For Mexico’s middle class, drug war deepens trust deficit

Throughout the country, not only are levels of trust in public institutions - government, courts, and police in particular - very low, but now even among ordinary Mexicans. As cartels shift their focus from the wealthiest Mexicans, the middle class is increasingly the target of extortion and other crimes and less trusting of neighbors and co-workers. 

Washington Post: CUERNAVACA, Mexico - By many measures, this country has made great strides in recent decades toward becoming a middle-class society, with broader access to education, consumer goods and professional careers that promise upward mobility.

And yet, while prosperity has expanded here, researchers and polling experts say Mexico remians stricken with a form of social poverty that presents a vexing obstacle to the emergence of a more developed, democratic neighbor on the southern U.S. border. 

Mexico's trust gap is considered especially threatening as the country struggles to keep the corrupting powers of billionaire drug cartels from further undermining democracy and the rule of law. If Mexicans don't trust police and political leaders, and they're too wary of fellow Mexicans to join citizen campaigns and social movements, scholars say, there may be no one left to turn to. Read more. 

Drug War Bloodshed: Mutilated bodies of four students found in central Mexico

Reuters/chicagotribune.com: " Police found on Thursday the mutilated bodies of four teenagers inside plastic bags dumped on a street in a residential area of Cuernavaca, a weekend retreat 84 kilometres (52 miles) south of Mexico City. The state attorney's office said a threatening message against an unnamed criminal group was found near the bodies of the male students, aged 13 to 17." read more

MexicoBlog Editorial: Reflections on the Caravan to the South of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity

A U.S. friend recently wrote in response to seeing the photo album of the Caravan to the South of Mexico organized by the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity, led by the poet and social critic, Javier Sicilia. He had a number of questions about the Caravan and its outcomes: Do you think the tour achieved what it wanted to achieve? Do you think the tour had any affect on the Government? Did the Government acknowledge the tour at all? Here is our response: 

Dear Friend,

I thank you for your questions. They give me an opportunity to organize and reflect on my own observations and learnings from my experience with the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity and its September Caravan to the South of Mexico.

The primary intent of the Caravan to the South, as I experienced and observed it along the way, was to expand the Movement, making it truly national in scope by connecting it with local organizations throughout the south of Mexico. Together with the prevous Caravan to the North in June, it was weaving a web of connections and activist alliances across all of Mexico, something that I understand to be rare in the country.

The Caravan to the North, which I didn't go on, was more focused on the destruction done by the drug war, since that is more concentrated in the north. It became known as "the Caravan of Consolation," because the testimony of victims, people who had lost family in the drug war, became the central dynamic of its rallies. Also, there are active drug war opposition groups in Ciudad Juarez and there were--and continue to be--differences over goals and strategy between these more militant groups and the Sicilia Movement. The Juarez group, whose city has been most brutally affected by the war and the Mexican army and federal police, want both forces withdrawn, which is now actually happening.

Groups with other agendas attached themselves to the Caravan from its beginning. For example, for over two years, the Mexican Electricans Union in Mexico City has been protesting Calderon's take-over of the government-run electric company in the center of the city, with plans to privatize it. The union had representatives on the northern Caravan and on the southern one. There was a big group present in the Zocalo square when we returned to Mexico City. 

The green and yellow flags are those of the Electricians Union.

A big question for the Movement has been how to balance the focus on the drug war--especially on the victims, including Sicilia himself, who are the major emotional force driving the Movement--while expanding and welcoming other groups protesting other aspects of Mexican government corruption, impunity and abuse of rights. Sicilia places the anti-drug war movement in this larger context of the government's failure to fulfill its responsibility to protect its citizens. For example, the Movement is calling for a citizen focused "public security law" in place of the miltary oriented one that Calderon has presented to Congress and which is currently being debated there.

Sicilia is a poet, Christian mystic and pacifist, influenced by Gandhi, who seeks to confront his opponents with the truth spoken in love. He sees the person and teachings of Jesus as a model, referring often to the words of Jesus about loving one's enemies. He literally embraces and kisses government representatives as well as compañeros in the Movement. Therefore, he has sought and attended a series of "dialogue" meetings with Calderon and other government leaders to address the security law, create a truth commission to investigate drug war deaths (which almost totally go without real investigation), gain compensation and support for victims and other goals .

