Beyond The Horizon
ICYMI: Catholic Bishops Attempt To Negotiate A Peace Deal With Cartels In Mexico
The relationship between the Catholic Church and the Mexican government has been complex, often intertwined with political and social dynamics. In recent years, there have been efforts by the Church, particularly through its bishops, to broker peace deals with the cartels, recognizing the devastating impact of the drug war on Mexican society.
- Historical Context: Mexico has a long history of Catholicism, dating back to the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. The Church has played a significant role in shaping Mexican culture and society.
- Violence and Cartels: Mexico has been plagued by violence related to drug cartels for decades. The cartels engage in drug trafficking, extortion, and other criminal activities, leading to widespread violence and instability.
- Church's Response: The Catholic Church, through its bishops and clergy, has often condemned the violence perpetrated by the cartels and called for peace and reconciliation. They have also advocated for addressing the root causes of the conflict, such as poverty and social inequality.
- Peace Initiatives: In recent years, there have been attempts by the Church to mediate peace deals between the government and the cartels. These efforts have included dialogue and negotiations aimed at achieving a cessation of violence and a path towards reconciliation.
- Challenges and Criticisms: Brokering peace with the cartels is a complex and controversial endeavor. Critics argue that it legitimizes criminal organizations and undermines the rule of law. There are also concerns about the safety of clergy involved in such negotiations.
- Government Response: The Mexican government has been cautious in its approach to peace negotiations with the cartels. While there have been some instances of cooperation with the Church, the government's primary strategy has been to combat the cartels through law enforcement and military operations.
- Outcomes: Thus far, efforts to broker a peace deal between the Church and the cartels have had limited success. The underlying issues driving the conflict, such as corruption and impunity, remain deeply entrenched.
In this episode we take a dive into the latest attempt by the Catholic church to bring peace to the land of Mexico and the unfortunate failure of the proposal.
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to contact me:
bobbycapucci@protonmail.com
source:
Catholic bishops in Mexico say they negotiated for possible peace accord with drug cartel leaders | BorderReport
source:
Authorities investigate reports of 17 dead as cartels clash in Guerrero (borderreport.com)
- Duration:
- 16m
- Broadcast on:
- 29 Jun 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
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Go to Shopify.com/dax now to grow your business, no matter what stage you're in. That's Shopify.com/dax. What's up everyone and welcome back to the program. A few days ago, some bishops down in Mexico were talking about how they were trying to negotiate a peace agreement with the cartels. And while I applaud them for their effort, there was no way that the cartels were ever going to accept this kind of peace proposal that's being put forward by the church. There's just too much money on the table, right? And it comes down to the Fazools, forget it. It's all about the money. No religion, no church, no family. Nothing's getting in the way of that, not for these guys, and not for a minute. So today, what we're going to do is dive into two articles. The first one, talking about the bishops trying to negotiate this peace deal and the second one, talking about the results. So let's just get right to it, shall we? And both of these articles are from Border Report. The first one, Catholic bishops in Mexico say they negotiated for a possible peace accord with drug cartel leaders. This article was authored by Fabiola Sanchez. Four Roman Catholic bishops met with Mexican drug cartel bosses in a bid to negotiate possible peace accords, one of the bishops said, and President Amlo said Thursday he approves of such talks. Well, why wouldn't you? If you thought that there was going to be some sort of good result that comes of it, then yeah, I'm all for it too. But there's just no way this is a pipe dream. You think these cartels are going to listen to spiritual advisors after they get done eating people and chopping people up and throwing them into vats of acid? It's not how it works. The days of these guys worrying about what the priest is saying from the pulpit, those are long over. The revelation by Bishop Jose de Jesus Gonzalez Hernandez of Godado State in remarks at a public appearance illustrates the extent to which the government's policy of not confronting the cartels has left the average citizen to work out their own separate peace deals with the gangs. And yeah, that works out well for the people, huh? Yeah, let's work out this peace deal with insert cartel here, because they're going to, you know, abide by the rules or whatever we work out. Remember an empire strikes back when Darth Vader says to Lando Calrissian, I've changed the rules of the deal paraphrasing there, but basically the same thing. Well, you don't think that the cartel is going to walk in like Darth Vader and do whatever the fuck they want. They are. There's not a goddamn thing anyone down in Mexico can do about it. Amlow acknowledged it wasn't the first time that church leaders had held such talks and that they had done so before in Godado's neighboring state of Michua Khan and in other states. Priests and pastors and members of all the churches have participated helped in pacifying the country. I think it's very good. Amlow said the day after the existence of the negotiations was revealed. Look, it is a good idea, right? I'm certainly