Violence in Guadalajara and Mexico

Recently there have been incidents in Guadalajara that have finally made the news in the U.S. Here's what has happened:

On January 21, in the middle of the night, criminals stopped traffic on the road to Lake Chapala south of the airport. They set two cars and a trailer on fire, blocking the road. They also threw grenades into a police station and a bar, but no one was hurt.

On Tuesday night (again very early in the morning) February 1st, there were 7 or 8 incidents of various kinds. Another blockade of the same road happened between the city and the airport. Grenades were thrown and some buses and cars were set on fire. One incident was somewhat close to our office. There were no injuries. It was supposedly in retribution for the arrest of two of the leaders of one of the drug cartels, La Resistencia.

The next day there were banners on some of the bridges accusing the police of being in the pay of one of the other cartels. Residents of the City spontaneously decided to march against the violence. We saw the march, with young people and mothers and more wearing white and carrying balloons.

The governor and other officials met to coordinate efforts to fight the violence. Meanwhile, the gov's daughter sent a tweet that said, "why were the students marching against the drug cartels - they are the best customers!" This caused a little furor but it disappeared quickly.


The U.S. Consulate issued an official warning to citizens that they should not drive on the airport road after dark. The local officials thought this was overreaction, and pointed out that:

“Guadalajara isn’t in the top 50 cities with the highest intentional homicides rate. New Orleans has 52 murders for every 100,000 inhabitants, Baltimore 34, San Luis Missouri 39, Oakland 23 and Detroit 33,” Guzman said. “(The state of) Jalisco has 11.2, Guadalajara 10, Zapopan 10 and Tonala 11.”
Things were quiet until 4 am on this past Saturday, when two vehicles drove up to a bar, opened fire and then threw in a grenade. Six people died, including a man from Venezuela and a woman from Colombia. There had been an "altercation" earlier that night between two groups. It sounds like a criminal act more than a terrorist attack, except that grenades aren't normal criminal weapons.

All of these incidents happened long after we were asleep. We still feel very safe here. Other Volunteers have stayed in their sites until they no longer feel safe, when no one was out in the street at night and their colleagues asked them why they didn't leave.  There were thousands of families out for the birthday celebrations for the city this past weekend. The fact that the Panamerican Games are coming here in October means that they really really want the city to be safe and are devoting a lot of resources to security.

We aren't supposed to be very political here, but we can have opinions. It seems to me that the war on drugs here may be hurting the country but even so really needs to continue. This country has suffered so much from the fight and some say they should give up, that they can't win. However, if they give in to the narcos all the efforts and all the deaths are for nothing. The U.S. needs to stop the weapons that come into Mexico and help our southern neighbor in its difficult task. We are helping some, but we could do more. Having a successful Mexico is a good thing for the U.S.

Meanwhile, back in San Pedro four miles from our US house, there was a shooting on Sunday. When are you really safe? If you worry about these things, you won't enjoy life as much, that's my attitude!