Mexico’s New Brain Drain
Sep 29th, 2008 | By Michel Marizco | Category: General News, Organized Crime, Politics
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THE BORDER REPORT
The very best of Mexican minds, powerful men who can actually instill change in this country are quietly leaving, an exodus of this country’s hope.
And it’s impossible to criticize, faced with death for themselves and their families; it’s what most anyone would do. But each time another of these prominent idealists leave, it’s another hammer-blow to a crippled state under siege by organized crime. And like most short term solutions, the long term fallout is not going to be palatable.
This summer has seen two of these prominent Mexican men leave for the relative safety of the United States; PAN gubernatorial candidate David Figueroa and Alejandro Junco de la Vega, president of newspaper conglomerate, Grupo Reforma.
Last year, Congressman Figueroa was attacked, shot at in public just outside Mexico City’s World Trade Center building. He survived this second attack even though the would-be killer ran right up to him in a classic quema ropa, security videos show.
It was the second attempt on his life. Almost exactly a year before, Figueroa, then the Sonora campaign coordinator for Felipe Calderón’s candidacy, was shot and wounded in Toluca. And a year before that, his father, David Figueroa Coronado, was shot and wounded in Agua Prieta.
I knew Figueroa when he was the mayor of Agua Prieta, Sonora, on the Arizona border. A quiet, diminutive, deadly young mayor with a bristly, neat mustache and an easy manner. A life-long PAN-ista, he kept his city shrouded in that same implacable silence that has come to define Agua Prieta. But he also gave journalists at least some access to his city; unlike former – and future – mayors, he actually picked up the phone when a reporter dialed him.
Earlier this year, Figueroa announced his candidacy for governor of Sonora. I must admit, I had my doubts; Sonora, the state where the PRI was born, has always been a PRI state, back to the time the Charter of Agua Prieta was signed in those smoky post-Mexican Revolution times.
As late as this past summer, Figueroa had people lined up to manage his campaign in Sonora, a growing force moved by a very local loyalty that grew out of Agua Prieta’s old families which still dominate the Sonora political structure.
Inexplicably, this past July, Figueroa shut down his campaign for governor of Sonora. It wasn’t a dramatic withdrawal, but every Sonoran knew who was going to be the PAN’s candidate, that was clear. Figueroa had set up an election campaign committee and appearing on local and regional newspapers and television stations talking about his potential run. Next thing everyone knows, Figueroa pops up again, this time as the consul general in San Jose, Calif.
According to an interview with McClatchy Newspapers, Figueroa admitted he’d left because a third murder attempt was about to go down.
Then last week, Junco de la Vega said he was also leaving, for Austin, Texas, in order to protect his family.
“I was in a dilemma: Compromise our editorial integrity or move the family to a safe place,” he stated in a letter to Nuevo Leon governor Natividad Gonzalez before cruelly blaming the governor for that state’s public security crisis.
“I write to tell you not to allow our Monterrey’s spirit to drown … You’ll save many families much pain.” As I said, impossible to criticize. I live on this side of the line.
But these men, one who had a shot at taking the reins of a powerful Mexican state and another, at using journalism to keep his government honest, have chosen to seek refuge elsewhere. Meanwhile, it is Junco de la Vega’s employees and Figueroa’s one-time constituents que andan aguantando los golpes.
When men of their caliber leave their country, it’s not a temporary move. They’ve abandoned Mexico at a time when Mexico needs men like them to advance and to evolve beyond organized crime.
Now I wonder if they’ll ever be welcome back.
Hola Michael,
Muy interasantes todos tus reportajes ya que nos brindan un punto de vista mas real sobre lo que pasa en nuestra tierra. Este es mi primer comentario ya que no estoy de acuerdo con tu opinion. Este señor Figueroa y su papa no son “blancas palomitas.” Se han aventado buenas transas tanto en Agua Prieta como en la sierra alta (Bacerac, Huachineras y Aribabi). Sigue hechandole ganas a tu chamba y camina con cuidado ya que te mueves en un medio peligroso. Saludos!!
