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Interview of Mexican Drug Lord: Much Ado About Too Little
 Patrick Corcoran - mexidata.info
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April 24, 2010
Julio Scherer, Mexico's dean of journalism, provoked oceans of commentary with a recent interview of one of the nation's most notorious fugitives: alleged drug trafficker Ismael Zambada. At the latter’s behest, Scherer, who founded the muckraking newsweekly Proceso (where the article was published), trekked to some mountain hideaway, ate breakfast, and talked about sundry aspects of the drug trade with Zambada.
After the piece was published earlier this month, some questioned Scherer’s willingness to break bread with such a man, a criticism that Scherer tried to nip in the bud by saying in the article’s intro that he would travel to Hell for an interview with Satan.
Others slammed Scherer for wasting a golden opportunity. Leo Zuckermann wrote in Excélsior that the piece’s cardinal sin was its dullness, while his colleague Jorge Fernández Menéndez said that Scherer acted as a conduit for a drug trafficker’s public relations strategy.
The first criticism lacks merit. Any newsmaker—and Zambada certainly qualifies for the label—is fair game for a journalist, so Scherer deserves more praise than criticism for risking his 84-year-old neck by dining with a captain of industry that has killed more than its share of journalists.
But the article, which clocked in at almost 2,500 words, is overflowing with banalities, which generally fall into two categories: banal truths about the drug trade, and banal descriptions of the two protagonists’ personal interaction.
Excluding the prolonged opening that explained how Scherer arrived in Zambada’s company, here's a comprehensive summary of the entire article:
| Zambada and Scherer exchange cordial greetings, and the host invites the guest to a meal. Zambada lists his family (including his five mistresses), and evades any attempt to talk about his son Vicente, now in prison in the US. Zambada tells Scherer that his books are honest and accurate. Zambada says that the army has almost caught him a number of times, and that he is perennially frightened. He adds a criticism of the army for crashing down doors and scaring people. Zambada says that the war on drugs is lost, and that any fallen capo is easily replaced. He labels himself a rancher, but cryptically says that if he can do business in the United States, he does so. He says that he and Chapo Guzmán remain in close contact, that the Forbes ranking of Guzmán as a billionaire is “nonsense,” and he promises to score an interview with Guzmán for Scherer. The two men take a photo together. |
That’s all there is. Any interview whose content can be reduced to 160 words is not exactly a picture of depth. The admission that Guzmán’s ranking is “nonsense” is gratifying for those of us who have argued the same, but there is not a single significant revelation in the piece.
Scherer’s unwillingness to ask difficult questions or contest any comment from Zambada was certainly a major reason why. (Incidentally, a similar charge could be leveled at Scherer’s book "La Reina del Pacífico," built on his jailhouse interviews with Sandra Ávila.)
Fernández and Zuckermann both suggested that Scherer should have asked him how he felt about being the catalyst for so much violence. Personally, I'd have loved to hear a bit more about how much he makes off of alternative criminal enterprises like extortion, which Zuckermann also suggested. Instead, much of the article dealt with oddly trivial details, such as the mountain-girl roots of Zambada’s cohort of female companions.
At the same time, having never myself sat before a presumed mass murderer, I’m hesitant to criticize Scherer’s lack of probing. Furthermore, most of the questions suggested above would have inevitably elicited evasions or denials, and while making Zambada squirm might have made Fernández's charge about enabling a piece of narco-propaganda less damning, such a result wouldn’t help us understand Mexico's security problems more than we do today.
But even if Zambada were to open up and respond directly to tough questions, the fact is that piercing insights are not the missing element in Mexico’s security (hence the obviousness of the declarations he did make). The basic truth is long known: US drug policies have failed, and as long as the blanket prohibition is in place, men like Zambada are always going to exist, in some form or another. Exclusive interviews with capos may make for a must-read, but they aren't going to reveal a whole lot about the state in which Mexico finds itself.
Patrick Corcoran (corcoran25(at)hotmail.com) is a writer who resides in Torreón, Coahuila. He blogs at Gancho www.ganchoblog.blogspot.com/. |
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