this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2024
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More than 170 attacks have been committed against politicians in the lead-up to the June elections. This violence has put campaigns under tension and is sowing doubts about governability in several regions. Specialists warn that the line between the Mexican state and organized crime is increasingly blurred

Electoral violence is going unchecked in Mexico. Noé Ramos Ferretiz, a candidate for the municipal presidency of Mante, a city in the state of Tamaulipas, was campaigning last Friday when he was stabbed several times. The politician, who is a member of the National Action Party (PAN), died in the middle of the event, to the shock of his supporters. Overwhelming images of blood-stained leaflets circulated afterwards.

The main suspect fled without a trace, in broad daylight. He would be arrested by the end of the weekend. Hours after the crime in Mante, the body of Alberto Antonio García, a mayoral candidate for the ruling party, MORENA, was found in the city of San José Independencia, in the state of Oaxaca. His wife, a councilor in the town of fewer than 5,000 inhabitants, was released alive after being kidnapped for two days.

The murders of Ramos Ferretiz and Antonio García are the latest two cases to be registered during the 2024 electoral process. So far in this election cycle, 30 candidates have already been murdered, according to data from the think tank Laboratorio Electoral (“Electoral Laboratory”).

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 months ago (10 children)

I wish Mexico had a better system, this sort of shit is a tragedy. I don’t know how or even when this will change, but I’m hopeful it will one day in my life

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (4 children)

If Mexico and America used the same firepower on the cartels, that they do on the middle east, cartels would be a thing of the past.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

They don't want to get rid of the cartels. The DEA has a vested interest in staying relevant, as it's part of the whole law enforcement industrial complex. Hell, one of the deadliest cartels' soldiers were previously trained by American special forces back in the day ( https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2010/11/3/us-trained-cartel-terrorises-mexico ). Guess who trained Taliban? You got it, the US. Who trained many of the guerrillas that would turn into tyrants in South America? Correctomondo, the US once again. We love to destabilize regions for corporate interests.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Not just the DEA, we've built a whole economy around drug offenses staying illegal. Drug testing companies, technology firms that develop law enforcement gear, law enforcement seminars, to say nothing of the thousands of companies that profit off of prison labor for what is effectively free, and the fact that a lot of the nonviolent offenders wind up turning violent because nobody will hire or rent to someone with a drug conviction.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

we even have dowsing rods for cops

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Who is "they"? Names, pls.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (11 children)

The problem is systemic. You kill one cartel, another one pops up. It's because there's a demand for their products. Get rid of the demand and you'll dry up the supply. Do it in a smart way, not by destroying people's lives which inevitably throws them back in the cartels' hands.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I bet it isn’t all sunshine and roses but hasn’t El Salvador quite a bit of success by going absolutely crazy against the cartels?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Well, last time I checked El Salvador was 93 times smaller than Mexico. Besides that, the cartels are part of the civilian population, hiding in civilian dense areas. Do you really recommend Mexico going scorched earth on their own people or what? Are you also aware of the dire human rights violations in El Salvador? When all you've got is a hammer everything starts looking like a nail.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Do you really recommend Mexico going scorched earth on their own people or what? Are you also aware of the dire human rights violations in El Salvador?

Unfortunately, that's what's necessary when you let your nation be run by gangbangers.

There is no perfect solution when things get this bad. At some point, they'll have to ask themselves if it's preferable to live under gang members who rape their children as intimidation, or take a more heavy-handed approach like El Salvador so they don't have to live in fear.

Results speak louder than any ideology. Right now, El Salvador's results are something Mexico should be learning from.

I don't think they will, though.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

We've tried that under previous administrations. Doesn't work. Lending Mexico a hand is just playing whack-a-mole so long as the conditions for the cartels (including the massive corruption in government, police, and military) remain.

The best thing the US can do for Mexico is reduce demand for cartel products domestically.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Weeding out FARC and Shining Path actually did teach valuable lessons which habe been repeatedly reapplied successfully during modern counter-terrorism.

Both where heavily invested in organized crime but are nowadays toothless or non-existant due to coordinated goverment and civilian efforts.

The Best example might be "The Sons of Iraq" who helped to pacify Iraq quite well. The Coalition literally hired local people suffering most from extremists to fight the extremists and it worked like a charm. FARC and Shining Path were pushed into insignificance by roughly the same methods.

Yes, there were "revenge" killings by the "somewhat good guys" against the "really bad guys". But in hindsight it was necessary to show the "really bad guys" that the tables had turned. As long as the overall violence decreases - deal with it.

Oh, by the way, did you know that the Mafia once was an organized military organization fighting for Sicilian independence? Over the last 200 years they slowly degraded into a bunch of sometimes wealthy oligarchic stock market fraudsters, but mostly pick pockets and low level fraudsters, at most bribing officials for construction jobs, if at all. 40 years ago they killed judges and police officers in the dozen. Nowadays they get beat up if they show up in Palermos shops and demanding the Pizzo (protection money). And the police stands by and collects the beaten gangster afterwards without minding the locals doing local justice. Works fine.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Yes just like Al Qaeda and the Taliban…

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

It is changing. Not as fast as almost every Mexican would want it to, but it is clearly changing for good if you take a look at the numbers.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

I hope so! I'd love to really explore the heart of Mexico, but the cartels worry me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

I don't believe you.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

As a mexican living in Mexico, the struggle is real. What is not real is the OP in bold letters. The so called "specialists" are usually a bunch of so-called activists campaigning in the election against the party in power.

