Soldiers of God or Soldiers of Mexico?
By Diego Martín Velázquez Caballero
In these last dates has discussed the balance of the war against drug trafficking implemented by President Felipe Calderón and its consequences for the country during these years. The results are daunting. Not only has the power of organized crime groups increased, but also the institutions of the Mexican State have reached the limit of their operation. The Failed State is normality in the new times. For this reason, the Secretary of Defense has considered it appropriate to take a contemptuous look at human rights and negotiate the role of the Armed Forces in order to reduce the scarce guarantees and resources that the population of our country has. Denisse Dresser, the best politician in the country, calls this circumstance a coup d'état.
Traditionally, the Army has had minimal respect for the rights that the Mexican Constitution dictates. It is true that the war has been complicated for the Armed Forces and that narcoterrorism reaches levels that, rather, require the presence of blue helmets and international forces. However, the Defense Minister forgets that this war is due to structural causes and the need for public policies that the country's government has failed to meet several years ago.
The military view on the problem of drug trafficking in Mexico eludes several elements. First, it is important to say that the power and economic capacity of criminal groups obey the demand and negotiation that the government of the United States of America makes to regulate the flow of drugs that it consumes. In this corruption plays a preponderant role the Mexican political class. Second, it is necessary to highlight the fact that, the level of violence that reaches society in our territory, corresponds to the level of poverty. Drug trafficking and organized crime are the most important employers facing a situation of marginality and scarcity for which political representatives of all parties are directly responsible. Finally, it should be pointed out the old Latin American custom that the security and military apparatus have to violate human rights.
The problem with the affirmations that are made from SEDENA, as well as the approval of the political-business class with them, is that we want to revive the Dirty War of the 60s and 70s of the last century. With such a decision, the scarce institutionality of Mexican democracy is completely shattered and the vision of a Failed State that the conservative sectors want is consolidated. The arguments of General Salvador Cienfuegos are paralleled by the ideas of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Fernando Gutiérrez Barrios and Miguel Nazar Haro: the use of extreme violence to save the country from an imaginary enemy. By the way, these are the favorite ideas of the Mexican ultra-right to justify all kinds of barbarism that save their dominions.
The Ministry of Defense loses sight of the geopolitical vision that at the moment affects the country. Mexico is on the verge of serious conflict with the United States of America. If the general remembers some historical facts: the loss of Texas, the invasion of 1847, 1914 and 1916 - among others - he should understand that, against Donald Trump, the armed forces should be recruiting soldiers and preparing the structures to support a situation delicate.
If we want to reduce the level of violence caused by drug trafficking and organized crime, what is necessary is to legalize narcotics, transfer them and demand compliance with social policies to reduce poverty, as well as the enormous corruption of the public apparatus. What reason is more significant in the situation that causes the death of soldiers: drug trafficking or corruption of a political-business oligarchy willing to mortgage everything in the country to continue the business of the moches?
The Mexican ultra-right thinks that, as in 1941, the government of the United States will allow a fascist alliance for the development of capitalism and the destruction of social movements. False. There is no trend that marks the need to create Anti-Communist Federations or White Brigades. The Dirty War would not be implemented against drug trafficking groups - ultimately led by the Mexican and American political classes - but as a measure of control over social, university, indigenous, workers, peasants, women and alternative movements.
The Dirty War serves to deny atrocities in the name of order. Any order. Nazism, Communism, Francoism, Pinochet, etc., used the dirty war to exalt their order. Thus the Mexican ultra-right denies on October 2, 1968, the massacres of guerrillas and peasants at the throughout the country. And all for what? Does the Ministry of Defense forget the dark link of the political security apparatus with the transfer of drugs and contraband precisely in those years? What was not the far right the most benefit of this scenario? Once the country is destroyed, it is given to North America to recompose things. As Francisco Franco did before Eisenhower. Grant the territory for the United States to play its War games, for example, the Merida Initiative. However, the scenario has changed. The Mexican ultra-right does not understand that it does not understand. There is neither, nor was there a world order. Only in their historical negationism do they imagine constructors of a liberal democratic capitalist globalization. The Holy See is more responsible for global warming than for the disarticulation of communism. What there is is a deep chaos provoked by the acceleration of a senseless modernity. The United States, as a representative of Western culture, finds itself in a moment of incoherence and loss of meaning. That is why they can react in any way. That is why it is important to retire. The Arianic decisions that guide Donald Trump will be deadly for the future. The Mexican Army must remove the burden of partisan interests to truly safeguard national sovereignty. The demand must be to purify the public ministries, police, judges and prisons. The corrupt ambition of the business political class is the one that has allowed the death of thousands of Mexicans in uniform and without uniform. The country needs an authentic justice system and not one that subjects the crimes to the supply and the demand. In few occasions they have coincided in Mexico the military and popular spirit. Only in the cardenismo the army were placed together to the people. If the Armed Forces understand the historical moment in the world they will be able to bet on the democratization of our country. On the contrary, summoning the ghost of the Dirty War is like obeying Santa Anna in San Jacinto.