not somebody that's going to shit on the peace process, but you have to have people that are willing to engage in the process with you. And the cartel is certainly not willing to do that. These are guys that are expanding their reach. They're not interested in pulling back. They're not interested in seeding power to anyone. And it's like in the movie Bronx tale, right? When see goes and he talks to the priest, he's doing confession and he says to the priest, he says, look, your guy is more powerful than my guy up there. But my guy is more powerful than your guy down here. And that's certainly the case with the cartel. These bishops and these holy men, they might have a direct line to God or whatever, but that's not going to help them very much when it comes to convincing the cartels to try and rein in the violence. He said that such talks had been held in the neighboring state of Michua Khan and in other places in Mexico as well. The church does it. I can vouch for this in Michua Khan and they do it in other places. Well, those other places are still very violent, aren't they? So it hasn't worked out so well. And again, look, I'm not trying to knock the church. I think it's a good idea. My real gripe here is that Amlo isn't doing this himself. He should be the one negotiating with the cartels, bringing them to heal. Why is he leaving it up to the priests? What that does is just show a gigantic failure on his part and on the part of the ruling party down in Mexico. Amlo said that while he had no problem with the talks, he wouldn't approve of any agreement that meant granting impunity, privileges, or licenses to steal. They have all of that already. What are you even talking about? Like what are you doing to stop that now, Amlo? The people of Mexico deserve so much more. That rang hollow to one parish priest whose town in Michua Khan has been dominated by one cartel or another for years. "It is an implicit recognition that they, the government, can't provide safe conditions," said the priest, who cannot be quoted by name for security reasons. Bingo, 100%. Amlo can talk all he wants about how he's behind this, how he supports it, blah, blah, but it really shines a spotlight on his failed policy. That's what it does. And there's no doubt that Amlo's policy has failed in Mexico. Undoubtedly, we have to talk to certain people, above all, when it comes to people's safety, but that doesn't mean we agree with it," said the priest. For example, he said, "Local residents have asked him to ask local cartel bosses about the fate of missing relatives." How horrible. Imagine you had to go to your priest and ask for information about your missing relative. Think about how good we have it when all is said and done here in America. At the very least, they're going to make pretend that they're looking for your relative. Down in Mexico, they just shrug their shoulders and they're like, "Look, keep a move and nothing we can do." Many average Mexicans have quietly agreed to pay protection payments to drug cartels for fear of being attacked or having their homes or businesses burned. The church has also suffered. Priests have also been killed by the cartels, but some gang leaders talk with church leaders. That's all about optics. That's all that really is. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm sure that some of these cartel guys are religious. Just like in the mafia, you'll have guys in the mafia, they'll put a bullet in someone's head at 3 a.m., and then they'll be at, you know, morning mass at 7 a.m. So try and make heads or tails with that. The bishop said that most recent talks failed because the cartels and drug gangs didn't want to stop fighting over territory in the Pacific Coast State of Guerrero. Those turf battles have shut down transportation and led to dozens of killings in recent months. They asked for a truce but without conditions. Gonzales Hernandez said of the talks, held a few weeks ago, but these conditions were not agreeable to one of the participants. Asked by local reporters what the conditions were, the bishop answered "territories." Yeah, it's all about having that territory, right? Having that drug smuggling route. That's what they're looking for. That's what all of these battles are about. Supremacy and dominance. That way you have a bigger share of the market. Under Amlow's Hugs Not Bullet Policy, the government has avoided direct confrontation with the cartels, allowing them to essentially take control of a dozen or more mid-sized cities where the prices of most products are higher because they include attacks charged by the cartels. Yeah, great place. That's exactly where you want to go live, right? And then you wonder why people are trying to get out of dodge. Retired bishops Salvador Rangel, who headed the same diocese until 2022, told the Associated Press that he had been informed of the talks by people who were there. He did not identify which cartels attended, but at least a dozen such gangs are fighting for control of various regions in the Pacific Coast State of Guerrero, home to the resort of Acapoco. And it's just violent as hell. When you have this kind of confrontation going on down there, over the drugs, over these trafficking routes, forget it, all bets are off. And if Jesus Christ himself came back and went to have a conversation with these cartel members, they wouldn't listen to him either. That's how lost in the sauce these dudes are when it comes to chasing that dollar. Rangel confirmed that the talks failed because the gangs did not want to concede anything. However, he defended the talks. While serving his bishop, he had previously spoken openly about meeting with gang leaders to pursue peace. I think that any attempt to achieve peace and harmony is valid, he said. And I can get down with that, right? You gotta have the talks. And you don't have conversations and peace