The dangers of elected office
Politics can be a life and death "game" in Mexico.
Mexico violence: Newly elected Congresswoman kidnapped
A newly elected Mexican Congresswoman, Norma Azucena Rodríguez Zamora, has been kidnapped at gunpoint on a highway in central Hidalgo state.
Two men shot at Ms Rodríguez's car, injuring an assistant and the driver and causing the vehicle to flip over.
The gunmen pulled Ms Rodríguez from the car and forced her into their vehicle.
The kidnapping comes little more than a month after the mayor of the town of Naupan was seized and killed in the same area.
Ms Rodríguez was elected on 1 July to represent eastern Veracruz state in the lower house of Congress for the centre-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
The 32-year-old was due to take up office on 1 September. The state she will represent is one of the most violent in Mexico…
The motive for his killing is not known but local politicians often become targets for criminal gangs if they are seen to interfere with the gang's business.
The campaign for the 2018 general election saw a spike in violence against political candidates…
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Labels: Mexico, politics, violence
The New York Times finally notices
The conflicts and politics in Nigeria finally made the
NYT front page. Does that make it more real? How many Americans will read it?
Deadly Lack of Security Plagues Nigeria as Buhari Seeks Re-election
Nigeria is beleaguered by security threats. In the northeast, Islamist extremists from Boko Haram and its splinter groups are waging increasingly complex attacks on military forces and civilians. In the middle part of the country, more than 1,300 people have been killed in increasingly vicious land disputes between cattle herders and farmers. Farther to the south, violence spikes from time to time in the Biafra region, where separatists are pushing to secede. And in various pockets throughout the country, like a major highway between Kaduna and Abuja, kidnappings of prominent figures and regular Nigerians alike have become common.
The threats are becoming a major issue for President Muhammadu Buhari as he tries for a second term in February. Increasingly, critics, and even allies, complain about his failure to take control of the security situation…
After almost a decade into the Boko Haram insurgency, security resources on the frontlines of the conflict are increasingly stretched. On Sunday, according to local reports, several soldiers brought an airport in Borno State, in northeastern Nigeria, to a halt, shooting into the air and threatening their superiors to protest working conditions. It is the third time this year that security forces have protested their plight stemming from the conflict.
Recently, security has deteriorated significantly. In July alone, a total of more than 400 people were killed by Boko Haram or gangs in Zamfara, or in the herder-farmer conflict, according to the International Crisis Group.
 |
| People prepare to flee a village near Jos |
In recent weeks, Mr. Buhari’s All Progressives Congress party has been hit with a wave of defections. More than 50 lawmakers, state governors and party members have joined the opposition People’s Democratic Party, many of them worried that any alignment with the president could challenge their prospects in next year’s elections.
And bizarre events have left many in the nation concerned about the general state of democracy. Twice in recent weeks, security forces from the Department of State Services, the top spy agency, have appeared in black face masks outside the National Assembly. On Aug. 7, they blocked lawmakers from entering.
Later that day, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo fired the head of the agency. And on Tuesday, he announced that a notorious security agency, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, would be shut down. The decision was widely welcomed; it followed several months of criticism that Mr. Buhari was again deaf to the concerns of Nigerians, after several protests against alleged abuses by the agency…
The violence has also fueled ethnic divisions within the state between the Hausa and Fulani communities. Many gangs are thought to comprise mostly Fulani members, but Fulani have also been victimized. When they show up at displaced persons camps, Hausa victims have tried to push them away.
Lawal Mustapha, a university student in Zamfara, said he hoped the military intervention in Zamfara would lead to lasting changes. “We want them to restore Zamfara to how it was before all these killings, a peaceful state,” he said. “That will only happen if they improve security permanently, not just to send soldiers in who will then leave soon after.”
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Labels: cleavages, Nigeria, political culture, rule of law, violence
How violence affects the economy in Mexico
It's not just on the levels of regime and government that violence affects the political culture.
Mexico violence: Clowns protest over Acapulco murder rate
Clowns dressed in white marched down a central street in the Mexican resort of Acapulco on Monday demanding an end to the city's crime wave.
With their faces painted and carrying signs reading "peace", they said that they were "tired of so much violence".
