First, the mandatory Chinese Virus update from Worldometer as of April 27, 2020—16,381 cases in Mexico with 1,517 deaths. Cases per million were 120, with 11 deaths per million.
In the U.S.: 1,010,658 cases, with 56,809 deaths. Cases per million were 3,053, with 172 deaths per million.
Does that mean that Mexicans, or at least mestizos, are relatively resistant, as Mexican government health specialists appear to think ?
It's too early to tell, plus COVID-19 arrived to Mexico a month after arriving to the U.S. But, it's worth looking into.
Mexican Murder Rate Still High
With all the shutdowns and quarantines and more people at home, you’d think the murderers in Mexico might take a break. That's happened in Central America, except that in El Salvador there's been a recent burst of murders, with over 50 killed from April 24 to 26. Meanwhile, the Mexican death merchants won’t let a pandemic stop them!
Murders in March numbered 3,000, the most thus far in AMLO’s presidency. Most were in Guanajuato, former president Vicente Fox’s home state.
“The high rates of violence for the settling of scores and of femicides in Mexico have not diminished, despite the confinement for the COVID-19 health emergency,” Interior Minister Olga Sanchez Cordero is reported to have acknowledged [Pese a confinamiento, no bajan homicidios dolosos ni feminicidios (“In Spite of Confinement, Murders and Femicides do Not Decrease”), Ernesto Mendez, Excelsior, April 24, 2020].
Los altos índices de violencia por ajustes de cuentas y de feminicidios en México, no han disminuido. https://t.co/Sk3biyZrGY
— Excélsior (@Excelsior) April 24, 2020
So the Chinese Virus is no deterrent to the gang vendetta and not even femicides (the murder of women for being women is a specific crime under Mexican law).
Said Sanchez:
In some of these families the father or mother or both lost jobs and they also have economic stress. They have stress from the confinement, they have stress being together more than they are accustomed to, of course, it is very probable that the violence has increased. As for femicides … basically we have the same stats as we did before the pandemic.
A possibly relevant factor : the consumption of alcohol.. Sales rose 63 percent between April 5 to April 11, Excelsior reported [En cuarentena la gente gasta más en bebidas alcohólicas (“People spend More on Alcoholic Beverages During Quarantine”) April 24, 2020].
😱🍷 Los vinos de mesa reportaron un alza de 82 por ciento.https://t.co/1UzO6uJADG
— Excélsior (@Excelsior) April 24, 2020
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador knows the murders are a problem but blames his predecessors:
“We continue suffering the confrontations between gangs that fight over plazas [smuggling points or drug marketplaces] , drug trafficking routes. They are constantly confronting each other, and this has been going on for some time. It was an inheritance we disgracefully received [from previous administrations] … it has not been possible to decrease the number of murders.”
[Crimen organizado mantiene elevado número de homicidios (“Organized Crime maintains elevated Number of Homicides”), by Arturo Paramo, Excelsior, April 24, 2020].
Drug Cartels Giving Aid To Citizens, AMLO Says Stop It
A darkly amusing coda to that news is this: The same drug cartels that murder with abandon have been dispensing supplies Robin Hood-style to help rank-and-file Mexicans through the pandemic [Mexico can’t stop drug cartels from handing out virus aid, Associated Press, April 20, 2020].
Amusingly, or perhaps not, AMLO wants the cartel aide program stopped, yet concedes that the government can’t do much about it.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said such handouts have occurred “in several places,” but said the government can’t stop the practice.
“It is something that happens, it cannot be avoided,” López Obrador said.
“I don’t want to hear them saying, ‘we are handing out aid packages,’” he said. “No, better that they lay off, and think of their families, and themselves, those that are involved in these activities and who are listening to me now or watching me.”
Videos posted on social media have shown one of the daughters of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman handing out boxes of rice, pasta, cooking oil and toilet paper with Guzman’s image printed on them.
Can't load tweet https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1251509059645300736: Sorry, you are not authorized to see this status.
Mexican Health Professionals Attacked
And here’s an outrage occurring in Mexico – members of the medical profession are being attacked on the street.
At least 44 attacks against medical personnel have been registered across the country since mid-March, according to data provided to CNN by Mexico's National Council to Prevent Discrimination. The types of attacks vary but include nurses and doctors being struck in the face and scalding liquid thrown onto their bodies. …
Authorities say the attacks are likely motivated by rumors that medical personnel are responsible for spreading the virus throughout Mexico. Several doctors and nurses told CNN they have been harassed on their social media accounts with accusations of spreading the disease.
[Dozens of medical workers have been attacked in Mexico amid coronavirus fears by Matt Rivers and Natalie Gallon, CNN, April 23, 2020]
Isn't that something?
For years, Mexico’s lighter-skinned ruling class has tacitly—and sometimes not so tacitly—encouraged lower-class, darker-skinned Mexicans to emigrate to the United States. Emigration is not only a relief valve to get more people out of Mexico but also a return conduit for cash remittances. When Mexicans get into trouble in the U.S., the Mexican elites make a great show of defending them.
But the Mexican government can’t defend Mexicans in the U.S. from the virus. As of the 24th of April, 529 Mexicans had died here.
“The Mexican foreign ministry said that of the deceased, 417 were located in New York, 26 in Illinois and 25 in California,” an AFP dispatch in Excelsior reported. “The rest were from the other states” [Suman 529 mexicanos fallecidos por coronavirus en EU (“Mexicans Dying of Coronavirus in U.S. Total 529”), April 24,2020].
Many of the Mexicans in New York are poblanos, people from the Mexican state of Puebla. A Milenio article reported the death of 52 poblanos in the United States.
According to Miguel Barbosa Huerta, governor of Puebla (who’s been quoted in Said in Spanish before), the ashes of the poblanos who died on American soil are going to be transported back home via diplomatic pouch,on a special flight. thanks to the Mexican consulate in New York.
[Cenizas de migrantes con covid-19 volverán a Puebla en 'valija diplomática' (“Ashes of Migrants with COVID-19 to Return to Puebla in ‘Diplomatic Pouch’ “) by Carlos Morales, Milenio, April 24, 2020]
Another Mexican state with a lot of coronavirus victims is the state of Oaxaca, an isolated, heavily Indian, and poverty-stricken state where some residents don’t even speak Spanish.
On the 22nd of April, it was reported that 33 Oaxacans had died of COVID-19 in the United States. According to Milenio, “not all their bodies will be repatriated, as the families of some of them are not settled in that country.” [Reportan muerte de 33 migrantes oaxaqueños por covid-19 en EU (“The Deaths of 33 Oaxacan Migrants in the United States Reported”) by Oscar Rodriguez, Milenio, April 22, 2020]
And thus it goes.
I mean no disrespect to the dead, but how many of these Mexicans who died would be alive had they stayed in Mexico?
American citizen Allan Wall (email him) moved back to the U.S.A. in 2008 after many years residing in Mexico. Allan's wife is Mexican, and their two sons are bilingual. In 2005, Allan served a tour of duty in Iraq with the Texas Army National Guard. His VDARE.COM articles are archived here; his Mexidata.info articles are archived here; his News With Views columns are archived here; and his website is here.
