I was up very late last night watching Dateline. It was one of those scary crime shows that keeps you glued to set set through all the endless commercials. The show was about a Mexican man who was kidnapped in San Miguel a couple years back. We were in San Miguel for two weeks last summer. The story was horrific. The kidnapped man was the son of a Mexican Newspaper baron from Mexico City. He lived on a beautiful ranch he built with his second wife, an American, just outside San Miguel. I missed the beginning of the program on exactly how he is was abducted, but he was held by the kidnappers for eight months. The ransom demanded for his release was eight million dollars. The wife was able to raise a much smaller amount not disclosed. The victim had lost half his body weight by the time he was released and besides being starved nearly to death he was brutally tortured. The message of the program was that kidnapping is extremely common in Mexico today. Last year at Mission I had a student whose very wealthy family moved to the states because of fear of being kidnapped. I had thought at the time that this sounded a bit dramatic but obviously it was not. The man kidnapped in San Miguel said he and most others in the know believe that Mexican police are sometimes involved in these abductions.So today when were were pulled over by the police on our way to the airport to pick up my friend Linda, I felt a bit apprehensive. Not that I thought we were at risk of being kidnapped for a traffic violation, but it was scary nonetheless. Harry had passed in a no-passing zone, just like a real Mexican driver and suddenly flashing lights signaled us to pull over. I told Harry not to let on we spoke Spanish. It worked for me once in town when the police pulled me over for something. I had no idea what I had done wrong. The officer asked if I spoke Spanish and I said no, not at all. He waved me off. This time however that plan did not work, the police officer launched immediately into perfect English. I batted my eyes at him and said I was a teacher in San Jose where we lived. No luck either, he told Harry to get out of the car. Harry later told me the cop asked him if we had children and Harry said we did back in the states. I guess this was to break the ice a bit before he subtly made it clear that a bribe would be accepted. Harry read the signals correctly and opened his wallet. We got off for 500 pesos ($5o). No ticket was written, the officer just slipped the bill into his pocket. I felt relieved to say the least.
Sounds scary in real life also. Hope August gets here quickly.
ReplyDeleteWe had the most wonderful time in Cabo with Jeanne and Harry and I miss them already. As they will attest I'm a very prejudiced towards Mexico. It's interesting that this Dateline story is a bit viral already. Tom,husband, was talking to his nephew, who told him this story.
ReplyDeleteI know Mexico is corrupt. But I love it, so I have to defend it and remind you all that there are many, many abuses that go on in the U.S. that are less sensationalized for many reasons, one of them being that they happen to Latinos and illegal immigrants. I've just included one news story from the Southern Poverty Law Center about a sport called "bean hopping."
There have been stories about slave labor and equal evidence of torture with no ransom.
None the less Mexico is a third world country and you have now exceprienced its corruption first hand. I'm grateful you guys have been there and no doubt truly changed the lives of some Mexican citizens such as the adorable kid in drag, who may be able to eventually improve the corrupt system.
Less than one year ago, on Nov. 8, 2008, Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant, was murdered in the town of Patchogue, N.Y. The killing, police say, was carried out by a gang of teenagers who called themselves the Caucasian Crew and targeted Latino residents as part of a sport they termed "beaner-hopping." It highlighted a growing national problem — violent hatred directed at all suspected undocumented immigrants, Latinos in particular. Officials in Suffolk County, N.Y., where Patchogue is located, minimized the tragedy, with the county executive even suggesting that it would have been a mere "one-day story" if not for earlier publicity about his and other residents' anti-immigrant activism over the prior decade.
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/publications/climate-of-fear-latino-immigrants-in-suffolk-county-ny