They complained that they were losing business because residents no longer threw parties out of fear of becoming targets of crime…
Officials said they had recorded almost 50 more murders in the first three months of 2018 than in the same period last year.
Most of the murders are believed to be related to warfare between rival criminal gangs in the region…
In January, the US state department prohibited US government employees from travelling to the state of Guerrero, including Acapulco.
It warned of armed groups "operating independently of the government in many areas of Guerrero".
"Members of these groups frequently maintain roadblocks and may use violence towards travellers," the advice said.
Federal police and soldiers were deployed to the resort in December 2014 but have so far failed to quell the violence.
Don't Panic Get some sleep.
Labels: Mexico, political culture, violence
Effects of violence on government and politics - 2
How are the demands on government and the state in Mexico similar to and different from those in Nigeria?
Mexico’s murder rate heads for a new record
IN APASEO EL GRANDE, a town in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, the bodies are stacking up… In the first three months of this year the municipality of 85,000 people had 43 murders, up from 20 in all of 2016. That is about the same as London, a city 100 times larger and currently panicking about its high murder rate…
The town and the state it belongs to are suffering from a double blow. One is a national crime wave, during which the murder rate broke through its previous record of 2011. That peak came after the then president, Felipe Calderón, deployed the army to fight drug gangs. His tactic of capturing or killing kingpins caused the gangs to split into warring factions and to enter new lines of business. The current president, Enrique Peña Nieto, who took office in 2012, promised to halve the murder rate. Instead, after an initial decline it rose sharply…
The rise in violence is among the main issues in the general election scheduled for July 1st. Nearly half of Mexicans say crime is the main problem in their area…
Guanajuato’s prosperity, once thought to deter crime, now seems to be attracting it. The state’s south is part of an industrial corridor that stretches from Aguascalientes to Querétaro. Factories in the region produce cars and other goods for tariff-free export to the United States and Canada under the North American Free-Trade Agreement. A quarter of Guanajuato’s workforce is employed in manufacturing…
Mexico’s location, between South America’s coca fields and the United States’ drugs market, makes it vulnerable. But the persistence of violence is the fault of a weak state, and especially of inadequate policing, prosecution and courts. Widespread corruption greatly worsens the problem…
Police investigate just a quarter of murders. In part that is because there are too few police… Police and officials are underpaid, and thus tempted to work for criminals rather than against them. They are also poorly trained. In many states, more than 90% of arrests are of suspects caught red-handed, which shows that police have little capacity to investigate crimes more than an hour or two after they happen…
Another problem is co-ordination. Mexico has municipal, state and federal police forces, plus the army, which Presidents Calderón and Peña pressed into service against criminals. In many states municipal and state-level police do not use the same radio frequencies and therefore cannot communicate…
Areas where violence has surged recently are especially unprepared to deal with it. Guanajuato has one forensics specialist per 10,000 crimes; the national average is 18. Police numbers there are less than a quarter of the interior ministry’s standard…
Mr Peña’s efforts to improve policing have largely failed. He proposed creating a 40,000-strong force that would establish control over areas infested by crime. But the government cut back its funding and the army refused to let civilians command it…
A more promising initiative is a reform of the criminal-justice system, which is taking place gradually across the country. This shifts courtroom procedures away from document-based decision-making by a judge [inquisitorial] to argumentative methods used in the United States [adversarial]…
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Labels: judicial system, Mexico, political culture, rule of law, violence
Killing candidates in Mexico
Politics can be a deadly business in Mexico — especially for local candidates
Widespread killings of candidates cast shadow over Mexican elections
Authorities have confirmed the slayings of at least 30 candidates, according to Alfonso Navarrete, Mexico's interior secretary. Some reports indicate the toll since last year may be almost twice as high.
The killings — mostly of local candidates in provincial areas far from the Mexican capital — form a chilling backdrop to the July 1 elections, which include races for president, Congress and local posts across the country. In all, more than 3,000 offices are up for grabs, the most ever on a single day.
The slain candidates represented a range of political affiliations and movements, suggesting that the killings are more about local power grabs and gang rivalries than national conflicts among parties…
Most of the killings have garnered little attention from national news outlets, which are heavily focused on the presidential contenders, who appear daily on television…
The litany of attacks has generated profound concern here and abroad about the state of Mexican democracy.
