“Are you coming back – now?”
I have heard the refrain several times before from friends and relatives. Usually following revelations of new drug gang atrocities -- or another of my crocodile stories.
So, I am waiting for the email and telephone calls. Today’s headline was: “Another 11 bodies found in Mexico port.”
The port is Veracruz, on the Gulf of Mexico. Two days before, 35 bodies were dumped there.
And the details surrounding the corpses are terrible. There is no silk purse hiding in this sow’s ear.
Bound. Tortured. Seminude. From everything I have heard, no decapitations were involved. Apparently, for the executioners, the quality of mercy is not strained.
The scenario should sound familiar to those of you who know your history from the American Roaring 20s. This is the type of mayhem one gang would commit against another gang over territory rights to the manufacture and distribution of alcohol.
And that is what is happening in Mexico. President Calderon’s war on drugs is a lost cause. But it has done one thing. It has turned drug lords against one another.
The word is that the recently-departed in Veracruz were members of The Zetas, a gang made up of former Mexican Army special forces. They have been accused of targeting and killing non-political civilians.
Hiding behind the guise of the morally-enraged patriot, a leader of a rival drug gang, who was already in a turf battle with The Zetas, is reportedly behind the killings. It was a twofer. For civic pride and more criminal control.
So, am I going home because two local gangs are doing their best to re-enact Romeo and Juliet -- without the lovers and the snappy prose? Nope.
But I do wish someone would realize that it is next to insane to continue trying to enforce a prohibition policy. It didn’t work in the 20s; and it is not working now.
