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Page 11 of 82
What to Make of Helping the War Effort
March 4, 2009
This column has long argued that what Mexico is facing is not so much a war against illegal drug traffic, but rather a low-intensity civil war. On one side is a small, but ruthless, part of society that is dedicated to criminal activities of all sorts. The ranks of the criminals are fueled by the Mexican baby boom of 1960-1990. Poor economic growth turned many who should have been part of a "population dividend" of working-age citizens into armies of miscreants.
Impunity fueled by corruption has meant that these many thousands of individuals have no incentive to mend their ways. Worse, there is now a subculture of music, legend, conspicuous consumption, and even religious icons, that provides a sense of belonging just as powerful as any rebel flag or national identity.
On the other side is a majority of Mexicans who are trying to make a living without hurting anyone (this includes much of the "informal" economy which is not legal, but is more of a nuisance than a danger). In this fight, the government and civil society (in this case encompassing the private and religious sectors) are awkward brothers in arms who still don't know how to work together.
Government thinks that its private citizens don't understand the pressures and difficulties they suffer. Civil society thinks that government must be in cahoots with the criminals because there is still so much corruption. Meanwhile, soldiers, police officers and ordinary citizens are falling victim to society's aggressors because no one knows who to trust, let alone what they can do together. Divided, they are falling.
Most talk of civil society participation in crime prevention is well intended, but completely ineffectual. Some of it is counterproductive, like marches and protests which highlight the weakness of our public-private alliance. And yet, there are many excellent organizations and minds that have yet to be tapped.
Start with the world class companies in our private sector. Your correspondent began his professional career at Procter & Gamble de México, recruited straight from college in Washington, DC. After spending time in both Cincinnati and Mexico City, it became apparent that the Mexican organization was leaner and more efficient. At the same time, what we produced here, from shampoos to diapers, was easily the equal of anything made in the US, Europe, or Japan. And it was Mexicans that made it all happen.
P&G Mexico is far from alone in its local excellence. All multinationals here, both Mexican and foreign, from CEMEX and Bimbo to Sony and Motorola, have world-beating staff. Over 95% of their top executives are Mexican, but their employers don't have serious internal corruption issues, or are in any way "worse" than their sister organizations in the most "honest" countries. Why aren't these knowledgeable, honest, professionals offering their expertise through a corporate public service program? Because they haven't been asked.
Real civil society participation means "recruiting" the best of the country to design and help implement logistics, which is nothing more than mechanisms for control. Security, like logistics, is all about control. It turns out that Bimbo, now the world's largest manufacturer of baked goods and breads, has one of the most impressive operations anywhere right here in Mexico. Market intelligence and police field work is very similar and Mexico has a plethora of companies that do this very well. This expertise is not being "recruited" for the war.
Civil society participation in crime prevention also means the involvement of the religious groups in fighting the perverse cult of death that has arisen around the drug trade with the Santa Muerte and Malvido icons. Further, just like it took thousands of pictures of concentration camp victims to finally bury the Nazi image of efficiency and "purity", the human tragedy of organized crime should be laid bare. The grieving families and the tremendous suffering need to be disseminated in churches and even in those schools where the young romanticize violence.
Civil society participation means that the multiple private sector associations and chambers, many with national reach, should offer to monitor the work of local law enforcement so that it is not the individual, but the entire business network that is the whistleblower. Of course, there has to be someone to blow the whistle to, which gets to the issue of trust in government.
The job of providing security should not be outsourced to the private sector. But the government needs to earn the trust of all civil society, to determine exactly who should play what role and to organize them into doing it. Mexicans are not used to getting together in order to help the government, but this is one war that neither group can win by itself.
For the latest thought-provoking article by Agustin Barrios Gomez please go to our Opinion Column page
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