Often self-deprecating, Mexico, which is "too far from heaven and too close to the United States," has long been plagued by organized crime at home. In November 2019, in Mexico, there was a tragic murder of nine U.S. citizens by drug trafficking organizations, and then US President Trump tweeted that US troops be sent into Mexico to suppress bandits, "with the army against the army", which was politely and embarrassingly rejected by the Mexican government.
But recently, Mexican organized crime has become more serious, and it has really spawned a civilian armed confrontation with drug cartels that resemble an army, putting the Mexican government in an even more awkward position.
The "machete" shines into reality, and the indigenous people are dissatisfied with the government's inability to sweep away drugs and seize towns
In 2007, Hollywood ghost directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez teamed up to make a film full of imagination and bad taste, "The Execution Chamber.". Rodriguez brought in his cousin Danny Tejo and played a fierce-faced character who fought Mexican drug dealers with two machetes, "Machetes", as an "Easter egg" in the movie.
Hollywood's "machete" image. (Stills from the movie "Machete", picture from Douban)
The character, which brought together American stereotypes of Mexico, became so popular that Hollywood made two more films featuring "Machetes" as a pop culture symbol. And recently, Mexico has really sprung up with an organization under the name of "machete" to fight drug dealers.
The real-life Machete organization is active in Chiapas, the southernmost point of Mexico and the furthest state of the United States, next to Guatemala and Belize. It is also home to one of the most concentrated indigenous mexican states, and there are many famous Mayan ruins.
According to local media reports, the members of the machete organization are mainly local indigenous people, and they accuse the "Democratic Revolution Party" and the criminal organization "Los Herreras", which is the dominant party in the local political circles, in fact, "two brands, one set of centaurs.". Gang members would force people to vote for the party's candidates at gunpoint during elections, and indigenous organizations believed that many indigenous people were killed by gangs before the election in order to "stand up" in the election. They petitioned Mexican authorities to search the PDP's facilities in a local town called Pantejo, but the local police refused on the grounds that there was no search warrant.
The "machete" organization in reality. (Image from social media)
Subsequently, the Machete Organization was announced, and in July this year, hundreds of members of the Machete Organization rushed into Pantalho, arrested and took away more than 20 people, and burned more than 10 houses. They accused the individuals of being members of drug-trafficking organizations or local officials in collusion with drug-trafficking organizations. From video images posted on social media by local media and the Machete group itself, the machete members involved in the town carried guns, hammers and crowbars with them and set on fire the houses of members of the "drug trafficking group" with gasoline.
The Machete group shouted at Mexican President Lopez after occupying city hall: "We know you see what's happening here, if you don't want to stand with the indigenous people, don't fight us." In another manifesto circulating online, the Machete group likened itself to David and the criminal group to the giant Goliath, claiming that the city was only to expel "killers, drug dealers and criminal organizations."
The day after the Machetes occupied the town, there was a brief exchange of fire with Mexican military police who had come to restore order, and 9 soldiers and policemen were injured. The incident ended with the active retreat of the Machete Organization.
"Civil society organizations" are in constant conflict with drug dealers, and the government's role is awkward
The machetes' actions embarrassed Mexican President Lopez. López later stated that he opposed all acts of the "vigilantes" and accused the machete group of possible "political conspiracies" behind it.
Mexicans have a long history of self-defense, and the history of civilian self-government arming is even as old as that of the entire country. Former President Nieto has taken a tough stance against criminal groups during his tenure, and the central government has worked high-profile with local armed groups to combat drug cartels. But after that, several local armed forces were accused of being infiltrated by drug cartels or dabbling in drug trafficking themselves, which dealt a blow to the Nieto government. López, who took office in 2018, called allowing civilian armed forces to grow bigger was a "mistake I won't make again."
Instead, López has shown a soft posture toward criminal groups, arguing that the best way to combat organized crime is to eliminate corruption and address the root causes of poverty, with the slogan "Embrace, don't bullets." However, vicious crimes in Mexico continue to emerge. After the outbreak of the epidemic, the unemployment population in Mexico has soared, which has provided fertile soil for the development of criminal organizations.
According to the Mexican Chinese Times, a few days ago, Mexico's largest drug cartel called "Jalisco New Generation Cartel", referred to as CJNG, posted a video on social media to issue death threats to The famous Mexican TV news anchor Ouresti, on the grounds that the host interviewed a local autonomy armed force that was opposed to the organization and "favored" the other side.
