PS, and incidentally, Peru didn’t beat back the Sendero Luminoso until they adopted a “local militia” policy, and began arming the peasants villages with modern shotguns and some old rifles. The local peasants could then engage the terrorist patrols before they could take over a village, as they had done for years. This bought time for the military quick reaction forces to get into the equation, either to help beat back the terrorists, or more often, pursue them, giving them no rest of sanctuary. The arming of local militias turned the equation and led to victory.
Just a thought. Not very applicable to Mexico, but there have been isolated examples of proud Mexicans going down in “Alamo” type sieges against the narcos, killing many of them before going down fighting.
But disarmed peasants (ie, typical Mexicans), can’t do jack squat against either narcos or corrupt policias.
Maybe a different approach could be the Mexicans hire we Americans to come down and take care of business. Maybe there are enough wealthy Mexicans that care enough to tell the federal government to take a hike and make it worth our while.
One of my very best friends is of Mexican heritage. He is now 72, born in the US, served in the Navy and is as Red, White, and Blue as any of us. He refuses to go into Mexico for any reason although most of his family are Mexicans. He says the system is corrupt at all levels and nothing will be done until another nation helps the people of Mexico fight all those around them. He laughingly suggests, “Maybe we should all get together and toss the rats out of this entire continent.”
And it was Fujimori that did what no one else in Peru was prepared to do, which was to declare total war on Sendero and hunt them down and kill them without pity. They went from controlling most of the country to being a footnote, a handful of bandits hiding in the jungle, because of him.
The politicians who came after him, who were incapable of waging the war that was necessary to beat them, have had their revenge and he sits in a cell for human rights violations. But they sleep safe in their beds because he destroyed Sendero before going down himself.
He’s no saint, but he was the right man for the right moment.