The San Antonio EXPRESS - NEWS' Mr. Victor Landa:

"Symbolic importance: Clinton's trip, Mexico's actions send a signal of unity..."


Mexican Army's war on symbols of La Muertita ...




Adapted from his column in Sunday's paper, March 29, 2009.

E-mail: vlanda@sbcglobal.net


"On the same day that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Mexico City to address the most pressing issues between the United States and Mexico, a contingent of Mexican soldiers and government workers destroyed almost three dozen statues of the saint of death [la muertita], the patron saint of drug traffickers, in Nuevo Laredo.

"As much as these two events sound disparate, they are strangely linked.

"The security contingent around Clinton was tight, as was the detachment of soldiers that stood guard as the death statues were ceremoniously shattered.

"Our world is set up in such a way that everyone answers to some form of higher authority.

"Even in the drug - trafficking culture there is a hierarchy where people are answerable to others, and when the gambit is risking life in exchange for profit and power; higher authorities are invented and revered.

"Such is the power of the patron saint of death.

"Clinton's visit to Mexico was not symbolic; it was a deliberate kick start to what is hoped will be an era of mutual responsibility between Mexico and the United States.

"Neither was the destruction of the saints of death mere theater.

"The scene in Nuevo Laredo of soldiers guarding the systemic destruction of the objects of drug lord superstition, could not have been possible without a military offensive intended to take back the streets of the towns lost to the drug trade.

And so, as our Secretary of State was admitting in Mexico City our own country' s share of responsibility for the savage violence and drug - profit fueled massive insurgency terrorizing our southern neighbors, far away to the north, in Nuevo Laredo, "the relics of the drug culture were rounded up and destroyed."

One fantastic read!