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Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Mexico Becomes-Voluntarily- a Country of Masochists

Borderland Beat

Translated and Posted on Borderland Beat Forum by JLopez

"neither the Vicente Fox nor the Felipe Calderon administration dealt with the challenge well; the first through omission, the second through lack of planning. But it's undeniable that they were not responsible for the problem: they inherited it."

by Denise Dresser for Proceso

Now that the PRI has won, they are bragging of what they'll do for Mexico. Thanks to the PRI, there will be political stability, they say. Thanks to the PRI, there will be reforms and modernization, they insist. Thanks to the PRI the country will revive from the failures of the PAN, they repeat. Enrique Pena Nieto has traveled all over the country for months patting himself on the back and now celebrates the return of a party that is responsible for its worst vices. But the paradox is that the PRI candidate denounces the inefficacy and inexperience of the various PAN officials that were incapable of cleaning up the mess his party left behind. It's worth remembering now the list of things linked with the PRI that causes despair that it is back. There are PRI contributions for which the electorate should be less grateful. Mexico is dragged down by a legacy that should not be a reason for applause; Mexico is burdened with an inheritance that the PRI has tried to disown but for which it is responsible.

As I have written before in these pages (Proceso No. 1687):
During life under the PRI, drug trafficking infiltrates the State and becomes entrenched there. After the 1980's, the drug business begins to grow, and does this with political protection. With the complicity of the Federal Judicial Police and agents of the Federal Security Directorate. With collusion of governors like Mario Villanueva and other PRI leaders of "narco" cities and border states. Through the years, the PRI political structure provides a protective shell for organized crime which advances, not despite the government, but --in good measure--thanks to it. When the PAN gets to the presidency, it finds a State that has been overwhelmed, state authorities that are complicit, they run across police agencies that have been penetrated, they appeal to indolent prosecutors. And without doubt, neither the Vicente Fox nor the Felipe Calderon administration dealt with the challenge well; the first through omission, the second through lack of planning. But it's undeniable that they were not responsible for the problem: they inherited it. Today the PRI says it will pacify the country, but the only way to accomplish this is to make peace with the forces with whom they associated in the past.

Union leader wearing a 70K USD watch to business meeting (Reforma)

Life under the PRI implies coexistence with someone like Joaquin Gamboa Pascoe and what he stands for. Leader for life, elected to lead the worker's union until 2016. Leader until death, enthroned after a fast track vote and by acclamation. Surrounded by dancing women in bikinis, swaying to the sound of maracas, the fanfare and the cheers. Impassive before complaints for the luxury he displays and the ostentatious watches. To live under the PRI implies awareness of the sumptuous lifestyle of the daughter of Carlos Romero Deschamps [PEMEX workers union chief] and listen to Enrique Pena Nieto come to his defense with the argument that "he has been a very hard working man." The next president doesn't raise his voice to question the antidemocratic practices of corporatism, but instead denies that it exists. He argues that Mexico has changed and that workers are free and deserve respect, when syndicate corruption is a sign of the same as ever rottenness. The same as ever genuflection. The same as ever alliance. The same as ever pacts. The PRI leadership offers gifts in exchange for political support. This is so true, that without any sign of embarrassment, Gamboa Pascoe asserts that he and Pena Nieto calculated how they were going to increase, during the next election, the number of Congressional seats for (CETME) unionists. This is how the PRI ratifies its preferences for Pleistocene practices.

Life under the PRI assumes that government is seen as booty to be divided. There is no better phrase to sum up this view than the one attributed to Carlos Hank Gonzalez: "Un politico pobre es un pobre politico." (A politician who's not rich is a poor politician.) The PRI allows anybody who attains any position -- from decades ago-- to think he's there to get rich. To do business. To sign contracts. To take secret payments. To give out concessions and receive something in return. This is the only thing that explains La Colina del Perro, built by Jose Lopez Portillo. This is the only way to explain the riches accumulated in Raul Salinas de Gortari's Swiss bank accounts. This is the only way to explain the $70,000.00 watch worn by Carlos Romero Deschamps. This is the only way to explain [teachers' syndicate leader] Elba Esther Gordillo's wardrobe. Thanks to the PRI, a large part of the population believes that corruption is normal and acceptable conduct in public affairs.


Yarrington and Pena

Hank Rhon
Life under the PRI implies that impunity becomes a way of life. The PRI maintains a system of power sharing based on political protection of its members, above the laws they violate, the students they intimidate, the embezzlement they commit, the thefts they initiate, the detours they order. The list is long and scandalous: Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, Luis Echeverria, Jose Lopez Portillo, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Raul Salinas de Gortari, Mario Marin, Arturo Montiel, Jorge Hank Rhon, Roberto Madrazo, Emilio Gamboa, Jose MJurat, Ulises Ruiz, Tomas Yarrington. And, to protect themselves they enact special laws, jump from political post to political post, pressure journalists, negotiate appeals (amparos), buy support and corrupt judges.


