Pubdate: Wed, 15 Sep 2010
Source: New York Times (NY)
Page: A35
Copyright: 2010 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Enrique Krauze
Note: Enrique Krauze is the editor of the magazine Letras Libres and 
the author of "Mexico: Biography of Power." This article was 
translated by Hank Heifetz from the Spanish.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Mexico

IN MEXICO, A WAR EVERY CENTURY

Mexico City - EVERY 100 years, Mexico seems to have a rendezvous with 
violence. As the country gathers on Wednesday night for the ceremony 
of the "grito" - the call to arms that began the war for independence 
from Spain - we are enduring another violent crisis, albeit one that 
differs greatly from those of a century and two centuries ago.

In 1810 and 1910, revolutions erupted that lasted 10 years or more 
and were so destructive that both times it took decades for the 
country to re-establish its previous levels of peace and progress. 
Both episodes furthered Mexico's political development, however, and 
our collective memory centers on these two dates that have taken on 
such symmetrical and mythical significance.

In 2010, Mexico is again convulsed with violence, though the size and 
scope of today's conflict does not even remotely approach that of 
1810 or 1910. This war is unfolding within and between gangs of 
criminals, who commit violent acts that are fueled only by a 
competitive lust for money. This is strikingly different from the 
revolutions of 1810 or 1910, which were clashes of ideals.

In 1810, Mexican-born Spaniards - the creoles - saw no recourse other 
than violence as the means to gain independence from Spain. Their 
principles were inspired by the doctrines of 16th-century thinkers 
like the Jesuit Francisco Suarez, who argued for "popular 
sovereignty." But the creoles were also driven by specific 
grievances: they had long resented domination by men from the Iberian 
Peninsula; they were also indignant that the seemingly inexhaustible 
wealth of New Spain had been the principal financial resource for the 
frivolousness and senseless wars of the Spanish empire.

Yet the crown repeatedly ignored opportunities that might have 
avoided violent revolution - Spain certainly could have loosened 
connections with its overseas dominions and granted Mexico some 
degree of independence. When the provincial priest Miguel Hidalgo y 
Costilla shouted his call to arms, the grito, from the steps of his 
Dolores church, the war for independence finally exploded.

Shortly afterward, a vast, mostly Indian army, armed mainly with 
slings, stones and bludgeons, conquered various regional capitals, 
stopping just short of Mexico City itself. Though Father Hidalgo was 
captured and executed in 1811, the uprising continued under the 
leadership of another priest, Jose Maria Morelos, who would also be 
seized and killed by the Spanish government. But Mexico would finally 
gain its independence in September 1821.

 From 1810 to 1821, the war for independence cost about 300,000 lives 
in a population of around 6 million. Afterward, state income, 
agricultural, industrial and mining production, and, above all, the 
availability of capital for investment did not reach their pre-1810 
levels until the 1880s. And the material desolation was followed by 
almost five decades of insecurity on the roads, political instability 
and grievous civil and international wars.

There was also a series of confrontations between the country's 
Liberal and Conservative factions until the victory of President 
Benito Juarez over the Conservatives and the French army that 
supported them. Following this unstable period, the Liberal 
government separated church and state and adopted a stable, electoral 
political structure.

Unfortunately for our fledgling democracy, Porfirio Diaz, Juarez's 
greatest general, seized power in 1876. Still, under his long 
authoritarian regime, Mexico achieved notable material progress in 
the development of industry, the transportation network and foreign trade.

In 1910, after more than three decades of dictatorship, a large 
portion of the population believed that violence was the only way to 
overthrow Diaz. A brief, purely democratic revolution attained its 
aim but was soon reversed through a military coup supported by the 
American ambassador.

This new assault on the honor and well-being of the country - along 
with other accumulated grievances of peasants, workers and the 
nationalistic middle class - led to the first true social revolution 
of the 20th century.

The revolution of 1910 was even more destructive than the one in 
1810. About 700,000 of some 15 million Mexicans died in warfare or 
through illness or starvation. An additional 250,000 emigrated to the 
United States. Industrial production plummeted. Ranches, haciendas 
and cities were demolished. And from 1926 to 1929 came the additional 
devastation of the Cristero war between Catholic peasants and the 
anti-clerical government; the state's eventual victory took 70,000 lives.

Beginning in 1929, the country re-established a central government 
(though unlike the Juarez presidency, it was not a democratic one) 
under the hegemony of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. The 
government carried vast agricultural reforms, substantially improved 
the conditions for workers, established public institutions for 
social welfare that are still alive and well and oversaw decades of 
growth and stability. In the view of most historians, the great 
social reforms accomplished by later governments justified the 
Mexican Revolution's decade of violence.

Today, a handful of powerful criminal groups has unleashed a 
blood-soaked and utterly illegitimate wave of violence against the 
Mexican government and Mexican society. This "war," which rages in 
too many cities and states of my country, has created a truly 
Hobbesian situation of human brutality.

This situation is, in part, an unintentional result of Mexico's 
definitive transition to democracy. In the past 10 years, there has 
been a centrifugal effect on power, loosening the authoritarian hand 
of the president and giving more latitude to local forces that, 
unfortunately, have included drug cartels and other criminal enterprises.

This war, though, will have to be won - and economic growth will have 
to be revivified - within the rules of democracy. Congress and 
President Felipe Calderon must agree on reforms to make the economy 
more open, competitive and efficient. And the struggle against 
organized crime will require a centralized police force that is more 
honest and professional; secure prisons; better control of the 
customs apparatus and the flow of money; and changes in the judicial 
system, along with nationwide campaigns against drug addiction.

Despite a bloody mythology that venerates the great protagonists of 
1810 and 1910, most of whom met brutal deaths, the common 
denominators of our national history have been social, ethnic and 
religious coexistence; the peaceful construction of cities, villages 
and communities; and the creation of a rich cultural mosaic. Many of 
us want to believe that we are living through a nightmare from which, 
one morning, we will simply wake up, once again at ease.

But this is not the way things are. We are dealing with a situation 
generated, to a great extent, by the market for drugs and weapons in 
the United States and by the refusal of many Americans to recognize 
their own portion of responsibility in these tragic events. The drug 
war will have to be resolved on both sides of the border.

Nonetheless, on Wednesday night, as we have on every Sept. 15 for 200 
years, Mexicans will gather together in the central squares of our 
cities and towns, even in the smallest and most remote villages. At 
midnight, we will hear a local governing official re-enact the grito 
uttered by Miguel Hidalgo, the "father of the fatherland."

All the plazas across Mexico will be filled with light and music and 
color. And in the historic center of Mexico City, we will watch the 
fireworks and the parades and we will hear President Calderon ring 
the church bell once sounded by Miguel Hidalgo and then we will 
shout, jubilantly, with genuine feeling: "Viva Mexico!"
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake