In mid-September, one of Mexico’s most powerful drug cartels sent a warning to the people of Nuevo Laredo. The Zetas suspended two corpses from a pedestrian overpass – a young woman who had been eviscerated and hog-tied, and a young man whose face and body showed signs of torture. On a nearby fence, a yellow banner advised the public that internet ‘snitches’ would receive similar treatment; it named websites that help to coordinate tip-offs about the cartels and closed with the words “Be warned, we have our eyes on you.” Nuevo Laredo is two hours’ drive from San Antonio, Texas.
A week later, the warning was repeated. The body of María Elizabeth Macías Castro, a local blogger who wrote under the pseudonym “La NenaDLaredo” (The girl from Laredo) was placed next to a public road. She had been decapitated. Headphones and a keyboard were placed next to her head. A nearby note allegedly read: “I’m The Laredo Girl, and I’m here because of my reports, and yours.” On the same day that Macías’ body was discovered, a different cartel stopped rush hour traffic in Veracruz to dump 35 corpses onto a public road. Long before the police had responded, locals were using social media networks to warn each other of the incident.
A few days ago, the cartels in Nuevo Laredo spoke again. Another decapitated corpse was placed close to where Macías’ body had been found. The accompanying note alleged that the body belonged to another blogger for Nuevo Laredo Live, the website Macías worked for. (The claim proved false but that made the message no less intimidating.)
These horror stories suggest some of the terror which has descended on large swathes of the Mexican citizenry since President Calderón’s launched his drugs war in December 2006. Even the government’s understated figures places the death toll from the ensuing violence above 35,000 (many human rights groups believe it exceeds 45,000), including the murders of at least 35 journalists and the disappearances of nine others. However, despite ample evidence that its military strategy may actually have strengthened the cartels’ hold over the general population, the Calderón administration shows no signs of changing its policies. (Some US analysts believe that the Mexican government will eventually be forced to broker a treaty with the cartels, possibly after the 2012 elections.)
In this political impasse, Mexico’s journalists have been stranded between corrupt state officials – many of whom are suspected of collaborating with the cartels – and the cartels themselves. Despite wide-ranging promises to tackle the longstanding corruption and impunity, the government has done almost nothing to make the media safer. This indifference has forced many to rely on social media for their news. Yet even here the cartels hold the upper hand. Their military expertise and practically unlimited budgets give them the capacity to stalk their online critics, and use their subsequent torture and murders as a deterrent for other would-be crusaders.
Mexicans cannot look to their political leaders for any hope in this crisis. President Calderón has shown a casual disregard for the victims of the drugs war, blithely stating that the vast majority are somehow ‘linked’ to organised crime. Hovering behind this astonishing assertion is the disquieting idea – noted by the British journalist Ed Vulliamy, and others – that some sections of Mexican society view the violence as a form of ‘social cleansing.’ (From this chilling, eugenic perspective, since the carnage has been overwhelmingly directed towards the country’s poorest and least educated people, its net effect will be the elimination of a large number of the socially undesirable.) Certainly the violence routinely meted out by the drugs cartels and the military troops fighting them suggests that neither side places any value on the lives, or dignity, of its victims.
The rest of the world ought to be outraged at what is happening in Mexico but signs of disapproval are few and far between – even though Mexico has always shown itself extremely sensitive to international public opinion. In fact, President Calderón will chair the next meeting of the G20 which will undoubtedly shore up his party’s chances of re-election. Instead, he should be facing severe critical scrutiny from his regional and international allies. Any government that can remain practically indifferent to the wholesale slaughter of its citizens has surrendered any serious claim to democracy or transparency. After seven decades of single-party rule, Mexico is at best a fragile, fledgling democracy, but it is time that other, better established democracies in the region held it to a higher standard.