Vargas Llosa

*Mario Vargas Llosa understands this when he declares that if Mexico returns the PRI to the presidency, its because it is "a country of masochists." And the population has been party to this masochism, fed by the PAN and the PRD. Both parties are responsible for the restoration for assuming it would be enough to get the PRI out of Los Pinos without substantially modifying its modus operandi. The Pan and the PRI's great mistake was to try to function politically within the structure that the PRI created instead of breaking it up. The Pan and the PRD's big mistake has been to believe that it could play the game that was designed by the PRI better than the PRI, instead of committing to changing the rules. The biggest mistake has been to emulate the PRI instead of refusing to practice the politics the PRI put in place.

The PAN and the PRD have failed in their effort to govern like the way the PRI did. The PAN and PRD have failed in their effort to adapt to the institutional rules the PRI twisted. The PAN and the PRD have failed to negotiate effectively with drug traffickers; they haven't been effective in paying off union leaders; they haven't been effective in providing benefits to to big business; they haven't been effective in concealing the deals they have made while in power; they haven't been effective in dealing with impunity because they became its accomplices. Thanks to the PRI, the country suffered so many years of bad government. Thanks to the PAN and the PRI, history is likely to repeat itself. And that Mexico becomes-- voluntarily-- a country of masochists.

*Note:
The Perfect Dictatorship

Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, live on Mexican television in 1990, described the PRI's Mexico as "the perfect dictatorship" because "it is a camouflaged dictatorship."


35 comments:

  1. ....WOW!!! CORRUPTION AT IT'S HIGHEST LEVEL!!!

    ....ONE OF SATAN'S HIDDEN DYNASTIES AT WORK!!!

    ....STAND ASSURED---WE ARE ALL ACCOUNTABLE FOR OUR TRANSGRESSIONS---ESPECIALLY THESE PEOPLE WHO ARE PUT IN OFFICE--FOR THE PEOPLE---AND ONLY SERVE THEIR SELFISH AGENDAS...

    ....IN THE END, WE ALL GET WHAT WE DESERVE!!!!

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  2. Time for Arellanos to rise and for chapo to fall again.Inge is in deep with PRI

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  3. Mario Vargas Llosa always nails it. Too bad not nearly enough voters listened to him and the students before the vote. Mexicans do seem like short- sighted masochists. Gullible? Were they manipulated again by the world class corrupt manipulators, PRI- and just fell for the simple shenanigans of the temptation of all mighty peso? Shame, shame, shame. Or were there still too many still apathetic. Whatever it is they have to live with the consequences and it is too late now for 6 years! 6 years. Regardless of the reasons, Mexico is getting the shaft again. Maybe the answer is they are masochists. Poor Mexicans - what you got now is a good looking Mojigangi Zeta for six God damn years. Anyway good article J.Lopez

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  4. PUES EL PRI YA SE RENUIERON CON LOS ZETAS CDS BL CDJ CJNG CDG PARA QUE LES DEJE SAVER COMO VA A REPARTIR EL PASTEL Y EL QUE NO RESPETA SERA EXTERMINADO PIENSO QUE ALGUNOS GRANDES VA CAYER CUANDO EL PENA NIETO ENTRA PARA DEJARLE SABER QUE NO ESTA JUGANDO EL PRI NO LE IMPORTA NO MAS UN CARTEL SINO TODOS POR QUE AL FIN QUIEREN EL DINERO Y PUES SE PARARA ALGO DE VIOLENCIA PERO NO MUCHO PORQUE SIEMPRE HABRA PELEA LLA SEA INTERNA O CONTRA CONTRAS!!

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  5. What are we supposed to do now? We need help where are the united nations? We have oil lots of it. Where the us? How do we get help when the worlds super powers don't give a fuck about us it's 250,000 dead or missing and counting. Please,help..

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  6. You got that right partner!

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  7. Quite interesting article. Now at least I know the major political forces in Mexico. Will see how the situation in Mexico will develop.

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  8. Mexico is and has in modern times been a crooked evil place where people will do anything for money,especially govt people. This is the perception of Mexico,and it is somewhat correct. Why do Mexicans vote to keep Mexico a king of corruption? If Mexicans know what they are doing then they are responsible,and deserve the reputation they have,sad,will it ever change?

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  9. Over half the ballot boxes to be recounted after finding "inconsistencies".

    Well I nevva.

