What in the world is happening in Mexico today? Pietro Ameglio helps explain via youtube.

Many of us who love Mexico have been extremely concerned by the news, which is full of daily accounts of violence against immigrants, disappeared women, mass murders, kidnappings, and extortion.
Two excellent short clips on youtube, by Santa Cruz-based Veremos Productions, address the crucial issue of what is happening in Mexico today
The two clips are:

and

Both are in Spanish w/English subtitles. The first is 7.01 minutes and the second is 5.37 minutes. (If you only have time for one, I suggest the second, which has more background information.)

Mexican nonviolent peace activist Pietro Ameglio explains the complexities of the "War on Drugs", power and money, in Mexico.

The first clip, Moviemento por la paz en Mexico pt. 1, addresses the murder, in March, 2011, of Juan Francisco Silicia, the son of the poet, Javier Silicia, along with six of his friends. Javier Silicia is a good friend of Pietro Ameglio, who is with the Cuernavaca-based Campaign for Peace with Justice and Dignity. Ameglio recently spoke in California of the roots of violence in Mexico and the responses to it.

Forty thousand people have been killed in Mexico in the last three and a half years. These are not all gang members. Many, like, Juan Francisco Silicia, have been innocent victims. And there are 3,000 missing people.

In the second of the clips, Ameglio gives a background to responses to the killings of innocent Mexicans. Ameglio asserts that Mexico is in the midst of a civil war. It is not simply a matter of the government versus the drug traffickers- the good guys versus the bad guys- because government, business, the Mexican Army, and even police, are intertwined with drug trafficking. Ameglio says that it is naïve to assume that the Mexican government is at war with the drug traffickers. The real fight is not over “pacification” of the drug lords: the fight is about who is going to control drug trafficking. The real issue is which gang will corner the market on a very lucrative business.

Drug trafficking is not just a domestic problem; it’s an international problem, since money is laundered internationally, and drugs flow internationally as well.

In Mexico, drug traffickers control neighborhoods, sometimes entire cities, and large portions of states (such as Michoacan).

The cartels, in addition to transporting and selling drugs, garner at least half of their money through organized crime via the following means:

-Through extortion. In many parts of Mexico, nearly all businesses have to pay a weekly “tax” to cartels.

-Through abductions, kidnappings, and “express” kidnappings (of a few hours).

- Through involvement in child prostitution.

-Through trafficking in immigrants. (In the last six months, there have been 10,000 immigrant kidnappings.)

-Through the piracy of goods and the adulteration of alcoholic beverages
Before 2000, according to Ameglio, the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party of Mexico, which had been in control since the end of the Mexican Revolution in the 1920’s) had a monopoly of control. Since that time, when other parties have taken power in Mexico. there has been a striking erosion of human rights. Those in power contact one of the major gangs, for example the Zetas, and have the gang eliminate or stifle those who criticize the government, including environmental activists and representatives of indigenous organizations.
This entire situation has created, in ordinary citizens, a sense of helplessness, because there is no one to turn to in the face of this violence. In response to this helplessness, ordinary Mexican citizens are mobilizing.

On June 10, 2011, a peace tour throughout Mexico gathered in Ciudad Juarez, the most dangerous city in Mexico (and the place where hundreds of women have "disappeared.") A “Social Pact,” signed by thousands of Mexicans, called for the government to enact these reforms:
-Truth and justice

- End the war on drugs

- Fight corruption and impunity

-Fight poverty and the crime-based economy

-Implement policies to save our youth and

-Democratize politics and the media.
Ameglio concludes with,

“Nothing can grow if the foundations of justice, of peace, and of morale in the country are completely eroded and corrupted, to the degree that there’s no one to ask for justice… We have to show that civil society can promote safety without arms."

An important sector of Mexican society is now standing up and it hasn’t yet been repressed. This movement has a long row to hoe, and I hope that those of us who care about Mexico and Mexicans can find ways to aid those who are doing this crucial, nonviolent work.