negotiations with your friends. It's with your enemies. So I'm not knocking the priest for doing this. I think it's a good idea. I just think it's a failure. And I think that the Mexican government should be ashamed of themselves that they're relying on the church to do their job. Gonzalez Hernandez suggested the approach had been at least implicitly approved by Pope Francis during a meeting with bishops last year. A Vatican spokesman didn't immediately respond when asked about the bishop's remarks. The Vatican rarely comments on the Pope's private audiences. That said, the position articulated by the bishop is consistent with Francis' tendency to defer to the expertise of bishops on the ground and to strong belief in the need for dialogue at all costs. Well that's what the Pope should be doing. We don't need any kind of warlike Popes, right? Those days of the Pope calling the banners and asking for a crusade, they should be done. So the Pope should be someone that's looking for a peaceful way out at every single turn. Francis has frequently been asked, for example, about his willingness to send an envoy to Moscow to try to negotiate with the Kremlin. While Francis has said you should never dialogue with the devil, he has insisted that in real world matters of war and peace, dialogue with the aggressor is the only way to find past peace, even when it stinks. Clearly, it is not a role the church relishes, as the parish priest noted, we wouldn't have to do this if the government did its job right, and that's really the crux of it, right? If the government handled their business, did shit the right way, and most importantly wasn't so corrupt, maybe things would be different down in Mexico. But unfortunately, in the reality that we live in, that's not the case. Alright, moving on to the second article, which is also from border report and the headline. cartels nub cease-fire requests from Catholic bishops, slaughter 17, per report, so that didn't work out so well, huh? And that's just the way it goes, these cartels have no interest in negotiating, they have no interest in leaving any money on the table. And while I'm not a big fan of declaring cartels terrorists, I think that's a really bad idea, I think that what you have to do is snuff them out wherever you can. In the Mexican government, they just don't do it, and that's because a lot of these bosses of these cartels are, you know, paying off officials in the Mexican government so that they have that safety, so that they have that security blanket. This article was authored by Julian Resendez. Authorities in Guerrero, Mexico say they have found five charred bodies near the mountain town of Las Tunis. These are also investigating videos released Tuesday on social media, purportedly showing members of a regional drug gang called Las Tacos, dragging into a pile and setting on fire the bodies of rivals from La Familia, Micho Akana, transnational criminal organization. So shit's heating up. And if you thought that a few bishops and, you know, the local pastor is going to change things, you have not been paying attention. Following the release of videos on social media, of an alleged confrontation between criminal groups, state police, forensic experts, and members of the Mexican army visited Las Tunis to corroborate the facts. The Godado state Attorney General's office said in a statement, "There they found the calcinated bodies of five people." Just a regular old day in Mexico, right? The AG's office said the bodies have been sent to the medical examiner for examination and to identify them. A homicide investigation is ongoing and immediate actions will be taken to solve the case and assert the rule of law, the agency said. The videos shared on social media show men in military fatigues, hooding, and hurling insults as they drag male bodies, some naked, or half-naked, onto a pile that they later set on fire. One of the men can be seen kicking the cadavers, later another man is heard yelling, "Send me more victims," as he fires a rifle at the burning bodies and then at the ground. Others join in later as one shouts, so they don't come back to life. Imagine being that desensitized to just life in general, where you think it's a good idea and fun, to just mutilate corpses? The massacre comes days after the Roman Catholic bishops in Guerrero announced that they had met with drug cartel leaders and attempted to negotiate a piece of court. In Seattle, part of a region in Mexico, known as "Tieta Caliente," the hotlands, for decades now has been a battleground for transnational criminal organizations and local gangs seeking to control of various illicit activities and the growing of marijuana and opium poppies from which heroin is produced, U.S. drug experts say. Meanwhile, the fighting has displaced thousands of rural residents who flee to large cities in Guerrero and Micho Akan and some end up bolting for the United States. I'd say that a lot end up bolting for the United States. I wouldn't want to live with all these cartel members trying to kill me on a regular basis either, so I'd be looking to get out of dodge, no doubt about it, and we recently went over an article where they were saying that roughly 88% of the people who were polled as coming to the United States said that they were fleeing some sort of cartel violence. So this stuff is very pervasive down here, it's a gigantic problem, and unfortunately, it's not going away anytime soon, and in fact, is only going to escalate, and the fallout from that escalation is not only going to be felt on the southern side of the border, all of this dovetails into each other, and the violence that we see down there most certainly is going to have an effect on the drug game here in America. Alright folks, that's going to do it for this one. All of the information that goes with this episode can be found in the description box.