Coming to America: Legacy of Latin Violence

Vacuum left by arrested drug lords quickly filled.

Recently a major Mexico City newspaper editorial noted the shooting of an elected US official created a national response and a personal visit from the President. But when countless Mexican officials are assassinated there is no US national or Presidential response.

The shooting of an elected US federal official, a Congress member; a federal judge; and innocent bystanders in the United States is horrible, “espantoso.” From all indications the shooting is a mental health issue, not state terrorism or drug lord fight.

The key issue is when (perhaps not if) will daily organized violence spill across the frontier from Latin America, specifically from Mexico, into the United States? As a nation are we prepared from such comprehensive violence, which is daily life in Mexico?

For fellow Hispanics what is surprising is the contrast between US media reporting and the reporting of comparable violence in Spain and Latin America. Over the years violence in Hispanic areas, thank goodness, often has not been graphically reported in US media, but it exists to a higher degree than in the US. The assassination of elected officials, federal judges, and innocent bystanders occurs in Latin America, is often unreported. What is reported are events along the US-Mexican frontier and in tourist areas; for example, recently several decapitated bodies were found a few miles from the tourist area Acapulco. Yet in the US we often only can receive such assassination news on Spanish language TV, radio, and newspapers, not in the English language media.

In the late 1950’s I was studying in Spain and decided to visit the south of Spain. I was in Valencia for my Saints Day so that night I went to Flamenco performance at the bull ring. Gitano music and dance is good for the soul. About an hour into the evening I heard a sharp argument several rows behind me. I turned around just as one man lifted a glass beer bottle, broke it, and pushed it into the face of the man he was arguing with. I turned to the man next to me and he just shrugged his shoulders and said “La Guerra Civil.” Were there a million killed in the Spanish Civil War? At that time the Spanish Civil war was 20 years ago, but it still shed blood. For someone raised in the US that was a memorable evening. Later when I asked my professor about the “violencia,” he noted Spain was under the moros for eight centuries and part of the Spanish character is accustomed to violencia.

In the early 1960s when Fidel Castro was shooting several hundred citizens, often without any trace of evidence or court trials, the US media was praising Castro, but not reporting the truth. Castro turned out to be a mass murder who has destroyed the economy of Cuba. Even today the reality in Cuba is not reported by US English language media.

In Colombia there were several decades of “Violencia” with at least 100,000 killed. One Wednesday in the early 1960s I went to a town a few hours from Bogota and returned a couple of days later. That Sunday the guerrillas on that road halted a bus with little girls and nuns. They threw grenades into the bus and killed everyone. When I asked friends why such violence, they explained guerrillas are like dogs. They mark a location and violence is the method to claim an area.

In Colombia the federal judges would not be compromised by the drug lords. What made Colombia years ago so dangerous is the drug lords united with the communist guerrillas and the purely criminal elements. The combination was deadly. So the drug lords captured the Colombian Supreme Court Building and burnt the records and the Supreme Court Judges inside.

Also in Colombia in the early 1980’s I had a friend’s son who went to get a pizza at 5 PM with some friends. There was a shooting and my friend’s 17 year old son had his head shot off. In military I think it is called collateral damage. Pointless killings were common in Colombia for years.

What is happening in the US is that many young Hispanics are not finishing high school and many are joining gangs. Our prisons are filling up with young Hispanics where they are learning a profitable criminal trade. Is the US the major market in the international drug trade (cash flow in the trillion dollar range)? Very little is effectively being done to work with young Hispanics in the US to encourage larger numbers to continue education and build character.

Again, in contrast, as a nation we need to watch very closely what is happening in our neighbor Mexico. We must understand the history of Mexico. Last year was the 100^th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution, in which perhaps 10% of the population was killed. Mexico is our most important foreign nation, but this is not recognized in Washington DC. In 2010 the official drug related deaths in Mexico is 15,273. The federal government has attempted a crack down on the drug lords, but the program has not been a success. Once a drug lord is removed, there seems to be several drug lords available to replace the one killed. As a result the ruling party, the PAN, may not be re-elected. The PRI has a chance to gain the Presidency, but the PRI officials will be the younger generation which does not have the international experience and the experience of governing the entire nation comparable to the older generation of PRI.

What is happening in Mexico has not spilled across the frontier. Granted there were 17,000 drug related homicides in the US, with a population three times that of Mexico. The contrast is between El Paso and Juarez. El Paso claims it is one of the safest cities in America, yet their neighbor Juarez across the river is a center of thousands of drug homicides.

The heart of the problem is that in the United States the purpose of our education system is to create rational, prudent thinkers. Unless you have had military training or combat experience, few Americans realize the world is not made up of rational, prudent thinkers. As a nation we are not prepared for the negative scenarios which face our nation.