Death squads and better business

I don’t pay a lot of attention any more to the latest in gangster rub-outs.  But, one last 19 June in the tourist zone of Cancun might deserve closer scrutiny.  It appears the press were called before the police were told where to pick up the latest batch of dead gangsters.  As with other mob hits, there was a explanatory note… this one, left helpfully in the front windshield, read:

Somos el nuevo grupo de mata zetas y estamos en contra del secuestro y la extorsión, y vamos a luchar contra ellos en todos los estados, por un México más limpio.

We are a new group of Zeta-killers, opposed to kidnapping and extortion, and we are launching a struggle against them in all states, for a cleaner Mexico. 

Two things about the incident are troubling:

• While the translation is somewhat clumsy (my fault), it is  in proper Spanish, and even the accent marks were in the right place.  The sentence would not be out of place in any Mexican business correspondence.  That alone suggests this wasn’t your ordinary gangland hit:  becoming a hit-man does not require much in the way of literacy, and this is the first “narco message” I’ve heard of that didn’t  require a fair bit of paraphrasing to edit.
• The un-bylined story from SISPE-Novades reprinted in ChetuMail (an on-line Quintana Roo service) reports that — because of the presense of media (and by-standers) — the detectives from the State Prosecutor’s Office (PGJE)  towed the Jeep with the dead gangsters off to the forensics lab.  I can’t say for certain, but that sounds like there wasn’t any attempt to investigate the scene of the crime.

I won’t jump to conclusions but Blogotitlan — based on this incident, and a few other under-reported crime stories — will.  It’s a fairly long article, so my translation is after the break.

A few observations.  Although the Blogotitlan article is propaganda for the Lopez Obrador supporters, neither the idea of a death squad, nor the sense that the Calderón administration is creating the drug war for political reasons (and to hold on to power, in spite of others calls for major political and cultural changes) are fringe ideas.  Calderón’s claim that “democracy is at stake” in the “drug war” was for foreign, not domestic consumption… and has  to be seen in light of similar claims about Colombia, where support for the “war on drugs” was also sold to the U.S. as defense of democracy, but used to mask violent crackdowns  of opposition forces, economic and social repression and the systemic murder of labor leaders. Many in Mexico fear the same could happen (or is already starting to happen) here.

While others object to the “war on drugs” out of fears of Colombianization, or concern for human rights, still others note — as one Sinaloa business woman put it to me — and I paraphrase:  The narcos are local businessmen investing in the community creating local jobs.”   Another way of looking at that is the sense that the “war on drugs” is more a war on local entrepreneurship, for the benefit of the established (or PAN-approved) business interests.  Or so, their arguement goes.

And, so the  Blogotitlan article…

In the shadow of the “law of the jungle” imposed by the crusading gang[1] of Fox,  Calderón and Associates, it seems Cancún has spawned a death squad –the “Mata Zetas”– apparently with the with the mission of fighting kidnapping and extortion that roils the nation, and they have  started by cleansing a tourist site that has an enormous financial importance.

Don’t  forget that the “death squads” (always paramilitary, anti-communist and fanatical ethnic cleansers of all but the “best people”) invariably rise under protection of the most reactionary groups of the right, hidden behind the skirts of the Catholic hierarchy, business interests and the military … the same forces that create Latin American dictatorships.

In Mexico, these new self-appointed guardians of decency have suddenly (although there are clear antecedents for them in groups like MURO and el Yunque[2], as well as enthusiastic promoters of the concept in Chihuahua, Querétaro and Jalisco), decided to take advantage of a society fed up with government inefficiency, corruption, ineptitude and judicial impunity… but with ideological roots in the same government they claim to be fed up with.  Like the former “Illuminos Mexico”, an armed civil organization, aligned with the rightist government of the PRIAN[3] and sponsored by prominent key industrialists of the Mexican Kleptocracy.

The “Mata Zetas” tries to cover-up for the inefficiencies with the Federal Police (of [Public Security Secretary Genaro] Garcia Luna) and the PGR (of [Attorney General Eduardo] Media-Mora [Icaza]):  resorting to gunfire to saves time and energy otherwise spent on troublesome formal proceedings required by the Constitution and human rights charters instead of immediately executing those “the guardians” decide “decent people” — as defined by los Pinos — have condemned.

And there the animal shows the tail: with his inquisitorial mentality that does not tolerate dissent, it would not be surprising if the same “decent people” who are bankrupting Mexico, are financing, training and arming to these “militias of decency” which, under the pretext of fighting crime (something  Calderón also does), are especially dedicated to eliminating opponents:  those inconvenient to the regime, the millions of “nacos” and “pobretones” who continue to support the only truly nationalist politician:  Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

What the administration has not been able to do through governmental, business or media channels, it can do through these paramilitary groups.

Our  suspicion is reinforced by the news that an assistant to a PANista regidor in Jalisco was detained in the United States trying to smuggle two millions dollars worth of various firearms into Mexico (Jornada, 17-06-09), seemingly to start another  “cristiada”[4].  And he is considered a “moderate” in the party.

PANistas gun runners, Jalisco mayors financed by “charitable souls” and tiny contributions[5], “Mata Zetas” applauded on television by Alejandro Martí, Nelson Vargas[6] and others offended by the kidnappings and extortion… all are united under the fascist slogan of former President Fox: “If the law prevents something, overturn the law”.

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[1] “Santiguada PANdilla” – “santiaguada” is an adjective literally meaning “wearing a cross” – specifically the red cross on a white field worn by crusaders; “PANdilla” is, of course, a pun on the name of Fox and Calderón’s political affiliation.

[2] MURO, I don’t recognize offhand, but believe it was a Synarchist (fascist) underground group.  “El Yunque” – which may or may not be a formal organization – is a group of extreme right-wing businessmen, associated with reactionary wings of PAN and the Catholic Church.

[3] Blogotitlan is a pro-Lopez Obrador site.  “PRIAN” is used to suggest PRI and PAN are one and the same rightist bloc.

[4] The “cristiada” was the guerrilla war financed by the right against the Mexican state in the 1920s.  Centered in Jalisco and Michoacan, the “cristeros” – as reactionary religious terrorists — are often compared to Al Qaida.  To the right, and the present PAN administration in Jalisco, the cristeros are heroic, though attempts by the governor to finance a Church memorial to them ran into serious opposition last year.

[5] Another reference to Jalisco’s on-going attempts to finance the Church memorials.  One recent state scandal involved elected officials requiring “contributions” form civil servants, which were, in turn, donated to this particular cause.

[6] Both prominent business men whose children were murdered by kidnappers, the two have been active in organizing anti-crime rallies and events.  Critics on the left usually charge the two with wanting “special rights” for the wealthy (like themselves) and of using – or being used by – the political right to push their own agenda.