"An outbreak of random death, from which there is no protection, as if a curse were beating down on both populations."
Reforma: Jorge Volpi*Jun 26, 2021
"They heard the gunshots in the distance and my stepfather told me: 'my daughter, you have to take shelter'; so he asked permission to go into a house. But my brother and his companions were just going to go in when the trucks arrived. They stopped in front and they started shooting at them."
This is the testimony of Olga Ruiz, one of the survivors of the massacre that took place in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, on June 19. It is identical to the testimony of many of the residents of Allende, Coahuila, in the parallel event that occurred on March 18, 2011, a little more than a decade ago. The echo between the double carnage could not be more shocking.
It marks the absolute failure of the security policies undertaken in our country since Felipe Calderón launched the first joint operations against drug trafficking in 2006. During this period, three administrations have followed one another, ones of three opposing parties and ideologies, but it is as if time has stopped or as if we have not learned anything along the way. The relentless horror does not stop surrounding us.
In both cases we are faced not with the narrative reiterated ad nauseam by official sources to sidestep their ineffectiveness - that the confrontation was one between criminals, with collateral victims. Instead, they were acts of retaliation against two different communities that were completely intertwined with the drug trafficking economy.
In both cases we are faced not with the narrative reiterated ad nauseam by official sources to sidestep their ineffectiveness - that the confrontation was one between criminals, with collateral victims. Instead, they were acts of retaliation against two different communities that were completely intertwined with the drug trafficking economy.
In Allende, ten years ago, knowing they had been betrayed by one of their operators, the Treviño Morales brothers (known as Z-40 and Z-42 [of the Zeta Cartel]) decided to give an unforgettable lesson to the inhabitants of that small northern city. The toll of victims oscillates -with the usual euphemisms- between 42 and 300 disappeared. In Reynosa, meanwhile, we still do not know the motive for the attack against the civilian population that caused the death of at least nineteen people, including a taxi driver, a nursing student, and several construction workers.
The scenes are brutally identical: a line of hitman-infested trucks abruptly cuts through the streets of these seemingly interchangeable towns and their occupants fire at anyone who crosses their path. They are outbreaks of random death from which there is no protection whatsoever, as if an ancient curse suddenly fell on both populations.
Hence, the imminent premiere of the television series, Somos ([So] We Are), written by James Schamus, Monika Revilla, and the novelist Fernanda Melchor, is so timely and horrific. Although they focus on the case of Allende, their presentation applies directly to this day.
The scenes are brutally identical: a line of hitman-infested trucks abruptly cuts through the streets of these seemingly interchangeable towns and their occupants fire at anyone who crosses their path. They are outbreaks of random death from which there is no protection whatsoever, as if an ancient curse suddenly fell on both populations.
Hence, the imminent premiere of the television series, Somos ([So] We Are), written by James Schamus, Monika Revilla, and the novelist Fernanda Melchor, is so timely and horrific. Although they focus on the case of Allende, their presentation applies directly to this day.
Its structure, not by chance, invokes that of a classic horror or catastrophe film. We all know that in the last chapter an inevitable calamity will come which will destroy all the protagonists. So, the focus of its creators and, therefore, ours lies in contemplating the ephemeral existence, throughout the preceding days, of those who will end up involved in the disaster.
Thus, through effective vignettes, we follow various inhabitants of the city, both those who will become victims and their executioners, or silent witnesses of the violence. These allow us to discover not only the fabric of the lives, loves and hatreds of our own small community but also the omnipresence of crime and the complicity, corruption and negligence of the authorities and the police.
Shadows of the formidable series, Hurricane Season, filter through here and there, articulating a gripping communal portrait, devoid of prejudices and commonplaces, of a society that is, in its overwhelming conciseness, all of Mexico.
The creation of a handful of memorable characters-a football player, an old hotdog saleswoman, a veterinary assistant and her foolish boyfriend-gives Somos an epic character that keeps us from forgetting that those cemeteries, yesterday called Allende or today Reynosa, constitute the heartbreaking daily life of our country.
*Jorge Volpi was born in Mexico in 1968. He is the author of numerous novels: In Search of Klingsor, The End of Madness, It Won't Be Earth, The Ravaged Garden, Dark Dark Forest, The Weaver of Shadows and Memorial to Deception. He has also published collections of his essays: Contagious Lies, Bolívar's Insomnia and Reading the Mind. In 2009 he obtained the José Donoso Award from Chile for his entire work. His books have been translated into 25 languages. Twitter: @jvolpi
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