Drugs, Murder and Mexico

My wife is from Mexico and has lived there for 24 years so she is very familiar with the situation and watches the Mexican news every day for updates; I agree with everyone in here on how ridiculous this all is. The sad thing is that cities that were once "safe" are now starting to get these waves of crime. Her family is (or was) being followed and threatened; thankfully nothing has happened, but the reality is that this stuff is becoming commonplace and it sucks. Last time I went there, there were armored tanks on the streets with enough ammo to waste an entire city block (really!!), and her graduation party was cut short when it was announced that the gangs were coming to kidnap and kill 100 people there. Basically, the nightlife is kind of dead at the moment.

She generally tends to think that the situation will get better (as Cuba was pretty much the same way 10 years ago but seems okay now) after their president leaves office (or gets murdered, not sure which is more likely), as apparently the guy is fighting the drug lords which is leading to all this violence. Alternatively, she is acutally kind of hoping for a U.S. takeover of Mexico. According to her, Mexico could be a first-world country, as they have great work ethic and many natural resources, but everything is so corrupt and the previaling attitude so defeatist that it's hard to imagine it ever happening.

Read some of the stories coming out of Juarez lately; you literally cannot give away real estate there. If that place ever turns around someone's gonna be rich.

Wishing I hadn't clicked on the other story about the 4 decapitated men now. :(

Remember when Chiapas were the big threat?

i really hope this police chief manages to survive her term

― rothko's chapel and waffles (omar little), Wednesday, October 20, 2010 7:07 PM Bookmark

She did, kinda.

Chiapas is a state -- I think you mean Zapatistas?

I don't doubt that eventually things will get better, but I wonder when the US is going to (officially, formally) own up to its responsibility here. Drug war fatigue can't last forever, and there's going to be a tipping point. I just wonder when that's going to be.

im living in toluca (a hour and a half south of mexico city) until july. its relatively safe down here although the mood is kinda paranoid. lots of gated communities and so on. talking to mexicans about the whole deal, they seem to be hopeful that the next govt. can come in and clean it all up.

i really hope this police chief manages to survive her term

― rothko's chapel and waffles (omar little), Wednesday, October 20, 2010 7:07 PM Bookmark

She did, kinda.

― Pleasant Plains

that's a "relief" i suppose.

I feel a little better now for perving over her in the ws threads, then. best wishes to all folks on this thread who are in mexico.

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20110316/capt.cb26f3752e6c43c382e7249d1d95b7f6-8ba85f82d3864320af3735bc59ba1e60-0.jpg?x=400&y=263&q=85&sig=_Qc2hVtGbdG4gycY.GEHaw--

Bodies lie on the floor in a home where gunmen killed an elderly woman and two of her grandchildren in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, Mexico, Tuesday March 15, 2011. A convoy of gunmen chased a man into the home and sprayed the residence with bullets killing the 60-year-old woman, along with two boys, ages 2 and 6, police said in a statement. A 23-year-old woman was also wounded.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110317/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_drug_war_mexico

interesting

http://www.gamingunion.net/news/call-of-juarez-the-cartel-eyes-on-preview--4343.html

http://www.gamebandits.com/blog/2011/03/18/call-of-juarez-from-tex-mex-western-to-narcoterrorism/

However, when they announced that it would be called Call of Juarez: The Cartel, and would take place in a modern day setting, many people were left rather stunned.

as you can imagine!

It sounded rather cool, but many people wondered if the entire premise of the game, what made it stand out in the first place, would be lost as a result.

oh, for those reasons, then...

I can't stop following that Borderland Beat blog. So depressing and terrifying, but oddly compelling to read about. It really is like a modern day, lawless wild west or something - just ten times more deadly.

I mean, jesus:

hrough this communique, we are announcing that beginning this Friday on March 25, the true cleansing will begin. Beginning in San Nicolas, we will exterminate the scum filled rats: Civil servants, police, and transit authorities. Say goodbye to your families, avoid being with them or using your children as human shields, do not risk it. Ultimately, the scum will meet their end regardless of where they are or who they are with. This will also happen to the neighborhood lookouts, "Neighborhood Watch." We have something very special for you, similar to what the transit authorties will experience.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/26/us-usa-guns-mexico-idUSTRE76P33T20110726

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/in-mexico-the-glamor-of-narco-culture/

#12 is just fucking unbelievable

Narco-culture, he said, is narcocorridos — rap songs about drugs that glorify the life experiences of violent drug dealers. It is giant mausoleums celebrating assassinated kingpins. It is films about the drug world. Blogs about the drug world.