"Mexico is suffering a risk in the legitimacy of its electoral processes," said Erubiel Tirado, a political scientist at Mexico's Iberoamerican University and an expert on violence. "The question here is: Does the Mexican state really have the capacity to protect [candidates]? I believe that it doesn't."
The increase in political slayings "is absolutely unacceptable in an electoral process," said Luis Almagro, secretary general of the Organization of American States, which plans to send a team to observe Mexico's July voting…
The attacks, the interior secretary recently told reporters, are "very focused on some regions of the country," mostly in areas where organized crime often holds an insidious grip on power and federal law enforcement is stretched thin…
Among the hardest-hit places is the state of Guerrero, where political corruption is rampant and sundry factions vie for control of drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping and other rackets. Mobsters routinely buy off local cops and politicians. Since the beginning of 2017, more than a dozen candidates have been reported slain in Guerrero…
There were no assassinations of mayors during the 1980s and 1990s, according to Justice in Mexico, a research project at the University of San Diego. But today, being a mayor or other regional lawmaker may be among the country's most dangerous jobs.
Mexico's National Assn. of Mayors recently reported that more than 100 mayors, mayors-elect and ex-mayors had been slain since 2006…
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Labels: drugs, elections, Mexico, politics, violence
More killings in the Middle Belt
When long-standing cleavages begin to overlap violence often takes place. Nigeria's Middle Belt, especially east of the Niger and Benue Rivers is an area where the violence is increasing.
Benue Killings - Police Arrest Eight Herdsmen
The Police in Benue say they have arrested eight herdsmen over the death of 10 persons and seven livestock guards in Guma and Logo Local Governments of the state on Monday.
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| Benue State |
"Eight herdsmen, six in Guma and two in Logo, had been arrested in connection with the attacks," the police spokesman said…
He said: "They attacked Tomater village in Sengev Council ward, Akor village in Nzorov council ward and Bakin Kwata village in Umanger council ward of Guma LGA.
"Among those killed were seven (7) members of Benue State Livestock Guards, their vehicle burnt and an uncertain number of persons injured…
According to him, five combined teams of mobile and conventional policemen led by Assistant Commissioner of Police, Operations, Emmanuel Adesina, have engaged the armed herdsmen in a gun duel in Guma…
Buhari speaks on Benue killings
President Muhammadu Buhari has commiserated with Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State over the reported killings, injury of several persons and wanton destruction of property in Guma and Logo Local Government Areas of the state in the New Year.
Mr. Ortom said on Tuesday that armed herdsmen killed over 20 and injured over 30 in Benue between Monday and Tuesday in Guma and Logo local government areas…
In his reaction, Mr. Buhari, while expressing sadness at the “wicked and callous” attacks, assured the governor and people of the state that relevant security agencies have been directed to do everything possible to arrest those behind the regrettable incidents and avert further attacks.
“This is one attack too many, and everything must be done to provide security for the people in our rural communities,” he said.
Mr. Buhari also commiserated with families of the victims and wished the injured speedy healing…
Attacks and counter attacks by migrant herdsmen on farming Benue communities led the state government to put the anti-open grazing law in place. The law bans open grazing in all Benue communities.
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Labels: cleavages, Nigeria, violence
Fatalities in Mexican Politics
When most of the murdered politicians come from a single party, people become suspicious.
Five Mexican politicians killed in past week ahead of elections in the summer
To commemorate the new year, a mayoral candidate in a small Mexican town sent a Facebook message Sunday morning asking residents to unite to improve society.
“We only need maturity, seriousness, and responsibility to face the challenges that confront society,” Adolfo Serna Nogueda wrote.
Later that day, Serna was fatally shot outside his home in Atoyac de Alvarez, along the Pacific Coast in the western state of Guerrero.
Serna, a member of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party [PRI], was one of at least five politicians killed in the past week in Mexico on the eve of an important election year.
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| Politician's funeral |
Two days earlier, the [PRD] mayor of another Guerrero town, Petatlan, about two hours north along the coast, was killed while eating with friends at a restaurant. And the day before that, a [PRD]state congressman from Jalisco was gunned down while driving with his son. A former [PRD] state congressional candidate and a town council member also were killed in the past week.
