Mexico - Last week, millions of pilgrims arrived in Mexico City for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12.
Driving through Mexico City in the days leading up to the feast, you could spot peregrinos hiking through the city, large icons of the Virgin Mary affixed to their backpacks and festooned with tinsel garlands.
The major takeaway from these meetings and conversations is that Mexico is in worse shape than I thought, indeed than most Americans realize, and things there are going to get much worse unless we start taking seriously what can only be understood as a continental crisis-one that's brewing now in Mexico, but will not stay there.
The Mexican Secretariat of Public Security reported that on December 1, which marked López Obrador's first anniversary in office, 127 people were killed, a peacetime record for Mexico.
A common refrain among the people I spoke with is that the crisis in Mexico doesn't originate from the narcos but from corruption among the elites, who have captured the courts and security institutions for the sole purpose of enriching themselves.
Therein perhaps lies some hope for Mexico and the United States.
As one foreign service officer told me, the posh neighborhoods of Mexico City-Condesa, Roma, Polanco-are gilded lilies floating on a sea of blood.
https://thefederalist.com/2019/12/18/mexico-is-in-crisis-and-its-not-just-the-cartels-its-the-elites/
Driving through Mexico City in the days leading up to the feast, you could spot peregrinos hiking through the city, large icons of the Virgin Mary affixed to their backpacks and festooned with tinsel garlands.
The major takeaway from these meetings and conversations is that Mexico is in worse shape than I thought, indeed than most Americans realize, and things there are going to get much worse unless we start taking seriously what can only be understood as a continental crisis-one that's brewing now in Mexico, but will not stay there.
The Mexican Secretariat of Public Security reported that on December 1, which marked López Obrador's first anniversary in office, 127 people were killed, a peacetime record for Mexico.
A common refrain among the people I spoke with is that the crisis in Mexico doesn't originate from the narcos but from corruption among the elites, who have captured the courts and security institutions for the sole purpose of enriching themselves.
Therein perhaps lies some hope for Mexico and the United States.
As one foreign service officer told me, the posh neighborhoods of Mexico City-Condesa, Roma, Polanco-are gilded lilies floating on a sea of blood.
https://thefederalist.com/2019/12/18/mexico-is-in-crisis-and-its-not-just-the-cartels-its-the-elites/
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