THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION OF 2012
Chicano Channel Magazine
The title of this article is not accurate, because although the purpose of this article is to predict an all-out revolution in Mexico in 2012, it will actually be the culmination of a Revolution that has been occurring for years In Mexico. The Revolution dates back to whenever the first Mexicans started leaving their country to come earn a decent wage in the North, whether doing so was illegal or not, because illegal did not compare to starvation, which is what the poor and lower middle-class have been going through in Mexico for years. There was probably a time a long time ago when the working class of Mexico in the rural parts of that Country, could grow enough crops to eat well and to sell enough of their crops to have money to purchase other items for consumption, like meat, considered a luxury item for most working class Mexican families. Over time the meat has been disappearing from the tables of these families and even being able to grow enough to provide for the family to eat is a thing of the past, let alone where there would be a crop surplus to be able to sell from and have cash.
It is not news that the numbers of people that have been coming across the border for years is, to put it mildly, substantial. Emigration from Mexico began with the rural agrarian communities and now has extended to educated, professional Urban- dwellers and most of it is directed to the United States, of course. The plight of the agrarian poor is now the plight of the poor generally in Mexico and of the “middle-class”, to the point where simply feeding the family on the current wages being paid in that country is impossible or becoming that way. For the very poor who saw the United States as the way out of their misery, even that escape hatch has been shut down because of the slower economy worldwide and because of ever-stricter border control laws and procedures to keep them out. For the middle or upper-middle class Mexican it is a bit easier, because for the most part the U.S. will give them a Visa to enter as long as they are persons of economic means and will enter our country to spend. This phenomenon is why Al-Qaeda will never have problems entering our country, they have money. On 9-11 they were first class passengers on big jets, not slogging across the Rio Grande.
Even though Mexico is hemorraging people who can no longer live there and are tired of just surviving there, the vast numbers of them who are only surviving there, do not leave. That is probably due to reasons like patriotism to their country, hope in their country and a whole host of reasons, but whatever those reasons may be, the society they knew is now crumbling around institutions and becoming more and more violent every day. Who hasn’t heard that you should not travel to Mexico now or for at least the last couple of years? That person would have literally had to have just crawled out from under a rock. The increase in violence comes from an increase in crime resulting from a lack of food on the table. Actually, revolutions do occur for that reason, ask Mubarak. Of course it is not the only reason, there is the mortgage, the car, the school tuition and a list of things that have gone by the wayside as aspirations of a middle-class Mexicans and guess what? We return to the empty fridge. On top of this and to his credit, President Calderon, has taken huge steps to stop the other occupation the poor turned to try to make ends meet: drug running. Well it’s bad in the sense that this was the last, for many, fall-back position to be able to stay in their country and have a modest income. It tossed many back into a mad scramble for employment and made the Mexicans who had always been in that business very, very mad.
Don’t be confused about the Cartels, there are undoubtedly international figures involved in the Mexican drug trade, but for the most part they are Mexican. For the first time perhaps ever, the Mexican cartels are facing serious challenges to their authority and have reacted with pure brute force, even expressing that anger towards what used to be sacred cows, tourists in Mexico. When an attack happens it has three probable explanations, one is that it is the actual beginnings of the 2012 Revolution, a simple robbery at the hands of very desperate people or the Cartels hitting the revenue of the Government, tourism, as the Government has hit their revenue from drugs. Just today as this article was being written, it came to light that several taxicabs were attacked and that twelve people were executed in Acapulco, this as a major Tennis Tournament is about to begin there. Had this article been written yesterday there would be another Mexican Murder tale to tell, or the day before, tomorrow. It is becoming a perfect storm. The small albeit available relief valve that the U.S. used to represent has constricted and had a back-up effect, forcing Mexicans to deal with home and its issues however they can. Soaring worldwide prices on commodities including food does not exclude Mexico and its disappearing middle-class, if there ever truly was one, is in turmoil about how to survive. Combine that with the war that the drug cartels finds themselves in with the Mexican Government and the country has found the straw that will break that Camel’s back. If the Government had more credibility with its masses, the Cartels would be in jeopardy. Since that credibility does not exist, the Cartels can at least have equal if not better footing in the public perception arena, which means they can recruit (since they can pay well) for employment in the drug business or for simply helping to stoke the chaos that already is Mexico. In this author’s humble opinion, these daily acts of violence against tourists, journalists, innocents, DEA agents, sheriffs, mayors and virtually everyone in Mexico and by Mexicans, are not isolated incidents but rather the ever-louder and more strategic strikes of Mexican interests who are feeling under the gun themselves and who now are clearly on a path they have traveled before.
CHICANO CHANNEL @ChicanoChannel San Antonio to Los Angeles
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