War in Post-Revolutionary Mexico

Check out Renata Keller's op-ed in Medium on the relevance of the Cold War for understanding Mexico now.

Today, Mexico is engulfed in a drug war, and the nation’s leaders and security services are still engaging in similar questionable activities. In both the Cold War and the Drug War, corruption and subterfuge have obscured the real nature of government activities and undermined public trust in the nation’s leaders. President Enrique Peña Nieto has been accused of corrupt dealings involving his wife and their opulent mansion, but he has so far escaped substantial investigation. The Mexican army has been exposed for committing extra-judicial executions, just as it did during the Cold War. Students, journalists, and other members of society are being murdered and disappeared. And just as it did in the past, the Mexico’s justice system is failing to solve these crimes. Given the Mexican government’s past record of atrocities during the Cold War, one has to wonder about official attempts to deflect blame for Mexico’s current problems.

Another potential hypothesis is simply that this characterizes post-revolutionary Mexico. For example, can we also compare the Drug War and Cold War to the Cristero War? There really is no past time when the justice system worked well and the government treated the opposition (whatever it might be at the time) peacefully.