43 Students Killed · 5:21pm Nov 13th, 2014
I normally don't use my blog for this, but if I don't say anything about this, I'll regret it.
Now, some of you are probably aware of what happened in Mexico with the 43 students gone missing in September and what happened afterwards... the fact that it basically exploded into violent riots is not surprising.
A couple of years ago, a friend of mine decided to drive from Mexico City to New Laredo, a drive he had done several times before. We never heard from him again. A couple of cartel members were caught at one point and identified his vehicle and confessed to shooting him because they had felt like it.
Several years ago, the cousin of a friend of mine was abducted and killed by kidnappers seeking money. Another acquaintance at the time got shot for bumping someone on the road. And those two were before the Cartels became the big news item internationally.
This might seem distant and possibly irrelevant to you, since you're most likely not in Mexico and who cares about other contries right? Well, there's plenty of us who do care, who have friends and family there, and it affects us. You know us. You read our stories, and blogs and share with us pictures and memes on Tumblr or the Social Media site of your choice.
Tragedy happens all over the world, but remaining silent and doing nothing, is not a good way to deal with it. I'm not advocating violence here, either, but I think, that if I have about 3440 followers here, all of you with contacts and all of them with contacts of their own, we can do something. Something small, maybe, but perhaps enough to add up to what's happening out there and make a difference.
So what am I asking for? Get informed, see what's going on, how others around the world are already protesting it, from South Korea to Brazil. Think how you would feel... if you're a student, the morning after you said goodbye to your friends, they're gone. A classroom full of empty desks, save for you and a few others.
If you're a teacher, you've thought about this when you have seen school violence in the US, for example... the lives you're helping shape, the families you have affected... broken and gone. You wonder what happened to them... and you find out. Ashes. The rest? Thrown into the river to hide evidence.
If you're a parent... last night your kid called you, "Hey, dad/mom, I'll have to call you later, the police is picking me up."
I'm a parent. Whenever I see news about school violence here, I freak out about the future of my son. I have a sister... and parents in Mexico. Cousins, uncles, aunts. I know, one day, I'll find out that someone they know has gone missing, if not something closer to home.
So what am I getting at? Once you get informed, once you decide that yes, that is shit you wouldn't want happening to you or those you love, do something simple. Create more awareness on your blogs, tumblrs, imgur, reddit, facebook, etc. It's a corruption that won't be gone until we all, Mexicans and The World put pressure on until we crush it. Make memes pointing out what's wrong with this and why we're all together as part of this same crazy-ass world and that we don't want that crap happening to our neighbors and friends any more than we want it happening to us.
Don't get in trouble, but make some trouble, as we can and peacefully, for those that need to be in trouble.
amen. I know someone who knows someone that was killed.
That's horrible.
Even if I'm no parent, I still know what you mean...
Not to miss the point of that speech, (which was quite inspiring by the way) but, your Hispanic?
My dad grew up in Mexico City. One of his friends disappeared one day, and about a month later the police found his body. His face had been cut off and stitched to a soccer ball.
It's really fucked up down there.
Jesus...
World's a horrible place at times...
~Skeeter The Lurker
I´m from Brasil, so, for me, it´s quite personal, even if Mexico is not that close. But, once, i traveled to Mexico and, I have to say, there were times i had to double check, ´cause Mexico is almost a copy/paste of Brasil, booth in the bad and the good points, to the point i had this permanent feeling of being in my own city, not in a completly different country.
"All that is needed for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing."
Emund Burke
As a mexican, I can tell that all of this violence has been escalating in the last 4 or 5 years. The fact that our "president" is just a puppet for the people that truly control the country (both legaly and ilegaly), has not helped at all. In the state where the students were killed the goverment and the police are completly corrupt. They either work for the cartels or belong to them, and the few that don't, can't do anything about it because they don't have enough power and live in constant fear for their lives and their family lives.
It's so sad that the cartels and the goverment work together to maintain the people subyugated, only so they can get richer and richer at our expense.
Trouble is in the air here, and all this violence just needs a spark for it to escalate even further. The towns are begining to rise against their goverment, and things can (and will) get out of control really quick. I trully believe that an armed conflict is just around the corner.
