I'm referring to what's going on in Mexico right now as the drug cartels are growing dangerously close to completely screwing the country, along with a buttload of trips I intend to make there before I kick the bucket. This little update via the WSJ should perk your ears up: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123292962031814007.html. Scary shit.
Like a lot of gringos, I've driven or rode over a fair piece of the country without a whole lot in the way of difficulties. Part of that may be luck, part due to the primary goodness of the Mexican people, and a little from keeping an eye open for trouble. Many of those trips have been with my cunado, Rick, hunting and fishing and testing little hole in the wall joints and taco stands far and wide for tasty delicacies one step ahead of food poisoning. Great adventure and we've seen some awesome sights--solid flights of whitewings blackening the sky and spectacular vistas one after the other between the border to San Miguel de Allende. Rick's sort of been my barometer on Mexico--he lives on the border and has conducted his life seamlessly on both sides. But, over the holidays while having a few beers on a ski trip in Crested Butte, he uttered something that got my attention when the group of us were discussing our next trip to Nuevo Progresso, the pharmacy source for many in Texas. "I'm not driving over anymore and I'm not walking across, either." It turns out a few of his friends returning from a dove hunt on the other side ended up in a gunfight on the streets of Progresso--Zetas(not the sorority kind) with semi-automatics against a couple of ex-South African commandos relocated to the Rio Grande Valley who weren't shy about throwing down with their 12 gauges. Fortunately, they made it back across.
The conventional thinking for a long, long time is that involving civilians, namely Americans in their black art has been something the narcos would avoid--sort of bad for business. That's still largely true, but the drug presence is now so pronounced and fundamental, the spillage over to violence directed toward gringos is happening. The boldness and brutality of their actions are beyond frightening and no one disputes that the narcos own la fronterra with the police and government officials there exisiting only at their pleasure. Worse, there's no end in sight and no obvious solution. Could very well be that the good old U.S. of A will be ass deep not only in Pakistan but all along our own border in a very short period of time.
When is this going to really affect me? I don't know but the missus and I have been planning to return to Zihuatanejo for our 25th anniversary. Too bad if we can't.
3 comments:
Used to do quite a bit of business in Mexico, and spent much time in the less traveled parts of the country. I truly enjoyed every my time there, and found the people to be wonderful. Such continuing degradation of the society there and the poor long-term prognosis really saddens me.
I still keep in touch with a few ex-pats that continue to live and work there. Most reports I get involve escalating payments to the police, but there is an increasing feeling of fear.
I spend a lot of time and do a lot of business in Mexico, but fortunately for me it is in a small (pop. 60k) town on the west coast. I have never once run into a problem there, nor in any of my travels to and from Mexico. I have, on occasion, traveled to Mexico City where I was escorted by armed guards everywhere I went. It seemed superfluous to me at the time, but reading other accounts of the problems in that city leads me to believe that my friends who arranged for the guard service were right.
I will say that my experiences in border towns have ranged from scary as hell (in my younger days) to bland (more recently). I have also seen a lot of Mexican Americans foregoing their normal trips into Mexico due to a fear of not making it back, although it isn't the border guard that has them nervous.
Here's hoping they can get it straightened out, because it's hard to get good cabrito north of the border.
I still think that it's largely safe for gringos--they're mostly too much trouble for the bad guys to mess with and publicity is bad for business. But, the new generation of thugs is particularly vicious and less influenced by control at the top of the cartel or gang. When the day arrives of a highly publicized abduction or murder of touristas, things could go south in a hurry for Mexico.
Great country. I love being there.
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