Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
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Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. 2008-2010

A voice from Juarez, Guillermo Cervantes Ph. D.

Juarez: 2008-2010

2008 changed our lives. During its first weeks executions began to take place. Alarmed, we wanted to believe these were just isolated events, underworld quarrels prone to end soon and everything would be just as it was before. However, the killings did not stop, and increasingly became more sadistic and violent. We would wake up just to find bodies hanging from our bridges as we drove to work or to take our children to school. The local media had its hands full and was barely able to cover some of the bloodiest events.

Our city was filled with banners, the infamous narco mantas. With utterly vulgar vocabulary and nearly illiterate ways, different factions were taking credit for several crimes, seized the opportunity to terrorize opponents and threatened authorities. Terror increased: we knew many more deaths were yet to come.

It was until March the 27th that Operativo Conjunto Chihuahua begun (later renamed to Operación Coordinada). It was a joint project between the three levels of government. It aimed to fight against criminal organizations throughout the city.

From their tribunes, our emboldened leaders asserted that organized crime was to be subdued shortly; they said they were about to prove that “no criminal group will be able to withstand the force of the Mexican State.” Naively, they imagined that, by means of magic, the mere presence of thousands of soldiers would be enough to pacify the city. Dreamers.

Our streets were then taken by army and the Federal Preventive Police (PFP). The total number of troops in our city amounts to more than 7500 elements. In official statements, spokesmen began to chant the triumphs of the operation: so many drug seizures, thousands of weapons secured, so many detainees. However, our reality was different: the killings did not decrease, quite the opposite.

The arrival of the army and the PFP did not frighten gunmen. The homicide rate increased fivefold with the arrival of the Federals, according to Oscar Acosta, president of our local Law Bar. Also multiplied were abuse and violations of individual rights. Juarenses soon began to be victims of kidnapping and extortion, criminal practices hitherto unknown in Ciudad Juárez. Sadly, our supposed protectors were more concerned with milking our citizens than with pursuing criminals.

Here, the law seems to be applied in an arbitrary and selective way. Astonished, we saw how the full weight of the law fell over an individual who found an endangered turtle while criminals arrested in fraganti, with rifle in hand, were released “for lack of evidence.” Confessions obtained under torture, individuals were being arrested for minor crimes and prosecuted for felonies. It all evidences the lack of proper training within our police forces. In order to get a scapegoat they can destroy families and lives; while our authorities would seek a spotlight to announce the arrest of ‘another dangerous murderer.’ Grotesque spectacle, mockery of a judicial circus in which the perpetrator receives the benefit of the doubt and is released, while the small citizen is prosecuted to the full extent of the law, for crimes he did not commit. Carnival in which a confessed murderer, repentant and with tears in his eyes, admits having killed an underage woman and the system just decides to let him go, before the incredulous gaze of us all.

Bullies, our leaders provide us with figures that do not correspond at all with our reality, they boast of doing what no one before had done; they set deadlines and goals they cannot meet, in an attempt toshow the character and determination they lack. Simulators. Later, they exculpate themselves and blame each other: state government blames federal government, which in turn blames municipal government. All and none are guilty. They are more concerned with keeping their respective political parties in power than with stopping this carnage. They have bodyguards, security forces and armored vehicles, they live in fortresses, and we do not. Certainly our perceptions of reality are very different.

More than two hundred thirty thousand people have fled the city (1), more than ten thousand businesses closed down, over one hundred thousand abandoned homes, more than five thousand homicides. Orphans and widows. Broken families, empty schools, communities displaced. Lonely streets, ghost towns –such as those located in the Valley of Juárez. A city mutilated, lost in grief and despair. These are the true achievements in this war against drugs.

Beasts

Our streets are the scene of barbaric acts. No matter what time of day it is, nor the place. The city belongs to organized crime warlords and to their henchmen. Owners of lives and people, they do not hesitate to engage their assault rifles. Holders of indescribable cruelty. They compete with each other by increasing their ruthlessness. Our streets are silent witnesses of heinous crimes. Laying on them we find heads, dismembered bodies. Mowed lives of men and women, young and old, rich and poor. Bullet casings planted on the pavement, explosives detonated on our main streets.

No precinct or barrier can contain them. No sense of respect for human life can moderate them. They can disrupt a religious ceremony and a sporting event, just the same. Restaurants and nightclubs have been a forum for their thirst for blood. Our children have learned to recognize different firearms just by their particular sounds.

We may be students, teachers, street artists, lawyers, physicians, public transport operators, mechanical workers or consular staff. No one is out of reach, no one is too big or too small to be a victim of their anger, of their viciousness. No one can stop them. They are invisible. They operate in broad daylight and nobody sees them and nobody can find them. They are invisible. No one can see, nobody wants to see, nobody has seen. The only thing visible is the death and destruction path left in its wake.

