The "Los Pepes" I refer to was the shadowy vigilante group that in the early 1990s methodically reduced Colombian drug baron Pablo Escobar from a Latin American emperor to a cornered animal. As described in Mark Bowden's brilliant Killing Pablo, Los Pepes, obviously enjoying access to the full intelligence file on Escobar's vast organization, systematically murdered or chased into exile the concentric rings of Escobar's supporting infrastructure. When he was finally gunned down, the former drug emperor was on the run in a Medellin slum with one bodyguard and two pistols. It is not an exaggeration to say that the murderous Los Pepes saved Colombia, where the police, army, and courts -- all thoroughly suborned by Escobar -- could not.
Will a new generation of Los Pepes be Mexico's salvation? Some Mexicans, including one city mayor, seem to think so, as described in this recent Wall Street Journal article:
The mayor of the nearby municipality of San Pedro Garza García, Mauricio Fernández, a scion of a wealthy and prominent family, said this week that he created a special group to "clean up" criminal elements in the municipality -- even if it had to act outside the law.His comments came a day after four men who allegedly ran a kidnapping ring in San Pedro were found dead in Mexico City on Saturday. The men, led by Héctor "The Black" Saldaí±a, were believed responsible for multiple kidnappings in San Pedro and neighboring Monterrey, according to police in Monterrey and San Pedro. The four are believed to be tied to a drug cartel, police said.
[...]
"We're tired of sitting around on our hands and waiting for daddy or mommy [President] Calderón to come to fix our fights. We in San Pedro took the decision to grab the bull by the horns," Mr. Fernández said in a radio interview. "Even acting outside the limits of my role as mayor, I will end the kidnappings, extortions and drug trafficking. We are going to do this by whatever means, fair or foul."
Asked if his new squad would operate outside the law, Mr. Fernández said: "In some ways, that's right. What the criminals want is that they can break every law, but that we have to respect every law. Well, I don't get that."
Separately, Silvia Raquenel Villanueva, a Mexican criminal defense attorney who specialized in defending indicted drug cartel members, was gunned down in a Monterrey shopping mall. The guidance for this murder could be found in chapter one of Los Pepes' playbook.
After Escobar's death, Los Pepes disappeared, apparently satisfied that its work was complete. In the years since, Colombia's government has reestablished its authority. Drug exports from Colombia obviously continue, but the cartels and insurgent groups such as FARC no longer are a challenge to state authority.
With this happy example in mind, some of Mexico's authorities may be tempted to tacitly permit their own Los Pepes to do the work they are unable to do themselves. They will hope that, as happened in Colombia, the vigilantes will disappear after that work is done. There is obviously a lot more that can go wrong with such a plan than can go right. It seems as if Mayor Ferní ndez believes Mexico no longer has a choice.
Comments
"Los Pepes did not disappear. Los Pepes was the antecedent to the AUC and made up completely of rival Colombian mafioso, who Escobar had thoroughly alienated through blood and adverse publicity."
Interesting point, and akin to the guards' tacit alliance with the "big men" of the yard to maintain order in U.S. prisons. Or so one hears, anyway.
The Castano brothers were involved in the drug trade long before the AUC days. Mafioso is very appropriate for them and most others involved in Los Pepes. Also I'm not sure if I buy familial ties as a motivator given Carlos' likely fate at the hands of his brother.
FARC existed long before Colombia's current preeminence in the cocaine trade. Many people, like the Castano brothers and Don Berna, who were leaders of Los Pepes later became prominent in the AUC. They were always prominent in the Colombian drug trade.
If you believe AUC founder Carlos Castaño, his reason for starting a right-wing paramilitary movement was the death of his father at the hands of FARC. Im unclear about the applicability of the term "Mafioso" in this context, as both AUC and FARC likely existed in some incarnation before becoming involved in the cocaine trade.
Collaboration between the Search Bloc, Los Pepes, Castaño, and Delta seems very possible if difficult to prove. Although, who exactly the "kingpins" were in 1993 at the time of Escobars death is probably different than in 1997 when AUC is supposedly formed.
A very bad idea enabling vigilante groups. And as has been pointed-out, these groups are all too often found to be criminal themselves.
Hot air rhetoric to be sure: but if the money spent on the war on drugs had been spent on education and rehabilitation north of the border. The demand for the product that fuels this illicit economy wouldn't be as prevalent south of the border.
Rommel makes a good point--populist leaders of any sort, including vigilantes, often use this kind of talk to cover up their own crimes. In this case, it isn't surprising to hear the so-called vigilante killings are really just a marketing scheme by one drug gang against another. That said, Mexico needs to get serious about letting true grass-roots citizens group defend themselves by allowing much greater private ownership of firearms. Like the citizens of Baltimore or Chicago have long known, you can't fight the drug gangs if they are the only ones with guns. You can't even confront them. Mexico's virtual ban on private ownership of weapons has done nothing to keep them out of the hands of criminals but has done a lot to make citizens helpless to stop them and to create the current state of near anarchy in much of the country.
Los Pepes did not disappear. Los Pepes was the antecedent to the AUC and made up completely of rival Colombian mafioso, who Escobar had thoroughly alienated through blood and adverse publicity.
Pablo Escobar needed to be destroyed, no doubt about it, but to portray it as a triumph for the state of Colombia is a bit much. More like the state of Colombia partnering with one set of kingpins to bring down another.
I live in Monterrey and here's some valuable on-the-ground intel: the mayor of San Pedro (which is, BTW, the richest municipality in all of Latin America) is completely compromised. He works for the Beltran-Leyva cartel. Everyone is Monterrey knows this...
Vigilante justice will only makes things worse here. An eye for an eye will only leave everyone blind.