The Poet vs. El Presidente

El Presidente Calderón asserted some days ago that Mexicans should say “It’s enough!” to the criminals, and not to the government and the military.

El Presidente is losing it.

It seems that in the Mexico of El Presidente, the good are always good and the bad are always bad. The good guys always win the final battle to the bad guys, mostly because the bad guys always lose and the good guys always win. Happy end is always around the corner.

Mexico and Walt Disney productions, same thing.

El Presidente’s reaction came after thousands of Mexicans in twenty cities came out and marched to say “enough is enough” to criminals and politicians. Something really never seen in the post-revolutionary Mexico, at least after the protests of 1968.
The protests were led by a poet, Mr. Sicilia, whose son was brutally murdered by the organized crime in the small state of Morelos. It seems that most local and state authorities are deeply involved in protecting organized crime’s drug-trafficking activities in Morelos. Morelos is an example of what is going on (wrong) in the rest of the country.

And that is the problem. First, El Presidente is assuming that the authorities and the military are not part of the problem, but only part of the solution, indeed, “the solution.” But reality indicates the opposite. Thirty billions of dollars per year are used by Narco Gangs for three purposes mainly: Uno. Buying high tech arms, mostly to U.S. dealers and government (Rapid and Furious was cynically called, I think…). Dos. Keep on with the trafficking business, mostly buying drugs in South America and selling them to a growing and aggressively demanding U.S. market. Tres. Buying government and politicians’ protection along the way, buying (or killing) whoever stands in their way: local, state, federal authorities, politicians, governors, mayors, police chiefs, the military, even whole-country governments (Central America). The killing of local and state authorities generally take place when two rival gangs are fighting for the control of a city, town or highway. Federal and some military actions are said to be coordinated to protect the interests of certain powerful narco lords (El Chapo’s?). It seems that dollars buy everybody, sooner or later. The line between the good guys and the bad guys only exists in El Presidente’s mind.

Second. El Presidente’s claim is a desperate and direct break down of the social contract between the government and the society within the State. In a collapsing State, the government disassociates from one of the most fundamental and minimal tasks that the society expects government to perform: national security. Currently, Mexican government (at every single level) and the military are incapable to perform the minimum requirements to hold the assumption that Mexicans live in a functioning, secure State. Mexican national security is in the hands of American security agencies, drug consumption in the U.S. is not going down, drug consumption in Mexico is going up, drug trafficking is becoming more violent and more and more profitable, drug-related corruption is growing in both sides of the border, the war in Mexican territory is at its best (36,000 deaths in four years), government officials make stupid/surreal declarations 24/7 in both sides of the border, and federal authorities have been reduced to the official speakers of the Body Counting Company.

National Human Rights organizations have responded strongly to the crazy call of El Presidente: It is the responsibility of the Mexican government to guarantee security to Mexican society. Indeed, Mexican society has the right to protest, to demand for palpable results, and to demand a once and for all stop of the killings. On the one hand, the Mexican poet is naïve: he was surprised for the close to null reaction of state and federal authorities after the protests; and he uses to make statements in which the fight between the evil and Catholic God plays a main role. On the other hand, he is not stupid: he is learning fast, using his young years of Jesuit preparation to mobilize people under terrible, socially unfair circumstances; and he has put the finger where it hurts: organized crime and politicians, same thing in Mexico.

He is also heard by locals and foreigners, and he can involve the Catholic Church in the process of healing, peace negotiating, and leading the reconciliation process as a whole. Mr. Sicilia, although in great pain for the loss of his son, is the best and only man with real capacity to change things in the country. Most women, mainly in the north of the country, who have sadly shared a similar position, have already been murdered, and local/state authorities have done nothing to solve their crimes.

Yes, it is a total mess down here. But let me assert my firm belief that those Americans who are snuffing cocaine tonight, those American authorities who are gladly corrupted by drug money, and those U.S. government officials and agencies who think that the solution to their problems relies in war actions taken by the government of the big sombrero country: the ugly dog of this nonsense drug war will bite their sorry asses. It is just matter of time. Indeed, it is happening already.

If only El Presidente could understand that the U.S. is the only capable to solve U.S. problems, and that Mexicans, we should focus in solving only our own, multiple, urgent, third-world country problems.