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The history of domination in Latin America. MONROE: Let's reformulate!
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The Mexican drug trafficking as
a factor of social-cultural change
a factor of social-cultural change
The problem is not only about statistics, but cultural as well: drug trafficking members are being perceived as legends and have started to build a political and social justification for such illegal activity; they say they act as an enterprise dedicated to the people’s welfare by hiring unemployed ones, and implementing strict codes of honor that guide their actions.
02/14/09
By: Emilio Bacab/ Seinforma correspondent
Mexico City.- The professionalization of organized crime in Mexico and the military strategy of the Mexican government has put the country in a war of medium intensity where even the State has lost territories that are now in the hands of the local criminal chiefs in Michoacán, Sinaloa and Mexico state.
Drug trafficking problem in Mexico dates from the end of the sixties and, from then, it has risen in political and economic influence up to the point that it can organize and finance armed groups with the enough power to confront the official armed forces.
The problem is not only analyzed from the statistic field, in which the government has lost 8,500 members in 2008 - that includes police officers from different agencies and soldiers - but also from the cultural field, in which drug trafficking members are seen as legends; that’s evident in the local music by the so-called narcorridos where criminal actions of several chiefs and narco lieutenants are narrated in a romantic way.
Furthermore, drug traffickers have started to build a political and social justification for their actions. Alfredo Rangel Buendía, alias el chicles and who was the strategist of Los Zetas, was arrested on September 2008. He said in his favor that the organization acts as an enterprise dedicated to the people’s welfare by hiring an important number of unemployed ones; and that the organization also counts with a strict code of honor code and rules that guide its actions.
Meanwhile, La Familia, Los Zetas’ rival group, has announced in several occasions its will of cooperating with the Mexican government to purge the police corporations, after the incidents on September 15, 2008, in Morelia, Michoacán, where a grenada was launched by a member of some criminal band to the crowd that was celebrating the country’s independence day, as a protest for the army’s partiality in the struggle against drug trafficking. It is important to highlight that after that action the drug trafficking won the terrorist adjective.
Through these examples, it is evident the structural link between drug trafficking and the government, which makes impossible to differentiate between both parts. However, both sides have not reached a consensus for the arrangements of their actions; on the contrary, there is a hard struggle in the inside of the political organizations and a direct confrontation between the cartels.
The drug cartels supported by private armies that have the power to fight the official Military, have reached the professionalization through paramilitary groups from Guatemala so-called Caviles and deserters from the Mexican army, specially from the no-longer-existing group GAFES. Besides, the free gun sale in the United States serves to supply these groups that have divided the national territories in influence zones where, in some occasions, the army has not the power to impose the order through the force. As consequence, the Mexican State starts to lose legitimacy, territory and cultural influence.
Last decade, Manuel Castells had already mentioned organized crime as a destabilizing variable for the state systems and, the Mexican case, is in the edge of an economic war, where the social justice could be the base of the arguments due to the country suffering from an economic stagnation that impedes to give the right answer to the social demands. The reserve army that uses the capital to reduce the labour is used by drug traffickers as reserve soldiers of their armies to the service of the profit on the illegal money market.
Mexico is in a non-announced civil war, non-officially called the struggle against drug trafficking. The public health is not in danger anymore - main justification for banning the personal dosage - but the structural function of a political system which is economically fed from organized crime. That system has lost its legitimacy by showing its incapacity of finding solutions to the effects of the worldwide economic recession.
A US intervention is seen as possible through the implementation of military strategies as the Mérida initiative; also it’s forecasted the gradual militarization of the Mexican political system, and the paramilitarization of drug trafficking, which mean for the meager democracy a hard knock that delays or cancels its consolidation in order to face a total and frontal war.
In the case of a new revolution in Mexico after 100 years of stability (1810, independent war, 1910, Mexican revolution) that flutters around the social imaginary, it would have a significant criminal participation and the opportunity for those leaders of legalizing their fortunes. If we throw a fishing rod out in the vast waters of the future, the most prized haul for the criminal groups will be the history: the story could be like this: “Courageous men formed a revolutionary group so-called Los Zetas due to the justice of the bad government…”
By: Emilio Bacab/ Seinforma correspondent
Mexico City.- The professionalization of organized crime in Mexico and the military strategy of the Mexican government has put the country in a war of medium intensity where even the State has lost territories that are now in the hands of the local criminal chiefs in Michoacán, Sinaloa and Mexico state.