The violence was another reminder of the serious dangers inherent in Mexican politics, particularly at the local level, where drug gangs regularly exert influence…
“We are six months from the presidential election, and of course these attacks against our members are taken as a warning against participating,” Ángel Ávila Romero, secretary general of the PRD, said last week, according to El Universal newspaper…
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Labels: Mexico, politics, violence
Murderous journalism
Politics is deadly in Russia. In Mexico journalism is deadly.
Miroslava Breach third Mexican journalist to be killed this month
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| Breach |
A journalist has been shot dead in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, the third to be killed in the country this month.
Miroslava Breach was shot eight times in her car outside her home in the state capital, Chihuahua…
Mrs Breach had reported on organised crime, drug-trafficking and corruption for a national newspaper, La Jornada, and a regional newspaper, Norte de Juarez.
The gunmen left a note saying: "For being a loud-mouth."…
The Committee to Protect Journalists… says 38 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 1992.
See also: List of journalists and media workers killed in Mexico
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Labels: journalism, Mexico, violence
Murderous politics
Russian politics can be deadly.
Russian Agent Killed Lawmaker in Kiev, Ukraine Officials Say
The assassin who gunned down a prominent Russian opposition figure on a sidewalk in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev was identified by Ukrainian officials on Friday as a 28-year-old Russian agent…
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| Voronenkov's body removed |
The gunman was himself grievously wounded by a bodyguard for the target, Denis N. Voronenkov, and subsequently died in the hospital. The allegation was immediately dismissed by Dmitri S. Peskov, the spokesman for the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, as “absurd.”
Mr. Voronenkov was a member of the Russian Parliament before defecting to Ukraine last year…
A former prosecutor before joining Parliament, Mr. Voronenkov had socialized with people in Mr. Putin’s circle…
Critics and opponents of Mr. Putin and his Kremlin cronies have been assassinated in a variety of ways over the years, often in spectacular fashion so as to send a message, Kremlin watchers say. The most celebrated was the poisoning of Alexander V. Litvinenko with a rare and deadly radioactive isotope, polonium 210, administered in a drink in the Millennium Hotel in London in 2006.
When the prominent opposition figure Boris Y. Nemtsov was murdered in 2015, his body fell on the sidewalk of a bridge with the Kremlin and the domes of St. Basil’s Cathedral as a backdrop.
Sometimes the killings are more prosaic. Numerous potential witnesses to the death of Sergei L. Magnitsky, a lawyer who died of neglect in a Russian prison, have disappeared, been poisoned or suffered “heart attacks” that were later found to be the result of ingesting a rare Chinese herb.
See also:Here are 10 critics of Vladimir Putin who died violently or in suspicious ways
See also:Key Putin Opponent Arrested in Moscow During Anti-Corruption Protests
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Labels: politics, Russia, violence
The other branch of Mexico's regime
A democratic regime is made up of executive, legislative, and judicial branches. And in Mexico there's another branch: the cartels.
'The only two powerful cartels left': rivals clash in Mexico's murder capital
Manzanillo and the surrounding state of Colima were once best known for their black sand beaches, lime groves and a smoldering volcano that erupts every century or so.
But over the past year, the region has claimed a new title: murder capital of Mexico…
Local officials blame the killings on outsiders or describe it as score-settling between petty criminals.
But analysts of the drug war say the violence is part of a nationwide realignment of organized crime – and a bitter struggle to control the port of Manzanillo, one of the biggest on Mexico’s Pacific coast.
Ten years of a militarised campaign against the cartels has not ended the trade in drugs, or helped enforce rule of law in Mexico. It has, however, weakened or splintered several crime factions, leaving a handful of powerful survivors fighting for the spoils.
Colima is currently the setting for a confrontation between two of the most formidable: the Sinaloa Federation – led by imprisoned capo Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán – and the Jalisco New Generation cartel, known by its Spanish initials as the CJNG.
The CJNG – based in the neighbouring state of Jalisco – has already established a reputation as one of the country’s fastest-growing and most aggressive groups…
“The CJNG is gaining ground, but doesn’t have anywhere near the power of the Sinaloa cartel,” said Miguel Ángel Vega, a reporter with the Sinaloa-based news organization Ríodoce…
Local journalists say that much of the violence stems from the lack of a strong boss to control the “plaza” – the local turf or trafficking routes. Others suggested that the conflict was triggered by defections from CJNG to Sinaloa.
