In following a link from Chirol's latest post (on the possibility of a sudden collapse of the Mexican state) I came across another article about a vigilante group that promises to kill one criminal every 24 hours in an effort to bring crime under control in the city of Juarez.
A group calling itself the Comando Ciudadano por Juárez, or the Juárez Citizens Command, is claiming it will kill a criminal every 24 hours to bring order to the violent crime-plagued city.As the Mexican state's authority continues to crumble it's not hard to imagine a mass realignment of citizen loyalties away from the state and into smaller enclaves that provide security and a semblance of normality in light of the states failure to do so. Five years (just to toss a number out there) from now we might see a fragmented Mexico with a shrunken state mass centered on Mexico city and the rest of the country a fragmented myriad of virtual city-states or even smaller tribe like entities with competing affiliations. These affiliations could fall in three distinct categories. Pro-government, pro-cartel, or completely independent. Another five years and they might coalesce into larger, competing and warring mini-states each vying for control of the motherland.
The announcement of the supposed group was the first known case of possible organized vigilantism in Juárez as police and the military have been apparently unable to stop a plague of killings and other crimes.
"Better the death of a bad person than that they continue to contaminating our region," the news release stated in Spanish.
The supposed group issued a news release via e-mail stating it is nonpartisan and funded by businessmen fed up with crime.
The group, also calling itself the CCJ, said it would issue a manifesto in the coming days and would set up a system where residents can electronically send information about criminals.
"Our mission is to terminate the life of a criminal every 24 hours ... The hour has come to stop this disorder in Juárez," the CCJ stated.
The announcement comes as Juárez struggles with a wave of homicides, extortions, carjackings, robberies and other crimes that began last year. Business people, teachers, medical professionals and others were targeted by extortionists in the last year as crime surged due in a part to a war between drug cartels. There were more than 1,600 homicides in Juárez last year.
Just for kicks, imagine two decades from now the US is brokering a two (or three) state solution not in the Middle East but along our own southern border in an effort to calm sectarian violence in our own border towns in cities and stem the tide of refugees flowing across the Rio Grande. Good times.
3 comments:
Los Pepes, anyone?
This Mexican thing's been going on forever and climaxing near as long. So we ask, how becomes it that the cognoscenti now begin to, and at this, "cluster"? The failing state nature of Mexico is old news. The delayed clustering of the wize b newer, imho. Comment?
I don't know that the failing state nature is quite old news. Mass corruption within a semi-failed state may be. Perhaps mass corruption had thus far been holding the state together in a semi-failed fashion and Calderon's take it to 'em approach is taking the old guard apart at the seams and causing one hella backlash in cartel violence which in turn is making a mockery of state security/authority which in turn is causing fragmentation as the already tiny mainstay populace (professional class) head for less violent pastures leaving behind large and crumbling population centers (like Tijuana; I spent some time on the Baja ten years ago. Today I'd sooner vacation in the SWAT then set foot in Tijuana.)
This is not, imho, business as usual in Mexico.
As for the delayed clustering, I spent the first few posts I've done on the Mexico mess wondering where the hell the wize were. That they've finally arrived on the late bus is likely due to; bad news is good news and a smaller portion really want this mess addressed by our new messiah in chief.
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