Gangland (7 page)

With Zapata, Carranza and Villa all out of the picture, there was no obvious opponent for Obregón and his Partido Laborista Mexicano (Mexican Laborers Party or PLM). Unlike previous presidents with a military background, he worked hard for education, labor rights and land reform. In exchange for his agreement not to nationalize U.S. oil interests on Mexican soil, the Americans recognized his government as legitimate, and much of the world followed suit.

After winning a second term as president in 1928, Obregón was assassinated in a Mexico City restaurant by a Cristero, a group of armed rebels who felt he had robbed the church of too much power. His old ally, Calles, who had been president representing the same PLM party from 1924–1928, formed a new party which would eventually be called the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI).

A decidedly socialist party, the PRI were called communists by many Americans after squabbles over oil rights and the war in Nicaragua, but negotiations eventually softened relations. Throughout much of the 20
^th
century, the PRI would anger the Americans on issues like Fidel Castro and the Sandinistas, but the two countries normally got along well.

While the founders of the PRI may have once had high ideals, they became increasingly plutocratic and corrupt over the years, staying in power for 80 years and becoming typical of the single-party rulers throughout much of the developing world.

• • •

Other problems have emerged that affect the national economy and peace. Mexico is a very diverse place, both demographically and geographically. The southern states are distinctly different from the rest of the country. Originally covered in thick rain forests, they are now rich in specialized agriculture and hydroelectric power. Indigenous people, mainly Mayans, are the majority in much of the south with the balance of the population
Mestizo
. This has resulted in a cultural and psychological distance between the south and the federal government which often evolves into contempt. Despite its wealth of natural resources, the southern states are far poorer than the rest of Mexico, and many blame the federal government for this, considering racism to be the real issue.

After the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which brought Mexico into the free-trade zone between Canada and the United States, became effective in 1994, the southern economy fell even farther behind the rest of Mexico, fueling even more unrest. By 2007, the GDP per capital in Chiapas was just $3,657, as compared to $23,130 in Mexico City. In the south, houses with running water and electricity were in the minority.

Demonstrations, sometimes violent, broke out all over the south in the late part of the 20
^th
century. In 1968, just 10 days before Mexico was to host the Summer Olympics, a demonstration of 10,000 students and others at Plaza de las Tres Culturas (Square of the Three Cultures) in the Tlatelolco neighborhood of Mexico City erupted in violence. The Mexican military claimed they were returning fire from snipers and opened fire on the crowd. In what is now usually referred to as the Tlatelolco Massacre, estimates of as many as 1,000 died (44 have been confirmed).

One man—Mexican authorities say he is Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente, the son of Spanish immigrants to Tampico, but his identity is uncertain—was so shocked by the Tlatelolco Massacre that he dedicated his life to bringing down the Mexican government. Despite growing up wealthy—he described his childhood as being from “a family without financial difficulties”—he became a Maoist militant. He took the name Marcos after a friend of that name who was killed by the Mexican military.

Marcos went to the southern state of Chiapas with the intent of starting a proletarian revolution, but the locals didn't take to his traditional communist rhetoric. He believed the problem was that he was a white, university educated, Spanish-speaking child of privilege and in order to succeed, he would have to become more like the Mayans. He immersed himself in their culture and studied the works of Italian communist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, who maintained that cultural hegemony was the only way to maintain a capitalist society. Marcos became more popular and his enemy list expanded from the Mexican government to the concepts of capitalism and, especially, neoliberalism—the philosophy that encourages private enterprise, free markets and unfettered trade between nations.

His group, Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (Zapatista Army of National Liberation or EZLN, but commonly known as the Zapatistas), declared war on the Mexican government on January 1, 1994, the day NAFTA—the most obvious sign of neoliberalism—became law. That day, about 3,000 armed Zapatistas stormed and took control of four county seats in Chiapas, freeing prisoners and setting fire to police and military buildings.

The Mexican military responded the next day and the Zapatistas suffered huge losses and were forced to retreat to the rain forests. On January 12, a ceasefire agreement mediated by influential Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia put an end to the armed conflict and the Zapatistas switched to non-violent means of spreading their word.

Not everyone chose to abide by the ceasefire, however. On December 22, 1997, a paramilitary group called the Mascara Roja (Red Mask) loyal to the PRI opened fire on a church in the Chiapas town of Acteal. The worshippers were members of Las Abejas (the Bees), a pacifist religious commune of indigenous people who had openly sided with the Zapatistas, and 45 of them (21 of them women and 15 children) were killed and another 25 injured. No arrests were made.

