What! my country has been always against that measure, that kind of penalties don't solve crime issues... The northern and "old fashioned" state of Coahuila passed a law that permits the death penalty for murders and kidnappers, sometimes I think that is necesary that this "things" are no longer humans and don't deserve human rights, the problem here is, they are humans, in Mexico there is no "murder in self defense" if you kill you're agressor by mistake you are a murder even though he was going to kill you, and second, the "so called" authorities are so corrupt or corruptible that the one with most money wins, in this case kidnappers have a lot of money and they could buy their innocese just like they are doing it now, so the state of Coahuila will be killing those who can't afford the judge.
And finally the system is so unperfect or perfectible that sometimes can failed, and innocent people can be convicted "escape goats" so they will be killing innocent, just like Texas.
Sometimes politicians amaze me, never in a good way, but this was like C'mon!!, Coahuila is going backwards, but ok.
What we need is a good police that do their job, so criminals think three times before commiting a crime, not a police that is not respected by criminals because they can be bought.
I went to Mexico city this friday, for work reasons, I visited two companies that are our providers of some trade show stuff, they are located in the "colorful" neighborhood Iztapalapa, is one of the dangerous areas of the city, which means, poor, ugly, dirty and more probable to be robbed.
Some members of my family (the kind your grand parents told you are family but you don't see the connection) lived there for a while, then moved to Queretaro, they are the stereotypical chilango in all senses, accent, actions, behavior and so on.
I arrived in cab with both companies, (to their warehouses) both ugly, and since it was my first time there, I wasn't sure the cab leave me in the correct place, but I have to look confident, like "I'm local" confident, in order to avoid being a target of the robbers.
Well my getting to my point, this is a "paper store" (where you can buy pencils, paper and all kind of stuff you need for school) and has a full cage, because they where robbed in several ocassions, it is the first time I see a paper store that had this, I have seen licor stores (24hr stores) that has this, but never a simple paper store with iron bars.
This is a video of the attack taken from a cellphone. When the people hear the explotion at first they laugh thinking it was the fireworks, later they started to scream, seeing the victims in the floor.
You may have heard of the recommendations of the USA government to their citizens to avoid certain parts of the world, among them some parts of my country (Mexico). Well in the terrorist attack in Morelia some Queretanos resulted injured, none dead, but the local government is advising the citizens (of Queretaro) to extreme precautions when leaving the state, my state is the safest in the country.
This may sound funny since it is the same country, but it is real, and people do feel safe in Queretaro than in other states (as tourists) this is so real that some friends that have families from Michoacan receive phone calls asking them to find schools or housing to their cousins or little brothers in Queretaro, just like leaving an unsafe country.
I just hope that the local government do anything to prevent crime rates increase in the city and state.
A few weeks ago in the news some kidnappers attack a local entrepreneur in the city of San Juan del Rio in Queretaro, three hour later he was free (with three of the kidnappers captured), the next day the entire band of kidnappers captured, they where from Mexico city, just like a robbers band capture in the state, they came to rob here, but where capture before, also from Mexico city. This kind of actions increases confidence of the population for the local police.
The video of the attack as seen on the news. Just after the crowd yell "Viva Mexico" the bomb exploded hurting and killing the innocents that where present to celebrate. This happend on September 15th 2008, in the city of Morelia, in the crime infested state of Michoacan in Mexico. At first people thought it was a fireworks show, not a bomb, and later we (all mexicans) find out it was the first (and hopefully the last) terrorist attack in Mexico.
Last night everything looked normal, just like every other year, everybody celebrating the independence day with the traditional "Grito", families gathered togheter, watching fireworks, drinking, eating, singing, everything seemed normal.
Until this morning, when I found that in the capital city of the state of Michoacan, the city of Morelia, a troubleled city, a state already victim of criminals, of attacks, of death, but so far death of criminals in the hands of other criminals, but so far inocent civilians where safe... No more.
The party ended this morning, everybody in the country was worried, everybody was shocked, we want justice, we want to stop this.
The worst part, the terror, already friends that have family in that state are considering leaving the state of Michoacan, they are threaten every day, the police is so corrupt that you can not trust them, is not FAIR.
The state of Michoacan and the city of Morelia are "closed" all roads are controlled, nothing enters, nothing leaves, and the neighboring states (like mine) are afraid, Michoacan is a rat nest, we are afraid of new people that comes from Michoacan thinking they are related to crime (stereotypes).