Javier Sicilia

However, in the last dialogue meeting, Friday. Oct. 14, Calderon basically stonewalled the Movement people, saying that he is sticking to his guns, literally, and rejecting creation of a truth commission. Instead, Calderon recently unilaterally announced the creation of a Social Care Office for Victims of Crime to "unite and structure all the actions currently being taken on behalf of the victims." The Movement questions whether this will be any more effective than the already ineffective government efforts. I don't know, as of now, how the Movement will proceed regarding further dialogues.

As for government awareness of the Caravan, we were accompanied throughout the trip by federal police. State and local police accompanied the Caravan through their respective jurisdictions. However, interestingly, the federales and state police disappeared in Tabasco and Sicilia's car was actually accosted by masked men near Villahermosa. The press was present and began filming them, so they disappeared without incident. Sicilia notified the federal government and the next day, going through Veracruz, there were federales all over the place.

On the Caravan to the South, each stop was organized by local groups. They organized the marches and rallys. They also provided food--lots of tortas (sandwiches of ham and American cheese and mayonaise on rolls), tamales of various kinds--some exceptionally delicious, frijoles (beans) and lots of coffee, fresh fruit and water. They also provided a place to sleep, usually the floor of an auditorium, community center, church or school, with toilet facilities of various levels of serviceabililty.

These local groups have a great variety of political purposes, depending on the local situation. For example, in Acapulco, where there are many deaths from the cartels, there were local "victims," relatives of people killed or missing, who spoke. But there were also indigenous people protesting seizures of their land, a long-standing issue in Mexico.

Indigenous group from the mountains of Guererro State

In Xalapa, Veracruz, there have also been many deaths due to the drug war, so that was the focus.

Pretty much everywhere, there were protests against local and state government corruption, either as part of the drug war or in general, as in Villahermosa, Tabasco State. In Villahermosa, there was also an indigenous group protesting a dam that had caused flooding of their lands. In Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, another indigenous group was protesting a Canadian factory that processes gypsum and pollutes their village with its powder. 

"We are up to the mother (we've had it) with those that inundate us!"

In Oaxaca and Chiapas, where there has been little direct drug war mayhem, indigenous groups were predominant. Sicilia has been carrying on a public exchange of letters with Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatistas in Chiapas about their differing views of political reform--pacifist vs. militant. So he and other Movement representatives sought and obtained a meeting with the Zapatistas (Subcomandante Marcos did not attend) and with a pacifist group that suppports the Zapatista reforms, called "the Abejas," the Bees, forty-five of whose members had been massacred in Acteal in 1997. 

"The war in Chiapas isn't against the narco, it is against the indigenous Zapatista pueblos"

Near the Guatemala border, migrant support groups were predominant. One in Ixtepec, Oaxaca, in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, led by Father Alejandro Solalinde, is frequently written about in the U.S. press. We spent the night hosted by the shelter there.

Migrant Shelter of Ixtepec

So just about every grassroots issue in southern Mexico was represented. One group, I forget where, was carrying red communist flags with the hammer and sickle. It was quite an education to see all this diversity of political movements. 

Che Guevara and Emiliano Zapata live!

Evidently, all of them were attracted to the Caravan because they see it--and the charismatic power of Javier Sicilia's leadership and consequent media attention--as a means to bring visibility to their causes, both in their local press and nationally. There was much coverage in the local press of each state and more than a hundred press on the Caravan buses. 

These journalists were mostly from the "alternative" and "independent" media, twenty-somethings from Mexico, other Latin American countries, the U.S. and Europe. They, as well as many of the younger compañeros, wore long hair, earrings, tatoos and sandals. I actually felt right at home, as if  I were back in the sixties protesting for civil rights or against the Vietnam War. 

Whack-a-mole Drug War: Killer, 15, Is Sentenced in Drug Case in Mexico

Killer, 15, Is Sentenced in Drug Case in Mexico - NYTimes.com: "A 15-year-old whom the authorities had accused of beheading four men as a hired killer for a drug cartel, highlighting the pull of young people into organized crime, was convicted on Tuesday and sentenced to three years in prison.

The arrest in December of the teenager, Edgar Jiménez Lugo, who went by the nickname “El Ponchis,” a reference to his pudgy build as a younger child, shocked the nation because of the gruesome nature of the crimes and his youth. He was 14 when the murders occurred."

