Violence and Drug Cartels

Have crime and violence in Mexico evolved to the point where the assumptions and arguments we have always used for solace in the past no longer apply? Regardless of the answer, all foreign residents should be keeping up with the debate.

Point:
"Drug Cartels Muscle Into Mexican Town Packed With Americans"
https://bloom.bg/2PsJsjN (Bloomberg news subscription required)
http://bit.ly/36aUssQ (alternative source)

Counter-point:
"San Miguel Has Not Fallen Prey to Mexico Crime Gangs"
https://bloom.bg/33ZJa9t (Bloomberg news subscription required)
http://bit.ly/2YqEeta (alternative source)

San Miguel was covering up its crime news way back when I lived there from 2004-2008.  Nothing happened in paradise, right?

For example, my next door neighbor in a quiet barrio had a home invasion with many valuable items stolen while she hid upstairs. Not a word in the news.

Cartels move into these towns to satisfy the appetite for drugs by a large portion of expats. This incluces Lake chapala and SMA. Primarily marijuana is in high demand and I imagine some coke too.

I suspect it's more than selling drugs to the expats. Follow wherever the money is generated and there you will find the cartel. Michoacan and avocados springs to mind.

Well there is no avocados in Lake Chapala or SMA but lots of deep pocketed expats. There is also meth being sold to the poorer locals.

Violent criminal cartels now get income from extorting businesses; fuel theft; cargo robberies; by stealing avocado farms; preying on local populations . . .

Falko Ernst, an analyst for the International Crisis Group, said in an interview recently, "It’s not only about drugs anymore, it’s about the territorial control and controlling the commodities.”

That's a big change from the past.

You are right and that is what we are experiencing. Everybody pays, one way or another. They walk among us.

There has been extortion from local businesses going on for a long, long time. I remember years ago my hair dresser put a locked door on her screened entrance to deter would-be extortionists from entering her business. Some local businesses closed under the pressure from the cartels. Then there are the kidnappings of local business family members. Some got killed and others were returned after paying ransom.

It has never been solely drugs supporting organized crime although they are the backbone of the Mexican cartels. Fuel theft are different players altogether. Extortion, kidnapping, pornography, theft and gambling are sidelines which will grow as drugs are legalized. Not just here in Mexico but throughout the world.

Yes, the cartels aren't going to pack up their business and slink away into the night. They will increase what has been lucrative in the past and will find new opportunities to make money. They have their tentacles into everything.

gringal wrote:San Miguel was covering up its crime news way back when I lived there from 2004-2008.  Nothing happened in paradise, right?

For example, my next door neighbor in a quiet barrio had a home invasion with many valuable items stolen while she hid upstairs.  Not a word in the news.

,

Did she call any news media outlets to report it, because in Mexico, police do not initiate notification to news outlets about crime reports? And most reporters don´t haunt police stations because they don´t want to be tagged as anti-crime/cartel crusaders.  A few brave reporters who have "crusaded", didn´t last long.

I don't know if she called anyone other than the police. I do know that crimes are rarely acknowledged; they hurt the "image".

Gamina wrote:Yes, the cartels aren't going to pack up their business and slink away into the night.  They will increase what has been lucrative in the past and will find new opportunities to make money.  They have their tentacles into everything.

Unlike the US, where organized crime had it´s tentacles in labor unions and businesses with strong union representation like the teamsters, longshoremen, construction, etc., the Mexican unions are not wealthy and do not offer that attractive source of income.  In the US, after gambling which was a big time business, pornography, drugs, and alcohol during prohibition, labor unions were their big enchilada.  The affluence of the US population, as compared to Mexico, offered a some what different source of income.
I wonder want the Russian Mafia makes their money from?...…...vokda and caviar?

gringal wrote:I don't know if she called anyone other than the police.  I do know that crimes are rarely acknowledged; they hurt the "image".

I think most, if not all, crime fighting reporters, or news organizations, are worried a lot more about their physical bodies, than they are about their "image".  Even hard nosed, honest police are worried about more than their image.
A loss of imagine is a mild price to pay, compared to your life.

slainte39 wrote:I wonder want the Russian Mafia makes their money from?...…...vokda and caviar?

I can't tell you how they make it but I can tell you how they launder it. Think of them as lobbyists.

mattoleriver wrote:

slainte39 wrote:I wonder want the Russian Mafia makes their money from?...…...vokda and caviar?

