15 Aug 11 | Americas, Mexico
In a nation already accustomed to a high-levels of crime-related violence, the recent activities of a little known anarchist group have left Mexicans baffled. The explosion of a parcel bomb sent to a nanotechnology professor at the prestigious Tecnologico de Monterrey last Monday injected an element of magic realism to Mexico’s crime wave. Professor Armando Herrera Corral and another professor from the Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus Estado de Mexico, were wounded when Corral opened a package that contained the rudimentary bomb. The anti-technology group that took credit for the attack, Individuals Tending to Savagery, opposes nanotechnology, the science that seeks to build machines in the size of molecules.
The attack against the Tec is seen as heresy, Mexico is very proud of this prestigious private university that styles itself after the Massachusetts Technology Institute (MIT). In April, the same group sent another parcel bomb to the Instituto Politecnico, a science polytechnic, the intended target was another nano scientist, but was accidentally detonated by a security guard who lost an eye in the incident.
The story took a lurid twist after speculation connected the case to the 5 August disappearance of scientist Yadira Davila Martinez, a genome specialist who vanished in a shopping mall in Cuernavaca, a town located an hour outside if Mexico City. The police have found a dismembered body they believe may be that of Davila Martinez and a final DNA identification is pending. Davila Martinez worked for the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, UNAM, Mexico’s country’s top public university. Her case might just be a coincidence — two drug groups are fighting a turf war in Cuernavaca — but if her case is linked to the anti-technology group, it would bring a dangerous new element to the Mexico’s violence. In the past other anarchist groups placed bombs at ATM tellers in Mexico City, but this is the first rash of serious attacks directed against individuals.
Individuals Tending to Savagery take their cue from Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber in the United States who engaged in a 20 year letter bombing spree against universities and companies he identified as degrading the environment. The attack has terrified the university community in Mexico City. Government officials have called on all institutions to upgrade their security.
05 Aug 11 | Americas, Mexico
The recent murders of three journalists have spread fear throughout the small community of night police reporters in the coastal city of Veracruz, southern Mexico. All three victims worked for Notiver, a tabloid known for its lurid crime reporting. The latest murder, of journalist Yolanda Ordaz, created such collective fear that several journalists from both Notiver and other news outlets have fled the region in fear for their lives.
Causing outrage at Notiver, a statement from local authorities denied Ordaz’s murder was related to her work, claiming instead that there were indications her killing was connected to organised crime in the area.
Notiver itself has also received criticism. Media critic Marco Lara Klhar commented thatin continuing to publish lurid violent pictures and deriding local citizens such newspapers were putting their journalists at risk. He also lamented the government’s claim of the murders being connected to organised crime, predicting that the killings will remain unsolved.
Mexico remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for reporters, with seven journalists being killed in 2011 alone.
22 Jul 11 | Americas, Mexico
Last May, the national television network Televisa transmitted a new series about the Mexican federal police. El Equipo is similar to US crime dramas like CSI which are popular in Mexico. It was shown nightly for three weeks, with each episode exalting the role of the Mexican Federal Police — on the show, unlike in real life, they always get the bad guy. The production did not cut corners. It was created by top Televisa producer Pedro Torres, and Federal Police officers appeared with extras. The series also used real police equipment and was shot in high security police compounds.
The homegrown series only gained a modest following. This may have been due to media criticism, which termed the show a public relations effort by National Security Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna. But the series hit the airwaves as a growing anti-violence civil movement, led by Mexican poet Javier Sicilia swelled in ranks, and the Mexican government war on drugs suffered yet more setbacks.
The show producers said the series had a tough beginning as it was broadcast at 10pm, when popular soap operas dominate the airwaves. Some analysts suggested the low audience audience figures were due to the viewer saturation with the violence. Nightly Mexican television news shows are dominated by bloody confrontations between Mexican police and drug traffickers. On the other hand it could be suggested that Mexican viewers, so accustomed to years of exposure to corrupt policemen who demand payoffs and are involved in organised crime, have a hard time imagining that El Equipo’s thoughtful officers are real.
There are efforts underway to create a national police force. This would create a more unified police front to coordinate more than 400 state and municipal police bodies which currently operate throughout Mexico. The government has engaged in an anti-corruption crusade that applies tough polygraph exams and reviews of individual cops. But the drug war has also pitted police forces with drug cartels that have better firepower and more money.
This month after it was revealed that the government paid close to 10m dollars to produce the 15 episode series —about 1.1m per chapter. It turns out the show was just a state public relations effort to show citizens that not all policemen are corrupt, and it flopped.
18 Jul 11 | Americas, Mexico
The recent murder of Argentine singer Facundo Cabral in Guatemala is an incredible tragedy. Cabral, a pacifist and one of Latin America’s most celebrated protest singers, left his country in 1973 for almost a decade after a military junta took over and during a campaign of state-sponsored violence carried out major human rights violations. He died in a country that is known for violence, first during a civil war, and now under the overwhelming control of organised crime. Cabral was collateral damage.
It has long been suspected that Guatemala’s entertainment networks are controlled by thugs who combine the promotion of artists with other illegal activities. According to media reports, the guns that killed Cabral were directed at his promoter, Henry Fariñas, a Nicaraguan businessman who owns bars and cabarets across Central America. Reports suggests the shooting was drug-related. That the shooting was so brazen — it took place in broad daylight, on the route to the airport and the singers vehicle was hit by a hail of bullets from three carloads of men — is just one example of how far rule of law has Guatemala.
Many Central American nations, notably Mexico, are also experiencing similar outrageous acts of violence perpetrated by violent criminal organisations which demonstrate how far organised crime has penetrated society.
The murder of Cabral is a blow to free speech; he was a man who fought for freedom of expression during South America’s dark days of state violence, and died in a new era of gang violence.
