No one dares to say it, but Mexico is on the verge of a civil war.
(Times Media Mexico – CDMX) – To explain better, let’s first define what a civil war is. According to the RAE (Real Academia Española de la lengua), it means “a war between the inhabitants of the same people or nation”.
In Mexico, rivers of blood have flowed for years. In the six-year term of Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon (December 1, 1994, to November 30, 2000), there were 80,671 murders; in the six-year term of Vicente Fox Quesada (December 1, 2000, to November 30, 2006), there were 60,280 murders. Under Felipe Calderón Hinojosa (from December 1, 2006 to November 30, 2012), who “declared war” on drug trafficking, there were 120,463 murders. In the six-year term of López Obrador, which has not yet ended, today, March 25, 2024, there are almost 182,000 murders and counting. We are talking about approximately 443 thousand murders from 1994 to 2024. That is without counting the more than 111 thousand missing persons that López Obrador’s government minimizes.
The country is submerged in a brutal spiral of violence like never before in its modern history. Every day, there are ferocious assaults on the country’s highways, extortions with “derecho de piso” charges to be able to work and operate a business, kidnappings, such as the massive kidnapping of 66 people in Sinaloa, also minimized by Governor Rubén Rocha Moya, by assuring that “these are things that unfortunately happen.”
Every day, Mexico dawns with more reports of violence, although the government denies it or says it is going down. Organized crime has taken an important part of the national territory hostage. They have extended their tentacles to all areas of commerce to the point of regulating even the price of fruits, vegetables, and greens in producing states such as Michoacán, construction and transportation in Acapulco, Guerrero, and logistics in highways and ports, to name a few in addition to their usual businesses such as human trafficking and smuggling, arms trafficking, crimes against flora, crimes against fauna, crimes against non-renewable resources, drug trade (fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, cannabis and synthetic drugs trade).
This has caused the expulsion of thousands of people from their places of origin, people displaced by organized crime, and the inability of López Obrador’s government to confront criminal groups under his slogan of “hugs, not bullets.” These people are fed up. Everything has been taken from them, material and moral. Videos are circulating of criminals slapping and beating people with boards with impunity as a way to intimidate others and show them what will happen to them if they don’t fall in line.
Others have had their sons and daughters, their dignity, and their rights taken away from them. The proof is the “searching mothers” who have gone out to do the job of the authorities and find the remains of their missing sons and daughters, running risks, being threatened, intimidated by criminals and even the state, and others who have been killed in their search, while the president ignores them.
Millions of Mexicans do not have social security, and before, they had a health service called “Seguro Popular,” with which they received medical attention. López Obrador eliminated it and replaced it with another inoperative and useless program. There are no medicines, not even the most basic ones, nor vaccines for infants. Those who protest from the presidential pulpit have been called “coup plotters” and are under constant surveillance by the army intelligence services. The same applies to journalists, with Mexico now being the most dangerous place in the world to practice journalism. The organization Artículo 19 has documented 43 murders of journalists as a function of their work; in 2018, nine communicators lost their lives in this way; in 2019, 10; in 2020, 7; in 2021, 7; in 2022, 13; and in 2023 there were five. Article 19 registered 561 aggressions against the press last year, one every 16 hours.
The Mexican government has done nothing for those Mexicans it swore to care for and protect. However, it gives money, fuel, and machinery to Cuba or distributes money to Venezuelans without turning to see the desperation already felt in the country.
Mexicans are fed up. With one foot on the precipice, many have nothing more to lose and feel cornered. The president’s candidate, Claudia Sheinbaum, offers them more of the same in case she becomes president, but in addition, the nullification of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation and the Judiciary, the disappearance of autonomous bodies such as the INE (National Electoral Institute), the INAI (National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data) the National Hydrocarbons Commission, the Energy Regulatory Commission and the National System for Continuous Improvement of Education to name a few.
This government has stretched the limits as no one has ever done before. It is only a matter of time before the weariness, anger, and bitterness begin to sprout like a purulent wound.
When that happens, what will follow will be of unimaginable proportions.
Times Media Mexico – Editorial Board
The Yucatan Times
—
Times Media Mexico editorial board consists of nine people from different nationalities and backgrounds, who are selected based on their trajectory and objectivity.