I can't tell you how they make it but I can tell you how they launder it. Think of them as lobbyists.

I heard a rumor that Trump had a laundromat, any connection?

dup

I was friend with some interesting people in Vegas going back to the early 70´s, in the 90´s many of my friends were high up in Vegas and there were many trips to Russia and investements  done in Russia.
Gaming was obviously one of the ways to get rich fast over there.. There were many connections and friendships between Vegas and Russia. There was some type of fascination with Russia back then, maybe that is when Trump fell in love with Russia..

slainte39 wrote:

gringal wrote:I don't know if she called anyone other than the police.  I do know that crimes are rarely acknowledged; they hurt the "image".

I think most, if not all, crime fighting reporters, or news organizations, are worried a lot more about their physical bodies, than they are about their "image".  Even hard nosed, honest police are worried about more than their image.
A loss of imagine is a mild price to pay, compared to your life.

I was not referring to individual reporters or the police, who are justifiably concerned about their own safety. It's the political policy to quash any mention of negatives re the town, and its anonymous.

https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2018/01/14/571184153/on-the-hunt-for-poppies-in-mexico-americas-biggest-heroin-supplier

"Mexico has the third-largest area under poppy cultivation in the world, after Afghanistan and Myanmar, according to a 2017 United Nations report based on estimates from 2015. By 2016, Mexican poppy cultivation had potentially grown more than three times the national amount estimated in 2013, according to the DEA."

In 1980 I travel through the golden triangle in Thailand where popies were everywhere.. They would sell scales for opium, opium weights for opum, dried poppies and anything a tourist may  have wanted.. We had a driver and a guide but it turned out the driver would disappear in the village to go and smoke.. and we would lose him for a while.. The guide told us that the money to grow the poppies all came from the US that wa giving aid money to prevent the farmers to deforest ..
That area was close to Chiang Mei and any body could come and go at leisure, neither the Thai or the US did anything to stop the growing there.. I wonder why it was overlooked there when t is a big priority in Mexico--
I those days the Hmongs who were nomads would come through and would burn the precious forest to plant their crops  so the US paid to teach them other type of farming as they would move every year and destroyed more forest.. For a few years they planted regular crops , then figured out that they could make more money with poppies and the poppies were everywhere..
Here in Chiapas the people in Zinacantan cultivate flowers and they told me it was illegal to plant any type of poppies and I have never seen poppies , I guess they are all in Guerrero.. One good reason not to go hiking in Guerrero

gringal wrote:

slainte39 wrote:

gringal wrote:I don't know if she called anyone other than the police.  I do know that crimes are rarely acknowledged; they hurt the "image".

I think most, if not all, crime fighting reporters, or news organizations, are worried a lot more about their physical bodies, than they are about their "image".  Even hard nosed, honest police are worried about more than their image.
A loss of imagine is a mild price to pay, compared to your life.

I was not referring to individual reporters or the police, who are justifiably concerned about their own safety.  It's the political policy to quash any mention of negatives re the town, and its anonymous.

I agree gringal that the politicians, presidentes de municipios, or cabildo members are not likely to report crimes to the media as they aren´t any more obligated to, than the police, and they never have.  I think the victims are the ones who should be doing the reporting to the media, as they are the ones with the first hand knowledge, but for some reason they don´t.  Maybe it´s language in the case of foreigners, or other reasons for Mexicans, as many prefer to remain anonymous. I´m sure if English speaking foreigners, who were crime victims, would contact Dale Palfrey, she would check out their stories. There is more news in the GDL newspapers about violent crime in the Chapala area, Mexican on Mexican, than there is in the GR, but they try to keep up.  Home break ins and burglaries don´t get much attention by newspapers anywhere in the world.

Here is another "count-point" op-ed about crime and violence in Mexico, written by an executive with Valle de Los Senderos, a large residential and commercial real estate development in San Miguel de Allende.
= = = = = = = =
Haves and Have-nots in San Miguel - Bloomberg's Smear
By Francesca Fisher
http://bit.ly/2rrJ51j

Thanks for the article of response that bears some semblance of reality instead of fear mongering hyperbole and the constant drumbeat of the orchestrated conspiracy of covering up crime.

Anyone else notice that article came from a place with a vested interest in playing down the crime issue?