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  10. probably looked at a sicarios girl.
    Associated Press intern found dead in Mexico City
    by Action 4 News Staff
    Posted: 07.02.2012 at 12:59 PM

    Armando Montano // Associated Press Photo
    Photo

    MEXICO CITY (AP) -- An aspiring journalist who was working this summer as a news intern for The Associated Press in Mexico City has been found dead.

    Armando Montano's body was found early Saturday in the elevator shaft of an apartment building near where he was living in the Mexican capital.

    The circumstances of his death are being investigated by Mexican authorities.

    The 22-year-old Colorado Springs, Colo., resident arrived in Mexico City in early June after graduating from Grinnell College with a bachelor's degree in Spanish and a concentration in Latin American studies.

    He was not on assignment at the time of his death. The U.S. embassy is monitoring the course of the investigation

    Montano had planned to attend a master's degree program in journalism at the University of Barcelona in the fall.

    In December and January, Montano covered the Iowa presidential caucuses as a news intern for The New York Times, and last year worked for several months as an intern covering policy and finance for The Chronicle of Higher Education in Washington, D.C.

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  11. 6:39PM
    I agree with the tally of dead you posted. It makes perfect mathematical sense to conclude 200K plus.

    as for the oil...absoultely! and a huge bulk of it in the water. So who do you think is wooing Mx as we speak? Offering a partnership of science and equipment to get at the black gold? EU? well we should...but alas,,,its China.
    Yes, Mexico needs help, as does Central America, the devil has landed and not going anywhere. Acknowledgement comes before change, so we try and do our little part hoping it somehow helps.

    @ 6:14PM...I don't see how the violence will be curbed. The fact is the violence began shifting before Calderon came to office. It became a different narrco game when Zetas came on the horizon. Now with all the enforcer groups, slinter groups small gangs all wating a oiece of the plaza, does anyone think now they stop and sit at the negoiating table and throw away the guns? and Pena saying he will remove the feds and leave the policing to the local agencies? that is a sad ass pathetic ignorant idea. IMO it was not the military presence that was a mistake, it was there was not big plan other than their use.

    and Yes Thanks to my friend JLOPEZ who took the time to translate this article, the effort is all his...all I added was a few photos and one of my fave quotes at the end :)...
    Paz, Chivis

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  12. What a short sighted criticism of the PAN leadership who had 12 years to address and deal with 70 years of PRI cronyism. As an American owning businesses in Mexico both pre and post PRI leadership, I know without doubt that corruption has decreased and become less institutionalized and that the formerly non-existent middle class gas grown exponentially under the 12 years of PAN leadership.

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  13. http://www.auctor.tv/Extras/IrregularidadesPrep100.html
    The above link shows poll results that have 100 or more percent local turn out....how can that happen?

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  14. Just prior to the elections if you recall they began killing large numbers of innocent people, this is when the PRI was saying "Elect us and we will stop the violence!"... People are now flooding different stores in Mexico trying to cash in their cards that they received for their vote! In the last days of the vote there were reports of armed and masked men stealing ballot boxes full of vote slips!

    This election is a sham and one of the worst cases of voter fraud I have ever seen, ranking up there with Bush's strong arm take over that happened in Florida where his brother Jeb was governor...-CHIVO

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  15. Anonymous said...

    Mexico is and has in modern times been a crooked evil place where people will do anything for money,especially govt people. This is the perception of Mexico,and it is somewhat correct. Why do Mexicans vote to keep Mexico a king of corruption? If Mexicans know what they are doing then they are responsible,and deserve the reputation they have,sad,will it ever change?
    July 4, 2012 8:22 PM
    ===============================================

    It is so deeply rooted into the Mexican national and social fabric that it is going to take an outside military force to change the things in Mexico. They have proven to the world by this election that they are a country of criminals and that its OK with the people to be labeled and known to the world as such. They need to build a bigger fence around the entire country!

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  16. Fuck it let Mexico go deeper into the shit... Once the UN sanctions hit for Genocide guess who's stepping in... Iraq's over Afghanistan is drawing down within the next 2yrs... Iran & North Korea aren't a major issue... I wonder where the next major U.S. conflict is gonna be?... Don't be surprised... It's always been on the plate... Once you start hearin' the (US) Secretary of State calling the violence in Mexico an "Insurgency" and the (US)Sectretary of Defense labeling it "Narco-Terrorism" it's fair game...

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  17. Man these Bible thumping mother fuckers see Satan everywhere but in their own homes.

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  18. As long as Mexican politicians protect and allow american corporations to do a thriving business in mexico, America does not care how many mexicans are murdered or how corrupt its system is.
    If Mexico intiated a Jugo Chavez type rule the american government would be ready to invade.
    What it boils down to is $$$$!