I told you about the problem of a meeting organized against the emos by other urban tribes (punk, dark, goth, vampire, etc.) in my city.
Well everywhere, and I mean everywhere this topic sounds every day, and it turns into an urban myth, it did happened, but there are some extra added by the people:
- According to the newspapers some establish that there was 300 kids, others that 800, the government says almost 1000, people in the streets says 3,000 up to 5,000 which is ridiculous since the plaza where they meet can't hold more than 1000 people. - According to the newspapers 23 kids beat another one that look like an Emo, according to the government there where 28 kids beating the other one and two pedestrians helped him, according to the people in the streets there where 100 people beating from 3 to 5 other kids (which sound stupid did they took turns) and some says that the beaten kids died, which is false since the media interview the only one that was a victim. and since the pedestrians helped him and police arrived 10 minutes later he was fine.
It is amazing how a gossip can change thing, is the kind of thing where it turns out that everybody was a friend of the victim, or everybody was a witness, or had a friend or the friend of a friend who is a paramedic and helped the dying Emo kid.
AMAZING!!!! What happend was bad, really bad, but please! don't exaggerate things.
In Queretaro there is a growing group of emos appearing everywhere, I don't like their "beliefs" but I don't care if they gather around, or do whatever they do, besides crying.
But rockers, punks, darks, vampire and goths in the city hate them big time, and since Emos decided to meet at the main plaza in the city, all this groups where there in to fight, over 800 kids (under 16) of several urban tribes where there, only 20 decided to fight against an poor Emo kid, to give him something to cry, and the other where cursing him. The moment one of the kids tryed to hit the Emo pedestrians help him, and police arrived, bringing down the problem.
The thing here is, Queretaro is a diverse city, and we should accept everybody as they are, if they are different from us, that is ok, I may not agree with them, so what, somebody must not like me either nor my beliefs, but we can coexist.
I have friends of all kinds, we differ in some points but still we are friends.
The good thing here is that nothing bad happened, everything was controlled on time by authorities, and PLEASE the fathers must teach to accept each other.
I have several friends from Michoacan, a nehigbor state, the difference is gigantic, Queretaro has one of the best economies in the country, Santiago de Queretaro is considered the safest city and it has the highest GDP per capita, it is an industrial, agricultural and touristic hub and had economy growth of over 7% when the country had one of 3%, it is a middle class city. While Michoacan is one of the poorest states in the country, and probably the poorest in the center of the country (the poorest are in the south)
The economy of Michoacan is based in the tourism, agriculture and the money sent by the immigrants in the USA, and largely based in the drug dealing and production, which generates crime. Actually in my college we used to joke with the people from Michoacan telling them if they too work for the drug cartels, or actually being the bosses of them.
A friend of mine is from Uruapan, she is in Queretaro since she was 17 years old, she came to study here, she told me that the very first time she was here in a holiday she was amuzed that there was no gun shooting insted of fireworks, in Queretaro is kind of hard to find guns in the houses or people carrying them, while in Uruapan is common, also she liked the fact that here there are no fights among people using guns, because jealous attacks, just because you see somebody in a bad way or just because.
Amazing how two states in the same country can be so different.
By the way Michoacan is a beautiful state, great touristic destination, and not to worry about if you are not in funny stuff.
In the past month Queretaro had a race of vilence never seen before... four persons where murderer, the last time a murderer took place in Queretaro was like 7 years ago and was only one victim. The state govermetn freakout and stablish extreme alert to the police, so all teh police officers are wearing guns and bullet proof equipment, commonly the police in Queretaro don't carry guns, it was not needed.
The reality was... the drug lord of the Gulf cartel wanted to live here in Queretaro, because it is safe and calm, but that is thanks because they don't live here, the good thing is that the intelligencce department of the state found it and put in jail all the people involved in the moving and since it is now a fact the army and the police is ready to stop the drug dealers to come here.
The president of the republic started an impresive movement agaisnt drugs, the entire army is working on it in the affected places, because of this the state goverment of Queretaro was afraid that some drug dealers, will run from the nearby states like Michoacan to Queretaro in order to avoid the army. They where right, they are trying to run from the army coming here, but that is no more, since the goverment and the army is ready to stop them.
I'm actually afraid, still the city is pretty safe, as we all know the drug cartels kill each other an no other people, so if you are not involved in bad stuff, you are safe, but I don't want to Queretaro to became something like Tijuana or Juarez.
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