| | |  Editorials | Opinions | October 2008 
Mexicans Coexisting with the Mexican Drug Cartels
 Allan Wall - PVNN
 |  | After a fatal shootout, Chihuahua residents have been known to say 'that’s one less narco.' |  | | | |
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 is an American citizen who has been teaching English in Mexico since 1991, and writing articles about various aspects of Mexico and Mexican society for the past decade. Some of these articles are about Mexico's political scene, history and culture, tourism, and Mexican emigration as viewed from south of the border, which you can read on his website at AllanWall.net.
Click HERE for more articles by Allan Wall. |
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