The governments of the United States and Mexico presently seem to be competing for the leadership of the Western Hemisphere and EU Cup for a number of widely unembraced categories. These include, a cyber-addicted Mexican acquaintance suggested last Tuesday: possessing the most contradictions, being the most puzzling (and/or foolish), the most inept and corrupt.
In some of these categories, not too long ago, he believed Mexico was several furlongs ahead of the U.S. But the combination of the laughably, if dourly ridiculous politicians and politics in both countries, besides breaking him up, surprised him, not in the case of his own country, but in the case of the United States. His parents, who had once lived in the U.S., admired that country, and he was reared with their reverence for not only its wealth, its immense inventory of groundbreaking inventions and its superpower status, but also for the free range offered its residents. This prompted among migrants remarkable energy, persistent vigor, as they aspired to rub shoulders with the United States’ frontier-breaking, world-influencing boldness in seemingly every area of human endeavor.
Yet now, even this week — in referring to politics —this social media athlete said things had morphed into the stunningly, awkwardly, unexpectedly flabby (meaning Democrats, including Obama) on one side, and the viciously stupid insistent destructionists on the other (the GOP).He wanted to know if I and my fellow U.S. refugees realized how pathetic all this might look from abroad.
“Disappointing,” he declared. “Frail. What is Obama doing? He has to do something soon.” He shook his head.
“And the Republicanos. Umm, misantropo? Is that the right word? That’s what educated Mexicans call them. Here and over there. This pendejo, Esteban King. You know about him?”
Indeed. Last week he told Newsmax, a conservative website, that hundreds of Mexican children brought to the U.S. by their illegal parents, arrived with the calves of their legs “the size of cantaloupes because they been hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.” A foul mouthful that even roused GOP Speaker of the House, John Boehner, who with some other Republicans rebuked King, saying “There’s no place in this debate for hateful or ignorant comments from elected officials.”
My interlocutor then reminded me of the long list of code words commonly used by people who can’t resist denigrating Mexican-Americans and Mexican citizens while (unsuccessfuly) trying to stay free of verbal sin. The terms are familiar. And seldom work. Writers and artists living here in the 1960s called it “The Bigot’s Thesaurus,” though bigoted foreigners who insisted they held no prejudices often indicted themselves by unconsciously using such expressions more frequently than they realized. “Veiled” bigotry often is too obvious to work.
Meanwhile, disturbing statics washed through the electronic ether in great waves touching all the United Mexican States. Even though that was in direct violation of what the new President Enrique Peña Nieto declared this nation needed badly. That included: Optimism! The necessary impression that the Drug War is going well, created by a down-playing of the continuous clashes and deaths. The new PRI government told the media that Mexico is now a thriving “middle-class” country, and that the television and print media should emphasize that, and drop the drug gang butchery. This rosy, false image of Mexico was undermined by a host of facts — often reported in “sleezy” small newspapers that for decades have printed printed titilating servings of female flesh, coupled with the grim aftermath of slayings, as well as accidental gore. Such publications thrive on photographic displays of the results of drug war clashes. Besides, the social media in all its various forms widely distributes whatever “news” a ravenous audience seeks. The “Mexico is now a middle-class country” hype kept being undermined by irritatingly persistent inconvenience — facts. Wednesday, Carlos Puig, a popular Milenio columnist and anchor of the TV program “En 15,” said “the current government is convinced that partial privatization (specifically of Pemex) is the way to jumpstart a stagnating economy and address deepening social problems (as) the number of poor in Mexico continue to increase, from 49 million in 2008 to 53 million in 2012 — and growing.”
All semblance of compliance with the government’s media gag order disappeared when Mexican Marines, evidently utilizing U.S.-provided intelligence, on Monday, July 15, captured Miguel Angel Treviño Morales, leader of the brutal Zetas cartel, the biggest catch in Mexico’s seven-year war against the drug gangs. This coup prompted the government to allow the release of video and still pictures of Treviño being escorted by Mexican Marines into a theoretically secret holding area in Mexico City — an irresistible opportunity for the government to strut its capture of the highest ranking drug kingpin.
Peña Nieto had said he would jettison the kingpin strategy that marked the government of his National Action Party (PAN) predecessor Felipe Calderon. But when reality (a nemesis of such politicians) struck, there was really no alternative. There was no way to ignore the reality that homegrown cartels are not merely criminals engaging in the international trade of moving tons of drugs across Mexico to the U.S.; they also daily victimize thousands of Mexican citizens through kidnapping, extortion, murder and ghastly, publicly displayed consequences of torture.
Besides, the president was faced with an “awkward” circumstance: Undeniable evidence provided by the U.S. that the jefe of Mexico’s most feared cartel was in their sights. To have ignored that intelligence would have signaled to Mexican citizens, and the world, that he was protecting the Zetas leader. Equally dicey: the fact that Teviño carried two million dollars in bribery money, enough, he believed, to purchase his freedom from a vast cast of poorly supervised, undisciplined law enforcement players. Thus, the Mexican media has said, we have a “new” Peña Nieto drug war strategy: A mirror of the Calderon doctrine.
Then Sunday, July 28, Vice Admiral Carlos Miguel Salazar, and his bodyguard were killed near the Michoacan town of Churintzio. The admiral, his wife, Rosa Maria Rodriguez, Richardo Franciso Hernandez, his assistant, and the driver, returning from Mexico City, were on the main highway from Michoacan’s state capital, Morelia, to Guadalajara. The admiral is headquartered in Puerta Vallarta.
Near Churintzio, Michoacan, the highway was blocked by a protest of demonstrators — mostly taxi and bus drivers, one newspaper reported. They were carrying signs that said “Get out, Federales,” and “We demand federal forces get out of Michoacan.” The Michoacan drug cartel, the pseudo-reliegious Knights Templar, has the practice of paying or coercing residents to organize such anti-government demonstrations.
Salazar evidently decided to take a secondary road around the blocked section of highway, a fateful choice. Salazar’s SUV had navy logos, but for some unknown reason was not bulletproof. As a vehicle cut off the admiral’s SUV, forcing the drive to halt, a second vehicle with several armed men drove up and gunfire broke out. Salazar pushed his wife to the SUV’s floor. Salazar and Hernandez were killed, the driver seriously injured. None of the men wore naval attire.
My friend said he and many other Mexicans believe the admiral was set up. But all mainstream reports, while they brush up against this theory, deny that it could be true. Three of the attackers were caught, admitted they were members of the Knights Templars, paid about 600 dollar a month to kidnap, extort and steal. Yet a Michoacan farmer, in the guise of a masked vigilante, told one reporter, “It’s strange that with our town nearly occupied by federal police that all this violence keeps on.”