Guns and Hugs, Fire and Water

The weekly newsletter of the Mexico Solidarity Project

Every issue archived online at mexicosolidarityproject.org

October 23, 2024 

Guns and Hugs, Fire and Water

Meizhu Lui, for the editorial board

“You lead a double life!” to Genaro Garcia Luna, president Calderón’s alter ego. Jose Hernandez: La Jornada

In Sinaloa, a new surge of cartel violence has claimed the lives of hundreds of people — and claimed the attention of US leaders and pundits. They scoff at the approach taken by presidents AMLO and Sheinbaum of “hugs, not bullets.” The US approach is to fight fire with fire.

For its 2008 “war on drugs,” negotiated with president Calderón, the US strategy was to give Mexico massive amounts of arms to take out drug kingpins. In July, without consulting Mexico, the US unilaterally orchestrated the capture of “El Mayo” Zambada, a Sinaloa cartel kingpin, thanks to a deal with another cartel leader’s son. Did that operation quell violence?

Just the opposite. The operation sparked the current brutal battle among cartel factions — a clear example of a failed strategy.  As AMLO and Sheinbaum have said, the US bears some responsibility for the lost lives in Sinaloa.

The courts have proved that the cartels infiltrated the highest levels of the Calderón government. His national Security Chief Garcia Luna, just sentenced in a US court, worked for the Sinaloa cartel. The corruption of previous PRI administrations fueled the astronomical growth of the cartels, which now Sheinbaum must dismantle.

Sheinbaum is expanding programs to provide youth with alternatives to joining the drug trade — “hugs.” But she also knows Sinaloa needs more than social programs to end the violence. It needs law enforcement, and the government has sent over 1000 members of the National Guard. But rather than being instructed to confront and kill, their main directive is to protect the people. So far, they have caused very few deaths, but hundreds of weapons have been confiscated, weapons that can no longer be used to terrorize communities.

Too little military — but too much military? US experts recommend bullets, not hugs, but they have simultaneously raised the specter of a military dictatorship when a recent constitutional reform placed the National Guard under the Department of Defense. Confused? In this week’s interview, Gabriel Ramirez helps us cut through the noise.

But one lesson is clear. Fighting fire with fire makes the fire bigger and hotter. Instead, the Sheinbaum government aims to throw water on the fire, one hot spot at a time.

For a deeper dive into current news and analysis in English, check out our media website. And definitely see the new English podcast ¡Soberanía! (Sovereignty) with José Luis Granados Ceja and Kurt Hackbarth.  They entertain, while dismantling the lies and distortions about Mexico fed to us by the mainstream media.

Don’t miss an issue! Sign up for a free Mexico Solidarity Bulletin subscription.

The “Militarization” of Mexico?

In the Merida Initiative, which began in 2008, the US and Mexico agreed to a binational “war on drugs.” How was this carried out?

Before 1982, the Mexican federal army carried out the fight against drugs using a preventive approach and the eradication of illicit crops. This changed with the beginning of neoliberalism.

They were trained in dirty war tactics, such as razing villages, covert operations, torture and assassinations at the notorious School of the Americas. So these units operated not like police but like soldiers at war.

From 1982 to 2018, specialized forces and the police pursued and confronted famous drug leaders in a bloody war; the idea was to root out drug kingpins. But the special forces were co-opted by the drug traffickers.

These were 36 years of capital accumulation from the drug trade, the amassing of firepower given to Mexico by the US, and corruption of authorities at every level — from local police and mayors to the Judiciary, to National Security chiefs like García Luna. We went from a failed state to co-government with the drug trade.

To date, imperialist countries are quite capable of knowing what their opponents eat for breakfast but incapable of locating weapons, drugs, millions of dollars and corrupt politicians in their own nations! Such is the power of the cartels.

The Merida Initiative extended narco-neoliberal policy to keep Calderón in power despite electoral fraud and popular repudiation of his policies. In this way, they tried to destroy Mexico’s social fabric, to plunder the country and to undermine the constitution that emerged from the 1917 revolution.

So, this military approach did not stop drug trafficking!

Co-government with the drug traffickers inevitably led to the explosion of the drug trade and increased deaths by firearms, which reached its highest point with Felipe Calderón’s administration between 2008 and 2012. Some have estimated 350,000 dead, 100,000 missing and 50,000 unidentified corpses in morgues.

