Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/01/09/tancitaro-monterrey-nezahualco.html
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My my, rooting out corruption, watching the watchers and developing systems of accountability in police. How novel. So I guess your entire society has to crumble into a drug(war) fueled hellscape before (a small area of) your country has a 1/3 chance of enacting police reforms. Good to know that that’s what it takes.
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Behold these Libertarian utopias! Finally, there are other havens besides Somalia for American giants of capitalism and aspiring bootstrappers to choose from to escape the tyranny of taxes and government.
Now I’ll sit back in anticipation of a nice discussion about Scotsmen.
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Except for Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, which has gone the opposite direction and appears more socialist/reformist in nature.
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Mad Maxish militia towns
My recent journey to Tecate Mx was spot on that description, the Military roam around like angry red ants circling a sugar cube. It wasn’t fun, to say the least.
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They’re getting all Renaissance… turning themselves into Italian city-states.
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Which is why Mexico is on my avoid list for vacations. A friend got back from a family vacation with the charming story of being routed around a tableau made up of bodies hanging from an overpass on the way to the heavily guarded resort. No thanks.
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Me: “Boing Boing always has the best book suggestions. This sounds like a cool dystopic sci-fi novel.”
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The main problem, apart from a culture based on Catholicism (which is a hotbed for many dysfunctional politics especially extreme right wing) for Mexico is its proximity with the USA. The drug cartel problem is mainly fueled by the presence of drug users in the nearby US. But that problem is close to impossible to solve since drug use in the USA stems from the shitty urban environment in which USAns grow up and live…
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Eliminating our prohibition mindset would go a long way towards solving that particular problem. Honestly, that we will take away a person’s freedom for committing an act of mala-prohibita gives lie to the claims of ‘freedom’ we keep tossing about.
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Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States.
Lazaro Cardenas
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Yet most people would gladly do away with freedom over security.
I am merely stating the obvious, and I cannot propose a remedy, especially not the War in Drugs since it has proven to be a monumental farce.
I dont think, however, eliminating the prohibition mindset would go a long way.
Something in that respect must be done (decriminalizing first offenses, but that would take away cheap labor and slavery on which a sizeable portion of US economy functions) added to other solutions but in the end it cannot stand on one solution and only one.
Yes, and paradoxically especially far from economic freedom because of the Free Trade Agreement…
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This is how feudalism begins, and how it will begin here as well. When the empire falls, who can keep order besides the Baron and his men?
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Are there any safer areas to check out? I’ve heard Mexico City for example is pretty tame. I kind of feel bad about all of Trump’s BS and would like to use my tourism dollars to say sorry.
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That’s not true. Below is what is known as the heroin triangle. It encompasses the most affluent areas of metropolitan Atlanta. It has been marked by an epidemic of heroin overdoses in recent years and it’s a universe away from both inner city Atlanta and rural Georgia.
I live in that triangle and I lost a son to a heroin overdose. Not only that, I have a photo, ca. early 2000s, of my son as a child in Cub Scouts at a Pinewood Derby with two other boys watching the race. One of those pictured is also now dead of an overdose, and the other is an addict and has been through a very good rehab
(as had the other two), and has thus far, thankfully, survived and seems to be ok for the long run.
But that’s 100% of nine year old children in a charming little photograph of affluent suburban bliss all of whom a few years later began using the most dangerous narcotic in the world. The closest any of those children came to a “shitty urban environment” were trips to Braves games. I knew the parents of the other children well. I don’t believe any of our families were especially dysfunctional. Those boys were all good students. They enjoyed, played and excelled in sports. They had other wholesome hobbies and interests. They had loving parents involved in their lives. They went to literally the best public schools in the state. Yet, they all started using heroin in high school, and the two who died were in college at the time.
I don’t believe the problem is “close to impossible.” The first step (of many) involves taking that problem away from the criminal justice system completely-- which begins the solution for both the US and Mexico.
On review what @anotherone said:
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Mexico City is one of the most wonderful cities on the planet. But it’s not tame. Just like a lot of other cities, you may get your car stolen, you may get mugged, you may even be a victim of an express kidnapping. But no one is going to set you on fire or chop off your head like they will in rural Mexico now.
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While we’re here, let’s have some Mexican history:
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OMG! We have this lawless, hyper-dangerous, failed state on our southern border. Is there anything that we could do, anything at all, to prevent this carnage and chaos from spilling over the Rio Grande and endangering US citizens? Any ideas? OK, you, the ranting man with the orange hair in the front row - you have a suggestion?
Established political parties are just as poisonous as established churches.
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