30/06/2010
That something is rotten in the state of Mexico is hardly a revelation. The seemingly endless newsfeed of cartel-related violence has long ago passed the line of gratuitousness that differentiates its state of de facto war from something like the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan. But whereas Mexico’s Canadian and American allies were once content to feign belief in a violent state vs. cartel dichotomy, the recent exposure of ties between politicians and cartels cannot help but shake that insincere confidence—making the Harvard-educated technocrat at the helm look increasingly helpless.
In a normal state of affairs, President Felipe Calderón would be out campaigning for his National Action Party; twelve gubernatorial elections take place this Sunday and the iron-fisted hold on power that the Institutional Revolutionary Party once held in Mexico throughout the 20th century appears poised to return. But campaign games are hard to fathom when an unofficial death toll of 22,000 weighs down heavily on the administration’s shoulders, when an estimated 95% of crimes go unpunished, and when a leading daily questions the purpose of elections so obviously influenced by dirty money.
The Mexican daily El Diario recently published an editorial called “The Narco vote” asking what the purpose of an election is when “there is a de facto power imposing its will on the citizens” and “a clear complicity between the politicians and cartels.” Regardless of whether or not that blanket judgment is justified—to a certain extent it would be hard to blame the politicians; these days political corruption in Mexico seems to have less and less to do with more familiar types of graft like bribery (la mordida)—and more to do with the basics of survival. Just this past Monday, at 10:30 a.m. in the morning, the PRI candidate for the eastern state of Tamaulipas was gunned down with 9 others in his entourage, and with obvious assistance coming to the sicarios (hitmen) from unknown sources.
Add to that both the kidnapping of former PAN Presidential candidate Diego Fernández de Ceballos—whose kidnappers recently posted a picture of him on twitter demanding ransom—and the struggles of Ciudad Juarez Mayor José Reyes Ferriz. The latter had to move his family to El Paso, Texas because of a full-fledged advertising campaign on billboards, posters and banners calling for his death. This in a city where there’s no shortage of willing applicants for the job: with an abundance of disaffected, uneducated and unemployed teenagers who will murder for between $40 and $80. It’s hard not to give in to a certain feeling of hopelessness. Especially since an alternative isn’t presenting itself.
The residual benefits from the drug trade have become a fundamental part of the Mexican economy. And though most Mexicans lament the death of friends and innocent bystanders, there are others who celebrate the cartel leaders as rebellious anti-heroes, listening to the narcocorridos that glorify their disregard for law and order.
As Virdiana Rios from Harvard University as reported, there is as much as $9.9 billion in cash flow from the drug trade, resulting in substantial amounts of related illegal activity, but also creating and supplementing legal employment. The cliché of the police officer who is merely trying to feed his family may not be entirely accurate—greed will always play a significant role. But when the best protected officials cannot even make it to Election Day—what hope is there that the average police officer will spurn safety and amenities for a low salary and constant fear of reprisals. By any reasonable comparison, Serpico had it pretty easy.
A year ago in July, the Canadian government imposed a visa requirement on Mexican nationals; the contention, backed up by statistics, was that refugee claims had tripled since 2005, which is not all that surprising considering the fear many live with on a daily basis.
This Sunday Mexico will have twelve new governors; they may be from the governing PAN or the traditional power, the PRI; they may be corrupt or they may be like José Reyes Ferriz, steadfast in their desire to retake their country for its law-abiding citizens. Unfortunately it may no longer matter. Because whether or not Mexico descends into a complete narocracy is irrelevant when the average citizen has lost faith in the government’s ability to protect them, or for that matter—themselves.
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