Unfortunately the lull on the drug violence in Juarez was short lived. Here in the U.S. newspapers like the L.A. Times and the Washington Post have special sections dedicated to what it is now know here as the "Mexican Drug War". FOX, CNN and all other media outlets are reporting periodically on the Mexican violence. There have been exclusive long articles in Rolling Stone Magazine, Times, Newsweek, American Spectator, etc., all focusing on the issue. And of course guess what city is the most reported on? Ciudad Juarez now labeled the most dangerous city in the world. Not only that, but news agencies in Spain, Chile, Venezuela, Brazil, Australia, China, etc., routinely report on Juarez. I think there is more news and news detail about the Juarez violence on this multiple sources than there is in the Juarez papers themselves (fear goes a long way, no?).
According to different sources there are now something like 700 - 900 killings in Juarez this year so far including innocent bystanders and children (this weekend a 12 year old girl and a 14 year old boy were killed in a vehicle in the Valle de Juarez).
Mexican reporters, politicians, businessmen, are leaving the border for the U.S and even Canada (there are several articles about some reporters now living in El Paso, Los Angeles and Canada). It seems that the brief period of peace on the wake of the Mexican Army surge has ended and the violence has spiked again to dozens of deaths every week (some times every day!).
I know that the decent people of Juarez (and El Paso) have no way of doing much about this horrible situation. Businesspeople are fearful of the naegative business impact on Juarez. But what in the heck can be said of a city where close to 8,000 people have died in violent murders in three years? The casualties of the Drug War are now higher than those of the American army in Iraq? Where is it all going to end?
One of the great problems is that Mexico and specially the State of Chihuahua and particularly Ciudad Juarez, lack any semblance of an effective Law Enforcement . The SEMFO has excellent labs and professionals, but once it gets into the hands of the "investigators" it just goes to virtual crap. 99% of the homicides in Chihuahua (and I think it goes for the whole country in Mexico) go unsolved. There is no punishment, no justice, no system that can threaten the criminals. This is the legacy of 70 years of lawless, "corporate" rule by the PRI and their legacy of dealing with groups and people not by the rule of law but by the rule of cronism.
There is a spiritual sickness in our souls. We are the drug dealers and the killers and by this I mean that we all know members of our family, friends, relatives, acquaintances that are involved in the illegal drug traffic. It is our society that is sick. When a country can produce bastards that take human life (even innocent children) with the ease these monsters do, there is something awfully wrong. We have abandoned decency, morality, goodness and have exchanged it for moral corruption. Even the Church takes "anonymous" donations from the criminals. Our culture, the "Culture of Death" with its stupid music, movies, TV programs, with its degradation of women and children have produced this moral vomit, the Culture of Death. We need to change, each one individually, otherwise there is no hope.
An then there is our gringo side. Americans who use drugs (our pampered university students, Ivy leaguers, Hollywood types, etc., etc.) are stupid fools who are consuming the blood of Mexicans to satisfy their stupid habit. Americans snort, inject, shoot up, even rub drugs by the tons each year in an insatiable thirst for mind bending trips.
This just yanks my chain, most of all to see innocent children killed and a city submerged in fear, with people acting like ostriches, burying our heads in a hole in the ground pretending nothing is wrong. Of course if you keep quiet, low profile, if you don't talk, don't express your outrage, if you shrug your shoulders and think this is just the drug trafficker’s problem, maybe if you do that, then you will be OK. FAT CHANCE.
According to different sources there are now something like 700 - 900 killings in Juarez this year so far including innocent bystanders and children (this weekend a 12 year old girl and a 14 year old boy were killed in a vehicle in the Valle de Juarez).
Mexican reporters, politicians, businessmen, are leaving the border for the U.S and even Canada (there are several articles about some reporters now living in El Paso, Los Angeles and Canada). It seems that the brief period of peace on the wake of the Mexican Army surge has ended and the violence has spiked again to dozens of deaths every week (some times every day!).
I know that the decent people of Juarez (and El Paso) have no way of doing much about this horrible situation. Businesspeople are fearful of the naegative business impact on Juarez. But what in the heck can be said of a city where close to 8,000 people have died in violent murders in three years? The casualties of the Drug War are now higher than those of the American army in Iraq? Where is it all going to end?
One of the great problems is that Mexico and specially the State of Chihuahua and particularly Ciudad Juarez, lack any semblance of an effective Law Enforcement . The SEMFO has excellent labs and professionals, but once it gets into the hands of the "investigators" it just goes to virtual crap. 99% of the homicides in Chihuahua (and I think it goes for the whole country in Mexico) go unsolved. There is no punishment, no justice, no system that can threaten the criminals. This is the legacy of 70 years of lawless, "corporate" rule by the PRI and their legacy of dealing with groups and people not by the rule of law but by the rule of cronism.
There is a spiritual sickness in our souls. We are the drug dealers and the killers and by this I mean that we all know members of our family, friends, relatives, acquaintances that are involved in the illegal drug traffic. It is our society that is sick. When a country can produce bastards that take human life (even innocent children) with the ease these monsters do, there is something awfully wrong. We have abandoned decency, morality, goodness and have exchanged it for moral corruption. Even the Church takes "anonymous" donations from the criminals. Our culture, the "Culture of Death" with its stupid music, movies, TV programs, with its degradation of women and children have produced this moral vomit, the Culture of Death. We need to change, each one individually, otherwise there is no hope.
An then there is our gringo side. Americans who use drugs (our pampered university students, Ivy leaguers, Hollywood types, etc., etc.) are stupid fools who are consuming the blood of Mexicans to satisfy their stupid habit. Americans snort, inject, shoot up, even rub drugs by the tons each year in an insatiable thirst for mind bending trips.
This just yanks my chain, most of all to see innocent children killed and a city submerged in fear, with people acting like ostriches, burying our heads in a hole in the ground pretending nothing is wrong. Of course if you keep quiet, low profile, if you don't talk, don't express your outrage, if you shrug your shoulders and think this is just the drug trafficker’s problem, maybe if you do that, then you will be OK. FAT CHANCE.
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