Tuesday, August 30, 2011

The final straw?

I'm usually a big fan of Global Post, but a recent blog item caught my attention for its lack of insight. (Link in title of post).

The author asks whether the Monterrey attack is "Mexico’s final straw," and then goes on to say that "Mexicans have protested before, demanding an end to mass graves and kidnappings amid the drug violence. In the past, little has changed. This time, though, it seems like the people's anger may have helped bring about some results."

The results: the arrest of five suspects.

Anyone who has covered Mexico, or even observed it from a distance for some time, knows that suspects are often arrested after incidents like this, after mass protests, after public outcry, after political calls for justice. Anyone who knows Mexico also knows that due to lack of good investigations, god only knows whether the alleged culprits are indeed guilty.

I'll keep reading Global Post, but I would prefer if it didn't feed into the pro-Sicilia people power hype and instead kept a more level-headed sense of perspective on Mexico.

1 comment:

  1. Malcolm,

    There were some protests in Monterrey, Mexico City and Guadalaja, but they were far from being the multitudinary protests that some people claim they were.

    Don't take me wrong, I believe there's a strong sentiment of frustration and anger in the public now, but people are not going to follow crazy guys like Sicilia and other leftists who call for the end of the war on drugs and talk about changing the strategy but fail to mention what other strategy we should follow.

    Actually, if you read the newspapers, the country's sentiment is beginning to cement around the efforts of President Calderon, some politicians in the opposition parties are beginning to understand that people are tired of the change-the-strategy song, everyone in Mexico knows by now that the reforms are stopped in congress thanks to the PRD and the PRI, that they never actually supported any strategy at all. Beltrones is now calling people to "walk along with the President" as he put it during the weekend in a speech in congress, others are now expressing a willingness to approve security and judicial reforms.

    Leaders like Isabel Miranda, Marti and others who also suffered the violence themselves are now strong supporters of Calderon as well, and everywhere people are now talking about how Calderon had the guts to take on the cartels.

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