Dios Ayuda Mexico...........

Links: A. What Is Happening In Mexico
           B. Mexico's Own Black Widow?

The links above refer to 43 missing male students from Ayotzinapa rural teachers college in Igualpa, Guerrero, Mexico.  The platform of the school was decidedly leftist, which probably didn't endear the students to the corrupt capitalist gangsters that actually ran the city of Iguala.

A few hours south of Mexico City, Iguala is situated in the state of Guerrero, which is much more famous as the home of Acapulco.  On the night of Friday, September 26, a group of the students rode into Iguala with the intention to demonstrate against discriminatory hiring practices and also to solicit funds for a protest march.  Something went badly wrong, the police got involved, and six people were killed.  Some of the students made it back to the school, but 43 did not, and have not been seen since.  Accusations have been made against the mayor of Iguala and his wife, who have conveniently disappeared.  And the search for evidence near Iguala yielded at least twelve mass graves of unidentified bodies, none of whom turn out to be the missing students (so then, who are these poor souls?).  Interestingly enough, the mayor and his wife were members of the political party in control of Iguala and Guerrero: the Partido de la Revolucion Democratica - the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD), which is the decidedly leftist force in Mexican politics.  You would think that they would have embraced these young men, not erased them in the prime of their lives.

This is a heartbreaking story, but Mexico has heartbreaking stories around every bend.  During my CIA days, I had reason to be in El Paso for a meeting with the local FBI and various Mexican Law

Maquiladora workers

Enforcement Agencies (Mexico used to have only the State Police, the local Police, and their version of the FBI.  It didn't take long for Mexico to copy her big brother up north, and now we have Mexican Law Enforcement for every little thing you can imagine...not that it makes a damn bit of difference).  The meeting in El Paso had to do with the seemingly-endless tragedy of the missing young girls of Juarez, most of them workers from the Maquiladoras (assembly-line type factories set in the industrial sectors of the community).  To this day, I don't believe that the case has been solved, and I imagine the number of murdered or missing girls must be over a thousand.  Its difficult to fathom that this unimaginable carnage is taking place on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Today is not the day for me to tackle the complex issue of the entirety of Mexico.  In fact, if I wanted to do the subject justice, I would need to take at least five years away from all other obligations, and be left alone in a cabin somewhere so no one could interrupt.  When necessary, I can usually simplify the issue by saying, "Young Mexicans need to stay in Mexico, band together, butcher the narco-traffickers and thieving politicians, and take control of their country, which happens to be blessed with tremendous wealth and bounty."  This is usually the argument I drag out when discussing the issue of illegal immigration.  My suggestion makes complete sense, if you forget to take into account that the Mexican revolutionaries of today would be facing not one, not two, but a dozen or so heavily armed organizations: the narco-traffickers.

How does the modern state of Mexico function?  In the past, before the arrival of the narco-trafficking virus, one party, representing roughly 10 to 15 percent of the population, kept things going.  The Partido Revolucionario Institucional: the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) made sure that the trains ran on time, that the parks were kept clean, and that rich got richer and the poor stayed poor.  That 10 to 15 percent live a very enviable lifestyle. This includes many families from the Monterrey and Mexico City areas who can trace their roots directly to Spain, with no creole "branches".  When I was in junior high school in Texas, I remember hearing about wealthy Mexican families who would send their children to schools in the United States.  Some of the more popular choices of my era included Central Catholic High School in San Antonio, the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen (MMA), the Texas Military Institute (TMI), St. Mary's Hall, and Alamo Heights High School in San Antonio (go Mules!).  The chosen few, the 10 to 15 percent, could be found directing Mexico's telephone company, or possibly the national bank.

Then two events changed everything: Jose Lopez Portillo, PRI President from 1976 to 1982, single-handedly discovered Mexico's oil wealth one day while playing golf (at least

Jose Lopez Portillo
51st Pres. of Mexico

that's how he remembered it).  The wealth that was generated from oil income was too much for even the covetous and stingy 10 to 15 percent, and the Mexican economy took off.  Some of the wealth that was generated found its way to average Mexicans and a real middle-class was born.  This middle class enjoyed living in the modern ages, and demanded the latest in electronics, communication, and transportation.  Sorry to bring everyone down, but we must add the last ingredient into our Mexico historical smoothie: narco-traffickers.  The Colombian narco-traffickers decided that it would be much more profitable to establish a presence in Mexico as opposed to coordinating the flow of cocaine and marijuana from Cali, Medellin, and Cartagena.  This effort at relocation quickly got out of hand because the Cali and Medellin Cartels weren't the only players in the game and soon everyone wanted to monitor the flow of their valuable merchandise as it made its way to American nostrils.

These two events, the birth of the middle class and the arrival of the narco-traffickers, coincided with a rise in multi-party democracy in Mexico.  The resulting socio-political cocktail left the country reeling in chaos like an angry drunk and even today it is still in a bit of a hang over.   But that's a topic for mañana . . .