Neoliberalism and the power of drug cartels are a single, two-headed monster — this is the situation AMLO inherited.

Western politicians and media have scorned AMLO’s approach to violence: “Hugs, not bullets.” What does that slogan mean?

Faced with corrupt police organizations at the local, state, and federal levels, AMLO saw that we needed a new organization operating with a different philosophy. Mexico must have a police force that defends the people from the narcos, rather than defends the narcos from the people. Before AMLO, police followed la ley bala, or the “law of the bullet,” where they could shoot anyone with impunity “if they felt threatened!” This is why the National Guard was created.

The National Guard on the Tren Maya: Photo: Vicky Hamlin

AMLO had four goals for the National Guard: to create jobs; to centralize the police force with the president as leader; to provide social services (for example, natural disaster aid) and to enable the people to live in security. The National Guard no longer enters a community like an invading army; they come to help the people. The fact is, Mexico is less “militarized” than during the PRI years.

Has it worked? Violence remains high. In six years, it was not possible for AMLO to dismantle such large, rich, and experienced multinational drug enterprises. But it’s also true that AMLO leaves office with an 80% approval rating. Ordinary Mexicans feel a difference. They are optimistic and feel they are part of the change.

President Claudia Sheinbaum appointed Omar García Harfuch as Secretary of Security. Some say he’s involved in covering up the disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students.

But Sheinbaum and Harfuch must reopen and reorganize the Ayotzinapa case free of the corruption surrounding it. The community must be present at every step of a new investigation so that everything is transparent.

AMLO’s constitutional amendment to put the National Guard under the Department of Defense just passed. The National Guard was considered a civilian organization. Doesn’t this now give the military a dangerously large role in the Mexican government?

Mexico’s relationship with its military is not like in the US.The Mexican revolution was not made by the elite or the capitalist class. It was a peasant and worker revolution that culminated in the Constitution of 1917, where it is written that sovereignty resides in the people and that the people command! Something that horrifies capital.

The Mexican military troops are not elites, and they vote left. In all past elections, from vote counts in areas where the military is housed, the progressive candidates Cárdenas, AMLO and Sheinbaum won.

Using the army for public works is not militarization. It’s labor to support development in an impoverished country with a scandalous external debt. It’s similar to how Europe rebuilt itself after WWII or Vietnam did after liberation.

Public entities can build faster and cheaper. The Tulum airport, Dos Bocas oil refinery, the Mayan Train, and other major infrastructure projects were all completed on time and within budget, providing jobs for local people. Various government departments planned and carried out the work together so that environmental, social, and economic aims could be coordinated and met. If the work had been awarded to profit hungry private contractors as during the neoliberal period, this would not have been true. When the market rules, looting and corruption are the results.

Tren Maya: Cuartoscuro/ Presidencia

Massive social resistance to narco-liberalism catapulted AMLO and Sheinbaum to power. The people rose up to end the catastrophe of plunder and death they have long endured. They now have the opportunity to reorganize and build an alternative to the dictates of empires.

If Trump Wins, Prepare to Defend Mexico

The US presidential election is less than two weeks away, and all the polls show a very close race. If Donald Trump wins, he will make good on his promises to terrorize immigrants. In his campaign, he’s primarily singled out Mexicans, characterizing them as murderers, rapists and drug smugglers — an inferior race “degrading the blood” of the US — language straight out of the Nazi playbook.

If Trump wins, resistance will come first in those communities most directly affected. Strong solidarity must be organized in other social movements — labor, women, civil liberties, environment. But we must also support the government of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. She will face enormous pressure from a Trump administration to collaborate in his ethnic cleansing campaign.

Trump has promised to establish detention centers along the US-Mexico border to hold the millions of potential deportees. Most of them will be Mexican, and Trump will require Mexico to deal with this huge influx, or face powerful economic pressures that could significantly damage the Mexican economy and place the progressive domestic program of President Sheinbaum at risk.

These possible events place a great responsibility on those working to build solidarity between the US and Mexico’s social movements that elected Sheinbaum and the Morena Party in Mexico. The Mexican movements must make clear now that they’ll support President Sheinbaum in opposing Trump’s horrendous ethnic cleansing pogrom as a violation of international law and Mexican sovereignty.

