Who Lost Mexico While I Wasn't Paying Attention?
I haven't checked the news in about two days beyond making sure that whatever city I'm supposed to be flying to hasn't been swallowed up in a tsunami or invaded by aliens. I'm therefore not qualified to be a pundit today. I know that wouldn't stop some of us, but I like to think that just as Margaret Thatcher was a Conviction Politician, I am a Conviction Pundit. (If pushed to the wall for an opinion on the day's news, though, whatever it is, I'm against it.)
Would you all mind covering for me for a bit and being the pundits today? (I'd do it for you, you know I would.) Because I have a question that's bothering me more and more with every day I spend here. I'm hearing these murmurings, everywhere I go, that Mexico has become a failed narco-state ruled by gangster kings. Although I'm over here arguing that people aren't paying enough attention to Turkey, I suspect I'm just as guilty of failing to pay enough attention to Mexico.
I have to confess that I know almost nothing about Mexico. I spent a few months backpacking through the country when I was about eighteen years old, but that was a long, long time ago, and all I remember is that I probably had way too good a time, and politics weren't really the focus of my attention. I haven't seen much reporting about Mexico in Turkey, or perhaps I just skimmed over it, because from that vantage point it seems far away and abstract, just as Turkey does from here.
When I last lived in America, Mexico had problems, sure, but no one was calling it a failed state. And I've obviously pretty much missed everything that's happened since.
Can Ricochet readers explain to me what's happened, starting from the basics? Is it true that it's now a failed narco-state, or is that just sensationalism? What's most important to grasp if I want to understand the situation? What are the implications of these developments? And whose fault are they?
If it's true, I'm definitely against it.
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Aug '10
Re: Who Lost Mexico While I Wasn't Paying Attention?
We bear some responsibility for allowing a porous border. The smartest and most energetic Mexican citizens flee corruption and lawlessness, and have done so for three decades, settling in the U.S.
Pressure was never allowed to build to a crisis point which would have caused a healthy revolution and lasting reform in Mexico. The ruling oligarchy down there loves our lax attitude. It makes their lives more comfortable and further enriches them, because Mexicans in America send billions of dollars to relatives at home.
I wonder if the oligarchy has ever influenced our elections? It's somewhat odd that both parties here have failed us.
Ask yourself what you'd do, as a young person facing institutional rot and inertia in your own country. Would you risk your life and stand up to armed authority? Or would you say "Screw it. It's a lot easier to cross the border and start fresh in an organized and lawful country".
Jun '10
Re: Who Lost Mexico While I Wasn't Paying Attention?
River: "Would you risk your life and stand up to armed authority? Or would you say "Screw it. It's a lot easier to cross the border and start fresh in an organized and lawful country".
My interpretation would run as follows: "Do I stick around in a land where the rule of law is random and capricious, or do I go north where I can ignore the law with impunity based on the pigment in my skin?"
Aug '10
Re: Who Lost Mexico While I Wasn't Paying Attention?
Haha! Well said.
May '10
Re: Who Lost Mexico While I Wasn't Paying Attention?
As I understand it, though Mexico might be plagued by corruption throughout the country, the war with the cartels is mainly occurring along our border.
That's where a gang layed the bodies of their enemies in front of a Mexican school and extorted the teachers by threatening to kill the kids. A Mexican helicopter crossed the Rio Grande to hover over a Texas town, with no public response from our government. Note that the local sheriff said that there had been other "incursions." Cartels escort their drugs across American land with jeeps carrying mounted machine guns. They're bribing officials on both sides of the border.
The cartels recently killed over a dozen people in one of the tourist towns. Americans have continued to travel to those towns because they had been sanctuaries from such violence. If that ends, Mexico's war with the cartels will become more overt far from the border.
Hezbollah has set up shop in northern Mexico. If the area becomes effectively independent of Mexican sovereignty, a narco-terrorist state, that is an even more serious national security concern for us. It means Iran has a pseudo-national ally mere hours from my home.
May '10
Re: Who Lost Mexico While I Wasn't Paying Attention?
Anne Breiling: A reporter I heard often on KFI AM 640 when I was in Los Angeles (can't remember her name now) who covered Campos & Rameon and other south of the border stories, often mentioned that intimidation and threats to local reporters had a lot to do with coverage not getting out - obvious I know, but the problem is much worse than I had ever imagined -- And actually, when searching for some of her reports just now, came across this article from today: "Attacks on Mexican media 'national crisis':
http://www.elpasotimes.com/juarez/ci_16025149 · Sep 8 at 10:10pm
I agree that this is a major part of the problem. Unfortunately, I'm not sure there's any solution other than brave reporters.
Aug '10
Re: Who Lost Mexico While I Wasn't Paying Attention?
And who's reporting on this from Mexico, as opposed to an armchair? What are the slants of the various columnists?
I heard this interview on the Leonard Lopate Show in April of this year and recommend it, it is well worth the time:
http://beta.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/2010/apr/14/murder-city/
Leonard Lapote interviewing Charles Bowden, journalist and author of Murder City: Ciudad Juarex and the Global Economy's New killing Fields.
I am waiting for my copy to arrive. His slant may be left of center, but he has clearly put in the work as a reporter.