Monday, July 9, 2007

Mexico Fights Violence, Drug Trafficking and Use

By Barnard R. Thompson

Crime is a bane of many if not all countries, made worse when accompanied by unfettered and terrifying violence.  And to allow (even while overwhelmed) organized crime bosses, drug traffickers and dealers, kidnappers, ruthless killers or corrupt officials to literally criminalize a nation and the economy may lead to not just social decline but to governmental collapse as well.

According to a report by Mexico’s Secretariat of Public Safety (SSP), the number of organized crime and drug related killings that took place nationally, from January 1 to June 22, 2007, totaled 1,429 dead.  To emphasize the devastation, and while pointing out that the toll includes many perpetrators or associates involved in inter-cartel territorial warfare over illegal drug transit corridors to the United States, it notes the monthly average for the year to date is 249 people.  The record week was April 23 to 29, when 94 individuals were slain.

For the sake of comparison, it is interesting to look at Sicily’s so-called Cosa Nostra wars of the late 1970s and 1980s.  According to information at Answers.com and Wikipedia, Italian criminal organizations then “waged a war within Cosa Nostra and against the Stidda spreading death and terror among mafiosi and the public … leaving over 500 in Cosa Nostra and over 1,000 in La Stidda dead.”

Over a 12-year period, that death toll would be around 125 killings per year.

Yet some of those deaths, in Mexico as in Italy, were quite probably collateral damage.  As well, the fear and terror such violence spreads among not only criminals and residents but too visitors — who well may stay away due to news reports of the shootouts and carnage, cannot be underrated.

And frightening it is, when the Mexican killings are made more hideous with decapitations and the severed heads found in public places as messages to rival drug lords, their hit men or police.  That vile and stomach-turning practice began in earnest in April 2006, first in Acapulco, while since then even starker messages and execution videos have accompanied the heads, been pinned to cadavers, sent to the media, and posted on the Internet.

Still, since the latter part of May 2007 the number of murders attributed to organized criminals and their henchmen has shown a decrease.  According to the federal government’s report, from January 1 up to May 21 the weekly average was 77 murders per week, whereas the 25-week average for 2007 has dropped to 55 killings a week.

Soon after Felipe Calderón took office as President of Mexico on December 1, 2006, he began to deploy the Mexican military to states where egregious violence and crime were taking place.  Bold and manly acts, especially when compared to the lip service and accommodativeness of his predecessors, which have since been questioned and criticized by many as an improper use of the military.

However what Calderón did was necessary and lawful — plus quite popular at the grassroots level, and hopefully what we are now seeing are early signs of a turnaround that will bring Mexico’s latest gangster era to an end.

(Yet this may be impossible if the U.S. demand for drugs is not lessened.)

On July 2, Calderón announced another step in his National Security Strategy.  “Let’s Clean Up Mexico: Recovery Zone,” first includes joint responsibilities among the three powers of government to deal with organized crime and the lack of security on the streets. Second, it establishes social measures in order to clean up the country's public areas and schools, and to fight addictions.  Third, it will requires the participation of the Mexican people, the most important factor to recover public sites, prevent drugs from reaching children, and to make schools safe places, Calderón said.

But once again, rightly or wrongly, critics are questioning Calderón — mainly because his plan calls for parentally authorized drug testing of school children.  This since Mexico has become a drug-consuming nation, besides being a transit location.

According to news reports, the head of the Federal Districts’ Human Rights Commission opposes the plan; whereas some opposition party members of Congress think anti-drug prevention campaigns are better suited to do the job.

Amnesty International, a northern Mexico human rights organization, and a Mexico City-based children’s rights group are preparing a complaint to be filed with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.  Their objections are that drug testing would violate international treaties and the human rights of minors, and they claim that the Mexican government is seeking a police solution to a social problem by criminalizing children.

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Barnard Thompson, editor of MexiData.info, has spent nearly 50 years in Mexico and Latin America, providing multinational clients with actionable intelligence; country and political risk reporting and analysis; and business, lobbying, and problem resolution services.  He can be reached via e-mail at mexidata@ix.netcom.com.