The New Mexican Revolution
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Just a few kilometers south of my house in the new suburbs of El Paso, Texas people are being killed every day. A lot of them. And no one is being apprehended or punished for these killings.
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For years young women have been routinely murdered. Girls who have moved north, to the prosperous city of Juarez, Chihuahua from rural Mexico to try and improve their financial lot in life. The same thing is happening all over the world, including in Africa and in rural China. The difference in Mexico is that a system of institutionalized corruption has grown and prospered over the last 50 years.
It is now to the point where attractive young women can be raped and killed with virtually no worry of ever being caught or prosecuted. Yesterday a judge in Mexico freed a man, saying that his few months served in jail were sufficient for having intentionally run over and killed a U.S. Customs Agent during a drug deal gone badly wrong.
Top law enforcement people and their body guards are killed almost every week now in Mexico. It has become routine. The various mafia and drug lord factions have been feuding, and it is beginning to be obvious that they have vastly more stroke than the government.
I really like Mexico and her people. My first spoken word was in the Spanish language (thanks to my Mexican nanny who was much more like a grandmother than a domestic servant). I have travelled widely in Mexico, and although there is a great deal of poverty the people somehow maintain a great sense of dignity. As a generalization, I find that Mexican nationals are really fine people.
But I have to be honest: The rampant corruption in Mexico could not have become so commonplace without the overt cooperation of the normal people in Mexico. It is just so much easier to pay a small bribe for any service performed by a government employee (like a policeman) than it is to demand that any civil servant who is found to be involved in bribery or corruption be permanently barred from any governmental employment or assistance.
The concept of Rule of Law is almost a thing of the past in Mexico now. Money and power rules, not the legal system, ethics, or morality.
I was talking with a friend of mine last night. He is one of the top law enforcement people in El Paso, Texas. He says that many of the really rich and powerful people in Juarez, Mexico have already fled to the U.S.A. Along with their body guards. My friend says that now there is even a code word that is used to warn an officer who is dispatched to the home of one of these people which tells the law enforcement officer that he can potentially expect to find an outrageously rich and powerful Mexican National there, along with his body guards (who may well be heavily armed).
It truly is very possible that the forces of evil will win in Mexico. At this point in the battle the government and the clean law enforcement personnel are losing. Clearly losing. Their eventual defeat is not 100% certain, but it appears more than likely. Perhaps The Wall being built between the U.S.A. and Mexico has a secondary purpose. Maybe one of it's functions is to protect America from the corruption and open warfare going on just south of our border. The Wall won’t solve this, or even help in my view.
Genuine concern by Americans about importing this culture of corruption, dishonesty, and bribery is not xenophobia. It is completely warranted and appropriate. But we need to be very careful to differentiate these very valid concerns from the more common racism and xenophobia, which is abhorrent.
I don’t know what we can do on our side to help. I think being rigorous about obeying the constitution, like not engaging in torture and supporting the rule of law will help. And any official in America who is engaged in corruption or bribery needs to be dealt with severely, not just a slap on the wrist. A good example of this sort of evil is Justice Department personnal only hiring lawyers who support the Republican political party. This is just the sort of thing which will eventually destroy the rule of law if it is allowed to continue.
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LINK: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91955586
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