“It’s a war over the local market,” said one longtime reporter, asking for anonymity for security reasons. “Cartel de Jalisco sells ice [methamphetamine], while Sinaloa sells cocaine.”
But few local residents expect either side to win a victory by force – they believe that the solution will come from a political deal.
Some believe the violence will continue until one of the cartels gains control with help from the government…
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Labels: corruption, Mexico, violence
Recession, inflation, corruption, and famine
Add another challenge to the list of things the Nigerian government must deal with.
Hunger games: Famine looms in areas devastated by Boko Haram
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| Borno state |
All told, the UN estimates that 240,000 children in Borno [the state worst-affected by Nigeria’s insurgency], are suffering from severe acute malnutrition—the deadliest category of it. More than 130 will die each day without assistance. Across the wider north-east of Nigeria, a population equivalent to New Zealand’s is in need of food aid. In Abuja, the country’s sleepy capital, humanitarian co-ordinators compare the crisis to those of South Sudan and the Central African Republic. Unlike them, Nigeria cannot excuse itself as a failed state. It is Africa’s second-biggest economy. Things should never have got this bad…
The jihadists want to establish a caliphate in Nigeria: until early last year they occupied a territory the size of Belgium. But they are hopeless administrators, skilled only in violence. Rather than wooing neglected villagers, they pillaged food, stole cattle and poisoned water. Instead of using farmers to feed their fighters, they held them under lock and key…
Mercifully, the insurgents have been pushed out of most big towns in the north-east over the past 18 months… Soldiers say that landmines litter farmers’ fields, making it dangerous to grow food. Borno is now entering its third season without a harvest…
Of the roughly 20 international non-profit organisations that together hand out 90% of the world’s aid, only half are present in Nigeria’s north-east… Nigeria’s own relief agencies are more used to dealing with floods than food crises, and are also accused of stealing supplies.
To help humanitarians, Nigeria’s army must secure major roads and push forward into smaller towns, instead of sitting on its haunches…
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The Comparative Government and Politics Review Checklist.
Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories
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Labels: cleavages, economy, Nigeria, violence
Contending with violence
Nigeria is threatened by violence all over the country. In the southeast,
Biafran terrorists fight against the destruction of the environment and corruption; in the Middle Belt, mobile populations fight over scarce resources; in the northeast, Boko Haram terrorizes everyone; and possible ISIS bombers strike Abuja and Lagos.
And the solutions are… ?
Boko Haram blamed for deadly attack on Nigeria village
 |
| Dalori |
At least 50 people are reported to have been killed in north-eastern Nigeria in a gun and bomb attack by suspected Boko Haram militants…
Witnesses said the attackers arrived on motorbikes and in lorries and were wearing military uniforms, Nigerian media reported.
Survivor Alamin Bakura told the Associated Press that he hid in a tree as the attackers struck on Saturday evening.
He said he saw militants firebomb huts and heard the screams of children as people were burned to death. He said several members of his family were among those killed or wounded.
Boko Haram has also been blamed for deadly bomb attacks in neighbouring Chad…
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The Comparative Government and Politics Review Checklist.
Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories
, a list of vital concepts, thumbnail descriptions of the AP6,
and
a description of the AP exam format
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Labels: cleavages, Nigeria, violence
Deadly politics
Is Mexico the most dangerous place in which to be elected? There is more than one explanation, but no good answer.
Death and the mayor
POLITICS is a risky business in Mexico… on January 2nd Gisela Mota,
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| Gisela Mota |
mayor of Temixco, about 85km (53 miles) south of Mexico City, was killed in her home by several assassins just one day after her inauguration.
It is fairly clear who killed Ms Mota, but not why. The suspects are thought to have links to Los Rojos, a drug gang… Ms Mota, a former congresswoman from the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution, had vowed to fight drug trafficking…
Graco Ramírez, the governor of Morelos, the state to which Temixco belongs, offers a different theory. He thinks Ms Mota was killed because she supported the state’s takeover of local policing, a policy known as mando único (single command). Mexico has 2,000 local police forces, in addition to state and federal constabularies. Many of them are short of funds and badly managed. Some, and the mayors who run them, are in league with the criminals.