Whack-a-mole Drug War: US Teen Accused of Being a Drug Cartel Hitman on Trial in Mexico

US Teen Accused of Being a Drug Cartel Hitman on Trial in Mexico | Americas | English: "A teenaged boy accused of being a drug cartel hitman has gone on trial in Mexico. Edgar Jimenez Lugo, who was born in the United States, is charged with killing and mutilating four people. "

Movement for Peace with Justice: Mexico peace tour: How the drug war changed once-calm Cuernavaca

Mexico peace tour: How the drug war changed once-calm Cuernavaca - CSMonitor.com: "Cuernavaca quickly became the center of a nationwide movement, led by Mr. Sicilia, demanding the end of Mr. Calderón's anti-drug policies. “We have had it up to here” became the movement's slogan, together with “No More Bloodshed.” In early May, a march from Cuernavaca to Mexico City culminated in a massive event in Mexico City's Zócalo, or main square.

People across the country started naming their victims, many of whom had gone unnamed all along, often archived by the police as victims of internal settling of scores between rival cartels.

After the success of May's march, Sicilia called for another trek, this time thousands of miles long, all the way from Cuernavaca to Ciudad Juarez at the border with the US, stopping in cities along the way that, like Cuernavaca, that have suddenly become flashpoints in the government's attempt to get rid of organized crime."

Whack-a-mole drug war: Mexican army arrests suspected drug boss and police ally

Mexican army arrests suspected drug boss and police ally | Reuters: "Mexican soldiers arrested a suspected drug boss and a police chief accused of protecting him on Thursday, blaming them for much of the violence terrorizing tourist towns near Mexico City.

In an early morning swoop, soldiers in black ski masks captured Victor Valdez, known as 'El Gordo Varilla' (The Big Stick), in Cuernavaca, a popular getaway south of Mexico City where drug violence is escalating.

Valdez is believed to be the second-in-command of the Cartel de Pacifico Sur (South Pacific Cartel) run by drug lord Hector Beltran Leyva, which is fighting rivals for control of Cuernavaca and the strategic Pacific resort city of Acapulco.

In a brief army presentation to reporters, Valdez said local police chief Juan Bosco helped the gang evade capture. Bosco was later arrested by soldiers in Cuernavaca, the army said."

Laura's Blog: Mexico's March Against the Drug War Demands Far-Reaching Political Reforms

Thousands of Mexicans changed the face of national and international politics May 8 in the world’s first mass protest against the drug war.

Following a four-day march from Cuernavaca to Mexico City, an estimated 90,000 protesters poured into the central plaza (see Americas Program coverage of the entire march below). The march was led by relatives of victims and convoked by the poet, Javier Sicilia, whose son was brutally assassinated in March.

Protesters in the march demanded far-reaching changes in Mexico’s security policy and an end to the “war on drugs”. In speeches and documents they also called for political reforms to go the root of the alarming deterioration in public safety and well-being since President Felipe Calderón deployed the army in an offensive against organized crime in December of 2006.

The historic demonstration presented a  “citizen’s pact” to replace the “absurd war that has cost 40,000 lives and left millions of Mexicans in fear and uncertainty”, in the words of Sicilia.

The pact demands that the victims of the recent violence be named and that their memory serve as a catalyst for restoring lasting peace with justice in Mexico. Two women directly affected by the violence and impunity that characterizes the current crisis read the pact aloud to the crowd. Olga Reyes Salazar of Ciudad Juarez lost six family members--including her sister Josefina Reyes, a prominent anti-militarization activist, her brothers Ruben and Elias, sister Magdalena, sister-in-law Luisa Ornelas and a nephew--to assassinations in the past year and a half. Not a single suspect has been apprehended in the cases. Patricia Duarte’s child was killed in a fire in the ABC daycare center. The case, unsolved after two years, has become a symbol of impunity in the country.

The six-point pact demands: 1) Resolution of the assassinations and disappearances and the naming of victims; 2) An end to the war strategy and adoption of a “citizen security” strategy; 3) Effective measures against corruption and impunity; 4) A focused attack on the economic roots and criminal revenue streams, including money laundering; 5) Immediate attention to the plight of youth and effective actions to rebuild a broken society, including reorienting the budget to education, health, culture and employment; 6) Participatory democracy.

The pact “seeks to promote a new way of living together and establish the basis of legality. The proposals are the beginning of the path, not the end.”

