We all know people who are a pain. We even know groups of people who are a pain. What we don’t know is necessarily how to get rid of the pain. However, the Mexican Government has the solution. Mysteriously, the people who are a pain in the neck simply disappear. That’s right. They just plain disappear, never to be heard from again. It’s magic!
Mexico has a long history of what we might be tempted to call “human rights” abuse. “October 2, 1968, Mexico’s President, Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, ordered the Mexican Army to open fire on student organizers gathered in Mexico City’s Tlatelolco Plaza. The coldly calculated murder of hundreds of students was the linchpin of an operation aimed at destroying a peaceful movement that was rapidly galvanizing opposition to the regime far beyond the Nation’s campuses.”(The Huffington Post)
This Memorial stele was dedicated to those massacred at Tlatelolco Plaza.
After the massacre, the Government launched a mop-up operation focused on Guerrero, one of Mexico’s 31 provinces (or states) situated on the Pacific coast. Its largest city, Acapulco, was a famous tourist destination. At the time, the Government claimed only four students had been killed. What happened to the rest? They just disappeared.
Fast forward to September 26, 2014. Forty-three students disappear from Ayotzinapa in Guerrero province. They were a pain for the Mayor’s wife of Iguala, Guerrero. Like the Lyons Club and other charitable fundraising organizations who stand in the road soliciting contributions, this student group was doing it Mexican style, like they had in years past. Purportedly, she gave the Police an order to “teach them a lesson.” Like magic, the students disappeared.
This upset people! Masses of people began demonstrating and demanding the return of the students. At first the Government blamed gangs for the students’ disappearance. Unfortunately–for the Government that is–one of the students had a cell phone on him with a GPS tracking device. Bad news for the Government; this led to the military base in the province. Now, people were blaming the Army and the Government. Citizens initiated a search that recovered 300 bodies from mass graves in Iguala alone. In the last ten years, 25,000 people have disappeared. Amazing!
What is even more amazing is that the United States gives Mexico’s military 1.9 billion dollars, via “Plan Mexico,” a.k.a., Merida Initiative, and trains their top military. Yet, our Government is concerned about Venezuela’s “human rights” abuse and drug trafficking. Venezuela gets nothing from the U. S. Government.
On Monday, March 9, 2015, President Barack Obama signed an Executive order sanctioning Venezuela officials suspected of committing human rights abuse. In this order the President stated that, “the Government’s erosion of human rights guarantees…constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the National security and foreign policy of the United States.”
Of course, our Government doesn’t suspect any Mexican officials of “human rights” abuse. They would never do anything like that! Their “problem people” just disappear.
In response to President Obama’s worry, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, at a recent ALBA summit, assured Obama, “Venezuela has no plans, did not have, nor will it ever have, plans to attack the United States or hurt anyone.” Can we trust him?
- Venezuela has 115,000 active military personal, whereas we have 1,492,000.
- The U. S. is number one in over-all military strength, and Venezuela is 62.
- We have 8848 tanks and Venezuela has 202.
This must be another version of the satirical novel, The Mouse that Roared!
The question is why is Mexico treated so differently than Venezuela? Could it be, because Venezuela is not a part of the NAFTA or CAFTA trade agreements? Perhaps it is, because multi-national corporations, owned by the 1%, do not want to see any of the ALBA countries succeed, who will not play their ball game. They may succeed in creating a more just society–and that would be a threat to their wealth.
We might start revolting against “the best Government money can buy.” Then they would be tempted to use the Mexico solution, and we just might disappear.
See additional information at www.SOAW.org.