Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
Mexico is a society overflowing with violence in every pore. The violence is social, group-based, and institutional. López Obrador’s six-year term allowed group violence to increase by empowering organized crime with the slogan “Hugs, not bullets.” That slogan had the opposite effect of what it was supposed to promote. Today, Mexico is home to mercenaries from various countries, trained in modern warfare involving drones, guided bombs, and high-powered weapons. The war being waged throughout the country is sophisticated, dangerous, and will have an uncertain outcome.
Social violence is expressed in femicides, domestic abuse of the elderly (in addition to beatings, the theft of their welfare cards has become widespread), bullying in schools at all levels, sexual violence, and discrimination against diverse sexualities, child marriages, and pedophilia inside and outside churches. Workplace abuse and wage discrimination between men and women are also elements that contribute to the culture of violence we witness every day.
Institutional violence also contributes to the atmosphere of violence in the country and heightens the perception that differences are insurmountable, leading to the imposition of agendas by any means necessary. The fact that we had a president who abused the microphone to punish, insult, and offend his opponents for six years simply reinforced the idea that imposition is the natural recourse for resolving disputes. The idea behind the 4T is to impose its project on the country, by hook or by crook, whether people like it or not.
This institutional violence is accompanied by the assumption of total control that offers and requires no accountability. Under this protective mantle, corruption flourishes with unstoppable momentum. This situation demands that power become increasingly autocratic, with the express intention of evading any accountability to society for the revenue and expenditure of public funds.
The national environment is fertile ground for the emergence of violent youth groups, who have learned how to behave in a society like Mexico’s. Homes are the first battlefield and gathering place where they learn the rules of daily survival. Neighborhoods and schools are the next place of violent encounter with the community. Social media is the ideal tool for communication and for spreading ideas that bring together young people of all ages. Violence is already a universal language. It is no mystery that INCELs (Involuntary Celibates) found it on social media. What it allows them is the anonymous expression of their frustrations, anger, and ultimately, hatred. Mexican gender violence is fertile ground for this pre-fascist ferment to occur naturally and forcefully.
It is also the right environment for Ayotzinapa students to engage in violent excesses whenever there is a call for mobilization, whether in Chilpancingo, Taxco, Acapulco, or Mexico City.
What was witnessed on October 2 in the capital’s main square was the convergence and coordination between the INCEL forces organized on university campuses and the Black Bloc. The capital’s authorities, who do not have a great capacity for analysis, did not understand how the troops of young people affected by the violence that runs through the veins of Mexican society came together. Instead of the usual Black Bloc of 30 young people, more than 350 masked individuals appeared, with a violent vigor typical of a society living in a state of war. The State was largely overwhelmed on that fateful October 2 due to its lack of preparation and its frank ignorance of the phenomenon approaching.
Voices cried out that “those young people don’t know what October 2, 1968, was all about.” That’s true, but they don’t care either. For them, today’s society is violent. It offers them no options except ideas of destruction and hatred, with no utopia at the end of the day. They are not even interested in the 4T.
From the resentment and hatred left behind by the violent and flamboyant decline of the leftist government in Mexico, more institutional violence with proto-fascist and dictatorial features may emerge. It would be the socially organic response to the State’s institutional violence. Whatever the outcome, Mexico will face more violence than ever before.
@rpascoep
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