IN ASCENCION, MEXICO — In this dusty farm town, an hour south of the U.S. border, more than 40 people were abducted – one a week – in the first nine months of the year. Then, on Sept. 21, the kidnappings stopped.
That was the day a gang of kidnappers with AK-47s burst into Lolo’s seafood restaurant and tried to abduct the 17-year-old cashier. A mob of enraged residents chased down two of the teenage attackers and lynched them in a cotton field on the edge of town. “We’re not proud of what happened,” said Georgina “Coca” Gonzalez, who helped form an armed citizens’ group after the incident to fight crime and prevent kidnappings. “But we’re united now – the whole town. And we all want justice.”
Across the country, and especially in northern Mexico, the breakdown of the legal system is giving way to a wave of vigilante violence. As Mexicans grow frustrated with the depredations of drug mafias and the corruption and incompetence of authorities, some are meting out punishment the old-fashioned way, taking an eye for eye, or in some cases, an eye for a tooth. Some of these retributive acts have happened spontaneously, such as the Ascencion “uprising,” as many here have celebrated it. But other killings in the past year appear to have been carried out by shadowy forces who have left bodies along highways or hanging from bridges with handwritten notes that advertise the dead as “extortionists” or “kidnappers. Late last year, authorities discovered four bodies, including an alleged Monterrey gangster, Hector Saldana, and his two brothers, in a car in Mexico City. The deaths were announced by Mauricio Fernandez, the new mayor of the Monterrey suburb of San Pedro Garza Garcia, even before police identified the bodies.
Fernandez said he had nothing to do with the killings, although he boasted of his plans to create “cleansing teams” to rid his city of criminals.
“Sometimes coincidences happen in life. It’s better to see it that way,” Fernandez told a Monterrey newspaper.
People fighting back, can I get an AMEN.
Amen
Pedro, next time I’m doing a presentation, I’ll call you for projection. You’re good at it.
Olo, dont bother, Hes not very bright.
http://instantrimshot.com/
#22 Projecting what, lefty-loonism?
#23 Nope, not really bright. Hard to understand the sheepleness of a lot of people in here.
As Mexicans grow frustrated with the depredations of drug mafias and the corruption and incompetence of authorities
so they lynched the kidnappers, i wonder what they are planing for the politicians?
#9 uhm you better start checking here.. gates and buffet are making more money on the charity scam then they ever have made elsewhere
http://techrights.org
http://gateskeepers.civiblog.org
http://techdirt.com
#8 – WTF!?! There’s no such thing as an excess profit. Do you believe in Santa and the Easter Bunny too?
I spoke with some police officers that told me they witnessed an interesting phenomenon about Mexicans. They said the harder you hit them, the more english you get out of them.
#26 President Amabo
#8 “The rest that should have been taxed as excessive profits…”
I guess he just received his latest copy of Pravda.
American capitalism gone with a whimper
http://tinyurl.com/2dslb46
When the government can no longer be counted on to provide due process or even protection you are back down to banding together for mutual defense.
The problem is things may be about to get really, seriously ugly.
My bad they are already really seriously ugly but as hard as this may be for some to understand once mob rule sets in large chunks of the population can end up dead PDQ.
This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends…not with a bang.
Now on to Washington and the airports of U.S.A. Congress and TSA are behaving like Mexican drug lord, only difference is drug lords don’t hide in sheep’s clothing.
Mexico is starting to be great fun to watch.
If they start with this approach up here, I welcome it.
And, Oleo Bygones of Backwaters, bite me.
Once they fix their country, US Americans will flee to Mexico.
This is horrible. These gangsters have rights. They should be given a fair trial where they are innocent until proven guilty. I think Mayor Fernandez should be sued for everything he has.
#26
If I bake a cake everyday, and no one eats it, is it excessive or just right?
This is what is happening with the mega-rich.
They make more money than they could possibly spend in their lifetimes. Even 10 to 100 lifetimes.
Is it excessive? No doubt. But in the US, with its insistence on more is better, what can we expect?
#34
No one questions what they do is wrong.
But as the old adage goes, two wrongs does not a right make.
Neither side is on the side of what is right. And so also those charged with their protection are in the wrong as well. No need to add to the errors.
Cursor_
#35 Why are you calling self-defense wrong?
Well done Pedro, one out of 83 is progress.
Cursor: funny you go to the cake analogy. Of course it is WRONG in every sense of the word, and even recognized in law, for the rich to bake cakes they can’t even eat when others are going hungry.
Now, I suppose you are making the same transparent attempt at humor/witticism as is Mikey, and just like him, you fall totally on your face. A prat fall if you will.
I more better? Yes. give the working poor a living wage: they desire more.
You are arguing way beneath your competency.
Way to go, Mexico!!! It’s wonderful to see the Mexican people starting to rise up from the lawlessness and creating their own justice. I’ve always felt that was the true meaning of the movie “Unforgiven”….when justice is denied to people, they will eventually make their own. This is a wonderful event, and I hope will be followed by many many others. Only Mexicans can bring law and order back to Mexico.
#35 – It would be really fun to invent and sell a cure for cancer, then halt production once the line has been crossed into “excess” profits.
Also, the notion that you’re depriving someone by not spending everything you have is based ont he flawed notion that there’s a fixed amount of wealth in the world. Sorry, weath is created and is therefore infinite.
I think Bernie Sanders had it right yesterday as to who controls things in the world.