Sicilia, who has become the figurehead for the new movement against the drug war, called the pact “a fundamental commitment to peace with justice and dignity that allows the nation to be restored.” The mobilization, he noted, seeks to replace a government policy that “assumes that there are only two ways to confront this threat [of organized crime]: illegally administering it as was common in the past and still common in many places today, or declaring war with the army in the streets, which is happening today.

“It ignores that drugs are an historical phenomenon that… should be treated as a problem of urban sociology and public health and not as a criminal matter to be confronted with violence.”

The demonstration in downtown Mexico City capped a march of hundreds, then thousands, then tens of thousands from Cuernavaca to the Zócalo, or central plaza. Signs along the way signs expressed gratitude to Sicilia for catalyzing widespread discontent—“Gracias, Sicilia, for shaking my spirit out of lethargy, Today the people cry in unison-No More Blood!” - and opposition to the president and his policies. Indigenous communities joined students and workers, middle class professionals and artists in the protest.

Call for Change in U.S. Actions

Mexico’s new civil pact concludes with a call to Mexicans living in the U.S. and other U.S. citizens to support the movement by demanding that the U.S. government stop the flow of arms to Mexico and crack down on money laundering.

In his speech to the crowd, Sicilia also attacked U.S. policies and actions as part of the problem.

“Their multi-million dollar market for drug consumption, their banks and businesses that launder money in complicity with ours, their arms industry—more lethal than drugs, for being so evident and expansionist—whose weapons come into our country, not only strengthen criminal groups, but also provide them with an immense capacity for carnage. The United States has designed a security policy whose logic responds fundamentally to its global interests and Mexico has been trapped within it.”

In an open letter to Javier Sicilia, a group of prominent Mexican intellectuals and organizations states, “There is more and more evidence that policies and actions relative to U.S. national security have been disguised as public safety issues, under the euphemism of the joint security of both countries.

“The instruments and commitments that form part of this linkage between the two governments are the Merida Initiative, the North American Security and Prosperity Agreement, and the reorganization of the Federal Police along the lines of the U.S. Patriot Act, implemented in Mexico by the Minister of Public Security, Genaro García Luna… In effect, Mexico is not –as has been posited--a ‘failed state’ but a state that has been infiltrated to such a degree that it is losing its independence and true sovereignty.”

Signs along the march referred to the U.S. role: One showed a map of the United States and Mexico-“They provide the arms, Mexico the dead”; another read simply: “This isn’t a war; it’s a business”.

Demands for Change

In the downtown Zócalo, Sicilia called for the resignation of Security Secretary García Luna as a sign that the Calderón administration has heard the demands of the populace. He urged a profound clean-up within the political system and all political parties of those who, “disguised in legality, are in collusion with criminals and have the State’s hands tied and co-opted by using its own instruments to erode citizens’ hopes for change.

“Without an honorable cleansing of their ranks and a total commitment to political ethics, citizens will be forced to ask ourselves in the next elections which cartel to vote for.”

As thousands demanded an end to the violence in front of the National Palace, the government responded in a communiqué from the Ministry of the Interior.

“Without the permanent effort of the Mexican Army, the Navy and the Federal Police in localities with a high incidence of crime, the populations there would be subject to the will of the criminals and it would be impossible to begin to rebuild a damaged society.”

The communiqué responded indirectly to the demands of youth and other sectors represented in the march for the immediate withdrawal of the armed forces from communities across Mexico. This demand is strongest in places like Ciudad Juarez, high crime areas where much of the population has come to view the presence of the army as a factor of conflict rather than its solution.

The drug-related homicide rate went from an average of 2,000 a year before the Calderón drug war to 15,000 murders last year.

Yesterday’s massive demonstration set the terms of debate in Mexico. Tens of thousands took to the streets in Mexico City and other cities throughout the country to demand an end to the drug war model imposed by the Calderon administration with the support and encouragement of the U.S. government. They have established the outlines of a far-reaching civil pact and specific proposals to attack organized crime at the roots by addressing the failure of the political and judicial systems and the inequality, poverty and lack of full democracy that weaken society.

The response from the government has been a reaffirmation of the military strategy. There are no signs of flexibility with regard to the demands of the demonstrators and signs point to a retrenchment, as more troops are dispatched to a growing number of hot spots in the country.