The state takeover of local policing was the big crime-fighting idea that Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, came up with…
Advocates of mando único claim that states can modernise police forces, co-ordinate them better and give them more money. Mayors will face less risk if they are not directly involved in police work. And the corrupt ones will have less opportunity to subvert it…
Critics of the policy say there is no proof that it modernises policing. Forces under state command are not immune to corruption…
Teaching Comparative blog entries are indexed. Use the search box to look for country names or concept labels attached to each entry.
The Comparative Government and Politics Review Checklist.
Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories
, a list of vital concepts, thumbnail descriptions of the AP6,
and
a description of the AP exam format
. $2.00.
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Just The Facts! is available. Order HERE.
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Labels: corruption, Mexico, politics, violence
Reminder
Nigeria has to combat armed force in the south as well as Boko Haram in the north. (Check out some of the articles cited in the BBC post.)
Niger Delta: Army arrests six after 'pirate attack' kills soldiers
The Nigerian military has made six arrests after four soldiers and a policeman were killed in an attack by suspected pirates in the oil-rich Niger Delta on Friday.
Security forces also recovered a cache of arms and ammunition in the raid on their camp, the army said.
Gunmen in four speed boats targeted the military checkpoint in southern Bayelsa state on Friday, authorities said.
Piracy and organised crime linked to oil theft are common in the region…
An amnesty in 2009 for tens of thousands of oil militants - who receive a monthly stipend from the government - stemmed the level of violence in the region.
But some of the former militants have turned to piracy.
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Labels: cleavages, Nigeria, violence
Worlds colliding
Some reports suggest that there are hundreds of confrontations every year between farmers and Communist Party/government developers who want the land. Few of them are reported by Western media.
Land deal stand-off continues in China village
A stand-off is continuing a tiny hamlet in China's southern Yunnan province following a violent confrontation between villagers and police last week.
A few hundred residents of Guangji are surrounded by police eager to arrest those involved in the clashes.
Forty-four villagers and 27 police were hurt in the clashes, which began when police tried to arrest two villagers.
Wang Zhengrong, 69, and his son, Wang Chunyun are leading the village fight against a land deal.
The villagers are fighting to save their farm land from provincial developers who are building a $3.6bn dollar tourist attraction on the site…
Guangji is a 30-minute drive south of Yunnan's capital, Kunming. Twelve villages shared the farm land that is earmarked for the province's new "Ancient City" project, a vast recreation of traditional Chinese buildings dating back to Yunnan's ancient Dian Kingdom, which began in the 4th Century BC.
The project, which has high-level support from Yunnan's Communist Party leaders, is slated to cover approximately 20,000 acres, say the villagers.
Half of that land has already been claimed by the project's developers. The people in Guangji are fighting to protect 4000 acres of land that lies closest to their homes, while nearby villages are pitching in to try to save the rest. They too, have seen their share of violent confrontations with the authorities in recent months…
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Labels: China, economics, politics, violence
Mexican government failures once again on display
Last spring, groups of Mexican civilians
made news fighting back against drug gangs. The incidents exposed the failures or lack of capacity of the government to provide adequate public safety. (Of course, it's always possible that rival gangs armed and organized people to take on rivals. With decent public relations planning, that could look like spontaneous citizen uprising.)
Well, citizen efforts are in the news again. What does that say about government capacity? legitimacy? and rule of law?
Mexican vigilantes take on drug cartels - and worry authorities: Militias spring up across Mexico to defend communities but authorities fear 'rebel force' and an 'undeclared civil war'
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| Tixtla |
With their scuffed shoes, baggy trousers and single shot hunting guns, the eight men preparing to patrol their hillside barrio in the southern Mexican town of Tixtla hardly looked like a disciplined military force. But this motley collection of construction workers and shopkeepers claim to have protected their community from Mexico's violent drug cartels in a way the police and military have been unable – or unwilling – to do.
"Since we got organised, the hit men don't dare come in here," said one young member of the group, which had gathered at dusk on the town's basketball court, before heading out on patrol…
Over the past year, vigilante groups like this have sprung up in towns and villages across Mexico, especially in the Pacific coast states of Guerrero and Michoacán. They make no pretence to be interrupting drug trafficking itself but they do claim to have restored a degree of tranquillity to daily life.
