The
leader of La Familia has called for dialogue with the federal government, another example of the group's pseudo-political side unlike any other Mexican gang. The leader, Servando Gómez Martínez, called into a local news show and offered a lengthy discourse in which he accused Genaro García Luna of being in cahoots with the Zetas and the Beltrán Leyvas, implored Calderón to not be fooled by his secretary of public security, and pledged respect for the president and the Mexican military. If you read Spanish, give it a look, the transcript is fascinating.
It would seem that the response has to walk a very fine line, between any sort of "Bring 'em on" silliness that would make life worse for Michoacán, but still insisting that as criminals, there can be no negotiation, no dialogue. As far as how to strike that balance...wow, I'm glad I don't work for the federal government.
Update: There's a difficult-to-understand video at the bottom of
this story. Also, a PGR
spokesman warned Mexicans not to take the offer to dialogue seriously.
2 comments:
Yeah, dialogue is a non-starter. That said, given all the information that's emerged, there's plenty of reason to believe that La Tuta is at least partially sincere in his indignation about police abuses. In keeping with the need for a change of strategy discussed with respect to Juarez, a clear place for the govt. to start is exerting more control over security force operations in order to begin to take any moral high ground away from La Familia.
The element of separating the police and military is particularly interesting. In reality, there have been multiple reports about military abuses in Michoacan. However, it seems that those have been more out in the campo, where perhaps the army is targeting production operations, while the police are maybe more implicated in targeted actions against Familia members and their relatives? I don't know but maybe that helps explain the different treatment. Or maybe he thinks the average soldier will be more receptive to a message of protection and solidarity than the PFP.
I thought the response was OK, and I guess it really didn't need to walk a fine line. I guess what I think would have been helpful would have been, aside from the denial of dialogue, a message to drug traffickers that it doesn't have to be a fight to the death. Something like, if we don't have an arrest warrant out for you and you stop running drugs, you can live on into old age without worrying yourself or your family.
So much of what Calderón says does the opposite, which, given the half a million people who make their living on the drug trade, is counter-productive.
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