By David Magallanes /Guest contributor
It was their 8/25. It doesn’t resonate with us as well as “9/11” does and always will. The events of August 25, 2011, weren’t of the gasping magnitude of 9/11, but it shook Mexican society to its core nonetheless.
That awful day last month was when the narco-criminals firebombed Monterrey’s Casino Royale, one of many rogue casinos established in Mexico over the past few years. Innocent people were killed—mostly women out enjoying each other’s company over bingo or lunch. The criminals were no longer targeting each other. They were now using full-blown Al-Qaida techniques for terrorizing the Mexican nation. The casino had refused to pay for “protection” and submit to “taxes,” so its customers were summarily burned and calcified. The drug wars had reached a new low as Mexicans mourned their dead, much as we had done that most horrible of days ten years ago, and just as we will always mourn the victims of that day that shall live in infamy right along with Pearl Harbor.
With the news of the casino massacre, I think we in the U.S. tended to mutter, “How terrible. Why don’t those Mexicans stop killing each other? Let’s see…I wonder what’s on the sports page…”
But our destiny is very much linked to that of the Mexicans. If their country falls apart, a part of us goes with them. Because to where do we think millions of desperate people are going to run when they have nothing to turn to within their own borders if their society were to break down irretrievably? Hint: It won’t be to the south.
We are not blameless. We don’t like outsiders criticizing our country, but we have to try to understand the rage of Mexican President Felipe Calderón as he tried to console his nation, just as President George W. Bush had tried to console us with a promise to exact justice. From Internet news source Chron.com*:
- “Calderón wasted no time in condemning Uncle Sam for the local bloodshed, saying:
- ‘The economic power and firepower of the criminal organizations operating in Mexico and Latin America come from this endless demand for drugs in the United States. We are neighbors, we are allies, we are friends, but also, you are responsible.’”
You can sense the exasperation in his words. President Calderón was calling us out. You can also sense the need to export the blame. True, as a nation, we are insatiably hungry for drugs. Where there’s a demand, a supply is found. Unfortunately for the Mexicans, that supply runs right through their country.
I do find it interesting that not only does our demand for illegal drugs kill Mexicans by the score, but also that the “protections” we afford U.S. arms dealers multiply the tragedy that is Mexico today. However, their problems are not all our fault. There’s plenty of blame to spread around.
Mexicans must recognize their part in this nightmare that has been developing over decades. That their police force was so corrupt, thereby contributing to this current maelstrom of mayhem, is not the direct and exclusive fault of the American druggies. If we start digging into the secrets of the Institutional Revolutionary Party in Mexico (“PRI” in Spanish) and its part in entrenching corruption into the heart of the country’s police force, we find the seeds of the crisis we have today that threatens to undermine the very foundation of the Aztec nation. Just try looking up “El Negro Durazo” for an eye-opening look at the root of the profound and seemingly intractable corruption in the Mexican police force, and how that set the stage for today’s extreme malaise in the kleptocracy that is Mexico today.
While Washington has been focusing on Afghanistan and Iraq and all the turmoil in the Middle East, terrorist organizations with plenty of money and drugs and power are sinking Mexico as surely as some of the buildings in Mexico City have been sinking into the sandy soil left behind by the Aztecs. While we are rooting out and eradicating terrorists in the provinces and hideouts on the Afghan border with Pakistan, terrorists on our border are amassing enormous influence with the capability of causing us great harm. We have to pay attention when organizations as powerful and corrupting as the drug cartels have made it very clear that they don’t intend to let anything stop them from achieving their goals.
The other day I received an e-mail in Spanish from my cousin who lives in Mexico. I could tell that because of some connections she has with Monterrey, she was feeling angry about the casino massacre. Rather than righteousness—my first instinctive reaction—I felt compassion for her when she lashed out at the U.S., blaming our sense of supremacy and arrogance in the arms trade that, according to her, provokes wars throughout the world. She knows that I’m a conservative-leaning American (though by no means a fan—and much less a devotee—of the right wing Tea Party), and I sensed a certain “I-told-you-so” attitude in her words. There is a seed of truth in her claims, but I must remind her that Mexico must share the blame.
Certainly, we have overextended our reach in military maneuvers throughout our history, but then we as a nation have accomplished much good in the world, too, thanks to our military might. I shall always remember how our determination to fight the Third Reich and the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II led to their demise and the defeat of these twin dark evils in the world. We may one day find ourselves enmeshed in yet another war against evil—this time not on the other side of the world or across oceans, but just outside the patio of our own south-facing backyard.
To my cousin’s credit, after she had vented, she told me that it was more important to her that she and I were family, than that we lived in different countries with different world perspectives.
*http://www.chron.com/opinion/outlook/article/The-Monterrey-Casino-Fire-Bombing-Terrorism-and-2148149.php, dated 9/13/11; retrieved 9/13/11.
— David Magallanes is the creator of his own enterprise, Real World Projects, a speaking, writing and Internet marketing business dedicated to the advancement of the American Dream. An emerging branch of Real World Projects is Edifiquemos, a Spanish language enterprise dedicated to teaching the Spanish-speaking how to create a profitable international (U.S./Mexico) enterprise with low investment and high earning potential. David may be available for speaking opportunities. To contact him and for more information, you are invited to visit and explore his web sites at www.realworldprojects.info and at www.edifiquemos.com. His e-mail is dmagallanes@RealWorldProjects.info