More than seven thousand military and police officers roam our streets, yet little has been done little to stop this slaughter. Empty official speeches, vain promises. Rulers who minimize the pain and suffering of those who inhabit Ciudad Juárez.

Under siege

Full of hope, the people of Ciudad Juarez received the new law enforcement elements. Optimistic, young and old watched the convoys’ parade on their grand entrance through the city.

Camps emerged throughout the city to house the troops. Thousands of elements were patrolling our streets. Large sums were taken out of our municipal budget to cover for their expenses; which is why many public projects had to be postponed or abandoned.

Everywhere roadblocks emerged. At will, pedestrians and drivers were stopped and frisked. The streets became clogged and vehicle traffic was hindered. Groups of soldiers roamed the streets. With the help of magical gadgets that allowed them to guess who was hiding drugs, weapons, bodies and money, they could choose those to be frisked. At first, people believed that it was a necessary evil: a temporary discomfort while the criminals were tracked down and put in place. It was a simulation exercise in which official motorcades were promenading down our streets. Our city now provides an urban landscape previously reserved for countries at war.

Official vehicles roamed the streets, speeding, causing accidents and always blaming the unfortunate driver who crossed their path.

Instead of sinking; kidnapping, extortion, murder, and abductions increased alarmingly. That magical gadget was used as an excuse for stopping vehicles and breaking into homes without warrants. Violations of individual rights became our daily bread.

The law enforcement officers were beating and abducting citizens without offering explanations. Some of them have not been seen again. Files against soldiers and federal officers were on the rise, although most of the abuse was never reported for fear of retaliation. In press conferences, their superiors denied the accusations or offered to make bad apples pay, then just forgot about it.

Municipal budget was being used to pay the salaries of those who would become the main predators of Juarenses.

With complete freedom, elements of the Federal Preventive Police pillaged and plundered, becoming licensed thugs: drivers were threatened with being stripped of their vehicles if they didn’t pay large sums of money; businessmen were threatened with being charged of fictional crimes if they refused to yield to their greed. Homes were looted before the eyes of its inhabitants.

Our rulers, blind and indifferent to the situation, allowed our human rights to be abused day after day.

They arrived more than two years ago, yet our situation continues to worsen. No solid results. Criminals and henchmen always manage to elude the police, sometimes before their eyes.

Under the cover of official impunity, our supposed protectors became our main scourge.

Guillermo Cervantes, Ph. D. : http://www.ciudadjuarez2008-2010.com/

14 comments:

  1. - Marcos V.

    For there to exist such impunity of crime in Cuidad Juarez, You have to consider the total break down of civil-society. It is the general citizenry - the religio-socio-political structure that lend support for a civil society, have broken down (of course not all, but the vast majority) that lends its support of organized crime as gainful employment, a way out despair and destitution, an unspoken death wish of all lost hope where only the strongest survive, in effect the law of the jungle and the struggle to survive has become the new normal. It is the general citizenry who have lost conscience for they no longer inhibited themselves from holding back primal homocidal passions of hate, avarice,vengeance,unfathomable lust for money and power, it is never enough. "Cuando los fundamentos del orden, descencia y la moralidad son destruidos, Que le queda hacer al justo?" Salmo 11:3

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  2. This is a very telling commentary for those who have been mistakenly cheerleading and celebrating the Mexican military who actually live in the relatively peaceful areas of the Monterrey metro area.

    ' Naively, they imagined that, by means of magic, the mere presence of thousands of soldiers would be enough to pacify the city. Dreamers.

    Groups of soldiers roamed the streets. With the help of magical gadgets that allowed them to guess who was hiding drugs, weapons, bodies and money, they could choose those to be frisked. At first, people believed that it was a necessary evil: a temporary discomfort while the criminals were tracked down and put in place.'

    The Mexican military is not your friend. They make the situation even worse everywhere they go. The solution to the cartels is not a military one. Look at the mess they have made of Juarez!

    'More than two hundred thirty thousand people have fled the city (1), more than ten thousand businesses closed down, over one hundred thousand abandoned homes, more than five thousand homicides. Orphans and widows. Broken families, empty schools, communities displaced. Lonely streets, ghost towns –such as those located in the Valley of Juárez. A city mutilated, lost in grief and despair.'

    And to those who say that the Mexican military has a fine record of human rights observation, you are only kidding yourselves. People are too scared to report most of the crimes they commit!

    'Files against soldiers and federal officers were on the rise, although most of the abuse was never reported for fear of retaliation.'