I hope I'm wrong.
I have quite a few friends from Mexico and more still who are Mexican-Americans. I won't pretend I'm not distant from the tragedy--I very much am--nor will I pretend I can do anything meaningful except care about it and pray. But if that's all I can do, I'll do it as much and as often as I can.
Nuke China
I know. Be hopeful, At least there are people doing something the peaceful way.
As a Mexican, in most parts of our country we have been completely shut off from our right of speech. Piss off the wrong person, or try to leak out any of the violence happening in a state-city, and you're bound to end up "missing."
Those 43 students are suspected to have been burned alive... I don't want to end up like them, or put at risk my family. There's only one official news source, Aristegui Noticias, that still has ethics and aren't puppets to the government (I hope). But even they don't publish every single disappearance that happens in our country.
Yes, you read right. Those 43 students are just a minimal fraction of all the missing people here in Mexico. They managed to be known internationally only because they're a lot at once. But every day, people go "missing in every state of our country." And they're tragedies that we can't do shit about it cuz we can't trust our police or governors.
I have a deep, profound respect for all the great people that are currently giving hell to our governors on the streets.
"Si no hay justicia para el pueblo, que no haya paz para el gobierno." -Emiliano Zapata
"If there's no justice for the people, there will be no peace for the government." (rough translation)
As a teacher, I definitely get what you're saying. I teach in the United States, so it's no where near the dangers that Mexico and some other parts of Central and South America, but it is in a "rough" area with a high rate of violent crime, so I can definitely at least somewhat empathize with the fear aspect. I know that there are equal or worse atrocities throughout the world that demand the United Nations' attention, but students are the future of the species and the world; the international community definitely needs to be making a stronger and more adamant response to this particular incident because it's not an isolated event or a freak accident; it's part of a pattern of systemic and endemic violence that won't stop until people in a position to do something step up and stop it.
Dear Lord, Mexico is apparently even worse than eastern Europe...
The Mexican government is a disgusting and infested thing.
I still have lots of family that live there, and whenever they call it always leads to the worsening situation of the country. The entire government is corrupt; from the police on up (including the president, or so my parents think), and i'm inclined to agree with them.
It hurts to see the state of my home country, and to hear the news of mass murders on a regular basis.
It's obvious that the people can not count on the government, and maybe it will reach a point where they will rise up. Part of me hopes that it comes sooner rather than later, but another part of me wonders just what can they do against funded and armed cartels.
All I can do is hope.
There are two sets of problems here:
The criminalization of narcotics, especially marijuana and cocaine, create a huge black market which amounts to a subset of the US economy richer than the Mexican government funneling support to the cartels. This is one of the most perverse consequences of our policy, because Mexico is an ally -- what we are basically doing through our drug policy is destablizing an American ally, something which we would not do if we thought things through.
The second problem is that whether through corruption, fear or arrogance, Mexico refuses to consider the cartels as being in rebellion against the government and thus refuses to crush them. With all the money the cartels have, the Mexican armed forces are or could be expanded to a point where they could destroy the cartels. One change Mexico would have to make would be to execute the cartelistas, and on simple proof of fighting of the cartels.
Going about it the way you are, you'll never win.
The only correction I can see is some form of extreme, hostile takeover. Lots of bloodshed, and a very violent backlash to everyone caught in the crossfire.
If such a thing happens, I can only hope it leads to healing after, because there will be death and destruction either way.
Well, I'm a bit afraid to do something honestly. I'm American, and I'm a bit tired of nations around the world demanding that we mind our own business (something that I can respect) and then turn around and ask for help. I'm young, and have much to learn. I'm all for helping and fully support aid-programs. I'm not going to go on a tangent as I do not want to offend anyone over my opinions. I'll do some research, see what I can find. I've never experienced loss in another country so I feel my views may be a bit offensive and I KNOW my views are biased. I pray that those of you who have experienced it receive your much desired justice against those that have wronged others. I'm sure that your efforts are well appreciated to those subjugated and lost to the cruelty of corruption. Good luck, and god speed.
