Mexico Is Approaching Failed State Status
BY Herschel Smith
10 years ago
“Mexico cannot go on like this”, President Enrique Peña Nieto said on 27 November, addressing the country from the National Assembly. Most Mexicans would agree, yet Mexico remains embroiled in a political crisis over the disappearance of 43 students, apparently at the hands of police and local thugs and assisted by city officials, in the southwestern state of Guerrero. Protests, sometimes destructive, continue, while on this issue the government seems paralyzed: Peña Nieto’s security and justice reform package is stuck in Congress and his approval ratings have sunk to record lows.
The popular outrage reflects not only Mexicans’ exhaustion with criminal violence but also their deep distrust of a political class widely associated with corruption. So far the government seems unable to turn the tide of public opinion and undertake the institutional reforms needed to combat violence in a country where powerful criminal groups still dominate many areas.
Few would have predicted such a crisis earlier this year. In August, Peña Nieto celebrated passage of legislation to implement a comprehensive energy reform, ending the state-run oil company’s 76-year monopoly and opening the sector to private, including foreign, investment. The energy measures were the culmination of a sweeping package of new laws and constitutional amendments designed to make Mexico more competitive through fiscal and financial reforms, new education policies and an end to monopolies in telecommunications.
Then, on 26 September, several busloads of students from the rural teachers’ college of Ayotzinapa were attacked in the city of Iguala by municipal police, allegedly acting on orders of the mayor. According to witnesses interviewed by federal prosecutors, police turned the students over to members of a criminal gang known as “Guerreros Unidos”, who killed them and then incinerated the bodies in a local dump.
Neither this testimony nor the arrest of more than 80 suspects, including 44 police officers, has quelled demands for justice and the students’ return. Skepticism about the government’s version of events is high; leaked documents allegedly from government sources, published in the magazine Proceso, suggest federal and state police were alerted in real time about the students’ movements and their clashes with local police, but did nothing to stop the bloodshed. “It was the State” – a blanket indictment of all government institutions – has become a protest slogan and social media meme.
Remember folks, these are the hordes that are flooding across the border out of an act of love (and for all of you Rand Paul advocates, he thinks just like his father does on immigration). The Hispanics and Latinos don’t believe in your God-give rights to bear arms, but hey, the Chamber of Commerce will be happy and Monsanto and Archer-Daniels-Midland will have some new field workers.
On December 23, 2014 at 2:59 pm, Archer said:
Mexico failed as a state some time ago. They – and the rest of the world – just haven’t admitted it yet, so it just “zombies” on, a shell of its former self.
I’d say, “There but for the grace of God go we,” but when you have a zombie living next door and no fence on the property line, it’s hard to not get infected.
On December 23, 2014 at 6:41 pm, z--man said:
On September 16, 1810, Mexico declared its independence from Spain, though they didn’t actually win it until September 21, 1821. From Santa Anna’s war against the Texans, to the 1846 war with the US, to the invasion and occupation by France’s Napoleon III, to numerous revolts, civil wars, enduring brutal dictators, to Pancho Villa and modern drug lords, that country has always been a mess. The Mexican government has never really had control outside the major cities and tourist areas. Ever. In 1848, the US annexed all of Mexico, then gave back everything South of the Rio Grande. Far better we should have kept it all. At least Mexico would have a modern infrastructure including good highways and communication. Not to mention that fact that “illegal immigration” would be limited to a much-smaller border in Central America.
On December 23, 2014 at 8:58 pm, Flight Er Doc said:
Mexico is a failed state, always has been and will continue to be one until Mexicans decide to have a real revolution and take charge of their government.
On December 23, 2014 at 10:12 pm, no_tubes said:
The US “War on Drugs”, and our very own CIA and DEA are what make the drug cartels so powerful. End the war on drugs and end the entitlement programs, and the immigration problem will solve itself.
On December 23, 2014 at 10:25 pm, Anonymous said:
“Approaching?” Mexico’s main export has been starving refugees since before anyone reading this was born. Mexico has been a failed state since the 1910 “revolution,” if not longer.
On December 24, 2014 at 5:31 pm, SamS said:
Let’s see corrupt government, sinking economy, rich ruling class, and riots in the streets. I guess the USA is a failed state too.
On December 25, 2014 at 2:36 pm, pjb1 said:
“Remember folks, these are the hordes that are flooding across the border out of an act of love (and for all of you Rand Paul advocates, he thinks just like his father does on immigration). The Hispanics and Latinos don’t believe in your God-give rights to bear arms…”
What a load of collectivist claptrap. Here’s an article for you:
How To Not Be a Collectivist
http://ncc-1776.org/tle2013/tle725-20130616-03.html
On December 28, 2014 at 2:47 pm, Herschel Smith said:
Congratulations! Out of the approximately 13,000 comments left at TCJ, this one is among the top five worst.
First of all, you insult the author’s content (“collectivist claptrap”) without engaging the ideas, and then you ignore really the only legitimate constitutional function of the federal government which is to secure the borders against invasion. And this is “collectivist” to you because we are concerned about such a thing as a “country” and the idea that the Hispanics would vote your and my rights away!
Finally, in order to bolster your point, you supply a URL that is unable to connect one thought with another and rants as if English is the second language of the author, or as if it was written by a drunk second grader.
Again, congratulations. Just horrible. Securing the borders against invasion isn’t collectivist unless you are an anarchist, in which case you have bigger problems than a porous border.
One wonders if irrational, ignorant worship of Rand Paul is responsible? I’ve seen it before with Rand Paul worshipers.
Here’s a hint. I relish deleting comments that call the author names.