March for Change

Thousands March Against Violence in Northern Mexico

Well my fellow loyal readers of Borderland Beat, I been real busy with other projects but I have not forgotten about you all. I love you all!

I am working on a piece, it has to do with some recent murders in the state of Tamaulipas, where some sicarios were killed and it is shaping to be some hits by cartel that have come in from other states to mingle in the activities in the Northeast Mexican border states. I see that to be the reason for the escalation of violence here, and it seems to be getting out of control more and more.

But in the mean time there was a protest march, because some of the people are just tired of all the suffering and most of you may not know this, but some of the gente here are starting to fight back and mobilizating in a peaceful way. But I think if things don't change soon, expect to see a huge movement apprising to force change, and I hope Borderland Beat is up front and reporting every moment of it.

Instead of analyzing the so call "strategy of the drug war" to death, how about instead having some damn compassion and common sense for a change, how is that for a concept, eh? Like someone said it in one of the comment section of this blog, "we deserve better." But the "pueblo" can't withstand this much longer, the sufering is just too much! An example of this was the march this weekend.

Northeastern Mexican Sates Region – Some 4,000 people took to the streets of the northern Mexican city of Monterrey and the Gulf city of Tampico over the weekend to protest violence and demand more security, organizers said.

About 3,000 students and professors from the institute of technology marched Sunday in Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo Leon state, to demand changes in the current security policy.

The academic community at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, known as Monterrey Tech and considered Mexico’s leading private university, was protesting against the wave of drug-related violence that has rocked Mexico.

Monterrey Tech students Jorge Antonio Mercado Alonso and Javier Francisco Arredondo Verdugo were killed last month when army troops entered the campus in pursuit of suspected drug cartel gunmen during a wild chase through the streets of Monterrey, which is home to many of Mexico’s leading industrial companies.

Institute officials released a proposal for dealing with crime in Mexico at the end of the march.

The document calls for crafting a crime policy that lays out an integrated approach for dealing with drug trafficking, people smuggling, arms trafficking and money laundering.

Monterrey Tech’s proposal also calls for soldiers and marines accused of crimes against civilians during security operations to be tried by civilian courts.

“It is necessary for (soldiers) to have a legal framework that allows them to be efficient at their tasks and to respect individual guarantees, human rights and international treaties,” the document said.

Monterrey Tech called for judicial reforms and a unified police command in Mexico’s states, as well as for the creation of a national police force.

About 1,000 members of the Francisco Villa Popular and Peasants Front took to the streets in Tampico, a port city in neighboring Tamaulipas state, to demand peace and urge residents to avoid getting caught up in mass hysteria amid a wave of violence that has left dozens dead in the past few months.

“Tamaulipas is dealing with problems never before seen, they are trying to steal our freedom, our peace. Tamaulipas is ours, we were born here, we live here,” the group’s leader, Ausencio Eng Miranda, said.

Tamaulipas has been rocked by a wave of violence unleashed by drug traffickers battling for control of smuggling routes into the United States.

The violence has intensified in Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon since the appearance in Monterrey in February of giant banners heralding an alliance of the Gulf, Sinaloa and La Familia drug cartels against Los Zetas, a band of Mexican special forces deserters turned hired guns.

After several years as the armed wing of the Gulf cartel, Los Zetas went into the drug business on their own account and now control several lucrative territories.

The cartels arrayed against Los Zetas blame the group’s involvement in kidnapping, armed robbery and extortion for discrediting “true drug traffickers” in the eyes of ordinary Mexicans inclined to tolerate the illicit trade as long as the gangs stuck to their own unwritten rule against harming innocents.

Mexico has been plagued in recent years by drug-related violence blamed on powerful cartels.

Last year, according to the El Universal newspaper, was the deadliest in Mexico in the past decade, with 7,724 people killed in violent incidents attributed to organized crime groups.

So far this year, drug-related violence has claimed the lives of more than 2,500 people, the daily says.

President Felipe Calderon, who took office in December 2006, has deployed 50,000 soldiers and 20,000 federal police nationwide to combat drug cartels and other criminal organizations.

The anti-drug operation, however, has failed to put a dent in the violence due, according to experts, to drug cartels’ ability to buy off the police and even high-ranking officials.

Categories: mexico, politics