I think I know some people who could actually help. But I personally do not have the means to do so my self.
http://anonhq.com/
I've read a bit about this on Al Jazera. I know how terrifying that feeling can be. We need to be aware of shit like this, because if we just ignore it, it's going to eventually bite us back in the ass. It's a bit sad that today I live in a world where people are becoming increasingly cynical and decide that they'll just say "to hell with it, let the world rot for all I care." If people don't care and try to make the world a better place, all that we'll have left are the people who want to cause harm. But I don't want to live in a world like that, and there are plenty of others who don't want that as well. I'd say you're doing a good thing making people aware of this.
Sadly at this point a time, the only resolution I see to this is Death, lots and lots of death, I may be distant from the trouble and corruption, but I know the problems that originate with it, I can only hope that the citizens will do something about it, because the government sure as hell won't
I just heard what happened to them now, it's truly horrific that this has been going on for so long and with such frequency. I hope and pray that this can be resolved quickly, and I hope to spread the word to people I know. My school is taking some students to Mexico for cultural field trips in the next few years, and I want them home safe and sound just as much as everyone else.
Weee accidentally posting before I finish it. >_<
I'll be honest, I'm not exactly pro-immigration... At the risk of being accused of racism (something I'm probably at least mildly guilty of), I'm fairly anti-immigration.
But, regardless of what my views on who the government is and isn't responsible to care for, and what we should do with regards to external tragedies... There is a very real tragedy here. It doesn't matter if the US government "should" or "shouldn't" act-- each of us, on a human level, is obligated to at least be aware of the suffering and corruption that our peers around the world must bear. If comprehending that doesn't move you to action, that's your decision-- but to hide in our comforts while pretending the problems don't exist... that's not an acceptable path.
I believe in informed decision-making. How you act with your information is your business-- but in my mind, there is no greater personal failing than willful ignorance.
Edit: Yaaay double posts. Deleted duplicate.
I don't think I can give an unbiased opinion on this post. As interesting as stuff like this is, and as much as I'd like it to work, I find it hard to believe that any action outside of bloodshed will do anything but piss people off. Too many hardheaded idiots have access to power, and I think it's because they are (for the most part) the only ones who will work for it no matter the cost. I'll root for the optimists but I'm going to stay a pessimist.
Yeah, I was surprised when Tumblr kept screaming and crying about Ferguson and yet I didn't hear a peep from them about this. Seriously, this is fucked up beyond all belief. It's weird to think that, as a student about the age of these kids, that 43 of them were killed. It makes me remember just how easy it is to die and I start to question whether I even have a chance. I probably would have a better chance of not being killed if people would actually focus on this shit instead of bitching about petty shit.
Psychologically, it is well known the area of effect of tragedy:
* If you heard that am earthquake happened in China, and a million people died, you might get a little upset, maybe donate $50 to a relief fund, and you might lose some sleep over it the first night.
* Meanwhile, the doctors tell you that your pinkie toe is infected and they will have to amputate it next week. You'll worry and lose sleep for days, spending time and money researching the doctors and finding out about the procedure.
If you found out you could save your pinkie toe at the cost of a million Chinese lives, you'd think yourself a monster for even considering the idea, yet you care far more about your toe than millions of people in China.
"Awareness" is therefore largely ineffective on the world stage. People will feel bad, and then move on with their lives. Corruption is the modus operandi of most governments, some more than others. If you want to stop corruption, there are a couple of things you as a citizen can call and vote for:
1. Reduce the total number and complexity of laws to that which all society agrees on: stuff like don't murder or steal, but otherwise allow people to do what they want
2. With the reduction in rules, encourage businesses to open and hire people.
When government is small and controls little, there is no-one to bribe. And less than savory people would not get into politics in the first place, since they can make more money and gain more power from business pursuits. Less skilled people will get jobs instead of joining gangs.
You can never rely on the morals or goodwill of those in power to do the right thing unless it is in their interest to do so.
You might be wary of trusting businesses over governments, but you can always choose another business (or start your own) and businesses can't legally shoot you, unlike governments.
This is how Britain went from a nation of smugglers and pirates to one of the most law-abiding countries in the world up until very recently.
Mexico always makes me sad. It has more natural resources and potential economic power than most countries in the world, even more than the U.S. currently has, but due to their nigh-total corruption of their government it's people are left with such horrible lives they are willing to risk them or earn massive debt from the smugglers to sneak into the U.S. so they they can live lives that by American standards are far below poverty.
