The Narco-State

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Proceso article

Subject Matter: Narco Corruption
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

Reporter: Jose Gil Olmos
It has been three decades, starting from Salinas to be more precise, in Mexico that the gestation occurred as what we know today as the Narco-State. In this form of Government, organized crime and authorities have merged into one with the deadly consequences we now face; journalists executed, thousands of deaths and disappearances, rampant violence, delinquent Governors, covert parties, participant society, impunity, and a President of the complicit in acquiescence or direct participation.

i am starting from the fact that, from the Salinas Government, this form of co-government began to take shape due to the case of this brother Raul Salinas, who was accused of using the Conasupo networks for drug distribution, although he was jailed for other crimes.

But before this government had already presented some symptoms of overlap between authorities and drug trafficking, as was evident at the ranch “El Bufalo” in Chihuahua. Nevertheless, in Salinas term the signs of the Narco-State were seen.

In three decades, the breakdown of the political class and corruption have crept to the highest levels, leading 30 Governors from different parties to be accused of having links to organized crime, engaging in corruption, creating cover ups of criminal networks, carrying out illegal business, diverting resources and receiving dirty money for their campaigns from different criminal organizations.

Cases such as that of the PRI’s Tomas Yarrington and Eugenio Hernandez in Tamaulipas, Mario Villanueva Madrid in Quintana Roo, Fausto Vallejo in Michoacan, Angel Aguirre Rivero in Guerrero and Sergio EStrada Cajgal in Morelos, are some clear examples of how the Narco-State is already a reality.

In that Narco State, organized crime is the one that governs and controls the territory. Nothing that happens there escapes its power, including the exercise of freedom of expression. Eight journalists have been killed so far this year, including Javier Valdez. It is no coincidence that in states in Veracruz, Tamaulipas, Guerrero, Sinaloa, Michoacan and Chihuahua are where the most cases of murders, threats and persecution of reporters are recorded.

All authorities are involved with the criminal groups where they collude with organized crime. The armed forces do not escape the corrupting power that buys wills with enormous amounts of money to ensure impunity in the distribution and sale of drugs, as well as in the business of kidnapping , extortion, people and arms trafficking.

But in the Narco-State all participate directly or indirectly. Many times the broad sectors of society are accomplice and are part of the networks or grassroots support community that are generated by necessity, by force or by interest around the different criminal groups as has happened clearly in Michoacan, Guerrero, Tamaullipas, Veracruz and State of Mexico.

On other occasions, the society itself has normalized the presence and the violent action of these groups before the impossibility to protest or make a complaint. How can one turn to an authority that is corrupted or is part of the criminal group that governs the municipality or state?

This situation will be a priority for whomever wants to be President in 2018. The expansion of areas controlled by organized crime grows every day, the addict population in Mexico exceeds six million, according to the latest statistics of 2011; the number of journalists killed or disappeared increases day by day, the number of murders in this sexenio has shot up by 600% and there are more than 350,000 displaced from their homes by violence.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, the issue is not on the agenda of any of the presidential hopefuls. None of them speak about organized crime, less of the Narco-State and its consequences. It is a thorny subject that they evade, but whomever wins the election will have to face it.

Original article in Spanish at Proceso