The south and all of Mexico, found hope for an end to official corruption in a presidential candidate named Vicente Fox Queseda. His father's family were of German origin (Fox was originally Fuchs) who emigrated from France to Cincinnati and eventually Mexico; and his mother was a Basque, born in Spain. A Harvard graduate, Fox started working for Coca-Cola in Mexico, eventually becoming its president. Under his leadership, Coke sales increased by 50 percent in Mexico and became the nation's favorite beverage.

He ran twice for governor of the state of Guanajuato for the Partido Acción Nacional (National Action Party or PAN), losing the first time but getting twice as many votes as his PRI opponent in the second election. Fox immediately delivered on promises of financial transparency and developed innovative micro-credit initiatives.

In 2000, he ran for president under a coalition called
Alianza por el Cambio
(Alliance for Change), which combined the conservative-religious PAN with the Greens. After a vigorous campaign, Fox won the election, which was watched by observers from a number of countries and organizations. When outgoing PRI president Ernesto Zedillo signed the documents ratifying Fox as the new president, it was the first time in Mexican history a government had changed hands without bloodshed.

When Fox's election put the PRI out of power, the Zapatistas met with him. He implemented many reforms and projects in the area, but the Zapatistas continue to work outside the government with autonomous communities and education systems.

The six-foot-five Fox was a charismatic and popular president who typically wore jeans and cowboy boots. After serving six years, his popularity helped lead to the election of another PAN president, Felipe Calderón.

And it was his policies that started the Mexican Drug War.

Chapter 4

The Rise of the Drug Cartels

Mexico's history has hard-wired its people to be cynical about government. With single-party rule for 80 of the last 90 years and corruption so rampant that it has amounted to a kleptocracy, many Mexicans are prepared to live and work somewhere outside official channels. The fact that Mexico has a legal system based on civil or Napoleonic law, which allows for trials to be conducted in secret and forces the accused to prove his or her innocence rather than benefiting from a presumption of innocence as exists in common-law jurisdictions, added to the enmity and sometimes outright fear many Mexicans had for their own government.

Years of government instability, incompetence and corruption have led to a terribly underdeveloped economy. In 2009, the GDP per capita in Mexico was $9,100, compared to the United States at $46,442 and Canada at $41,016. Mexicans are very aware of this disparity in wealth, and in recent years, the number of Mexicans legally migrating to the United States has ranged from 165,000 to 180,000 with far more crossing the border illegally, often at risk to their lives. According to the Pew Hispanic Center think tank, there are about 7 million Mexicans living illegally in the United States, with numbers much lower in Canada, but growing rapidly. Interestingly, Mexico has its own illegal immigration problem as people from other Central American countries often pass through Mexico on their way north, straining its resources.

That wealth disparity and a long shared history have led to some cultural friction between Mexico and its North American neighbors. When rank-and-file Mexicans see Americans and Canadians in person, they are almost always tourists. While the retired tourists in Acapulco, the spring breakers partying at Cancun and the high school kids in Tijuana looking to take advantage of more relaxed drinking laws may all mean well, their obvious shows of wealth and frivolity often appear offensive, or at least condescending to the Mexicans living there.

And history is of great importance. Mexicans are very proud of their ability to fight off invaders, including two attempts by the United States. Commodore Manuel Azueta is regarded as one of the nation's most important heroes by the Mexican military for leading the Naval Academy cadets against the American invasion at Veracruz in 1914. The irony is that he was defending the dictatorship of Victoriano Huerta, a man so despised still that some older Mexicans feel a need to spit every time his name is mentioned. While the last overt American military action in Mexico was almost 100 years ago, many believe that American meddling helped keep the PRI in power for so long. Some point to how President Bill Clinton issued a $50-billion bailout package to the Ernesto Zedillo government after it had devalued the peso, resulting in an unprecedented economic collapse. Canada also got involved, sending about $1 billion in a currency swap.

The “Corupting Menace”

Rebellious Chiapas is representative of the southern states—which also include Oaxaca, Tlaxcala, Guerrero, Michoacán, Veracruz, Tabasco, Morelos, Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Campeche. These states are generally more agricultural, more populated by indigenous people and poorer than the rest of the country, although Yucatán, Campeche and especially Quintana Roo benefit economically from tourism.

