116 lines
6.1 KiB
Plaintext
116 lines
6.1 KiB
Plaintext
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Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 9 Num. 18
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
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FEVER RISES IN MEXICO
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By Jose Augustin Ortiz Pinchetti
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(*La Jornada*, 9/16/96)
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[Translation by Conspiracy Nation]
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A ghost crosses Mexico: the ghost of violence. All the forces
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of the old system have united in the holy crusade to pursue this
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ghost: the government, the Pope, the Church, the businessmen,
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almost all analysts and parties. But the ghost keeps extending
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itself like a serpent and it is not a simple fantasm, it is a
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reality. Its victims range from Indians fallen in the dust to
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leaders whose assassins have remained unpunished.
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Those who denounce the violence are correct. And also those who
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maintain that violent revolutions have brought nothing good to
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Mexico. But it is not enough to denounce the violence, one has
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to discover its causes and try to remedy them if there is still
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time.
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In May of 1911, Porfirio Diaz gave up his position as President
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of the Republic. He was not conquered by Madero's army which
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captured Juarez City. What conquered him was the insurrection by
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millennial bands which quickly overwhelmed the nation. Porfirio
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Diaz knew what that was, because he himself had utilized violence
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as a means to fight in favor of independence for his homeland and
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afterwards to combat the legitimate government.
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The great danger running through Mexico is not represented by the
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guerrillas from the jungles of Chiapas and the arid mountains of
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Guerrero, Oaxaca and Michoacan. If those centers were isolated
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and destroyed, by no means would the danger be averted. If the
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guerrillas remain committed they will act as the axis for other
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millennial bands of gangs, armed groups, ex-policemen, rebels,
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etc. As in the Revolution, they would be able to generate a real
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whirlwind of violence that would destroy wealth and institutions.
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At bottom, all violence is political because it is a means to
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exercise power. In Mexico it has converted itself into a savage
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response to equally savage institutionalized injustice. When
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special interest groups have imposed upon the country an
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intolerable burden of sacrifice, inequality and corruption, Why
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does it surprise us that in the towns, the *rancheros*, and the
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villages of Mexico the people begin to take justice into their
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own hands? A great portion of the State security forces are
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infested with drug trafficking. Important personages belonging
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to the political and economic life of the nation have been linked
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to it. Insecurity has grown, and violent crime has increased by
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20 percent in 1996 alone. There is evidence of the existence of
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well-organized groups that operate as part of extensive networks
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with national and even international reach. How can we curse the
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fever without attacking the infirmity which produces it?
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Once again it seems we face the peak of an ill-fated cycle. As
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Enrique Krauze has pointed out in an important essay he wrote
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during the last years of the Salinas presidency, the plans for
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modernization -- top-down, exclusive, inflexible, isolated from
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political change -- not only concentrate wealth and accrue grave
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social costs, but they lead to violence. At the close of the
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19th century, the Spanish monarchy occasioned unrest, a faithful
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copy of the French model of that epoch. Little by little it
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became an instrument for augmenting the privileges and abuses of
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the Spanish and Creole elite against the rest of the Mestizo and
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Indian population. At the end of the 19th century, Porfirio Diaz
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imposed a similar process, also inspired by foreign models. Both
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initiatives ended in revolutions. Each one of them cost 10 years
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of continued violence and hundreds of thousands of lives. The
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destruction of material riches and of social peace which, in both
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cases, had been an emblem of pride.
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At the close of the 20th century, Mexico put in effect another
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modernization plan substantially equal to what came before, blind
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to political changes, orientated toward concentrations of wealth
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and income. Why does it surprise us when the results begin to be
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dramatically similar to those of past attempts?
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The elites seem trapped by their own ineptitude, without
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understanding what is happening. Not only do we suffer a crisis
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of vision, it is also a moral crisis. The supreme value is the
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preservation of power. The inability to see the future seems
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directly related to the inability to learn from the past. One
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cannot lead Mexico while ignorant of its history.
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of Conspiracy Nation, nor of its Editor in Chief.
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
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Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
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pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9
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