San José de Gracia: the people of Michoacán who became the reflection of uncontrollable impunity and the absence of the State in Mexico

It was almost three hours before the authorities arrived in San José de Gracia and found only a few traces of the violent massacre — casings, bullet holes, a freshly washed floor, a bag of detergents, other cleaning products — and not a single corpse.

Almost a week after the multi-homicide in the municipality of Marcos Castellanos, where it is estimated that between 10 and 17 people may have lost their lives, those responsible for the main security corporations in Michoacán have not been able to establish an official version of the events. In its place have given different explanations about the times at which the reports were issued on February 27.

For Ernesto López Portillo, coordinator of the Citizen Security Program at the Universidad Iberoamericana (Ibero), the total absence of the authorities in events such as Michoacán is explained by the fact that Mexico is currently at a stage of capture of institutions by illicit organizations, who each are increasingly being imposed on the territory. “The idea that the State and organized crime are two confronting entities has collapsed. Theory has shown that there is a kind of gray area, where organized crime and the state build agreements or dispute scenarios,” he told Infobae.

The resources have not been sufficient to ensure the security and justice institutions of the Mexican State as professional bodies, the expert assured, so that they respond effectively to events such as those that occurred in Michoacán. “The State is becoming smaller, more limited and polluted.”

Why didn't the police arrive on time? Why are there no intelligence schemes that foresee this type of confrontation? For the public security specialist, the answer is simple: the State is not competent to do so. “Security policy is in crisis. We have a president who has decided to use all the military force in his power to deploy it without succeeding in containing the violence. This shows a very profound structural crisis due to the inability of the State to expropriate violence as a legitimate act, which is why organizations are able to go out and execute people in broad daylight.”

The assassins who perpetrated the massacre last Sunday, according to López Portillo, acted on cost-benefit calculations, as they probably foresaw that they would not pay for the deaths of those people. “Its calculation is rational, it is an obvious calculation of probabilities. 90% of violent homicides are not punished in this country. It is an informed calculation, because impunity has been installed among us for decades. People who experience violence have learned that impunity is there.”

The paradox of “punitive populism”

When episodes of visible extreme violence occur in Mexico, such as in San José de Gracia, there is generally greater political and social pressure for authorities to resolve cases in the shortest possible time, while at the same time promoting measures that are ineffective in the long term, warned López Portillo.

“Especially in Latin American countries, it is the recipe we know as punitive populism. That is, immediate and heavy-handed measures: more police, more army, more penalties, more weapons. They are popular measures, but at the same time they are ineffective measures, specifically in the face of violence that increasingly involves young people,” he said.

The deterrence measures that would have to be applied, in the expert's view, should combine intervention with multiple social services that give young people more alternatives. “Diverse social support, not just money, as the federal government does today in different neighborhoods.” These measures, he said, are not popular in Latin America because they do not generate a political image of conflict resolution. “They are slower, less livable, and then there comes the paradox. They reproduce the crisis itself because despite massive police and military deployments, they don't end up solving anything.”

“The reconstruction of the social fabric is unfortunately not visible, slower and less profitable for the political spectacle. The conditions that are causing groups to continue to recruit by the thousands especially young people as hit men are still there. More violence generates more pressure for rapid action, but such rapid responses evade serious, deep and structural responses. The consequences are that the problem is not solved and violence itself is reproduced.”

Is there a solution?

The same condition is reproduced in the legislative branch, according to the expert, since political parties continue to suffer a kind of “addiction” that consists of increasing penalties without generating other alternatives that are also available to them, such as commissions of inquiry.

For López Portillo, the way out of this spiral of violence and impunity lies in the accountability of security institutions through the oversight of prosecutors.

From this perspective, the legislatures should be building commissions of inquiry that monitor, monitor and evaluate the police and prosecutors, and then those same commissions will produce reform plans.

“Let them prosecute the prosecutor's offices if they don't work well. Local legislatures and the Congress of the Union should be creating schemes of deep control and accountability of prosecutors to bring them under control. This creates virtuous evaluation schemes, where institutions that do not perform and do not produce results are subjected to evaluation exercises.”

“As long as the accountability schemes do not arrive, this will be irretrievably prolonged and for an indefinite period,” he concluded.

KEEP READING: