Capitalism and Its Mexican Genocide

[Judi Lynn]

Weekend Edition May 16-18, 2014
Economic War

Capitalism and Its Mexican Genocide
by MATEO PIMENTEL

Capitalism accumulates wealth and profits the capitalists, whether under the aegis of formal, or informal economy. In fact, we currently witness the bloody clash between the two as they further excavate the arroyo between them in the processing Mexican drug wars. Yet, this warring south of San Diego, California, south of Tucson, Arizona, south of Las Cruces, Nuevo México, and south of El Paso, Texas is not the ugliest byproduct of the capitalist clash in question. Simply put, the Mexican drug war and its death tolls amount to genocide.

As a matter of proceeding, the proponents and thieves of the formal economy rely on their fascist hammer of military force to eliminate the rogue, illicit drug-trading competition; it plagues potential profits. Still, they do not seek the demise of illicit drug trade for any virtuous reasons. They only wage lawful writ and military might against these drug lords, who happen to run their own, informal multinationals, precisely because they, the ruling bandidos, do not unilaterally benefit from the informal, narcotic taproot of profitability. They see it as a scourge. In fact, this attempt to eradicate illegal drug trade is virtual admission that the informal economy’s illicit products/services are highly inimitable, or extremely hard to out-compete. And fascism will not stand the competition, even if it means masquerading genocide as nothing more than war.

Despite the clash of economic forces that has lead to this genocide, the ensuing tear in Mexico’s social fabric still functions to profit those who grow richer from upped production and sales in both market places. Furthermore, there is little-to-no comparable spillage over to the US side of the border! But the reason for this is self-evident: American consumption drives both economies. Sadly enough, the misfortunate collateral in the war between formal economic fascists, and the informal economy’s drug oligopoly, is the wanton destruction of Mexico, the terrorizing of its people, and the unnecessary loss of life – totaling some 120,000 after Calderon’s reign ended in 2012 (and nearly 30,000 disappearances in 2013 alone).

No more should die in this bloody tug-of-war for profits. We need to pursue the condemnation of this genocide. Moreover, revealing it for what it is is a first step in that direction. So, connecting the death toll and the murderous proclivities of capitalist forces with the elements of genocide is absolutely essential. Consider the literature espoused by the Office of the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide (OSAPG). Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) defines genocide as,

“…acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/05/16/capitalism-and-its-mexican-genocide/

[yurbud]

1. I'm not sure the two economies are in conflict--drug money keeps finds its way into formal economy

banks, and connections to at least our intelligence services and drug cartels exist.

The conflict is more likely between the drug lords the formal economy has allied with and their upstart competitors--all of whom seem to know not to fuck with formal economy directly.