The March for Peace with Justice and Dignity marks a sea change in Mexican politics. A significant part of the population has demanded an end to the drug war, identifying the security strategy itself as a major part of the problem, not part of the solution. The citizens’ pact goes beyond the fight against organized crime and puts on the table political reforms including the elimination of immunity from prosecution for government officials, real autonomy for the judicial branch, participation in referendums and plebiscites, and a focus on social programs and expansion of educational opportunities.

This clash of paradigms on security implies much more than a difference of opinion on how to fight organized crime. A little over a year before the next presidential elections and in the midst of the worst crisis in Mexico since war, citizens are taking the lead in establishing the framework for rebuilding their society on their terms.

As the pact makes clear, the first step is to demand actions from political leadership across the spectrum that indicate a willingness to clean up corruption and respond to social needs that have been building up and have come to a head in the peace movement. It defines a starting point for consructing ground-up solutions, moving beyond mere protest or opposition.

The victims remain at the moral center of the movement, while urging society to rise above the status of victimhood—as they have in leading the movement.

Javier Sicilia summed up the convictions of the marchers:

“We are here to say that we will not convert this pain in our souls into hate or more violence, but into a tool that helps to restore the love, the peace, the justice, the dignity of the ailing democracy that we are losing… To show the lords of death that we are standing up and we will not stop defending the lives of all our sons and daughters in this country, that we still believe it’s possible to rescue and rebuild our people’s society, our neighborhoods and our cities.”

Laura Carlsen

Movement for Peace with Justice: Protesters Demand End to Drug War, Calderón Digs In

Mexico's march for peace started off its first day with some 800 protesters taking to the highway on a four-day trek from Cuernavaca to Mexico City.

Cuernavaca, a large city south of the capital, has a reputation as a get-away spot with a springlike climate and blossoming bougainvilleas. Since President Felipe Calderon launched the war on drugs, and especially since the government killing of  leader of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel, it has become a hotspot for violence, with cartel-imposed curfews and military checkpoints. The assassination of the son of poet Javier Sicilia and several of his friends there on March 28 was the catalyst for the nation-wide demonstration.

In an interview en route, Sicilia said, "The justice that I demand for my son is the justice I demand for the all the 40,000 dead and all that will follow. We have to put a name to these dead, know their histories, know where they are from, how many were innocent, how many were criminals, why they became criminals, what happened to the communities they came from...

"These people aren't just 'collateral damage' or abtractions, they have families and names, the families are broken, they will never be the same. Mexico can't go on killing itself like this."

Men and women who remember the names of the victims all too well marched alongside Sicilia. One of them is Luis Rodriguez from Ciudad Juarez. Rodriguez's daughter was shot in the massacre of Villas de Salvarcar, Ciudad Juarez on January 31, 2010--another historic moment in Mexico's drug war when bereaved residents stood up and accused the president of responsibility in the violence. 

"We're here to accompany the pain and the grief of Morelos, and to protest," Rodriguez said. "Ciudad Juarez is the laboratory of the government strategy, so our mission is to go to places that haven't been through this and warn them that they have to stand up and organize. Because the government is going to the other cities and if there isn't organization, it's possible that the experience of Ciudad Juarez will be repeated."

When asked how his daughter was, Rodriguez replied, "Physically she's better now, but mentally she'll never be the same."

The Bishop of Coahuila, Raul Vera, expressed the positive aspects of a march born of grief. When asked why he joined the march, he replies, "Finally, there's a movement in Mexico that is beginning to build the society we want. We can't lose this opportuity to help out. The church can't be absent in this moment."

Vera is another strong critic of the Calderon administration's drug war strategy. "The strategy is wrong,  and it's leaving out the most important part--eliminating political corruption and finanical corruption, the foreign interests and businessmen that give them the money. If the government doesn't  put more emphasis on this part, going around using the military to shoot hitmen just means that tomorrow [the cartels] have the moeny to hire others," Bishop Vera explained. "There's no end to it with the way they are doing it now--it's just going to get worse."

Julian Contreras, an organizer from Villas de Salvarcar and member of the Plural Front of Ciudad Juarez, said, "We are in solidarity with the demand for peace with justice and dignity and we are adding our demand for the immediate demilitarization of our city and the country."

