Leon has a shiny new airport, located about an hour and a half and 27 USD via shuttle from San Miguel. My two weeks are up, till now I've avoided mentioning the current horrific violence that is afflicting this peaceful, happy and relatively prosperous nation. Few in the US probably realize that Mexico is the world's 14th largest economy, and has been a stable democracy since 1917. There are around one hundred million citizens, the vast majority have nothing to do with the drug cartels and hate the violence that has erupted. As long as we are talking about difficult subjects why not bring up immigration. Do you really think that Mexicans dream of a life picking lettuce in California's Central Valley?
In thinking about the situation, I've realized the two issues are really one and the same: American demand. A pipe line has developed and it's lubricated by the US Dollar. A certain segment of our population likes and /or is addicted to drugs, We The People have criminalized that. How would that not require criminal behavior? All Americans are addicted to cheap food. California has a terrible unemployment, problem, why not kick out foreign labor and put the dot com brats to work picking said lettuce? (OK, that was mean and shallow, and I didn't mean it, it just slipped out). A more productive question could be why don't we have a well administered guest worker program? What I really mean to say here is that I don't think that we are intelligently identifying, analyzing, discussing and ultimately dealing with all this. I don't hold out much hope that we can, given the sorry level of what passes for political discourse is the USA these days.
Just look at health care, it's a purely internal issue, we are a country of vast wealth, every other industrialized has figured it out, yet we simply won't. Another tough subject is guns, what country do you suppose is where the drug cartel's weapons come from? Did you know that Mexico has exactly one gun store? It's on a military base in Mexico city, and only la policia and the military can shop there. Say what you want about the second amendment, but I don't think anyone could argue the point that it's resulted in an enormous amount of firepower out there.
My cousin John says for their part, the Mexicans need to improve surveillance (they don't have the equivalent of an FBI), establish a system of anonymous tip lines, and move towards community policing (an American concept that works). The police are corrupt in Mexico, and that needs to end, how I don't know. In my own experience the last two weeks south of the border I at no time felt in any danger. The cops are a little scary, they patrol in small trucks, two officers inside and two outside in back hanging onto a roll bar, sporting machine guns. Crossing the border from Laredo, Tx to Nuevo Laredo, Mx gave no hint of any need for a bribe to get my 180 day visa. Just down the street from the border I did see on the sidewalk a small bunker made of stacked sand bags, manned by police with machine guns. Still the violence afflicting Mexico is horrific and undeniable. In my short stay, two brothers, 15 and 16, were murdered in Nuevo Laredo, and five bodies were found burned beyond recognition in Monterrey, a sprawling city about five hours to the south, which I also passed through on the bus. It is important to note that to date no tourist has been caught in any crossfire. I would certainly not spend time wandering the border towns after dark, and the usual precautions about being alert to avoid trouble certainly apply.
My goodness that was quite a rant, it took two days! I'm currently on Amtrak's Sunset Limited, about two hours west of New Orleans. The flights went really well, from Leon down to Mexico City, where I had an eight hour layover, then to Houston where I arrived at 11 pm, I like Aero Mexico, one free checked bag, with free drinks and food on board. The long layover meant I could head into town for a look see. Mexico City is a vast metropolis, 17 million residents, some 7,000 ft in elevation, overlooked by two 17,000 ft high volcanoes (dormant?). A network of subway lines makes it easy to get around, even though the trains come every few minutes they are extremely crowed, with cd vendors on board, music blasting, working the crowds. The fare to anywhere is 9 pesos, 75 cents US. The ride from Benito Juarez International to el centro takes about half an hour. Upcoming next on the blog, photos of Mexico City. Cheers!
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