In a country where the police are commonly felt to commit more crime than they prevent, the militias have won significant popular support, but they have also prompted fears that the appearance of more armed groups can only provoke more violence…
Rubén Figueroa, a Guerrero state deputy who heads the local legislature's security commission is one of the few politicians who openly expresses these fears. "I have reliable information that some of these [vigilante] groups have been infiltrated by subversives.
"They are trying to take advantage of the power vacuums that exist in isolated areas."
The vigilantes deny any such links but, whether true or not, they appear to distrust the army almost as much as the cartels. That hardly bodes well for the government's efforts to bring the Guerrero self-defence groups under control…
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Labels: capacity, legitimacy, Mexico, rule of law, violence
Iranian cleavage becomes more visible
Our textbooks dutifully note that ethnic (national) cleavages in Iran involve minorities on the borders. Sometimes, they become more visible because of deadly events like those of last week.
Iran Executes 16 Sunni Insurgents in Retaliation for an Attack
The Iranian authorities executed 16 Sunni insurgents on Saturday, Iranian media reported, in retaliation for an attack a day earlier that killed 14 guards on the volatile southeastern border with Pakistan…
The retaliatory response highlights the deep tensions in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, a hotbed of Sunni resistance against the Shiite Islamic Republic of Iran. The border area shared by Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan has long resembled a war zone, and more than 3,500 members of Iranian security forces have been killed in clashes with smugglers transporting heroin and opium to Iran, Turkey and Europe.
The attack on the border guards was preceded by the killing of two members of the influential Rigi family, who in the past decade have led an armed separatist struggle in the province seeking independence from Iran and involving suicide attacks, assassinations and abductions.
Web sites connected to separatist groups said the men, Karim Rigi and Gholamreza Rigi, were killed on Oct. 16 by local Iranian security forces, although official Web sites deny involvement…
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Labels: cleavages, Iran, politics, violence
Cartel wars spread to politics
The wars between Mexican drug cartels seem to spreading to politics. These reports are from June 30 and July 2.
Mexico candidate wounded in attack
A candidate in next week's regional elections in Mexico has been critically injured in a gun attack in the south of the country.
Rosalia Palma, a candidate of the governing PRI party for the Oaxaca state assembly, was hit when her vehicle was fired on, officials said.
Her husband and an aide were killed…
Saturday's attack comes two days after the leader of the left-wing Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) in Oaxaca, Nicolas Estrada, was found dead with gunshot wounds…
Gunmen kill Mexico mayor candidate
Gunmen have shot dead a mayoral candidate in Mexico's forthcoming election, the latest in a series of violent attacks on politicians.
Officials said Ricardo Reyes Zamudio was kidnapped while attending a funeral in Durango state on Sunday. His body was found on Monday with bullet wounds.
The authorities have blamed the death on organised criminals…
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Labels: Mexico, political culture, violence
Separating political and criminal violence
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| Bono state |
I saw this reported as another example of political violence in Western media, but the Nigerian press (at least
Leadership in Aubuja) is reporting it as criminal activity. I have no way of knowing which version is more accurate, but it's worth remembering that not all the violence in Nigeria is primarily political. However, just to make things less clear, the second part of the article describes how Boko Haram terrorists killed students in two secular schools in the northeast of the country (Maiduguri in Bono state).
(Please excuse Abba Abubakar Kabara's English. It's not far from rustlers to wrestlers. On the other hand, his editors should recognize the difference between cattle and castle.)
Gunmen Kill 77 in Zamfara, Maiduguri
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| Zamfara state |
About 50 people were killed yesterday in Kizara village of Tsafe local government area of Zamfara State by group of gunmen suspected to be cattle wrestlers [sic].
The gunmen numbering about 150 and riding motorcycles besieged the village at about 4am, and suddenly opened fire on any adult community member on sight.
The gunmen also killed the village head, Mallam Lawali Madawaki, the chief Imam Mallam Liman Usman and the leader of the vigilante group.
Eyewitness, Yahaya Bale, said it was a reprisal attack following an earlier organised mission by the community vigilante group who chased the castle wrestlers [sic] to recover some animals they have stolen from the community…
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Labels: cleavages, Nigeria, violence
