“As a rule, Latin American states are weak. They have always found it difficult to collect taxes, enforce their own laws, govern their territories, and command obedience and loyalty absent the threat of violence (that we might call their “hegemony”)
This specific statement that begins the chapter of Dawson’s book was like a bullet to my Latin pride and heart. Is weird how this chapter made me feel many different things about my country and other Latin American countries. When reading it I sometimes felt really angry and others just sad and powerless. Is interesting and heartbreaking reading a foreign point of view about this events. By events I want to say not only the so known “guerras contra el narco” but everything that surrounds this dirty wars. The precarious situations in which many Latins live nowadays.
I’d like to focus in the case of Mexico, not only because is my country, but because myself, I’ve experienced some situations that make me rethink more than twice about this issues. The “narcos” are observed from two opposing perspectives in Mexico. The first one is that they are the Caudillos of their town or city like in the state of Sinaloa, the most powerful narco called “El Chapo Guzmán” represents a father to many people. I personally have met people who is part of his family, and it was weird when I met those people, because… At the end of the day they are just ordinary people, who study at the same university I do, go to the same clubs I go, have common friends and the most shocking thing is that they also want to do something to improve Mexico… I find this contradictory and somehow hopeful because even when those youngs are extremely related to drug cartels, they do not like it, or they want to change our country’s situation. On the other hand; in this same state and others there is people who have the image of a “narco” as if he was a hero; there are little kids who dream of becoming narcos when they grow up. (Actually, there is a Brazilian movie called “La ciudad de Dios” that is about this, little kids who live in the fabelas and later on become drug dealers. Is an awesome movie, cold and real, but is a must if you’re interested in this topic). Poor people are the most influenced by “narco-cultura” because narcos are the ones that show all their economic power to the rest of the people and they improve their cities (they’re considered as the caudillos of their towns).
The other totally different perspective is the one that would be considered more “normal” or logic. People who is scared of narcos and who feel a deep kind of hate against all their actions. For example: in the state of Nuevo León, (which is the one that has more investment, the highest GDP “per capita” and before this narco guerrillas had one of the safest cities in Mexico). After all the narco guerras entire lives of people who lived in this state changed dramatically, even mine changed… my siblings live in Monterrey (located in Nuevo Leon state) and I was supposed to go and study my carrier over there, until my parents gave me the notice that two blocks away from my siblings’ house a casino was burned down by the narcos, so the situation was in danger. The huge amount of killed people every day; who appeared the next morning burned, hanged, mutilated and the entire country remained hopeless for too long. I know I’ve written a lot and I still have so much to say about this, but, I’d like to conclude by saying that the saddest part of all this is that (at least speaking in the name of Mexicans) we’ve lost the “power” of being impressed by this kind of situations; I mean that now is something of our daily lives. My question goes more to my Latin classmates: do you feel this way too?
Wow! I find your insight on these topics very inspirational. As someone who has spent very minimal time in Latin America, I know little about these topics and their actual impact on the nation other then what I read, but I can image the mixed emotions you must feel well reading the documents. I feel as it is hard to fully understand or relate to these situations/issues, as an foreigner to the Latin American region.
Hey Michelle, what you wrote about the two opposing perspectives of the narcos in Mexico is very true. A lot of my family lives in Jalisco and just from speaking with my cousins and grandparents over there I know their attitude is one of fear and also hatred for the kind of violence that these gangs cause. I remember going a couple of years ago to visit guadalajara and the police had just found something like 20 dead bodies killed, probably by los zetas. These massacres are so brutal, and the gangs purposely use excessive violence like beheading and chopping up bodies just to scare everyone. It goes beyond just trying to control their territory from other gangs, they are also trying to make a statement; It’s disgusting that they go as far as to kill children and innocent people who have nothing to do with the narcos. To answer your question at the end, I think the violence has had a numbing effect on many people, especially for those living in places like cuidad juarez or acapulco where the the amount of people killed everyday is insane. It just becomes part of daily life, like you said. This is why I think the protests about the 43 students in guerrero is really important because it shows that people have had enough, they aren’t going to continue to accept the violence as something “normal,” because it is not normal at all. So when Jesus Murillo said “ya me canse” when he was answering questions about the students, he doesn’t realize that what he said would be turned against him to mean something more, which is basically that the people of mexico are also tired..tired of all the corrupt politicians and tired of this war that has no end.
The way I see the first perspective is that people who support and heroize the narcos are nearsighted. As you mentioned, the narcos’ hegemony in their towns are largely based on economy, and the support comes from the fact that they can improve the life of the poor. But no human should only care about their own living. If one knows that his/her well-being provided by the narcos is at the expense of so many other innocent lives in the other cities, killed, burned, mutilated, s/he should feel ashamed.