Security?

Yesterday in a hostel in Oaxaca I met a punk-rocker woman from Australia who is traveling through Mexico and Central America as a freelance journalist, basically asking the same kind of questions that I am. Unlike me, however, she was able to put into words what I have been finding throughout my trip. She said people here seem hesitant to criticize the government and even if they do, it is not through action and not with vigor.

There are various ways to explain this sentiment. I think a lot of it has to do with the security question. People here note that narco-trafficking requires further security measures from the government and some people are willing to accept violence from the police as a step toward security. The media has a strong influence on this point of view. The news programs here talk about the great problems that narcotrafficking causes and promote President Calderon's efforts to bring the illegal trade to a halt. However, it seems quite contradictory for the populace to believe that the government is succeeding in ending violence when thousands of people are subject to violence every day, and much of it is committed by the police or military officials.

I picked up a book from an indy media source that details the lives of several women who are involved in the drug trade. Throughout the stories police are complicit and often fully responsible for maintaining the drug trade. The police have not been successful in halting the gangs that trade drugs and create violence, so what is a government to do?

I have a suggestion that would allow the government to uphold human rights and stop people from getting to the point where they feel the best way to make money is through growing and/or selling drugs. How about taking all the money that is currently going toward weapons and a corrupt police force and putting it instead toward education and employment opportunities. I know it seems radical, and certainly beyond the neoliberal paradigm that Calderon promotes, but I saw success in Homeboy Industries in LA that convinced me that organizing for other opportunities is more important that killing off entire families that are involved in narcotrafficking. Unfortunately, that is not what the President, nor his political party has on the agenda.

Thinking about all these things in one of the more organized cities in the nation, Oaxaca, is disappointing. The city continues to flourish on tourism, even at the trickling end of the season, despite the knowledge of popular uprisings and brutal police response that happened a couple of years ago. People have said they think that tourism has decreased since the violent incidents that caused the death of one American indy media artist and inspired one of my favorite documentaries (Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad), but that was two whole years ago and I have seen more white people here than in any other city I have visited so far. Maybe the fear of driving away tourists explains why I haven't run into the revolutionaries on the streets, even the political graffiti seems half-assed, and no one is handing out pamphlets or selling newspapers.

Last night I talked to a guy in a vegetarian restaurant who suggested I not ask about the popular organizations and not try to get involved in any of that stuff because the last gringa he met that did got arrested and put in jail along with several other protestors. Maybe it is fear of violent oppression by the state apparatus, along with the perceived failures of former social organizing, that keeps people from taking action.

Puebla
Last weekend I was in Puebla, one of the safest cities in the nation. In the 6 months that I studied there (two years ago), I spent several nights out walking with friends or taking taxis home late without any problems. People are proud of the safe streets and the well-kept buildings that line them. While there is still poverty in the outlaying areas of the city, Volkswagen and other big companies have managed to keep the unemployment level somewhat low, and organized workers maintain fair wages. Beyond that, there are several universities in the city and the surrounding area that keep young people hopeful for opportunities. One of them keeps tuition very low so that almost anyone can be accepted.

At the same time, there are more Poblanos (people from Puebla) living in New York City than in the city of Puebla (some 2-3 million). What would allow people to stay in their homeland with their families if they wish? More jobs, more education, more opportunity... more questioning of corrupt government.

In Puebla, like Oaxaca, should stand up against the corruption that everyone knows permeates the local, state, and national governments of Mexico. I return to the beginning of this piece in hopes that these things will change, not through bogus electoral aparatus (which obviously failed the people in the elections of 2006) but instead in popular organizing and resistance to the false claims of mainstream media.

And I maintain the same hope that we can do something similar in the United States.