There's also the magnitude of the election not being accounted for. These elections are the biggest in history. It's only logical that, assuming the high homicide rate in the country, the absolute numbers will be higher. It really sounds like another article trying to tie our president with the organized crime, something that has been shyly thrown at the average citizen several times now. If there was any evidence of this "blurry" line between government and cartels, the opposition to the President and his party would have already use it, since there's only one month left for campaigning. Instead, we have a paid bot campaign in X/Twitter, a millionaire one, financed by who knows whose money, trying to portray the president as a cartel boss or something. A failing campaign, if we look at the numbers.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

I agree on your comment about the current situation. It is very violent. Either it’s getting more reporting than previous years or it actually is as bad as it seems. But I might be misunderstanding the tone of your comment here, it reads very apologetic of the current government to me:

It really sounds like another article trying to tie our president with the organized crime, something that has been shyly thrown at the average citizen several times now.

Maybe because it’s true? As another mexican, I have absolutely no doubt the government is working with cartels in different regions in exchange of more control, both ways. And I’m not saying it happened just in this administration, it’s been happening for at least 20 years.

My take is that some regions where the government wants bigger control are currently controlled by rival cartels where the government currently has bigger control in.

I also find it a bit cynical so write that this fact is being “shyly thrown around”, why are there so many articles about it then? The current president –the face of the government– had been seen multiple times visiting el Chapo’s mom. Very shy of him.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

Is the president having dinner with El Chapo's mom enough evidence for you? It might not be straight up evidence but it does point towards it

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I don't know enough about the situation to make an informed opinion, but let's make a hypothetical:

A government regime cannot be complicit in crimes because if they were then an investigation would have found them complicit in crimes?

That sounds insane. That sounds like a crazy person's opinion. These deaths and kidnappings aren't natural. Who stands to benefit from all of this? The answer from where I'm standing seems pretty clear.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It's late so don't mind me, but I didn't get your point. They're killing candidates from all factions, all parties. Perhaps different people are killing independently for different reasons. Mega corporations killing the candidates that want regulations on their use of water, deforestation, etc. Nestlé, Coca-Cola, and others are devastating the lands and I'm sure they're profiting nicely from that and don't want to stop. Organized crime. Corrupt politicians. It's not simple (or clear) to me, why do you say it is?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Again, you're claiming that these killings are spontaneous and only coincidentally helps the incumbents or the party leadership positions maintain authority. That doesn't track. This isn't normal. This doesn't happen in other places of the world. For this to not somehow be organized or orchestrated would be completely illogical, because then it would be occurring elsewhere as well.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

I get it now. I don't agree with your points.

you're claiming that these killings are spontaneous and only coincidentally helps the incumbents or the party leadership positions maintain authority.

I don't believe it benefits the party that today is dominant, not only because they are getting killed too but also because they are being accused of making Mexico violent and it is super important for them to prove that things are getting better.

This is not the same as saying that the killings are spontaneous, on the contrary, it is an unstable game of power grabbing because of very special circumstances in Mexico that allow this uncertainty of who is getting what in 2024. This in itself lets us see that there are powerful groups fighting and not a tyranny from the current government nor them only silencing opponents.

This isn't normal. This doesn't happen in other places of the world.

I don't know about normal; it isn't desirable, but perhaps it was to be expected. Why Mexico and not other countries? I think this is an oversimplification.

First, it does happen in other countries, but differently. Some have coup d'États, revolutions, extremist terrorism, etc. Of course if you compare Mexico to Germany, Germans are playing chess under the table. Compare Mexico to Arab countries, African countries, and even violent Latin American countries. Violence exists in many other places. Yet, secondly, you can only see similarities when comparing social circumstances, never mirrors. You won't find another Mexico in its details because no other country has Mexico's history. I repeat: it does happen in other countries, but differently. And that's why what you said was too simple.

For this to not somehow be organized or orchestrated would be completely illogical, because then it would be occurring elsewhere as well.

Following the last part, no, this can perfectly be complex. 'Heterogenous' is the word that is coming to my mind.

To me, it's more illogical to believe a single force is orchestrating this violence (which, again, is getting people from different groups killed) than to believe it is power grabbing from many sources. The first option even sounds a little conspiracy-theorish or paranoid, if I'm being frank.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Being reported due to being from El Pais, but they have a VERY high credibility rating:

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/el-pais/

Not sure what the beef is here, someone mind explaining?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Against whom? I'm not being facetious, I am just uninformed to the motivation.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I have no idea about the back story here but being mexican, there racism against indigenous Mexicans, and darker skin mixed Mexicans. Mexicans that are light skinned are seen in a better light by our own people.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That's not uncommon for non white populations (groups?) I've read the same thing about Japanese people, Chinese and Indian people. Darker skin people are subjected to more discrimination than their lighter skinned countrymen.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Had a young adult local Egyptian explain this to me, even with their already colored skin, darker people among their own experienced more racism. Nature is amazing.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That’s way too much. I’d be fine with just one candidate murdered.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I checked the wikipedia list and Jesus is just about the only candidate name that hasn't been murdered.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_politicians_killed_during_Mexican_elections

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

No point in murdering Jesus. Three days later he comes back and starts campaigning again.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (2 children)

And potentially hunt you down and try and make you eat some of his flesh to prove you failed.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

I'm constantly reminded of that one Ad Campaign for some kind of alcoholic beverage where they offered to fund the next revolution or civil war or something. I can't find anything about it online anymore, sadly.

I'm starting to think that maybe the same advertisement wouldn't be so controversial if it happened today.

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