SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL

Mexico's deadly homage

The country must awaken to narcos' grip on its pop culture

2:00 a.m. March 31, 2009

Mexico isn't fighting a bloody war against ruthless drug traffickers only. It is also fighting an internal battle with its own popular culture, which romanticizes the very people whom the Mexican government now calls enemies of the state.

For generations, our neighbors have idolized los narcos as something akin to Robin Hood figures, except that instead of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, drug dealers are usually rich and revered by the poor. Young boys want to grow up to be just like these criminals.

It's an adoration that the narcos have paid for many times over by bribing poor villagers with cash, toys for the children, food giveaways and other charitable offerings. Even the recent round of public protests against the military's drug crackdown has been bankrolled by drug kingpins who pay peasants about $30 per day to hit the streets in mock anger.

Mexico has had a long fascination with the rogue, the rebel, the outlaw. In the mid-19th century, when the United States conquered half of Mexico in the name of Manifest Destiny, Mexicans put their hopes for revenge in scofflaws such as JoaquÃ*n Murrieta, a California bandit. About 60 years later, during the Mexican Revolution, people rallied around a pair of outlaw insurgents: Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa.

Today, drug traffickers are the new folk heroes. They're the inspiration for movies and corridos, Mexican folk ballads. That is one reason why, when Forbes magazine listed Jorge “El Chapoâ€