Now, for my English-only speaking friends…I am not translating what I said above, but to recap.: This dude Figueroa is not Mother Theresa and there is a reason why his name in on someone’s to do list.
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War on American Soil
Earlier this year, the Chief of Police of a small town was murdered after only one day on the job. After the attack, the town’s twenty officer contingent resigned out of fear.
The highest ranking law enforcement officer in the country was murdered in his own home. The week prior, a director of organized criminal investigations was shot in the head, murdered by two men.
On August 13, 2008, paramilitary terrorists invaded a drug rehab, dragged several patients outside and murdered them.
Since President’s election in December 2006, more than 5,000 people have been killed drug wars.
Welcome to Mexico!
Violence within Mexico, historically a dysfunctional country, has escalated for years. Now this violence is crossing our border into the United States. Kidnapping for ransom is common. Our border patrol personnel are targets of snipers sitting in Mexico, knowing our people cannot cross the boarder to track them down. Mexican people are terrified. Many have moved their families to the United States for safety but the drug lords are also moving here. Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security revealed that three Mexican police chiefs were seeking asylum in the United States.
Mexican drug cartels now control drug distribution channels in the United States. The drug cartels have actually created partnership deals with local gangs. The fear is that Mexican drug cartel violence will also move north of the border. Our local police officers could be targeted by the cartels. Senseless, vicious murders and beheadings (a trademark of the cartels) will be common occurrences.
What happens when the drug cartels start murdering innocent Americans in the United States? What happens when Americans are kidnapped in the United States, then taken to Mexico for ransom? If Mexico cannot eradicate the cartels, the cartel violence will spread along the U.S. Border States.
We will then have a war on U.S. soil against the drug cartels. But what kind of war? Will the U.S. authorities consider the drug cartels a criminal matter or a narco-terrorist issue requiring military response? As the cartels move fluidly back and forth across the border, U.S. authority stops at the border.
What are U.S. authorities doing now to prepare for the coming invasion of violence in our Border States?
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mexico is a dyscfunctional country? you are wrong man, this is dyscfuntional, [[[LOOK AT ME, I'M SARA PALIN]]] “…RUSSIA IT’S A VERY POWERFUL NATION, AND THEY ARE… NEXT TO OUR STATE…” dyscfunctional is:people who are thrilled and more than happy to vote for a demented old man and a woman who doesn’t know crap about pretty much anything, old coot mCcain should allow sara palin give more interviews, she’s hilarious, LOL!!!
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Every where we look in the US right now, we are a country on a dangerous edge. We do not have just one major crisis, but rather, many. We do not trust our government, or the priorities it gives to the classes of people. There almost seems to be a sense of contagious insanity happening thruout the world. If people cannot govern themselves as individuals, the government is weak. The government is a ‘thing’, our bottom line is what is happening to the goodness of the people, and what will it take to care again.
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Only by good peope finding their courage and standing up can the purging bad people from the world begin. If that day comes, the violence will be much worse but toward a better end. Waiting for governments is futile.
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El pueblo mexicano dysfunctional? Por supuesto, todos los paises los que son manejado por los EUA son los mismos. It’s our number one export. Even bigger than arms. Es por eso que todo el mundo necesitan armas. Let me ask you Senor Brinkley, who are the major US drug kingpins? Are we even looking for them? Or is the ‘war on drugs’ just another marketing tool for our weapons industry? Y pobre Mexico, tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de los EUA. Esta violencia en Mexico solo es Manifest Destiny en accion.
Senor Brinkley the drug cartels have been murdering US citizens for many years now. Everyday in every city and town.
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Cumminsturbo,
Hazme el favor de enviarme un correo, no? Tengo unas cosas que tengo interes de saber y veo que andas enterrado.
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