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  19. And with the current scandal of buying votes with gift cards, we'll see how this works out for the PRI...problems before they even take office.

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  20. Interesting that cheating to get ahead is so accepted in such a Catholic country. It really just fuels my belief that just like the Saudi Princes and other wealthy people in power that religion is just a front, money is the REAL religion...

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  21. Mexico bus growing tnx to the help its getting.from.south American n Asia because they seem to have a better trading treaty then Nafta which is a major factor in this drug.war.
    NOW TO THE ELECTIONS.
    PEOPLE WERE NOT ALLOWED TO VOTE
    ,STOLEN VOTERS BOXES OR HOW EVER U CALL THEM. PEOPLE SOLD THEIR VOTES FOR AS LITTLE AS 50 fucking dollars. Is not the poor peoples fault i mean 50 dollars Is alot go a person who can barely feed its family l.
    The Fucking Problem starts when people use money to.corrupt others in need , In Mexico They CALL IT CORRUPTION IN THE USA THEY CALL IT LOBBYING. STOP ALL THESE FUCKING CORRUPTION KILLING MEXICO N USA ALONG. BECAUSE IF 1 countries has.problem its partner is sure to as well.
    PROSECUTE WHITE COLLAR CRIME TO THWART FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW.
    EPN IS NOT MY PRESIDENT ,MY PRESIDENT IS ANDRES MANUEL LOPEZ OBRADOR.

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  22. With that backwards mentality Mexico will never get ahead. It's really sad that such a beautiful country rich in resources gets constantly robbed by a rich few.

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  23. "Anonymous said...
    What are we supposed to do now? We need help where are the united nations? We have oil lots of it. Where the us? How do we get help when the worlds super powers don't give a fuck about us it's 250,000 dead or missing and counting. Please,help.."

    Under the Obama regime we only care about the Mexicans here, legal or not for votes to keep the ruling party in power. The true, and only hope for Mexicans (for now) is to cross the border, sign up for USA entitlements, vote for our socialist president and live life on permanent vacation.

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    Replies
    1. Permanent vacation? Wtf? Are you implying we can't keep a job? If im wrong i apologize. I hope your coment isn't some kind of racist rant..

      Delete
  24. Please, Chivis, post thie links to the original in spanish if you can, I try to post both links to your site on my FB profile for my canadian and mexican friends

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  25. Yeah,so you would prefer the Venezuela Hugo Chavez Socilaista model Obrador would have installed?
    Idiota!

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  26. if I could of voted in Mexico I would vote for SUB-COMANDANTE MARCOS and his ZAPATISTAS, fuck the PRI & PAN

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  27. Whatever works! Rather see backroom deals with drug traffickers than dead bodies in the streets. As long as traffickers spend their money, it's good for the economy. The War on Drugs in Mexico has failed, just like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. You have to realize you failed at some point.

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  28. Great article! As good as any I have seen explaining the "system" in Mexico under the PRI. As the old saying goes, the first time you fuck me, it's your fault. The second time you fuck me, it's my fault. You poor pitiful Mexicanos! You voted the PRI back into power. The fucking you are going to take now is YOUR fault!

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  29. Mexico will better then they were for the last seven years they can eat with out the police in the way no need too kill no more hopefully

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  30. @10:53AM

    You can access the link by going on to Proceso and search. it is from June 2012. I took from forum as I stated, and the source was given as Proceso. Paz, Chivis

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  31. 10:53

    heere you go...i just went on the site and found it (editorials):

    http://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=313141

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  32. AND WERE BACK IN BUSINESS PEOPLE. FINALLY BACK TO THE GOOD DAYS. LA GENTE DEL CHAPO.

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  33. All of your "American" perspectives are so far off from reality and it rests mainly on your brainwashed minds. The most insightful statements that were made were in regards to the new trade partners that Mexico is slowly moving towards, South America and Far East Asia. Other than that your regional liberal and conservative evangelical points of view don't account for anything that is going on here and the CIA will be damned if it lets out its secrets or else it wouldnt be the CIA. Remember the CIA lead the primary operation that countered the KGBs attempts to take over teh world with communism, and you think they just put up the gloves after the cold war was over? But the new kid on the block has alot more potential than the old USSR and it is spelled China. The CIA is content with the way shit is going down here because it curtails any snowballing next-door security risk along its southern border or, in the biblical sense, in the belly of the Beast. But hey how's your new I-Pad....LOL.

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  34. Amazing article. Very well made.
    ....Mexico was never supposed to be a big country. The indigenous people just wanted to farm and look at the sky. And now they can't. :(

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