Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
To be fair to Sra Sheinbaum, her selection for head of the Mexican Army (SEDENA) doesn't take place until a week after inauguration.
by Olga Kuznetsova
[REGNUM] The newly elected President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, assumed the relevant powers in early October, but was immediately forced to immerse herself in local realities. As you might guess, connected with crime.
As it turned out, on the day of Sheinbaum’s inauguration, an extremely unpleasant incident for any pro-government political strategist occurred on the southern borders of Mexico.
Thirty-three migrants piled into a pickup truck and tried to sneak across the Mexican border from Guatemala. Along the way, they encountered a squad of Mexican soldiers, tried to play Fast and Furious and ride off into the sunset, but failed.
| *Happy sigh* What gorgeous writing! The circumstance is sad, but the writing needs to be celebrated. |
The soldiers opened fire and as a result, sixteen migrants went to a completely different place than they had planned: six to the next world, and ten to the hospital. The rest, apparently, are also in a state far from normal.
| I am green with envy right now. Green! (It would be blue if we were speaking German, but we aren’t.) |
And everything would be fine, because in these latitudes it is not customary to count and pity migrants, but not this time. All the dead were not just foreigners, but residents of a completely different hemisphere: immigrants from Egypt, Nepal, India, Pakistan. There were, of course, also Cubans, but they were not the ones at the center of the scandal.
The killing of several foreigners, mostly Egyptians, by government forces on the day of the new leader's inauguration was not the narrative with which Sheinbaum assumed the powers of the presidency.
CONDEMNED EVERYTHING
The story predictably led to an international scandal, although it was a completely manageable scandal.
No one really listened to the babble of the soldiers who claimed that they opened fire in response to the “sounds of explosions” coming from the pickups; everyone was suspended from duty, some were placed under arrest, and an investigation was opened.
Sheinbaum personally condemned the incident and demanded that those responsible be severely punished. The hospital where the wounded illegals were taken was placed under heavy guard, and psychologists and consuls were brought in for a "careful interrogation."
The Egyptian embassy and the government of Guatemala, where the migrants arrived from other Latin American countries to subsequently cross the Mexican border with the aim of storming the US border, were involved in the investigation.
Even the Peruvian authorities, from whose territory some of the victims flew to Guatemala, allowed themselves to express their “fie” on the occasion.
Many social and opposition activists, as well as Mexican Catholic bishops, expressed their indignation.
The latter called the shooting of migrants a “disproportionate use of lethal force” and added that it did not arise as an isolated event, but as a result of the militarization of migration policy and the strengthening of the military presence on the southern borders.
RECIPES FOR FIGHTING
There was no direct criticism of the new Mexican president's team in the Western media, but some indicated that the country is under significant political pressure from the United States and is forced to take measures to limit migration flows through its territory.
This was discussed most actively during the presidency of Donald Trump, who at one time insulted the top officials of Mexico City in every possible way, demanded that American troops be deployed in the border area, a wall be built, and all migrants be sent far away.
However, these initiatives never came to fruition. An unfinished wall, on which hundreds of thousands of dollars were laundered, does not count.
However, an agreement was reached under which Mexico would send some of its own armed forces to ensure security on the border with Guatemala. To put it simply, the Mexican authorities forced the migrants to be driven away at the very beginning of their route. And how exactly they would be “driven” was left to the discretion of those who carried them out.
Those who periodically follow the news reports on what is happening on the US-Mexican border, or simply watched the TV series “Breaking Bad”, understand that most often illegal immigrants are simply killed and buried in a kind of “mass graves” somewhere in the desert.
This is not officially advertised and is most often done by the hands of ubiquitous cartels, whose activities have long gone beyond the smuggling of prohibited substances.
Some suggest putting illegals in prison, but there is a nuance: many of them are minors, pregnant, or otherwise do not fit into the Mexican reality with its overcrowded prisons.
The saying “it’s cheaper to kill than to feed” seems to be taken literally in the context of the fight against illegal migration in the Western Hemisphere.
Deportation is not that simple either. Migrants from Venezuela and Cuba (who are the most numerous) or from other countries under American sanctions are very difficult to return home, and in some cases simply impossible. And in the end, it is still necessary to allocate money for their humanitarian support, and from one's own budget.
It is also proposed to create an NGO through which funds would be channeled to help refugees. Some of them will certainly end up in the pockets of expensive jackets, but that is a slightly different story.
Murders and mysterious disappearances in the American borderlands are often written about, but not very actively investigated. The case is complicated by different jurisdictions and the fear of being targeted by various activists who will not be of much use to migrants, but will ruin the reputation of local officials and security forces.
So the situation is limited to major scandals once every few years or cases of abuse of power during arrests a couple of times a year.
The situation on the border with Guatemala is special.
The migrants there are much more aggressive, and they can break through the border crossing in droves. And there are no American officials, whose presence sometimes really does ennoble the events a little, precisely "on the ground". And these territories rarely come to the attention of human rights activists.
In essence, it is a free rein for all sorts of lawlessness. The morals of the Mexican patrol officers are also not sweet, and the entire surrounding environment is not conducive to softening them.
Of course, there are secret paths through which people are led who have paid the cartel, the military and other "guides" in advance. And sometimes, as a deterrent, those who try to bypass the local "system" are punished.
The shooting of a pickup truck full of illegals fits into something similar. Another question is that in normal times they would have turned a blind eye to what happened, but not on the day of the inauguration and general celebration.
CENTRALIZATION AND CONTROL
Naturally, the Mexican opposition media savored the situation in every possible way. Immediately, information began to appear about how the police and the army were kidnapping and executing people all over the country, mainly in such problematic states as Sinaloa and Colima.
Commentators criticized the ruling party officials, but in the end, Sheinbaum, although she was unable to turn the situation completely to her advantage, did strengthen her team.
The murder of the migrants occurred not only on the day of the inauguration, but also at a time when the new head of the Mexican state traditionally presents his own strategy for security and the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime.
Claudia Sheinbaum's strategy consists of strengthening centralized control over law enforcement agencies (the prosecutor's office, the police, and the army) and deepening international cooperation (mainly the US Drug Enforcement Administration).
It is expected that uniform standards will be introduced that prosecutors, police officers and military personnel will have to meet, as well as additional control over the leadership of the security forces of individual states, who are traditionally elected by governors.
In theory, this should limit abuses at the local level. In fact, such an approach may indeed strengthen the central government, but will it help deal with abuses and crime? The question is still open.
At the same time as the news of the crimes committed by the security forces, news came of the murder of the mayor of the municipality of Chilpancingo in the state of Guerrero, who had been in office for only six days. The severed head of Alejandro Arcos was simply left on the roof of his own car near his home.
And in the state of Sinaloa, a war has been going on between factions of the cartel of the same name since July.
Against this background, the introduction of a new security strategy – one that is tougher on potential enemies, of which any person in power has more and more each year – will be perceived, if not positively, then at least with understanding.
But whether this will actually help turn the tide against crime in Mexico is something that few people really care about.
| Indeed, such deep cynicism is justified. But the writing — the writing was worth every moment spent getting to the bottom of the article. |
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