This is another symptom of the disease ravaging that country, and the best we can hope for is treating the symptoms as they arise. It's a shame that revolutions have so gone out of style, they could truly use one.
So much wasted potential.
The drug war keeps Americans far too good and scared for the government to do something as stupid as intervene in it. After all, if Americans are scared then the government can just carry on spending absolutely absurd amounts on the military and nobody is going to actually question if any of it was necessary or excessive.
It's even a kind of closed system as they produce SO many weapons that some inevitably go missing and turn up in the hands of the cartels after creative bookkeeping and applied ignorance.
I could be generous with faith and say that it might be all to prepare for the inevitable conflicts that will arise following peak oil and the resulting world economic crash but it's much more likely just handshaking between high ups and ironmongers.
Mexico will explode one day, probably within a couple of decades and the only response is going to be the US army camped over the border and a massive relief effort from other western nations at the world's largest refuge camp.
The unfortunate reality is that more violence, even from the supposed "good guys" rarely solves any problems. Then there is the issue that all of the people doing these things are people, not machines. If we had robots or aliens doing these sorts of things, going in guns blazing wouldn't be an issue. I'd bet that the people committing these crimes and acts of violence have families too. Even if you could kill only the "bad guys" I think there would be a lot of lingering resentment that might fester and some would want revenge.
Part of the solution is reducing the demand for (and hence the value of) drugs, but that's a tough problem in and of itself. Part of it is to take out those elements, when possible,that are most violent/horrific (i.e. the ones who go beyond killing to worse things). And those are just some of the problems.
The U.S. could probably intervene militarily, but I'd bet on collateral damage and I wonder how they'd view us when all was said and done.
2593058
Revolutions haven't "gone out of style", it's just rare that they are successful and rarer that they make things better in the long run. If you remove government, even very corrupt government you disrupt power and the resulting power vacuum tends to draw in worse elements. Just ripping out an existing government isn't a solution. In the both the American and French revolutions and maybe certain English revolts there was already a new government essentially waiting to take over that wasn't comprised most of military/soldiers. They had already formulated and come to some degree of concord on what the problem and how to resolve it. -- People like stability/certainty and often put those in power, when they have a chance, that they believe will create that stability even if those people are corrupt or enforce that stability through undesirable methods. Just take a look at Nazi Germany.
2593018
Your comment about Britain doesn't make any sense. Any chance you could clarify?
2593018
I see we have a small government advocate. Small governments mostly work well when there is little to govern. People are imperfect, removing the government will not the solve the problems, just change which ones you have. Government officials aren't the only ones who take bribes. Anyone with influence you don't have is someone you can potentially bribe. That applies to businesses too. The more people you have, the greater the need for a certain degree of regulation.
D, you have a son?
The great mystery is why the US isn't that corrupt. The US was very corrupt in the 1920s. Somehow it got better. I wish I knew how.
The US should legalize marijuana, certainly. How, I don't know.
The great difficulty all around the world is that the anger at corrupt governments is funneled off and controlled by idealistic communist or religious groups that don't understand economics and are ideologically opposed to internal checks and balances. I don't know anything about Mexico, but I'd be surprised if there was an effective opposition party that wasn't communist or socialist.
(I'm all for socialist governments, but socialist revolutionary movements are always more radical.)
I've had many friends die in mexico, some even to suicide. It starts to get pretty annoying when my other friends say, "I'm going on vacation in Mexico!"
2592653
Do you think that a Third World country's army can keep up against a dozen small armies funded by American drug dollars, and equipped with open-market American machine guns? Our only chance was the Merida Iniciative (for the US to inject funds and resources into the Mexican Army), which detonated a six year long war nine years ago, which indeed deflated the sails of drug lord domination until they united and then funded their own president into power. Who immediately called back the Army so his real bosses could work in peace.
So Mexico is currently a lost case.
2592846
2593202
2592663
Many of us were afraid that war would break out exactly nine years ago, when this warhawk Lopez Obrador tried to dismiss the election's result because he lost for like 50,000 votes, and tried to have himself installed. And considering how horribly inflammatory he was, the Intelligentsia was horribly scared of him growing a brain and arranging to get shot on the shoulder...
