by José de la Isla
HOUSTON, Texas – During one week in July, the news from the U.S.-Mexico border region read like the Police Gazette. For younger readers unacquainted with that publication, it was a tabloid circulated from 1845 until 1982. It mostly ran crime stories. Each testosterone-toned issue featured murder, mayhem, the Wild Wild West, prostitutes and burlesque, sometimes touching the edges of the obscene.
A lot of coverage from the U.S.-Mexico frontera comes out equally grotesque, giving the impression that little else is going on. The portrayal of life on the borderline makes the more timid among us want to retreat into our tortoise shells.
Take the final few days of July. Mexican authorities arrested alleged immigrant smugglers near Tecate, Mexico, in connection with the death in Campo, Calif., of U.S. Border Patrol agent Robert Rosas. Four guns, four suspects, reported the federal police.
A day earlier, the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, across the border from El Paso, Texas, issued a travel advisory in the aftermath of the killing of “Benji” LeBaron and his brother-in-law, “Wicho” Widmar, a martial arts practitioner.
They died fighting off LaBaron’s attackers.
LeBaron had become an outspoken anti-crime activist following the May abduction for ransom of his 16-year-old brother Eric (who was eventually released). The three resided in a Mormon enclave of 1,000, in Chihuahua, a bustling state of 3.5 million.
As many as 100,000 U.S. citizens are estimated to live in Juárez, the state’s largest city.
Official fumbling and corruption goes with the daily headlines that reveal how the Mexican government is trying to dismantle organized drug-trade syndicates in Chihuahua and its other border states, with lots of casualties in both camps.
The Mexican newsweekly Proceso splashed evidence revealed in Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., showing that both Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón and the administration of his predecessor Vicente Fox were provided spy information about the whereabouts of leaders of Los Zetas, the henchmen of the Gulf Cartel, but failed to act on the intelligence.
The new revelation is reported as part of the history-making prosecution of 19 Los Zetas and Gulf Cartel members for the production, trafficking and distribution of drugs.
Case No. 08-057 de-scribes how cartel leaders, acting like corporate executives, organize and direct violent acts against Mexican law-enforcement officials and rival drug traffickers, executing those who interfere with the distribution of marijuana and cocaine.
Elsewhere, Newspaper-Tree.com is covering the courtroom allegation by El Paso police officer Michael Short that Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West stopped him and other cops at a roadblock and forcibly took them to a substation when they were on a stakeout.
Sheriff West is quoted in the complaint as saying, “Whatever you were working on is f****d up now, and you’re free to leave.”
The Police Gazette has had many imitators over the years. As the granddaddy of supermarket tabloids, it was a great contributor to the tradition of yellow journalism. Perused by suits at newsstands and soaked up by young boys at barbershops, it contributed greatly to the idea of civilization run amok, especially during Prohibition, during the Depression and in war years. There was plenty of truth in its articles but one page does not a novel make.
If murder-and-mayhem is all you read or hear about the border, that picture doesn’t square with the astonishingly realistic, less salacious assessment — and even hopeful future — found in the book by Fernando Romero, “Hyper-Border: The Contemporary U.S.-Mexico Border and its Future.” Hispanic Link.
You can choose. Is it Police Gazette or is it Hyper-Border?
[José de la Isla’s latest book is now available free in digital version at www.DayNightLifeDeathHope.com. He writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service and is author of The Rise of Hispanic Political Power (2003). E-mail him at joseisla3@yahoo.com] © 2009