Drug trafficking problem in Mexico dates from the end of the sixties and, from then, it has risen in political and economic influence up to the point that it can organize and finance armed groups with the enough power to confront the official armed forces.
The problem is not only analyzed from the statistic field, in which the government has lost 8,500 members in 2008 - that includes police officers from different agencies and soldiers - but also from the cultural field, in which drug trafficking members are seen as legends; that’s evident in the local music by the so-called narcorridos where criminal actions of several chiefs and narco lieutenants are narrated in a romantic way.
Furthermore, drug traffickers have started to build a political and social justification for their actions. Alfredo Rangel Buendía, alias el chicles and who was the strategist of Los Zetas, was arrested on September 2008. He said in his favor that the organization acts as an enterprise dedicated to the people’s welfare by hiring an important number of unemployed ones; and that the organization also counts with a strict code of honor code and rules that guide its actions.
Meanwhile, La Familia, Los Zetas’ rival group, has announced in several occasions its will of cooperating with the Mexican government to purge the police corporations, after the incidents on September 15, 2008, in Morelia, Michoacán, where a grenada was launched by a member of some criminal band to the crowd that was celebrating the country’s independence day, as a protest for the army’s partiality in the struggle against drug trafficking. It is important to highlight that after that action the drug trafficking won the terrorist adjective.
Through these examples, it is evident the structural link between drug trafficking and the government, which makes impossible to differentiate between both parts. However, both sides have not reached a consensus for the arrangements of their actions; on the contrary, there is a hard struggle in the inside of the political organizations and a direct confrontation between the cartels.
The drug cartels supported by private armies that have the power to fight the official Military, have reached the professionalization through paramilitary groups from Guatemala so-called Caviles and deserters from the Mexican army, specially from the no-longer-existing group GAFES. Besides, the free gun sale in the United States serves to supply these groups that have divided the national territories in influence zones where, in some occasions, the army has not the power to impose the order through the force. As consequence, the Mexican State starts to lose legitimacy, territory and cultural influence.
Last decade, Manuel Castells had already mentioned organized crime as a destabilizing variable for the state systems and, the Mexican case, is in the edge of an economic war, where the social justice could be the base of the arguments due to the country suffering from an economic stagnation that impedes to give the right answer to the social demands. The reserve army that uses the capital to reduce the labour is used by drug traffickers as reserve soldiers of their armies to the service of the profit on the illegal money market.
Mexico is in a non-announced civil war, non-officially called the struggle against drug trafficking. The public health is not in danger anymore - main justification for banning the personal dosage - but the structural function of a political system which is economically fed from organized crime. That system has lost its legitimacy by showing its incapacity of finding solutions to the effects of the worldwide economic recession.
A US intervention is seen as possible through the implementation of military strategies as the Mérida initiative; also it’s forecasted the gradual militarization of the Mexican political system, and the paramilitarization of drug trafficking, which mean for the meager democracy a hard knock that delays or cancels its consolidation in order to face a total and frontal war.
In the case of a new revolution in Mexico after 100 years of stability (1810, independent war, 1910, Mexican revolution) that flutters around the social imaginary, it would have a significant criminal participation and the opportunity for those leaders of legalizing their fortunes. If we throw a fishing rod out in the vast waters of the future, the most prized haul for the criminal groups will be the history: the story could be like this: “Courageous men formed a revolutionary group so-called Los Zetas due to the justice of the bad government…”
***
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In the case of a new revolution in Mexico after 100 years of stability (1810, independence war-1910, Mexican revolution) that flutters around the social imaginary, it would have a significant criminal participation and the opportunity for drug dealers of legalizing their fortunes and getting a predominant position in history. (Video Entrarr Corrido Ramon Ayala, la mafia muere, corrido chingon- Youtube/Seinforma)
Legalizing Terror:
The Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement
Watch the discussion of what's involved in the agreement, its impact on the people of Colombia and organizing against it.
Disponible sólo en ingles
The Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement
Watch the discussion of what's involved in the agreement, its impact on the people of Colombia and organizing against it.
Disponible sólo en ingles
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