2593502
Tell him to go to Southern Mexico. All the real shit happens north.
2593280 While, yes, revolution itself is not strictly helpful, I meant the whole revolution cycle, which includes a replacement government. At the very least any new government, brought to power via revolution, in a country that is currently so corrupt, would at the very least be likely to have less corruption at it's inception.
As a nation, I think they would benefit from it, the issue is that there's no passionate group to start it that doesn't get either killed or bought by those in power. It's a shame.
2593564
Yes, actually. Mexico is a large and relatively powerful Third World country, with a fairly-patriotic population, and "machine guns" are small arms on the scale of the weapons employed by an army (think heavy artillery, tanks, and attack aircraft). Even the Mexican Army can deploy enough firepower that it would be suicidal for the Cartels to make a stand. The Cartels are also disunited, and served almost entirely by (low-quality) mercenaries. And a lot of the Cartel wealth needs to be plowed back into their drug producing and running and sale operations -- they don't have the same power to tax across a wide population base as does the Mexican government.
The problem is that Mexico is dealing with this as a law enforcement problem. Mexico doesn't want to admit that the Cartels are basically carving off territories from Mexico and setting up micro-states therein. So Cartel leaders have to be formally arrested, tried and sentenced (and you don't even have a death penalty) while their minions are treated just as gangsters.
If Mexico instead used a "rebels and traitors" model, then you could summarily execute the Cartel leaders and their followers -- as unlawful combatants they are not protected by the Geneva Convention. The Cartelistas would be forced to flee abroad, from which it would be difficult to run their enterprises. Each army sweep would capture large numbers of prisoners, who could then be executed or put to hard labor at the will of the government.
You need another Benito Juarez, basically.
2592679
By mind our business, these people mean that they do not want us to invade them. Everypony needs help from time to time, so they ask. The way to help is an hand up —— ¡not neglect, a military-invasion, an hand-out which makes us better but does not really help, et cetera! An hand-up would be military-aid for fighting the cartels and a change in our drug-policy:
The fact is that one cannot save idiots from themselves. Ponies using addictive substances and —— ¡Gasp! —— getting addicted to the substances is very stupid of them, but the sad fact is, that this war against drugs cannot save the morons from dumbly doing idiotic things. Some mentally challenged ponies leap before they look. We could stop funding the cartels in Mexico by decriminalizing drugs so that the morons do not have to buy their drugs from the Mexican cartels.
If any mentally slow people who are not quite mentally retarded read this, I have something you should read:
“¡Addiction is a choice! ¡If you do not start, you cannot become addicted! ¡It is that simple!”
It is certainly possible that you could try, let us say, crack, have a great time and not become addicted, but it is far more likely that you will become addicted and end up giving blowjobs to AntiGay Republicans in back alleys for crackrocks. The best way to not become addicted to addictive substances is to never use addictive substances.
2593829 Right. All I can think about is how Hawaii actually came to be a part of the United States. Also how Cuba and the Philippines came under our rule. Sad stories really. Anyway, I personally don't agree with drugs. Trust me, I've tried them and, while the short experience was fun, I did not enjoy how I lost control of my decisions and how it threatened my future. I personally think we should approach drugs like Japan did, but at the same time I kind of don't care. The only reason I would care about the fight on drugs is if I was killed by a high driver or whatnot. So while you may starve out the catels, what about the home front?
The massacre (alleged) of the 43 students in Iguala is going way out of control. At first I had assumed it was going to end up like the last time with the students in Tlatelolco; some rioting, and that was it, the government stayed in power pretty much. But this, this surprised me beyond anything I imagined. Protests over by the Mexican Consulate near MacArthur Park have already taken place, the entire Mexican nation is in uproar, some relatives had to go through a violent protest in their village all night, and there have been other massive protests over in Buenos Aires, Vienna, London, Paris, Berlin, not just here in LA, yet there are more cities where protests are taking place! This is quickly becoming a huge embarrassment to President Peña Nieto, and the Democratic Revolutionary Party, because it also turns out that the Mayor of Iguala and the police chief had turned them over to Guerreros Unidos (United Warriors) and now the Mexican government has been caught red-handed in the act. They thought they would get away just like Tlatelolco, because that time the world didn't pay attention.