The arable land there is derived from cleared rain forest and is some of the best in the world. In drier areas, corn is grown, but in the more moist regions melons, avocados, citrus fruits and coffee are all harvested. As the 20
^th
century progressed, many people in the southern states realized they could make more money growing another crop—marijuana.

Smoking many different substances, especially tobacco, has been an important social custom among indigenous Americans well into prehistory and its association with religious leaders indicates that it probably originated from the burning of incense. The
conquistadores
reported back to Spain that the Mayan priests they encountered often became highly intoxicated from their smoking.

Marijuana is native to south and central Asia and made its way to North America—along with opium—with the migrant workers from China starting in 1849. Hired to work on the railroads to connect the developing west with the prosperous east, the Chinese tended to live together and retain their culture, leading to the establishment of “Chinatowns” in many western American cities.

Many Americans, and even more Mexicans, traveled to Chinatowns for opium and discovered marijuana. At about the same time, pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. and Canada were manufacturing home remedies with marijuana, while Spanish and Portuguese traders had introduced it to South and Central America for recreational use. And there was plenty to be had. Cannabis sativa, known as hemp, was introduced to the United States as a crop for its fiber, which has a variety of uses and is especially good for making rope. It became extremely important to the economy of the United States for making textiles during the Civil War because cotton was in very short supply.

Marijuana did not take off with English-speaking Americans at first. Those who took drugs at the time preferred faster acting options like alcohol and opium. It did, however, become very popular with indigenous people and, even more so, Mexicans. Because of a widespread belief that marijuana made workers lazy, a few laws were passed in counties around the western United States and Canada banning its use or at least its use on the job. But where marijuana smoking was popular—especially among miners and railway workers—the laws were mostly ignored. Opium was outlawed in San Francisco in 1875 as many politicians blamed Chinese immigrants there for corrupting the local youth. Many also called for the banning of marijuana.

Throughout the late 19
^th
century and into the 20
^th
century, marijuana use increased dramatically among non-white and non-English-speaking Americans, and as the Mexican Revolution increased immigration from the south with Mexicans fleeing violence, more marijuana smokers arrived.

Marijuana smoking usually fell under the radar of most Americans—who generally considered it one of many habits particular to minorities—until politicians realized they could make hay of it. In 1914, a violent bar fight broke out in El Paso between a Mexican and a Texan. After police determined that the Mexican, who had started the fight, was under the influence of marijuana, politicians banned it from the city. Other southern cities and towns followed suit, calling marijuana a “corrupting menace.” The drug received further bad publicity when it was associated with Pancho Villa and his raiders at Columbus, New Mexico. The popular song “La Cucuracha” was written about his men and their habit of smoking marijuana.

The war on drugs begins

The prohibition of alcohol in North America began in the Canadian Province of Prince Edward Island in 1901 and by 1920 every other province and American state had followed suit. For a brief period, the entire North America north of the Rio Grande—except Quebec, which overturned prohibition almost immediately after passing the legislation—was dry. A few former drinkers turned to marijuana (mainly jazz musicians and other bohemian sorts), but in the national consciousness of the day, marijuana was inexorably associated with Mexicans and Chinese, and believed to have terrifying effects. As late as 1927,
The New York Times
ran an article headlined “Mexican Family Goes Insane” blaming marijuana smoking for one family's eccentric and criminal behavior.

In Canada, however, a well-publicized report of soldiers smoking marijuana led to a backlash against the drug and it was made illegal in 1923 when it was added to the
Opium and Drug Act of
1911
. It could still be prescribed by physicians until 1932.

In 1930, during the Depression, President Herbert Hoover created the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (the forerunner of the Drug Enforcement Agency, or DEA), which oversaw recreational drugs other than tobacco and alcohol. Its first chief, Harry J. Anslinger, called for severe punishment for drug users and for the criminalization of marijuana. He had powerful allies. Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who published many stories warning against what he claimed were the horrific results of smoking what he and the U.S. government called “marihuana,” the original Spanish spelling. People such as financier Andrew Mellon and companies like Du Pont Chemicals lobbied congress against hemp, associating it with marijuana and promoting rival products like Du Pont's own nylon.

In 1937 Anslinger drafted a bill that was introduced by North Carolina Democrat Robert L Doughton called the
Marihuana Tax Act
. Against the opposition of Dr. William C. Woodward, head of the American Medical Association, and New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, both Republicans, the Democrat-led Congress approved the bill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, signed it into law. It didn't technically criminalize marijuana, but applied a tax on the sale of marijuana and hemp with violators liable to a fine of $2,000 or five years' imprisonment. The only way to legally sell, acquire or even possess marijuana was to buy a Marihuana Tax Stamp from the state government. However, the stamps were extremely difficult to acquire and even just applying for one opened the applicant to investigation.