Threatening videos posted by CJNG members on social media. (Social Media Screenshot)
CJNG members said in the video that the other party claimed to be a self-defense force against drug cartels, but in fact did the same business as them: "The self-defense organization in your (Ouresti) mouth is actually a drug dealer, can anyone but a drug dealer afford so many armed personnel?" The civilian militant, which is hostile to CJNG and known as the Grupos de autodefensa comunitaria, is Mexico's largest civilian militant in opposition to drug cartels. Some of its secondary organizations have been accused of having ties with drug cartels, and some have even been accused of being "undercover" installed by CJNG itself to cover up drug trafficking and fight competitors.
Local media analysis said that Mexico has long been considered one of the most dangerous countries for journalists, and it is not uncommon to see cases of black journalists being killed. But the vast majority of the journalists killed before were from local media, and Uresti, who was threatened and hunted down this time, was a pillar-level host of Mexico's national television station, had a news column named after himself, and hosted a Mexican presidential election debate. This is even a big deal for the Mexican gangsters who have always been lawless.
CJNG's blatant provocations have embarrassed the Mexican government. Mexican President Lopez Lopez has assigned a cabinet official specifically responsible for Uresti's safety, but concerns remain about his life.
As of press time, Ulysti is still hosting news programs normally. (Social Media Screenshot)
Last June, CJNG dispatched dozens of "paramilitaries" armed with automatic weapons, grenade launchers and .50 sniper rifles to attack the Mexico City police chief. The director himself was seriously injured in a bulletproof SUV and luckily recovered his life, and two bodyguards and a passerby were killed in the attack.
What is even more shocking is that after the local media said that the Mexican police arrested more than 20 gunmen, only to find that these people are not the elite killers of CJNG, but the newly recruited minions, which are essentially a bunch of "consumables". The group's truly elite forces may still be focused on dealing with other criminal groups and local self-government forces.
The "consumption upgrade" of the United States has forced out the "gangster monster"
Mexican civilian armed forces, drug trafficking organizations and police "three countries killing" intensified, the reason is that in addition to the epidemic caused by the Mexican economy to be sluggish, unemployment has risen, and more importantly, the "consumption upgrade" of American addicts has directly changed the gangster ecology in Mexico.
As we all know, the United States is the world's largest consumer of drugs. The U.S. media "Daily Beast" pointed out that as U.S. addicts turned to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, heroin use in the United States fell sharply. Led by the US pharmaceutical giant Purdue, "drug dealers in tuxedos" have encouraged American doctors to prescribe opioid painkillers such as oxycodone and fentanyl, squeezing out the living space of black market heroin. Opium prices plummeted in many parts of Mexico, sometimes by as much as 90 percent.
CJNG members took high-profile videos on social media to showcase their military-like armaments. (Social Media Screenshot)
CJNG was able to become the winner in the internecine slaughter of Mexican gangsters, occupying the largest "market share" and seizing this change. Traditional drug cartels rely on the cultivation of illegal crops such as poppies and coca trees, and government forces will directly use aircraft to sow pesticides to destroy them, while drug cartels will introduce heavy machine guns, shoulder-mounted anti-aircraft missiles and other "heavy firepower" to fight. Although this type of criminal group is difficult to deal with, Mexico is more of a production base for them, and the so-called "evil party" is mostly retaliation from the anti-drug department and collateral damage to the fight between peers.
In the process of CJNG's rise, it regards the port as its core "territory". Imported raw materials are smuggled through ports to make addictive substances such as fentanyl, and then smuggled through ports to the United States. The Daily Beast, citing researchers, pointed out that the "consumption upgrade" of American addicts actually raises the threshold for criminal organizations to enter the US drug market - only a giant criminal network such as CJNG can complete the entire process of producing fentanyl and smuggling it to the United States. While smuggling fentanyl competes with prescription drugs in regular pharmacies, the mass-produced chemicals are both overwhelming for other drug dealers who also need to grow poppies to produce heroin.
Smaller, or failed criminal organizations in competition, have to be "squeezed out" into other areas, including extortion, kidnapping, gambling, prostitution, and even organ trade. The deteriorating situation of mexico's native people from suffering the "collateral harm" of the drug war to the direct "source of revenue" of criminal organizations has spawned more "machete gang"-like civilian armed organizations to confront drug cartels, and has further hollowed out the Mexican government's control over the situation.