I was surprised, but from what my family had gone through, they weren't surprised the government pulled this, and I too feel somewhat like that. Damn, I even heard that the students in Hong Kong that caused the Umbrella Revolution is with them. I mean, I'm surprised people didn't pay attention for anything when the news reporters were and still are being murdered gruesomely over there, or how even though there are multiple political parties, the DRP always wins. Or how about the hundreds of starving and/or kidnapped people in the small pueblos. But everything will stay the same, because the government will keep lying, and once people lose interest in this or tire out or are convinced they have done something, this whole fiasco will be forgotten like My Lai or Quayle.
2593869
This is simple:
Ponies should be 100% legally accountable for their actions on drugs. If they operate equipment under the influence of anything, lock them up forever. If they commit a crime high, make them legally fully accountable for their actions —— ¡double the sentence if they try to weasel out of accountability by claiming reduced capacity because they were high when they committed the crime! ¡That is how I would do deal with those drugged up morons when they operate equipment or break the law under the influence!
2593922 Ah, sounds similar to Japan XD
2593667 While you may be right, the other major problem with the Mexican government is that the army itself or the police are not, disciplined, and that both branches don't care, literally. Only one political party is in power, because they pull out all the stops during the election in order to win. So that means that the politics of Mexico City won't change until they are run out of power or influence. Yes, the population is very fanatical and patriotic (in the best sense) for the country and principles, not the PANelista government.
2593931
I hate to say it, but what you probably need right now is a military coup with a fairly ethical general in charge -- one who would be merciless to the foe, then restore the Constitution after the Cartelistas and their families were feeding the crows. And make no mistake -- right now, anyone who willingly aids the Cartels is a traitor to your country, and deserves only death.
I can't see this issue being solved any time soon, or without a lot of bloodshed. the nation has always been unstable, hopping from several forms of government every few decades, most of which became bloody civil wars, I don't see this ending much differently. in short, Mexico's a power keg right now. but then again, when hasn't it?
2593940 !.) I am not a Mexican citizen, legal Latino-American. My parents came from Mexico, and whenever I asked them when I was younger about if Mexico was like America, they'd only lament, because, damn, if a coup does end up occurring, it might end up like Animal Farm and/or Kampuchea (Cambodia), or, or, the coup might either bring on something Ace Combat X, or Mexico really could end up like the United States or Grenada (minus the invasion and coup) in a few years, although I'm afraid this will not last long.
2593569 Vacationing in Oaxaca!
2593018 Exactly my views! There is no such thing as a perfect government, yet reducing these laws and encouraging younger generations of citizens have the power to truly choose their life path can be effective, as well as having the citizens of the country as a whole know their true say in such government. No government is corrupt-free (Dreyfus Affair, Operation Northwoods, Sarah Palin *shudder*, Tlatelcolco) but the fact that taking complexity away from the legal system of a country does create changes in policies both political and economic.
2593667
First thing you are forgetting is that the Cartels can pay more to the Army than the government, which leads to a pile of crap called "the Z's", a particularly bloodthirsty cartel composed of Army deserters.
Secondly: during the last mandate, Mexico lost at least three cabinet members to surface-to-air missiles, and it just so happens that the Mexican Army doesn't own antiaircraft weaponry newer than antiair guns. And let's say that cops and soldiers take care of their body armour, knowing that their civilian-grade vehicles aren't worth crap as cover.
Thirdly, you are forgetting that the Mexican Army is designed for peacekeeping rather than war. I wonder if the average US Marine can tell one end of a shovel from the other. Or if the average US Army medic can perform mayor surgery. Or if the US soldier platoon sent to reconnect a town with civilization will remember to announce themselves with something more positive than their machine guns.
For a while I too argued that the antidrug war should have become geared as a military operation instead of beefed-up law enforcement. I was young and stupid. Unfortunately, letting lose your army on your own population rapidly leads to crazy levels of abuse.
2594160
He should be alright, then. Amd tell him to bring you some mezcal!