By Richard N. Baldwin T. /HispanicVista.com
The Rule Of Law And The Law Of Unintended Consequences  

     First, let me be crystal clear on an important point: It is the obligation of government to preserve the rule of law and order. And that includes preventing the trampling of the rights of the many by some. With this in mind, let's take a look at what has been happening in México after our contentious presidential election of July 2^nd.  With less that a 0.6% difference between the two leading candidates, we should expect a lot of tension in a country that has such a wide split in political and economic philosophies.

     Before the federal election court declared Calderon the winner, the now official looser, Andres Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), a very charismatic man to his followers, has been conducting million man protests daily in the capital city. This includes a long stretch of Reforma Avenue, the main boulevard in downtown México (City). Instead of the normal heavy traffic flow, there are countless "campers" blocking not only the sidewalks but also the street itself. Talk about a king sized traffic jam! The local police force (in a city governed by AMLO's PRD party) chooses not to interfere. But when the protesters tried to close access to the federal congress, things got nasty.

     At this point, let's go back into history. To those of you who remember (or read about) the 1960s in the US, it was a time of protests, mainly about the war in Vietnam and social issues. Remember the riots in Chicago during the time of the Democrat convention? And the Kent State College killings? The fatal trigger in these incidents was poor police and state reserve forces training in riot control. In Chicago, it was called a "police riot". At Kent State, troops panicked and fired live rounds in a crowd of unarmed students, killing some of them.

     It was recognized that better training by police and military forces was needed to preserve law and order in a just way. In the Chicago case, the horse-mounted police were replaced by trained National Guard troops. Order was restored without further bashing civilians. At that time, all state national guard members received riot control training. I remember this well as I was a member of the Illinois National Air Guard at the time. We were taught how to move crowds, break up large gatherings, identify and surround the leaders and above all, to avoid physical contact with the rioters. We even staged fake riots to practice on. Our objective was to break up the riot, not to incite the crowd. Respect of the rights of all was stressed. It was the state reserve forces that bore the greatest responsibility. This made sense because the citizen soldiers, normally living in the general population, would be more sensitive to the situation.

     Now, looking at a news picture of the event outside of the Mexican federal congress, I see federal police plunging directly into the crowd, swinging clubs and bashing everyone that they can. There was no violence before the police started the bashing, and while the access to congress had to be cleared, there was no reason for the police to incite a riot. In the crowd, there were a number of congressional opposition representatives there. Six suffered injuries from police clubs.

     The performance of the police in this type of situation in normal in México. You might remember the San Salvador Atenco police riot a few months ago. This turned into not only a police bashing party, but degenerated into a police loot and mass rape event, killing one civilian (a child). The Mexican Supreme Court has agreed to investigate this case, a landmark for the court. Another recent event is the teacher's strike in Oaxaca that started out as demonstrations, but after the typical heavy handed state police intervention (killing a number of the protesters), the strike has been taken over by "activists". No end is in sight.

     Unfortunately, the law enforcement agencies and the Mexican military consider themselves as "us against all others" force. Not as Mexicans.

     My point is this: México has to learn how to control protests in a just and effective way to avoid ramping up the violence at the expense of everybody. Otherwise, we will end up in the same situation as we had in the "dirty war" in the 1960s. That would probably bring down the government in today's climate.

     If we think that this unrest will end soon, AMLO states that protests might continue for "years". He is even starting to form a "second government" as an alternative rule for the country.

     What we must not do is to provide the fuel to continue ramped up violence by inept police and military actions. As it is, the Mexican government is just playing into the more violent activists' hands.
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Richard N. Baldwin T., a HispanicVista.com (http://www.hispanicvista.com/) contributing columnist, lives in Tlalnepantla, Edo de México. E-mail at: R1041643422@aol.com