convict Goldman-Sachs
then investigate the criminal corruption of the George Bush Family
These 3 items: 1.Intervention-Needless
2. Goldman-Sachs destroying the US Economy every
4 to 6 yrs
3. George Bush S "Like Father Like Son"
1. needless wars either Let To Happen or Created
2. Debt Spending by the US Government both spent
Trillions combined 3 Trillion and that ended
by collapsing our economy each time they did
debt spend..all most all on the US Military a waste.
3. both economies under Bush leadership collapsed
BUSH (S) Economic Collapse
George HW Bush 88-89,90,91
George W Bush 2001,2002.......2008, 09, etc.
What we do not need is another Texas President who leads the USA no
where ........Texas Bad Presidents: LBJ war & recession,
George HW Bush war & recession,
George W Bush war & recession-depression
now the current Governor of Texas wants to be President ....... NO WAY
enough TEXAS FAILURES......... Americas enemies are not the Arabs,
Muslims or Persian, there right here at home, they are with out a doubt
Goldman-Sachs & the Bush Family!

[Josie Cardenas]

@Bill
"Mexico is forever in the stone age - nay, worse. They have lost their country and cannot govern themselves."
They sasy 'Ignorance is Bliss' and by reading your statement you have proved me and many correct. Who are you to say that the people of Mexico are a "failed people" if that were even remotely true then the American people would have also been considered a fail people. You have thousands of citizens, legal citizens, who are natives of Mexico that house thousands of Americans in apartments and give them jobs for bussiness they own. Please enlighten me by telling me who is the richest man in the world? ... A native Mexican.Furthermore,Mexico is not "forever in the stone age" as you put it.They aren't living in huts or banging two rocks together to create fire. Read up on history man, you put the American education system to shame, it just shows your ignorance. Oh , to prove a point these "failed" mexicans are learning algebra in elementary while americans sit around complaining that we are pushing the students to far.

[Chris]

Legalizing drugs is stupid. Legal alcohol does enough damage. The lesson of prohibition is that the people will ignore laws they do not agree with not that prohibition automatically leads to crime.
By that logic we only have burglaries because it is illegal to enter someone's home without permnission.
Calderon seems ineffectual only because he is the first person to try to bring the criminal gangs under control. I do not think it is any personal idealism so much as the ruling class finally realized these drug gangs are a serious challenge to their power and could replace them as the ascendant power structure.
Since we are disecting Mexican culture here in such unflattering ways I thought I'd try to make a comment that is less bigotted.

What strikes me as weird and the thing that most stands out, is those Mexicans and Central Americans who I meet seem pretty much the same as us with only place of origin being different. So how is it that they are not able to organize and fight these criminal gangs and corrupt officials?
I'm sure there are as many opinions as there are respondants, but that is what I think we should be thinking about solving. If we could crack that issue of why it is the people are unable to form effective social activist groups that create positive change then we'd understand how it is the corrupt have been able to hold sway. Knowing that we'd be able to assist them in breaking that hold.
To me it looks like there haven't been enough like minded people in the same location who are willing to stand up and say no to the faces of the criminals terrorizing them.
The common law abiding citizenry far outnumber the criminals and corrupt officials, so it isn't a matter of numbers available to fight, it is a matter of being willing to fight, until they win. If the populace would rise as one, it would be over in a couple months. I think they need a new Villa.
Freedom is not free.

OOPS, I just advocated for a revolution by simply trying to offer a suggestion on how the problem might be solved. It was totally unintentional, and I stand by it. Revolutions don't have to be about destroying things, it could be a civil revoltion like the Civil Rights Movement in the US.

[James]

They needed another banner that says "40 million illegals from Mexico, no more!"

[Beast]

Why would anyone pick a loser to speak at a commencement ? That guy has destroyed Mexico utterly, and turned it into a war zone.

[June]

Why, in the name of all that's holy, did the school invite the President of a foreign nation that is barbaric and savage to give their commencement address? Mexico is a drug-infested country whose gangs butcher their own countrymen. Their chief export is their povery-stricken people, while the many billionaires don't lift a finger to help them. The government, the elite and the drug lords are one and the same. And you can be sure that drug money is used as bribes to any nation that will allow illegal aliens to invade them.

[Paul R.]

Mexico: Fail

[Pablo Hernandez]

El gobierno de México se ha demorado mucho en dirigir la campaña encontra de aquellos maleantes de caracter ignoble. Ya es hora de responder y proteger la libertad, el desarrollo y el bienestar del pueblo. Cuántos más tienen que morir acribillados villanamente para que el gobierno se de cuenta que en realidad estan tratando con una insurgencia de un carácter muy nocivo? Estas son las mañanitas Señor Presidente…ya basta…despierte!

