Mexican political violence: just a symptom.

Mexico’s recent local and state elections have been called “the most violent in recent history” (Huffington Post, July 15, 2013). The campaigns were marked by violence that claimed the lives of “Twelve electoral candidates, family members and campaign workers,” as well as kidnapping (Brookings, July 17, 2013).  Experts inside and outside Mexico place the blame on the powerful drug cartels (ibid.). One analyst observed, “A state that cannot protect its candidates is a state that cannot protect democracy.”

The “construction of the post-authoritarian state in Mexico [since the 1990s] has never had social security as its top priority. Capturing profit and power has been, and continues to be, the main motivation” (Huffington Post, July 15, 2013). Sadly, failing societies have clear symptoms: “arms and drug trafficking become more common. Ordinary police forces become paralyzed... For protection, citizens naturally turn to warlords and other strong figures who express ethnic or clan solidarity, thus projecting strength at a time when all else, including the state itself, is crumbling” (ibid.).

Mexico’s struggles are not unique in Satan’s world (2 Corinthians 4:4). Selfish leaders everywhere care more about self than about the people they serve (Ezekiel 34:1-6). However, the “good news” is that Jesus Christ will return and judge the people of the world in righteousness, according to God’s laws (Psalm 96:10). May God speed that day!