So, I've been reading up on Central America, and I'm just wondering; how the hell did it get to this point? For example, pretty recently in Ayotzinapa, around 40 students were abducted by the Federal and Municipal Police, with alleged assistance from the army, and it's most likely they were all murdered and any remains were incinerated at a military base or somewhere. Since then, human rights groups have reported hundreds of cases of people who were also abducted, endured torture from the police, the army, the navy, and even agents of the attorney general, and made to sign false confessions saying they were partly responsible for the events in Ayotazinapa. I don't know if this counts as me soapboxing, and sure there have been historically many cases of police abducting and/or murdering political dissidents in the states, as well as them extracting false confessions, but it has rarely been this brazen.
Therefore, I guess I'm interested in hearing about Mexico's troubled past. I've heard about the Dirty War, and how it is not unusual for the state to employ police and the armed forces to silence opposition, even if it means violating human rights. I've also heard of how a lot of participants in the Dirty War continued or still continue to serve in the PRI administration. Corruption is also incredibly bad in Mexico. Lydia Cacho, a Mexican Journalist who was famous for exposing a Child Pornography and Prostitution ring that implicated many politicians and big businessmen, gives a historical explanation for the widespread corruption in Mexico's mass media. Basically, back in the 1930s, there was onlu one real big paper factory in Mexico, and when those workers went on strike, big newspapers had to rely on the government for imported paper. President Cardenas created P.I.P.S.A., which supplied newspapers with that paper and exempted them of many of the taxes. You could see how this led to corrupt relationships forming between journalists and the government; the government could stop providing paper for anyone who got too "uppity".
I'm just wondering if there are similar explanations for how the various Drug Cartels managed to consolidate so much power in Mexico, or the blurring of the lines between the state and the criminals.
Hi,
You may be interested in this earlier answer of mine on corruption in Spanish America and Mexico. There are major studies on the seperate topic of violence in Latin America that I don't address there, but certainly the background on corruption is connected to that field.
My own focus is mostly on colonial times so unfortunately I can't get into your questions on more current history. Still, the last part of that part goes a bit into that for Mexico, hopefully it is helpful.