And US social movements must prepare to defend Mexico and the Sheinbaum administration as it stands up to Trump’s fascist plans. We must intensify our efforts to connect social movements across borders, particularly organized labor.

Presidents AMLO and now Sheinbaum have addressed the migration crisis in a positive way. Instead of punitive measures, they have already bettered the lives of millions of poor and working class Mexicanos, reducing their need to emigrate to the US by upwards of 50%.

As the great African leader Samora Machel said, “Internationalism is strategy, not charity.” This November, a Trump victory will make more essential than ever our solidarity with Mexico and other nations oppressed and threatened by US imperialism — that’s a critical part of our strategy to build a new world based on peace, equality, democracy, and self-determination. Si Se Puede!

Recent news reports and commentaries, from progressive and mainstream media,
on life and struggles on both sides of the US-Mexico border. Compiled by Jay Watts.

Ralph Jennings, China’s Mexico investment may dwarf official figures, with estimated US$13 billion in play South China Morning Post. Despite fear-mongering from the north, partnerships between China and Mexico present a substantial opportunity for the country to further develop its domestic market and become a key player in further Latin American economic integration.

Alejandro De la Garza, Vida y obra de García Luna Sin Embargo. “El libro aporta piezas definitivas al enorme rompecabezas del crimen organizado en México durante los doce años de las presidencias panistas de Vicente Fox y Felipe Calderón”.

Carolyn Thompson, A former DEA agent is convicted of protecting drug traffickers Associated Press. The case cast a harsh light on the DEA’s supervision of agents amid a string of corruption scandals at the agency, including the little-reported firing of the DEA’s Mexico chief agent, Nicholas Palmeri, last year.

Carolyn Thompson, Exagente de la DEA es declarado culpable de proteger a narcotraficantes Los Angeles Times. El caso arroja una luz negativa al proceso de supervisión de agentes de la DEA, en medio de una serie de escándalos de corrupción en la agencia.

Jack Herrera, The Border Crisis Won’t Be Solved at the Border Texas Monthly. The real reason Texas can’t (won’t) control its border: it needs the migrants too badly. So instead politicians engage in border theater.

Luciana Oliver Barragán, “No somos socios, somos trabajadores” Pie de Página. La nueva propuesta de reforma para formalizar el empleo de los repartidores por aplicación muestra avances en la dignificación de las condiciones de trabajo de las personas trabajadoras. ¿Será suficiente? Estas son sus historias

Timothy A. Wise, The U.S.-Mexico Trade War Over Modified Corn Heats Up Truthdig. If the U.S. government was hoping a new president would weaken Mexico’s resolve to ban the cultivation and consumption of genetically modified corn, those hopes have been dashed.

Georgina Saldierna, Nueva central obrera dará beneficios verdaderos a los asalariados: Gómez Urrutia La Jornada. Si bien en los últimos seis años se pudo revertir la política antilaboral de administraciones pasadas, dijo que en vísperas de un futuro globalizado y con la recolocación de empresas en México, estamos llamados a tener una respuesta organizada y sólida.

Jose Olivares, Bush-Era CIA Torture Official Says Convicted Mexican Former Drug Czar is Innocent Drop Site. The now-sentenced García Luna began his law-enforcement career in the late 1980s as an agent with the Center for National Security and Investigation, Mexico’s internal intelligence agency, focused on fighting left-wing guerrillas in the country.

Claudia Sheinbaum buscará prohibir que los legisladores tengan contratos con el gobierno El Chamuco. “Mi opinión es que ningún legislador debe tener contratos con el gobierno, hay que buscar si podemos legislar en torno a ello”, respondió la mandataria.

The Mexico Solidarity Project brings together activists from various socialist and left organizations and individuals committed to worker and global justice. We see the 2018 election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador as president of Mexico as a watershed moment. AMLO and his progressive Morena party aim to end generations of corruption, impoverishment, and subservience to US interests. Our Project supports not just Morena, but all Mexicans struggling for basic rights, and opposes US efforts to undermine organizing and Mexico’s national sovereignty.

Editorial Board: Courtney Childs, Pedro Gellert, Victoria Hamlin, Agatha Hinman, Bruce Hobson, Meizhu Lui. To give feedback or get involved yourself, please email us!

Web page and application support for the Mexico Solidarity Project from NOVA Web Development, a democratically run, worker-owned and operated cooperative focused on developing free software tools for progressive organizations.