The first arrest under the
Marihuana Tax Act
came on October 2, 1937, the day after the law took effect. At the Lexington Hotel in Denver, Colorado, police witnessed otherwise unemployed 58-year-old Samuel L. Caldwell sell two marijuana cigarettes to Moses Baca and arrested both men. Judge Foster Symes took a harsh approach, stating:

I consider marijuana the worst of all narcotics, far worse than the use of morphine or cocaine. Under its influence men become beasts. Marijuana destroys life itself. I have no sympathy with those who sell this weed. The government is going to enforce this new law to the letter.

Caldwell was sentenced to four years' hard labor at Leavenworth Penitentiary, and Baca received 18 months in prison.

Most Americans still considered marijuana a Mexican problem, only affecting them if and when they dealt with Mexicans. That perception changed on September 1, 1948. Unknown to most of their fans, many Hollywood actors and actresses were smoking marijuana regularly. Many acquired the habit during World War II as traditional opium and heroin routes from Asia were cut off while marijuana grown in Mexico was plentiful and accessible. The Los Angeles police mounted a sting operation in Hollywood. Word leaked out and the only well-known celebrities arrested were leading man Robert Mitchum and his girlfriend, promising young actress Lila Leeds, who missed a phone call that would have warned them. He spent 50 days behind bars, she was sentenced to 60.

Although Leeds' career never recovered (she made one anti-drug film in 1949, then left Hollywood and took up heroin), Mitchum's took off. Audiences liked his bad-boy image and his bravado—he told reporters that prison was “like Palm Springs, but without the riffraff.” His career reached new heights and so, perhaps not coincidentally, so did marijuana use among non-Hispanic Americans.

Marijuana arrests in the United States increased by 77 percent from 1948 to 1951. After Dr Harris Isbell, director of research at the Public Health Service Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, testified before Congress that marijuana was not addictive and did not lead to violence or sexual depravity, Anslinger changed course and lobbied that marijuana—even if not dangerous in and of itself—was a “gateway” to harder drugs like heroin and cocaine. The government agreed, passing the
Boggs Act
in 1952 that quadrupled mandatory sentencing for marijuana possession and sales, and increased them again with the
Narcotics Control Act of 1956
, also known as the
Daniel Act
.

Nixon's war on drugs

Public, medical and academic attitudes toward drugs, particularly marijuana, changed profoundly in the 1960s. In 1971, the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse drafted a report that indicated that the laws had not worked to decrease drug addiction or levels of use, and recommended the decriminalization of marijuana. President Richard Nixon refused even to read the report, however, naming drugs to be the nation's top enemy (even though the military was still involved in the southeast Asian conflict) declaring a “War on Drugs.”

His theory was that by using military and paramilitary forces to seal its borders, the U.S. could stem the flow of drugs into the country, reducing use. Billions of dollars and many lives were spent on this controversial policy. Of course, marijuana was just one of many illegal drugs—and one few considered addictive or dangerous any more—but it was included anyway.

In 1986, the RAND Corporation think tank put together a study that concluded that the concept and practice of interdiction did virtually nothing to stem the flow of drugs into the country. Another 1994 study by the same group indicated that the War on Drugs actually helped organized crime by pushing drug prices up.

Still, both the United States and Canada retained it as their policy against illegal drugs, but President Barack Obama decided to retire the phrase “War on Drugs” when he was elected in 2008.

Public attitudes toward marijuana have softened considerably over the years and the individual American states and Canadian provinces have enacted legislation or ruled judiciously to reflect this. In 2007, Ontario ruled that criminal prosecution for small amounts of marijuana was unconstitutional. Justice Norman Edmonson said that, “there is no offence known to law which the accused have committed,” meaning that while growing and selling marijuana in Canada is still illegal, purchasing it and possessing it is not. While that may sound like hypocrisy, the theory is that drug dealers are breaking the law, not drug users. After that landmark ruling came a flood of states and provinces changing their attitudes toward the drug. By 2011, although actual decriminalization for small amounts of marijuana for personal use was still rare, law enforcement in all of Canada and the more densely populated parts of the United States stopped charging people for possession of small amounts of marijuana.