"It
is fitting here to recall that this phenomenon is the price Mexico has been
obliged to pay in consequence of a war that's essentially alien to us. This war
has gestated due to the production and trade of firearms and the insatiable
demand for drugs on U.S. territory."
Secretary Clinton: 'Until Mexican narcotics police act against the terrorists ... We will have to continue to act like interventionists.' [La Jornada, Mexico]
In an interview broadcast
yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the alleged murder
of David Hartley, a tourist - supposedly attacked by members of organized crime
on Falcon Lake, on the border between Texas and Tamaulipas - a “terrible
tragedy” and said that, “we are sickened by it, as we are with the spike in
violence that has gone on in Mexico” in consequence of the Calderon's government's “war on drug
trafficking.”
Of course, any murder - and if
this was a murder it is no exception - is intrinsically abhorrent, regardless of the circumstances
in which it may occur. The violence and disorder that in recent years has
spread throughout the country - and particularly gravely in the U.S. border
zone, as well as the corruption and impunity prevalent in Mexico, feed the fear,
anxiety and general feeling of powerlessness among our population. In this
context, declarations like Clinton's would be legitimate and unassailable if stated
by family members of the U.S. citizen or some relative of the more than 30,000
who have died as a result of the government's crusade against the drug cartels.
But the fact that the above
assertion was expressed by the person responsible for U.S. foreign policy without
even waiting for a full clarification of the circumstances of Hartley's death contradicts
the restraint and moderation that should prevail in diplomatic circles. It also
presents a distorted notion of the violence riddling our country. It is fitting
here to recall that this phenomenon is the price Mexico has been obliged to pay
in consequence of a war that's essentially alien to us. This war has gestated, on
the one hand, due to the production and trade of firearms and the insatiable
demand for drugs on U.S. territory; and on the other, by the policies of
prohibition and frontal attack on the production and distribution of narcotics
that, with support of governments that have given in to its demands, Washington
has managed to impose on the region.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
Thus, while social, political
and institutional normalcy in Mexico is collapsing as a result of the actions
of criminal groups, the trafficking, distribution and consumption of illegal
narcotics continues as usual in U.S. cities, without news of shootings, executions
and drug-related kidnappings in that country.
Moreover, the consternation
and dismay expressed by the U.S. secretary of state on the occasion of this murder
is in stark contrast to the lack of similar words expressed about the countless
cases of Mexicans killed in the neighboring country, be it by xenophobic groups,
criminal organizations or the authorities themselves. Significantly, since the
founding of the entity in 1924, no member of the U.S. Border Patrol has been
declared culpable of homicide, and only two of its agents have ever appeared in
court accused of murder. This, despite the many cases of unjustified deaths of
migrants - many of them Mexican - at the hands of that organization.
The complaint voiced by
Clinton is therefore misleading and improper, both in form and substance, and
shows the characteristic moral double standards that prevail within the public
power circles of our neighboring country to the north.