4 ms·

Letter claims Mexican cartel handed over men who killed Americans

1 points by xrd 4y ago

xrd 4y ago
I just need to add context to this. In "lawless" places like Mexico the state has no monopoly on violence, the cartels are also functioning as security in areas where they wield power. I'm more familiar with Brazil and in the slums there, the police and local drug gangs battle for control. As a citizen of that slum, you often will side with the local gang instead of the corrupt police (see the movie "Tropa de Elite" for a brilliant fictionalization of this). The cartels are only known in the US for their contributions to violence and the drug trade, but they are as much a part of the security story in Mexico as the state is. In the US, when someone is killed by the police, the state (via the police apparatus) does everything it can to shift blame to the victim, usually engaging in character assassination. Here we have a very different story, where the cartels are apologizing for errant murders and handed over the cartel members who were involved in what must have been considered an unapproved action by cartel leadership. Add to that the fact that the victims in this case were black Americans. It feels like it is only recently that I heard of a story where US state police killed someone black and there were immediate corrections and repercussions of the officers involved (meaning Tyre Nicols and the "scorpion" team"). I'm sure it betrays my media isolation, but I've generally only heard of stories where police killed someone and then years later there was a successful smothering of the story and the officers were back on the beat. This is incredible to me. Is this not a completely bizarre story to anyone else? I know the AP story is just a story and probably missing lots of context, but I've never seen anything like this.
- polski-g 4y ago
  The cartels know that if enough Americans get killed in Mexico, then DoD drones will start flying over Mexico (without permission like we did in Pakistan) and dropping bombs on the cartel.

1 points by xrd 4y ago

xrd 4y ago

I just need to add context to this. In "lawless" places like Mexico the state has no monopoly on violence, the cartels are also functioning as security in areas where they wield power. I'm more familiar with Brazil and in the slums there, the police and local drug gangs battle for control. As a citizen of that slum, you often will side with the local gang instead of the corrupt police (see the movie "Tropa de Elite" for a brilliant fictionalization of this). The cartels are only known in the US for their contributions to violence and the drug trade, but they are as much a part of the security story in Mexico as the state is. In the US, when someone is killed by the police, the state (via the police apparatus) does everything it can to shift blame to the victim, usually engaging in character assassination. Here we have a very different story, where the cartels are apologizing for errant murders and handed over the cartel members who were involved in what must have been considered an unapproved action by cartel leadership. Add to that the fact that the victims in this case were black Americans. It feels like it is only recently that I heard of a story where US state police killed someone black and there were immediate corrections and repercussions of the officers involved (meaning Tyre Nicols and the "scorpion" team"). I'm sure it betrays my media isolation, but I've generally only heard of stories where police killed someone and then years later there was a successful smothering of the story and the officers were back on the beat. This is incredible to me. Is this not a completely bizarre story to anyone else? I know the AP story is just a story and probably missing lots of context, but I've never seen anything like this.

polski-g 4y ago
The cartels know that if enough Americans get killed in Mexico, then DoD drones will start flying over Mexico (without permission like we did in Pakistan) and dropping bombs on the cartel.