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?
