Has Mexico hit bottom?

 In Cancun Wednesday, William R. Brownfield, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, stated that the drug-related violence in Mexico has hit bottom. He said that in some years we would see some of the positive results of the strategies against criminal organizations.  In contrast, Genaro Garcia’s, Mexico’s Secretary of Public Security, warned that the violence associated to the drug war will continue for at least seven years, before we could see a reduction on violent crime.

While Mexican and American officials were holding an international drug conference in Cancun, thousands of people from Mexico participated in several protests against the violence. When protesters were claiming justice and the end of the bloodshed, the bodies of 59 people were discovered in a common grave in the northern state of Tamaulipas. This is the same place where eight months ago, the bodies of 72 migrants from Central and South America were also found.

In his final remarks at the international drug conference Thursday, President Felipe Calderón said there is no bigger pain for a society than seeing its youth being killed by unscrupulous criminals. Meanwhile, an additional 13 bodies were found in Tamaulipas, which brings the total to 72 corpses found in one week in one area.

Authorities said that some of the people killed could have been passengers on a bus, who were supposedly kidnapped by an organized crime group for recruiting purposes. Until now, authorities have discarded the idea that the people killed were migrants in transit to the United States.  However, as has commonly happened with criminal investigations in Mexico, we will never know what happened, who were the killers and why all these people were massacred.

Although Mr. Brownsfield thinks that the violence in Mexico has hit bottom, events such as these show that we haven’t seen the worst yet. Unfortunately, Mr. Garcia Luna’s warning of seven more years of violence  is the most realistic and terrible scenario for Mexico and its vulnerable society in the future.

 

 

Comments

[LLBD]

The good thing about hitting bottom, there's no where to go but UP! So with some serious reorganization, they may be able to get their country back up and running properly. Just stop allowing for graft and bribes, stop lining the politicians pockets with the aid money they get from various nations. Use it for the people.

[John T]

It is sad, but the quest for making money will keep MX embroiled in death and destruction for a long time. Yes, seven to ten years. Why? There simply is not an alternative for individuals and families to make a decent income. Dealing in drugs is virtually the only alternative to break out of poverty and it is attracting the youth of MX and robbing them of their lives in many cases. I lived in Juarez for six years until just recently and witnessed things first hand.

[Tom]

You say 7 - 10 years? Try 40 years... Mexico is such a crap -hole now that it will take a decade for citizens like you to muster up the bravery and courage to take back your country. It will take another decade of fighting to get it done, then another decade for you to figure out how to shift your culture from the one that currently fails, to the new prosperous one, and then finally another ten years to grow and catch up with your neighbors... Sorry but Mexico has a long road ahead. Now wold be a good tome to consider renaming it. May as well wipe the slate clean.

[Witness]

Mexico wouldn't be such a crap hole if Americans didn't have such a thirst for cocaine and pot