padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
i appreciate where Padraig is coming from, though i know none of us would disagree that violence in Mexico has leaped alarmingly recently (a 117% increase in murders there from 2007 to last year, for example).
nah I wouldn't disagree either, but it's not a radical departure from the past. there's always been violence - cartels, political, etc. - but very few ppl in the U.S. have payed attention, then the economy goes bad & of course the violence & instability increase & it's "oh it'll be a failed state". look by the criteria ppl are applying it's already half a failed state, it's just a matter of degree as mr. boshambles points out about how states try & fail to impose their authority. I noticed that quote "Mexico might have a drug runner as its next president" - & so? at least it wouldn't be another one of these techno/autocratic bastards Salinas/Zedillo/Fox/Calderon who sell huge chunks of their own country off to Yankees & Euros & then skip off to hide from extradition in Ireland or go work for fucking Coca-Cola. whatever I don't want to romanticize the narcos at all either, they're just as bad & probably worse.
also again I don't know from networks but if it became a "hollow state" wouldn't the cartels have to step in & provide some kind of order? it's not like Somalia I mean, there's a lot of $$$ to be in made & it's in their interest to have some kind of order. which would make it not a network, but a "narco-state". honestly a lot of this seems to be semantics - the govt is rich thugs who went to Harvard or it's rich thugs who directly traffic in narcotics. a pox on both their houses.