Pubdate: Sun, 17 Oct 2010
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2010 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Elmer Mendoza
Note: Elmer Mendoza is a novelist.
Note: Translated by Kristina Cordero from the Spanish.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Mexico

GROUND ZERO IN SINALOA

Culiacan, Mexico - FOUR years ago Mexico invented a civil war: the 
government decided to confront the seven major drug cartels. The army 
was sent into the streets, mountains and country paths. Even the navy 
was on alert.

Here in Sinaloa, the western state where the modern drug trade began, 
poorly armed and ill-outfitted federal and state police were the 
first to fall. Around 50 of them, killed by the cartels. Those who 
survived took to the streets in protest, demanding better weapons and 
bulletproof vests. In Culiacan, the state capital, students are 
always staging protest marches; it was strange to see the police do 
the same. You could smell the fear and uncertainty in the air.

At first people believed that it would soon blow over. But weeks went 
by and the gunfire continued to claim victims. Across Mexico in 2009, 
an average of 23 people died in drug-related violence every day, and 
on many of those days Sinaloa was the prime contributor to that 
statistic. Military patrols and federal policemen prowled the cities 
looking to uncover troves of weapons. They went door to door in 
Culiacan. It took them five minutes to inspect my house. "It's full 
of books," the sergeant remarked, a bewildered look on his face.

I don't know if they did the same in the neighborhoods where the drug 
lords actually live. The soldiers didn't look that tough, nor did the 
police. But still, it was unsettling to see them close up and with 
such troubled looks on their faces. Ever since the student uprisings 
of 1968 and the resulting repression of the 1970s, soldiers are seen 
as threats, even in Sinaloa, where they are trying to protect us.

The Mexican drug industry was established in the 1940s by a group of 
Sinaloans and Americans trafficking in heroin. It is part of our 
culture: we know all the legends, folk songs and movies about the 
drug world, including its patron saint, Jesus Malverde, a Robin 
Hood-like bandit who was hanged in 1909.

There are days when we feel deeply ashamed that the trade is at the 
heart of Sinaloa's identity, and wish our history were different. Our 
ancestors were fearless and proud people, and it is their memory that 
gives us the will to try to control our own fear and the sobs of the 
widows and mothers who have lost loved ones.

It was reported that not long ago, a group of high-ranking government 
officials from Mexico City paid a visit to Ciudad Juarez, a city in 
Chihuahua State on the Texas border where people are too scared to go 
out at night. A troop of Ninos Exploradores, akin to Boy Scouts, was 
trotted out to greet the dignitaries. Warm smiles abounded among the 
government representatives. The boys' faces were dead serious.

When the boys were asked to perform their salute, their commander 
shouted, "How do the children play in Ciudad Juarez?" The boys hit 
the ground. When asked, "How do the children play in Tijuana?" again 
the scouts hit the ground. When asked about the children of the 
border city of Matamoros, yet again, they were on the ground. The 
visitors looked eager to disappear.

In Sinaloa, at least things haven't gotten that bad. People live well 
and our children play other games. At night we go out for dinner, we 
go for evening strolls down our beaches and our roads as if to say: 
this is our land, we will not let go of it. But it doesn't always work.

Sinaloa is a place with a strong work ethic: people tell me, for 
example, that I write like a farmer, from dawn. Our greatest worry is 
that, in our fear, we will lose our grip on the code of work and 
responsibility that guided our forefathers and helped them convert 
our unpromising salt flats and desert into agricultural bounty.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake