Monday, October 20, 2008
Mexicans Coexisting with the Mexican Drug Cartels
By Allan Wall
Human beings have the uncanny
ability to adjust to all sorts of bizarre, unpleasant, dangerous and harmful situations, and get on with their lives. It’s
a coping and survival mechanism.
The first half of October was
bloody indeed in Mexico. During that period 387 were killed in violence related
to organized crime. This morbid tally broke the previous record, held by the
second half of last August, when there were 287 such killings.
It was worst in the north. In the State of Chihuahua alone there were 178 deaths, and in Baja California there
were 90.
U.S. drug czar John P. Walters
visited Mexico and delivered an ultimatum to Mexican drug cartels: “Surrender
and submit to justice or die.”
I doubt that the cartel barons
are shaking in their boots over it.
As further evidence of the international
nature of the drug trade, federal Mexican police detained a white Ford van in the border town of Sonoyta, Sonora. The vehicle was carrying 944 kilos of marijuana, conveniently organized into 897 rectangular packages. But none of those in the van were Mexicans.
Two were Argentines; one was Chilean; two (including a minor) were Brazilians.
The other two (including the
driver) were Americans, who judging by their surnames were Anglos and not Hispanics.
Which goes to show that not all the money being made off drug trafficking is being made by Mexicans. Not only that,
but too Americans and non-Mexican Latin Americans are said to be trainees at cartel-run training camps in Mexico.
And within Mexican society, narco
wealth is certainly being spread around. Earlier this year Catholic Bishop Carlos
Aguiar raised a real ruckus when he pointed out that Mexican drug barons have not only financed public works (such as road
construction and electrical installation) in rural areas of Mexico, but they have also built churches and chapels. “I’m
not justifying this,” the bishop was quick to add, “I’m simply saying this is evident.”
The Mexican archdiocese (that
is, the Mexican archbishop’s office) was quick to respond with a statement declaring “money earned from drug trafficking
is ill-gotten lucre and therefore cannot be cleansed in acts of charity.”
Nevertheless, the clergy can’t
control who gives money and where the money comes from. With all the drug money floating and being laundered in Mexico,
some of it is bound to wind up in the coffers of the Catholic Church.
As reported above, in Chihuahua
there were 178 deaths related to organized crime in the first fortnight of October.
A recent report in El Universal (Mexico’s paper of record) asserts that people there have gotten used to the
violence. According to El Universal: “… in Chihuahua, the people
have become accustomed to see deaths perpetrated by organized crime. They (the people in Chihuahua) take photographs, they
quarrel over the ‘best positions’ to watch when cadavers are removed, and when crime scene investigators aren’t
watching they even take ‘souvenirs’ that they later show off.”
After a fatal shootout, Chihuahua
residents have been known to say “that’s one less narco.”
After a ferocious 5-hour gun
battle on March 8th, that left one dead soldier and six dead narcos, a local lady added that “Besides, they’re
not from here; the majority are from Sinaloa or other states.”
The day after that shootout,
local children were already giving “narcotours” for 10 pesos. The
enterprising youngsters were guiding tourists inside the safe house where the narcos had holed up, showing them blood stains
and explaining how things had gone down the day before, most likely in lurid detail.
Sociologist Luis Campos commented
that this is what happens in a society in which violence becomes frequent. Campos
likens it to the difference between telling friends you went to a concert with 20,000 other spectators, and getting a photograph
or autograph of the performer.
Quoth the sociologist: “Now
there are people who take photos of the cadaver. In the future what can occur is that when somebody hears gunfire, instead
of running to hide he will want to take a photograph of the hit men shooting. And
we know what can happen then.”
And on October 14th,
after the public security director of Aldama, Chihuahua was murdered, two men were arrested at the scene. Were they involved
with the killing? No, they were arrested for picking up shell casings at the
murder scene, for souvenirs. After all, such collector’s items would probably
be worth some money.
——————————
Allan
Wall resides in Mexico and teaches
at a university. His website is located at www.allanwall.net.
