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At Large
Mean Streets of Mexico
A grisly world that tourists never visit.
In small towns throughout Mexico low level crime — crime with modest rewards — has now spread to the point that ordinary citizens fear going out at night. In larger communities violent robberies have become the fashion of the day. Tourist centers such as the resort town of Acapulco have seen a conspicuous rise in robberies and theft in the last five years. Stories abound of kidnappings for ransom of even ordinary citizens.
What part of this has to do with the rivalry between drug cartels? The answer is apparently not as much as one would think. Smaller drug gangs, however, is another case. In that instance it would appear that the cartel wannabes fight it out among each other for dominance on a local level. These “small time hoods,” as they used to be referred to in the films of the 1930s, carry on their neighborhood crime sprees in order to make money and gain attention from their far more powerful and established regional cartels.
The result is that territorial wars of the major drug traffickers are fed with recruits toughened and financed by street crime. The individual citizens and small businesses thus pay for the entire process as targets of extortion and robbery. The culture of modern Mexico is driven by what is rapidly becoming a societal breakdown. And this in a way is worse than the crimes themselves.
Generalizations about societies are inappropriate in most instances, but in the case of contemporary Mexico it is impossible to deny the existence of a breakdown in law and order and its impact on the communities served. The “wink-wink, nudge-nudge” system of law enforcement begins with the discreet tip given to metropolitan police to avoid handing out traffic tickets. This progresses upwards to the politicians and judiciary. Business development depends on the distribution of largesse so those who issue permits and provide inspections participate in each new project.
Politically this has been a system in existence for many years. As much as the two major parties, PRI and PAN, would battle for election victory, neither ever really did anything but pay lip service to what is called corruption elsewhere in the world. Mexicans in political and business life cynically call it sharing in the growth of the nation. The drug cartels have made sure they, too, distribute their gains by pouring billions of dollars into everything from manufacturing to real estate.
Scott Stewart, the brilliant analyst of Mexican security affairs for Stratfor, wrote on April 19, 2012: “…even a competent, well paid and well-equipped police institution cannot stand alone in a culture unprepared to support it and help maintain its integrity. Over time an institution will take on the characteristics of the society surrounding it.” Mr. Stewart was writing about the difficulty in creating a new law enforcement structure to combat the existing dominance of the criminal cartels.
Of course, such a sweeping condemnation of the civil culture of Mexico is vulnerable to charges of exaggeration and mischaracterization. Unfortunately, facts such as the tens of thousands of drug cartel-related deaths in the past five years can not be disregarded. The context of these wars between and among the cartels is far broader than the battling itself. Economic and social factors are integrated into the grassroots cultures that spawn and nourish the criminal enterprises that provide employment and organization for so much of Mexican local commercial and political life.
For the foreign tourist who stays within the confines of the various resort complexes, there is little awareness of the continuing crisis that exists outside of these luxurious environments. Day trips to view the countryside have been far less attractive, however, since last September when a vacationing Mexican executive group of 20 were attacked on their bus during a visit to Acapulco. This had been preceded in February when 22 cruise passengers were robbed while returning from an excursion in Puerto Vallarta. Nonetheless, tourists for the most part still fill the hotels and beaches.
Perhaps the most surprising site of escalating local crime has been the famous but quiet 16th century colonial city of Morelia, the capital of the state of Michoacan in western Mexico. The rose-tinted baroque cathedral draws tourists desiring a return to earlier years in Mexican history. Meanwhile methamphetamine labs came to proliferate the lush Pacific coastal state, and with them arrived every type of crime, major and minor, along with warring drug cartels and small time gangs preying on poor neighborhoods. Another ancient community raped by modern Mexican bandits.
There was a time when Mexico was partially policed by the criminal cartels that were able to exert authority over large portions of the country. Illicit traffic moved back and forth unimpeded as protective deals were made with all concerned. Peace was good for business — and business interests reigned. Some blame the change on the federal crackdown on the illegal drug trade with the U.S. The drug organizations splintered and civil war among the gangs spread. Now the old rules are ignored and the logical patterns of protection for certain enterprises, such as tourism, no longer exist except where there is a financial interest held by the crime syndicates currently in authority. This seems to change monthly and as a result bodies are strewn along town roads and major highways.
Mexican homicide statistics are projected by the National System for Public Security to reach approximately 21,790 this year. There is no wonder why there is such a seemingly inexorable flow of northbound refugees from this mayhem and economic deprivation. The real question is why do tourists still keep coming?
About the Author
George H. Wittman writes a weekly column on international affairs for The American Spectator online. He was the founding chairman of the National Institute for Public Policy.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (14) | Leave a comment
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KyMouse| 11.9.12 @ 7:52AM
I speak a little Spanish and love touring the American Southwest, but have never had the slightest interest in going to Mexico. I'll stick with New Mexico and Texas.
A couple of decades ago, my parents were on a tour that included a stop in a Mexican town that is right across the border from a U. S. one -- could have been Juarez and El Paso. Their bus crossed into Mexico, and the passengers were told they could get out and do some shopping.
