Uprisings Taking Place “All Over Guerrero” in Mexico
Utterly pervasive and deep police and political corruption always leads to rebellion, and it's happening in Mexico now, according to Raimondo:
“The people of Tierra Colorada, in Mexico’s Guerrero province, have had enough. On March 28, 1,500 armed citizens took to the streets, set up roadblocks, and arrested local officials. Tierra Colorada sits on a major road which runs from the popular tourist city of Acapulco, less than 40 miles away, to Mexico City. Armed citizens have set up checkpoints along the road, stopping cars, taxis, and other vehicles, as well as searching homes for known criminals. They have also arrested the former mayor, the chief of police, and 12 officers. The charges: murder, and collusion with criminals. The force’s spokesman, Bruno Placido Valerio, said: “We have besieged the municipality, because here criminals operate with impunity in broad daylight, in view of municipal authorities.”
Valerio is the leader of a group that calls itself the Union of Peoples and Organizations of Guerrero (UPOEG), which began as a protest movement against exorbitant rates collected by the state electrical monopoly. As the corruption of the Mexican state causes its authority and effectiveness to deteriorate, however, UPOEG has lately taken up the responsibilities of government as they have watched the drug cartels co-opt and corrupt what passes for the local authorities in southern and eastern Mexico. The cartels have virtually taken over the entire region, murdering, looting, and abusing citizens, and they have done so with the active cooperation of the “police,” who are nothing more than another armed gang preying on innocents. When the local “police” murdered Guadalupe Quinones Carbajal, 28, local UPOEG leader, on behalf of a local criminal syndicate, the people rose up and said: Enough!
These uprising are taking place all over Guerrero, as well as in other parts of Mexico, as the central state disintegrates in a morass of corruption, criminal collusion, and chaos. With the drug cartels in virtual control of the state apparatus, including the police, the Mexican people are left on their own to fight against the wave of criminality that is sweeping the nation, leaving ordinary citizens at the mercy of murderers, extortionists, and kidnappers.
Naturally, the politicians in Mexico City are outraged: this, they claim, is “insurrection,” and UPOEG is a “guerrilla army,” a charge not at all unreasonable given the long history of guerrilla movements arising in Guerrero state. This time, however, there is a big difference: instead of seeking to overthrow the central government, UPOEG activists are simply bypassing it, and setting up their own self-defense organizations to keep some kind of order in local communities. Naturally, the authorities consider this a threat.”
How will this affect the United States? Raimondo gives an answer of sorts:
“It isn’t “our” back yard, of course: as far as the Mexicans are concerned, we’re in their back yard, and we haven’t always been the best of neighbors. The blowback from the Mexican-American war was a long time coming, but today it is practically here. What this means for the future of American foreign policy isn’t difficult to foresee. The prospect of a civil war breaking out a few miles from major American cities is likely to focus our policy wonks on the question that is supposed to be the real subject of national security studies: how best to defend the territorial integrity of the United States from foreign incursions. Forget the “Asian pivot,” or the big debate about how to best bring about peace in the Middle East – the real question of the future is how do we ensure the peace in El Paso.”
The big question that Raimondo does not pose or answer: is Mexican insurrections a reality-based scenario for what may soon take place in the US, insurrection against the US federal government, after it, on behalf of the 1%, strips all wealth and freedom from the 99%?
More: Viva Tierra Colorada!
See Also:
2011 Thinking About Revolution in the USA and Elsewhere
Graphic: Preconditions of Revolution in the USA Today
REVOLUTION 2.0 CLOSED 17 May 2011
