Vigilantism in Mexico

A curious incident took place last month in Oaxaca. (See also here) A 17 year old kid, wasted out of his mind and probably desperate for another score, robbed a girl of her cellphone in broad daylight. He did this in one of the oldest and most stable neighborhoods of Ciudad Oaxaca, where most of the residents' families have lived for centuries. Instead of shaking their heads and watching the kid run away with the phone, residents chased him down. They then strung him upside down from a big tree, as you see above. I believe I know this very tree and the church behind it. And then they tried to figure out what to do with him. The kid was screaming, the cops came though they didn't do anything for hours, probably because they were almost as scared of the residents as the kid. Finally, they cut him down.

You never want to make too much out of a single event like this, but this incident is pretty emblematic of the increased failures of the Mexican state. Oaxaca has not suffered the same drug violence as many other parts of Mexico, but petty crime has risen significantly in the past year or so. And it's hardly surprising that residents are getting pretty sick and tired of it. Let's just quickly list how the government failed here:

1. Failed to keep kids in school
2. Failed to instill trust among its citizens in the police force
3. Failed to train its police force well enough to take charge of the situation upon arrival
4. Failed to hold crime down
5. Failed to provide any kind of options for this kid--even if he wanted to get off drugs; even if he wanted to get off drugs, treatment centers are few and far between, particularly for the poor.

It's hard to approve of vigilantism. But with the Mexican state so corrupt and incompetent, is is hardly surprising that people took the law into their own hands? Of course, they have started down a slippery slope. Will they kill the next punk they catch? Does the Mexican state, or the Oaxacan state government, have even the slightest ability to stop this from happening? Do they really even care?

Around Latin America

A few items regarding human rights worth noting:

-In Colombia, a court sentenced a former general to 40 years in prison for his role in the massacre of at least 49 civilians in 1997. Jaime Humberto Uscategui was accused of having ignored pleas for help from a local judge who reported the massacre, which took place over five days in July 1997. Uscategui not only ignored the pleas, but his garrison was the location where two planes of paramilitaries who committed the massacre landed and were dispatched. The fact that Uscategui (now 61) will hopefully spend the rest of his life in jail is a good step in curbing impunity for paramilitaries and for officers connected to paramilitaries in Colombia.

-Speaking of paramilitaries, a group of right-wing paramilitaries in Oaxaca apparently shot four children on Sunday, killing one. I don't know much about the particular political claims of the groups involved (though Erik or Yann may know more), but it's clear that Mexican right-wing paramilitary groups and even politicians are still trying to prevent indigenous groups and left-wing community organizations from organizing and effecting change in southern Mexico, and their silly display of power and intimidation this weekend resulted in a dead child.

-In Argentina, former dictator Jorge Videla is denying charges that he helped to put the kidnapped children of "disappeared" women in the homes of other families. Given that other kidnapping charges are among those that in 1998 helped to get Videla back in prison after Carlos Menem's unforgiveable pardon in 1990, these new charges could help in making sure Videla rots in prison until the day he dies.