[Efrain Rojas]

Id you want to see the result of the stupidity of our assault arms policy, go to www.blogdelnarco.com to see uncensored photos. These are real, not imagined consequences.

[Sigfrido]

I dont understand why a third world, banana republic, narrow minded president, is invited to a prestigious university. Here in Mexico we have enough with his lies and stupid decisions. I dont see a reason to spread his bullshit worldwide, dont invite him anymore, please!!! dont make this little man ego grow more!!!!

[indra]

Correction to my previous comment:
EstebanCardenas (not Jake, sorry mate) you live in a sad and pathetic world of delusion. Jake, you're cool, Esteban, you're not.

[indra]

Jake, you live in a sad and pathetic world of delusion. To all: don't comment on what you don't know.

[Jake]

@Edith.. regarding fighting the war on drugs, I suggest you do some more reading http://www.icsdp.org/docs/ICSDP-1%20-%20FINAL.pdf "The available scientific evidence suggests that increasing the intensity of law enforcement interventions to disrupt drug markets is unlikely to reduce drug gang violence. Instead, the existing evidence suggests that drug related violence and high homicide rates are likely a natural consequence of drug prohibition and that increasingly sophisticated and well-resourced methods of disrupting drug distribution networks may unintentionally increase violence"

It is not the drugs that are causing the violence, crime and deaths. It is the huge profit associated with the prohibition of the drugs. That you don't think it is fair that he is judged on his actions in Mexico is ubsurd, it is as if when Gaddafi gave a speech at the London School of Economics he shouldn't have been judged for his actions in Libya! Calderon's drug war, although with the backing of the USA, is still his choice. He decided to militarise the whole country, when if he had looked at evidence, could have seen this would not work. Why could it not work? Because there is a DEMAND for drugs which are an inelastic commodity. This demand sends approx $30bn to Mexico a year, more than the USA's Merida initiative donation of $1.6bn over a few years.. how can you compete with that? By realising that drug use is a Human tendency free from moral failings (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1360-0443.2002.00024.x/abstract) and regulating the production, supply and consumption to ensure that the drugs are as safe and clean as possible, with age restrictions and better education so kids don't get hold of it (they currently find it easier to get hold of Cannabis than Alcohol as dealers don't ask for ID's like shops do). Please see this for a sensible regulatory system that takes the profit out of the hands of criminals http://www.tdpf.org.uk/Transform_Drugs_Blueprint.pdf

To those that understand the mechanics of prohibition, the 40,000 deaths in Mexico (which include ~1000 children caught up in the violence) in an unsurprising response to increased enforcement, enforcement that doesn't tackle the root cause but merely the symptoms of a failed policy. Strict legal regulation is the only sensible and pragmatic answer that can simultaneously reduce drug harms and associated drug-prohibition-market crime.

[EstebanCardenas]

"The incident was the first signal that Mexico's nascent grassroots peace movement had made inroads with like-minded activists in the United States"

WRONG

In Mexico it is WELL known that the movement "No + sangre" is financed by anti-government groups led by former presidential candidate AMLO and their propaganda pamphlets La Jornada and Proceso. It should be mentioned that these groups are also openly anti-US world policy.

Mr. Hernandez, the incident is a confirmation that the movement has been embraced by traffic gangs, who have all the economic resources for such propaganda against law enforcement.

[Edith Zamora]

I saw the whole speech. I thought it was descent the time he focused on the graduates. I dont feel its fair that he is being judged for his actions in mexico. at least he is the 1st president to do something about what is going down in mexico. how about people start recognizing that he is probably one of the least corrupted presidents who cares enough about its country to fight the war on drugs.

either way good speech

[Bill]

Mexico is forever in the stone age - nay, worse. They have lost their country and cannot govern themselves. Ridiculous having a speech given by the head of a failed people and nation. What are these ivy leaguers smoking inviting such a situation? Boomers are such a disgrace themselves I guess they deserve him and so it goes.

[Cynthia]

Why Stanford would do more background checks on a janitor than on a key note speaker shows the university's absolute ignorance. How could such an institution, out of all the worthy people in the world, pick someone whose policies have cost Mexico so much in lives, desecration of the rule of law, and insecurity, remains to be answered. No mas sangre!

[Felmmando]

I just love the implication that the armed criminals will behave themselves if only law enforcement stopped trying to rein them in.

[John Steel]

The question in my mind is why a university such as Stanford felt the need to have the corrupt President of a failing nation deliver a commencement speech?

Is he supposed to be an inspiration to graduates to go forth and fail?