Last of the caiques

There used to be a lot of guys like Cirilo Vazquez , the caique of Acayucan, Veracruz.  The term, “caique” is actually Taino, the indigengous language of Cuba.  It more or less means “headman”.  Cortés and company, faced with controlling a country much larger than Spain (which the Castellians had only controlled since 1492), used the Taino term to mean the local puppet ruler. 

In our day it’s meant something closer to political boss and/or “Godfather”… sometimes one and the same.  The late Sr. Vazquez seems to have been more like Don Corleone than Jim Curley though.

And, I wouldn’t say Mexico is only “fitfully” modernizing.  The new boss isn’t quite the same as the old boss…

Dudley Althaus had the story in today’s Houston Chronicle:   

ACAYUCAN, MEXICO — Cirilo Vazquez did more to improve the roads and streets of this turgid corner of southeastern Mexico than perhaps anyone, but he finished life this week face down in one of them, three bullets in his head.

A rancher and businessman with a finger in many local economic pies, Vazquez, 51, was for many years the most powerful man in Acayucan and surrounding towns of Veracruz state’s oil-flush pasturelands. But he died Sunday like a common gangster, alongside a friend and three bodyguards, when assassins opened fire a few blocks from his home.

Police say the killings could be linked to drug trafficking, political rivalry or a personal vendetta. They could be tied to all of those things, police said, or to none of them.

… The caciques are supposed to be a dying breed in fitfully modernizing Mexico. Maybe they are. Cirilo Vazquez certainly was.

“He was the last cacique here in Veracruz,” Ruben Barragan, 46, an Acayucan merchant and longtime friend of Vazquez’s who came to his wake Monday. “There aren’t any more of them. They are mythology now. The world is changing.”

Cirilo Vazquez’s name had been widely known along Mexico’s Gulf Coast for nearly three decades. He rose to prominence in the early 1980s on the strength of his ambition, savvy and reputation for violence.

At least a half-dozen corridos, or folk ballads, are sung of his exploits. The legend includes a shootout with federal police more than 20 years ago that left his four companions dead and the cacique in prison.

In all, Vazquez was jailed three times — for weapons possession, drug trafficking and murder — but was never convicted. Friends and family say the charges were politically motivated.

After his release from prison early last year — he had been charged with murder in four cases dating to his wilder days a generation ago — Vazquez returned to Acayucan and devoted himself to building roads, bridges, school rooms and other public works.

Those projects were paid for from the treasuries of Acayucan and other towns, where the still-imprisoned Vazquez had helped his daughter, common-law wife and half-brother get elected mayors. Vazquez’s influence helped another daughter win a seat in Mexico’s national congress three years ago, at 21 years of age.

… A bleary-eyed Vazquez would listen to each petition, delegating assistants to attend to some, resolving others with a large wad of cash he carried in his blue jeans pocket.

“He might have done bad things in the past, but he was good to many, many people,” said Elisea Mendoza, 40, who said Vazquez paid for her nephew’s extensive hospitalization after the boy was hit by a car.

… A connection to drug trafficking couldn’t be ruled out, Lopez said, since Vazquez’s death mirrored gangland slayings across Mexico.

…Whatever the motives, Vazquez’s death “was something that was long seen coming,” Reynaldo Escobar, Veracruz state’s second-ranking official, told reporters Monday.

“He enthroned himself as a local and regional cacique,” the official said of Vazquez. “He who lives by the sword dies by the sword.”

As news of the cacique‘s death spread, people flocked to his home early this week from many miles around.

Vazquez’s daughters said they intend to continue his efforts … but they acknowledge that though they learned a lot from their father, they lack his political skills and logistical expertise.

“It’s not going to be easy because of all the political currents that are moving,” said Regina Vazquez, 25, who finished her term in September as a federal congresswoman for President Vicente Fox’s political party. “But a 20-year struggle doesn’t die with one person.”