Note the dates on these two references, 2012 on transnational crime associated with Mexico, 2018 on corruption.  The juxtaposition is fortuitous — accidental, simply observed while gathering information — as one lie — the first to the law — leads to another – the law to the state (in greater proportion over time).  The image is chilling.

https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/transnational_crime_mexico_centralamerica.pdf
– Nov. 2012

https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/corruption-mexicos-original-sin
– 1/1/2018

Here BackChannels will leap out of journalism and . . . IMAGINE* the despair of ordinary Mexicans as this story broke for the world to witness:

“Mexico’s World Cup star is accused of helping a drug lord”
http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-mexico-rafael-marquez-20180615-story.html
– 6/15/2018

A Mexican election and politics story follows:

“Weary of violence and corruption, Mexican voters gravitate to populist firebrand with shades of Chavez”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/andres-manuel-lopez-obrador-amlo-populist-firebrand-mexican-presidential-elections-morena-party-a8395866.html
– 6/16/2016

Who can solve the world’s problem?  It may be better to ask “Who might refrain from adding to them?”

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/09/nafta-mexico-trump-trade/540906/
– 9/23/2017

The simple telling: NAFTA has over time produced the ugly picture in Mexico of lowest wage workers so mixed on the land with criminals that Mexico has all but lost control of five of its states to “transnational crime”.

It’s not always “us”, however — The North, the world, the affluent — that accounts for misery in developing states.  The more complex telling may be signaled from just one paragraph conveyed within the pages of The Atlantic:

The reasons for the situation in Chiapas are various. Chief among them is what political scientist Sarelly Martínez, a native of Chiapas, described as an “auction pyramid” in which political parties selectively distribute aid to resolve local conflicts and social leaders protest violently to secure more funding. In rural parts of the state, the blocking of highways and hijacking of municipal buildings are commonplace. Politically motivated assassinations, often barely reported amid Mexico’s drug-related violence, are increasingly frequent. The murder in 2016 of the mayor of San Juan Chamula, an indigenous municipality popular with tourists, was one of the few cases to draw national headlines. Political changes have failed to break the cycle. In 2006, the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party won Chiapas for the first time; debt increased, as did poverty and social strife. The story has been repeated under current governor Manuel Velasco of the Green Party, who, in 2015, oversaw local elections condemned by opponents as among the most corrupt in Mexican history.

Mexican economic desperation x greed and leverage involving even affluent politicians and sports starts x lawlessness — or the states inability to police itself — drives southern migration into America, some smaller part criminal, most of it just the desperation of men and women, some with children, looking for honest work.

American Left v Right Politics and Immigration Policy

To stem the flow of migrants north, The North needs must consider conditions — corruption, crime, insecurity, poverty — in Mexico and figure out how best to ameliorate the worst, which may be the abyss of “transnational crime” that produces its own economy, grows the gangsters, and leverages the politicians.  Beyond that, dive in to any of the dimensions noted or suggested because people leave spaces made untenable by the “insecurity” associated with warfare waged by criminals anchored both in narcotics or related politics.

As economically powerful neighbors to the north offering that deadly combination of jobs and rule-of-law, the United States and Canada now face greater challenge in addressing and, one may  hope, producing policy toward the repair of dire conditions south of the border.

Related Online

https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/02/world/americas/mexico-drug-war-fast-facts/index.html
– 6/12/2018

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/mexico-travel-advisory.html
– Current

https://www.business-anti-corruption.com/country-profiles/mexico/
– Feb. 2016

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/KIND%20-%20Betraying%20Family%20Values.pdf – “Betraying Family Values: How Immigration Policy at the United States Border is Separating Families.”  PDF.  January 10, 2017.

*Imagination proved wrong!  In the article noted, the subjective reporting tells that at least one — perhaps millions — may be more interested in Mexico’s team winning its games than in the integrity and nobility of its sports heroes.  Then too, philosophically, who is to say the criminal is not noble for bringing money to family and community?  There’s a tough question for the cocktail circuits.

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