Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi, bishop emeritus of San Cristóbal de Las Casas and head of the Doctrine of Faith at the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM), offers readers of Exaudi his weekly article entitled “Who is in charge here?”.
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LOOK
The diocese of Tapachula, in Chiapas, with its bishop Jaime Calderón, has described to us what its communities are suffering, having to flee to border towns in Guatemala to escape Mexican cartels that fight to dominate these territories for drug trafficking and to extort the population and migrants who pass through there. People feel unprotected by our authorities. Although our President claims in his morning press conferences that it is an isolated case, the truth is that what is happening in Chiapas reflects what is being experienced in so many parts of the country. Many have had to flee to the cities or abroad because there is no authority to protect them.
The diocese states: “The permanent presence of drug cartels fighting over the territory of the Sierra Foranía, coming and going throughout the territory in the face of the indifference and apparent complicity of the National Guard and the Mexican Army with the complacency of a Federal and State Government that, arguing ignorance or having a different image of the situation and giving orders to the Army and National Guard to be present in the territory without intervening to protect the population, has completely changed the lives of our brothers in the Sierra.
The situation is desperate, it is very difficult to live like this… The presence of the detachments of the National Guard and the Mexican Army do nothing for the population that they see suffering day after day. Where are our communities going with all this? What do we have to do or say so that the government fulfills its duty, at least, to protect and ensure the security of the communities?”
In my little town, in my municipality and in the entire southern region of our State, these criminal groups are the ones in charge. They charge for everything, what not even the Treasury Department has done; for any event, their authorization must be obtained; whoever has a complaint against another person, goes to them so that, as they say, they put order (their order), because the government does not solve their problem. Since they have long weapons, they feel powerful and, through their hawks, they threaten to raise and bring before their command those who do not do what they order. Even in matters of the Church they want to impose themselves.
We have gone to constitutional authorities to make them see what is happening; in response, they send police and soldiers to some places, thereby temporarily helping to inhibit the power of these groups. We value and are grateful for it; but they do not dismantle or eliminate them; These groups continue with their organization and their criminal activities, even in places very close to where the detachments are. That is why we ask ourselves: Who is in charge in our country? Does the United States have to stop our bosses, because here they cannot or do not want to?
Every eight days I go to my town. I pass by the vicinity of Nevado de Toluca and almost always I find trailers loaded with wood, in broad daylight. A few have legal permits for rational exploitation of trees, but most are businesses of organized crime, which circulate freely on the roads and no one stops them. An example among many others: In Raíces, near the volcano, a trailer loaded with wood remained on the side of the road for weeks, without moving. I asked, and they told me that, since La Maña had not authorized it, they stopped it. After a month, they transferred the wood to another truck to sell it, but they do not let the trailer move, as a punishment imposed by them. Who puts order in this irrational exploitation of our forests?
DISCERN
The diocesan statement says: “When the situation is most complicated, when it seems that no one cares about what we are experiencing, when we feel that we have nothing with which to free ourselves from the yoke of those who subjugate us, when we suffer from the indifference of those who collect and live off of protecting us, when it seems that our duty is to resign ourselves, lose hope, surrender, give up and wait for death, a light of hope must shine on the horizon, the light of the presence of God. God will not abandon us, God our Father will take pity on us, the violence of the drug cartels will not defeat us, the indifference of the authorities will not make us give up. We have to continue living and committing ourselves to continue building in a horizon of hope.
Everyone may have abandoned us, including the civil authorities, but God our Father will not abandon us. Our hope is in Him, He is our strength, He does care about us, and with Him, we will get through. Let us not be discouraged and let us not give up.”
ACT
This is what the diocese recommends: “From what we see, due to the indifference of the authorities and for many other reasons, this seems to be going to be prolonged, and we have to support our brothers. Let us be ready to help these brothers of ours.
Brothers of the civil authority at the different levels of government, we continue to wait for you to intervene to do what is your responsibility: to reestablish the rule of law in our communities. What do you need to get out of your indifference and defend the people who trusted you with their vote so that you would take care of them? How long are you going to live trying to hide a sad and painful reality that we are carrying day by day?
We ask you, we beg you, we implore you, fulfill your duty and protect our people. We do not need you having detachments that live among our people only as spectators; we need you to intervene and defend our communities that are living in a situation of slavery and submission in the 21st century. Likewise, we need them to overcome their indifference and fear, do their duty and defend this people from their aggressors.”