maybe the author is using a very flexible definition of 'rap', but the term generally isn't used w/r/t rap songs

interesting article from foreign policy: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/07/14/can_mexico_fix_its_image_problem

partly interesting only because i feel like i have seen a # of 'positive' articles abt mexico in e.g. 'the economist' about how things arent as bad in mexico as they seem &c &c

mexican economy has been one of the real successes of the last decade

story a while ago in the times abt how fewer mexicans are coming to the states in favor of new jobs at home

I was just going to post my anecdotal (but very real) evidence of this very thing -- I work in ESL in a major US city and it has been noted (by experienced professionals) in two different schools (pretty major educational hubs within the city) that enrollment in lower level (basic literacy and level 1) ESL classes is not only down, but notably down within the Hispanic population. Lots of Iraqi Christians, east/north Africans, but noticeable downtick in Latinos.

On the other hand, major uptick in generation 1.5 students who are the first in their families to go to college.

mexican economy has been one of the real successes of the last decade

yeah theyve had strong growth even during the last couple of years (like 5+% this year) but the stuff ive read makes it p clear how structurally fucked up and unequal their economy is

oh for sure

I'm pretty sure its been mentioned in this very thread before, but the Borderland Beat blog is one place where you can really grasp how horrific this can be, some really harrowing tales and graphic images from time to time.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/09/14/mexico.violence/index.html

A woman was hogtied and disemboweled, her intestines protruding from three deep cuts on her abdomen. Attackers left her topless, dangling by her feet and hands from a bridge in the border city of Nuevo Laredo. A bloodied man next to her was hanging by his hands, his right shoulder severed so deeply the bone was visible.

Signs left near the bodies declared the pair, both apparently in their early 20s, were killed for posting denouncements of drug cartel activities on a social network.

omg

:(

ffs

^

!!!!!

Saw this news. So depressed. Shit like this has undone every high I ever had.

terrifying

the photo is blurred but still just sickening

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/09/15/article-2037772-0DE8B1E500000578-413_468x362.jpg

jesus

my fucking god

http://www.examiner.com/drug-cartel-in-national/cartels-now-extorting-teachers-killing-schoolchildren-mexico

At one time, dead children were usually the unintended victims of armed attacks on the streets of Mexico. However, in recent months, the cartels have been specifically targeting children with alarming frequency in order to send a message of their growing dominance in a country consumed by wholesale violence.

The Child Rights Network (CRN) estimates that 994 people under the age of 18 were murdered in drug-related violence between 2006 and 2010 in Mexico.

Juan Martin Perez, director of CRN in Mexico recently told The Washington Post: “Decapitations and hanging bodies from bridges send a message. Killing children is an extension of this trend.”

also really brutal:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2003743/Mexican-drug-cartels-force-kidnap-victims-fight-death-gladiator-style-contests.html

What a nightmare.

jesus

the extreme escalation of violence over what... 10 years? just unbelievable.

I know, wikipedia, but...

The 2011 Tamaulipas massacre was the mass murder of at least 193 people[1] discovered in mass graves on April 6, 2011.[2] These people were kidnapped from passenger buses. Although not confirmed, some newspapers mention that the body count surpassed 500, but that the state government of Tamaulipas supposedly censored and prevented such publications.[3][4] This is the second mass murder of its kind in the state of Tamaulipas since the massacre of the 72 illegal immigrants by the Mexican Los Zetas gang on August 24, 2010.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Tamaulipas_massacre

This is so heart-breaking and mind-breaking. It feels like there's no end to it.

cocaine is so awesome!

that the zetas are ex special forces dudes gone bad is like some action movie plot come awfully, horrifyingly to life

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2011/09/us-prosecutors-fear-jailbreak-plot-by.html

I used to work right around the corner from this high rise jail and would always see people waiting in line on visitation day. It's the weirdest looking building, and apparently it does not have adequate exercise facilities.

The warden on her decision to give this guy special housing:

Specifically, my decision to house Mr. Zambada in SHU [the Special Houstin Unit at MCC] is based on the broad publicity his case has received, his access to unlimited outside resources, law enforcement’s portrayal of this case as the largest international drug conspiracy case in Chicago’s history, and the perception he is currently a cooperating witness, which places not only his life in great danger, but also that of staff who are directly supervising him.

That article makes me picture like some crazy action movie style breakout with helicopters and stuff.

if anyones up for that its the mexican drug cartels

It sure seems dramatic. The warden's declaration is pretty interesting on its own as an official document that I wouldn't normally have access to -- in case you ever wondered what it's like to be a narco kingpin's son in prison in the US.

...in a triangular high rise prison with no yard in the heart of downtown Chicago

Important disctinction imho.

distinction even