They were mobbed instantly by kids and adults begging for (and demanding) money.
My parents stepped back into the bus and stayed in their seats for the rest of the time there.
Nope, not for me either.
Bob James| 11.9.12 @ 11:35AM
Having done a bit of travel in Mexico (Monterrey twice, Mexico City, and, yes, Tijuana - for work, dammit), it is simply horrifying to watch what is happening there. Our last trip to Monterrey was surreal. Someone attacked a convenience store with an RPG. In another incident, these savages bowled severed human heads across a public square right at the evening rush. Another charming practice was to torture and kill some poor sod, and then string him up from a pedestrian overpass so he could sway in the breeze for the morning commute.
There is so much beauty there, and so many decent people, who just keep their heads down and hope they don't get swept up in the carnage and bloodletting.
Please pray for them.
Hardcard| 11.9.12 @ 11:39AM
And armed to the teeth with the latest weapons paid for by the US taxpayer. We don't need no stinkin grengos!!!!!
Ronsch| 11.9.12 @ 12:58PM
Sorry to be so pessimistic this morning, but really I do not care about Mexico, giving, charity, or anything else right now...We lost our country so screw the rest of them....I know the argument: If the violence spills over the border, blah, blah, blah...Well, guess what? It already has, and has been for at least two decades and no one in the US .gov gives a crap enough to secure the border...it is "let them all in under the DREAM Act" as if that will automatically make it all better.
So really, after serving my country in uniform, and being as patriotic of an American as the next conservative, I just do not care anymore...i will stay here in Alaska and pray for my conservative brothers and sisters in the Lower 48. hopefully, at some point, the 50% that voted for the Kenyan Usurper will regain their sanity.
Gary B| 11.10.12 @ 3:45AM
What we need is to bring the troops home from stupid nation building in the Middle East and post a Humvee every quarter mile along the Mexican border, or whats left of it.
C. Vernon Crisler | 11.9.12 @ 8:17PM
I visited Mexico a few years ago, and after leaving it, I hoped and prayed it would sink off into the sea.
Dimitry_Aleksandrovich| 11.9.12 @ 9:58PM
What Mexico needs is a government that will work with cartels that are willing to scale back the violence and control the smaller fish who are responsible for a lot of street violence. The demand for narcotics in the United States is only growing and their are many suppliers (cartels) in Mexico vying battling it out for that market. If Mexico is able to get it down to a couple cartels controlling the countries entire drug trade and working in conjunction with each other it will cut own on a lot of the violence.
Occam's Tool| 11.18.12 @ 11:32PM
Yes, so it will re-elect the Democrat run Central valley of California that is doing so well, run by the Liberal scum you voted for, Dmitry.
By the way, cartellizing the criminal trade will not cut down on violence in the USA due to this. But it will make them harder to fight.
Gary B| 11.10.12 @ 3:53AM
"The real question is why do tourists still keep coming?"
They're still insulated enough for the reward to outweigh the risk. A few more stories of tourists getting killed may do the the trick. My wife and I won't set foot in the place.
Here's an idea... How 'bout we legalize drugs in the US and kill the demand for high-priced illegal product smuggled through Mexico. How many corrupt politicians in the US and Mexico would go along with that? As Palin would say, "How's that War on Drugs going for ya'?"
Occam's Tool| 11.18.12 @ 11:34PM
I like to visit Guatemala. I'm looking forward to doing that again in a year or two, and visiting Israel when my daughter turns thirteen (and my son is 12) , so they can ride horses.
As for the rest of the world overseas, screw 'em.
Artie| 11.10.12 @ 5:28AM
Test
jumpinjn| 11.11.12 @ 10:07PM
I've been fortunate to visit friends in Guadalajara several times over the past few years.
I enjoyed every day there. Very gracious and pleasant people.
Reminded me of the Bronx in the late forties early fifties.
Great extremes of poverty and wealth everywhere with such energy it is invigorating.
There is no sense of the overburdening regulation of every facet of life as we have imposed upon ourselves here.
If you want to convert a garage or the front of a house into a store you do it. Planning board? Permits? What's a meter maid?
Bureaucracy and permits just are not part of business decisions.
Airports are the way they were years ago in New York no cattle chutes for the sheeple.
I'm very weak with spanish and have never experienced the humiliation I have watched the TSA deliver to non english speakers here in the NY airports.
It truly pains me that our bad habits have caused so much pain in Mexico.
Crime anywhere is frightful and it has reached ghastly levels in Mexico but as a survivor of the South Bronx in the 60's and 70's it just is not, at least in Guadalajara, that seemingly all pervasive.
I imagine that's why people still visit. For me it reminds me of the freedom of my youth.
Occam's Tool| 11.18.12 @ 11:33PM
The Mexicans treat Guatemalans like crap, and block their borders. We should do the same to them.
Rhoetus| 11.12.12 @ 10:59PM
Rules for Conservatives @
http://www.saveamericanow.us.com