As he waited for a lunch provided by local residents, Contreras explained his motives for traveling from the northern border to participate. "By being together we lose the fear of living in fear. We're going on to Mexico City where they're are more people waiting for us. Hopefully this is just the beginning of stopping this absurd and deceitful war. Under the pretext of the war on drug-trafficking, they're exterminating the lower levels of society."

After a moment he adds, "We can't let the logic of war prevail. It's unacceptable that it's cheaper to kill the poor than to end poverty."

As marchers made their way to Mexico City to protest the administration's drug war, President Felipe Calderon directed some very pointed comments to the growing movement. In a speech commemorating the May 5th Battle of Puebla in 1862, the beleaguered president sought to defend his security policies, and in particular the use of the army in the domestic drug war.

On the defensive, he assailed his critics, "who with good or bad intentions want to see our troops withdraw, our institutions let down their guard and give these criminal groups full rein. Today I tell you this is not going to happen. Because we have the reason, the law and the force, we will win."

Secretary of Security Genaro Garcia Luna echoed Calderon's irritation with the demonstration. "It is unthinkable that civil society says that the strategy or vision or focus of attack is wrong."

The government faces off with a growing movement of mostly young people who call for an end to the war on drugs. The "We've had it" theme of the march repeats the "Enough already" cry of the indigenous Zapatista rebellion of 1994. In fact, the indigenous movement has called on supporters to join the marches.

Banners called for peace with justice and dignity and criticized the role of the U.S. in supporting Calderon's drug war; a map of North America where the U.S. bleeds into Mexico in the shape of pointed guns reads "They provide the weapons, Mexico provides the dead".

Tomorrow's march begins in the indigenous town of Coajomulco and proceeds to the outskirts of Mexico City. The blog may not be real time, because of the lack of connections on the road, but we will be be there to bring news on Day Two of Mexico's historic no more drug war protests.

Movement for Peace with Justice: Javier Sicilia: The Resurrection of the Country is the Goal of Nonviolent Insurrection

Javier Sicilia: The Resurrection of the Country is the Goal of Nonviolent Insurrection: "In the midst of a political climate that is shaping the approval of a federal security law and with it the normalization of a state of exception, social fighters gathered to propose the construction of a social pact to reorganize Mexico and reiterate that society is fed-up with the climate of violence that is pervading the country.

Javier Sicilia—joined (by leaders of other civic society organizations) —made a call for others to join a silent march that will begin May 5 in Cuernavaca and finish May 8 at the zócalo in Mexico City. This demonstration will join contingents from Ciudad Juárez, the state of Mexico, Mexico City, Guerrero, Puebla and Tlaxcala. At the moment there are 38 mobilizations set to take place in different cities throughout the country.

Movement for Peace with Justice: Mexico poet Javier Sicilia leads anger at drug violence

Mexico poet Javier Sicilia leads anger at drug violence: ""Ihave to show my face for my son's dignity, for all the sons who have died in this battle and those who will die in the future," Javier Sicilia says. ...

"What this war has done is allow the corruption of institutions which had been taking place for years to emerge, but leaving those institutions completely defenceless to face organised crime." ...

For Mr Sicilia, the conflict has reached a level that requires a more comprehensive approach to the issue - one which includes the commitment of all Mexicans.

"We need a national pact because this is an emergency, and we have to rebuild the tissue of this nation - if we do not, we are going to enter hell.""

Movement for Peace with Justice: Javier Sicilia Posts First Names on Drug War’s “Vietnam Wall”

The Field: Javier Sicilia Posts First Names on Drug War’s “Vietnam Wall”: "Together with human rights leader and Catholic priest Miguel Concha, the three family members of drug war martyrs held a press conference for about three dozen local, national and international reporters and cameramen, at which Sicilia said he and his Morelos neighbors would be hanging plaques on the Governor’s Palace with the names of 95 state residents killed in prohibition-related violence since January 1 of this year. They also read each name aloud; 95 human lives in 100 days, all those human lives in just one of Mexico’s less populous states. Family members of various were there, standing tall and silent, relieved, surprised, proud that something the regime promised them would never be allowed them happened today: a dignified memory of their fallen.

Many – your reporter, included – thought that Javier's declaration simply meant they would hang banners on the walls of the state government seat, but the plot would soon thicken as he and others took up a power tool and began to drill metal plates, the first with the name of Juan Francisco Sicilia Ortega (1987-2011) into the grey stone visage of State power, under the glare of TV network lights (including those of NNTV)." NarcoNews