    The US government is messing over Mexico with its stupid international pretend 'War Against Drugs', which in reality is simply a vehicle for the Pentagon to militarize all of Latin America. This war as a violation of Mexican sovereignty! Get the Pentagon Out Now! The Merida Initiative (Plan Merida) is a rape of Mexico by the US government.

    Ernest1

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  3. Wow, really Ernest? The US is helping Mexico out is a rape of mexico??

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  4. Anonymous, if you think that this 'drug war' interventionism in Mexico by US money to more militarize the country is helping Mexico out, you are sadly mistaken. I don't really think that Mexico will any more be satisfied with the results of US 'helping' them out than Iraqis or Afghans are. Or any number of other US 'helped out' places peoples are really are.

    Where on earth have you gotten this rose colored lenses idea of seeing your country as some sort of great' helper' of other countries instead of a f---er upper of other societies? Get real, Anonymous! You are out of grade school.

    Ernest1

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  5. Can't rape the willing.

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  6. En paranda con el Diablo, El es mi mejor amigo! Mexican Mentality!

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  7. once again the American is responsable for the criminal who robbed my novias abuelita's poco tienda anoche....but he dosen't know it is an americans fault...he is not part of the blame game....just wants to steal for some tequila...but it is all the fault of the USA ...correcto

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  8. Ernesto unless you have a solution in mind you are just another complainer blaming the gringo conspiracy for everything. Your particular view is distorted by your political leanings.Should Mexico accept responsibility for any of the violence?

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  9. Indeed, the war is lost by the Mx gvt; as good/bad they can be, the military will not take back the lost terrain. That's now an urban guerrilla war. Well, do we have solutions here.
    1/legalize drugs in Mx, US and CDN. Let the druggies kill themselves if they want to, that's Darwinism. Not likely to happen in the US.
    2/ Eliminate the demand by scarring off the users in the US and CDN with some shipments tampered with more immediately lethal drugs. That would need some organized Mx patriots with big cojones. Again, not likely to happen.
    3/The Mx gvt picks one cartel against all others. That would become a hidden legalization and allow for one paramilitary cartel organization to crack down on other cartels and all parasitic thugs. I really hope this is happening with the Sinaloa cartel, and that Mx will quit fighting this stupid proxy war for the US.
    And another thing. Ernest 1, you still haven't taken your meds, you naughty boy.

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  10. It's mexico's education system that is most to blame. Their education system stinks. Secondario ends in the 10th grade. After that, most mexicans cannot affford to continue school, so they have to make a choice: would they rather work at a maquiladora and make a measly 50 dollars a week busting their asses or work for a drug cartel and make a measly 500 dollars a week killing people. Not to to mention a horrible government that is suffering through a civil war against cartels who rule the country by using guerrilla tactics. Meanwhile these cartels are bullying anyone that they want, even winning many battles against the mexican army and policias federales. Mexican citizens, stop bitching and physically take your country back or find logical answers to YOUR problems and then commit.

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  11. This war is not the war on drugs. This war is not the war on crime or cartels. This war is Mexico going against itself. Mexico is its own worst enemy.

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  12. It shows how demented the general mindset is, that every time the general US role in fomenting violence throughout ALL of Latin America is mentioned, that all the dumbest pendejos posting on BB start their whining about 'the need for others to take their meds' and that 'Leftists need to go to North Korea' and all the usual other tripe they come up with.

    'Ernesto unless you have a solution in mind you are just another complainer blaming the gringo conspiracy for everything.'

    You're damn right I have a solution in mind. GET THE US GOVERNMENT THE HELL OUT OF OTHER COUNTRIES! THe US government screws up the countries it intervenes in. Mexico is no exception. The US government always allies itself with the most corrupt elements of all societies.

    Ernest1

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  13. Actually ernesto, I think mexico should go the opposite and let America invade. Hell, let America take over! America has a hgher quality of living than mexico. It has a longer life expectency. Better school systems. Better health care. Lower unemployment. Less poverty. There's a reason that mexicans are flocking to America in droves and not vice versa. Obviously I'm joking about the "let america invade" part, but I do have a point. Mexico, stop being so afraid of becoming more like America. America and Americas government definitely has its problems, but if you look at the two countries, its easy to see that America is doing a better job at the moment, so maybe its time to swallow your pride and start taking some pointers.

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  14. Ernesto - I didn't say you are wrong. For sure the US has been intervening in Mexico since at least the middle of the 19th century. How arrogant some posters are who talk of "invading" to fix Mexico's problems. How incredibly arrogant to presume that we have answers for Mexico. Like we have answers for Iraq, Afghanistan? Like we had answers for Vietnam? Yeah right. But Ernesto, does Mexico bear responsibility for any of the violence?

    ReplyDelete

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