The narcotics-funded criminal insurgency in Mexico has made it difficult for the Mexican government to conduct its census in many areas, according to this BBC Mundo article. The article is in Spanish, as I was unable to find a suitable version in English. I have translated a key piece of it below:
"Applying the census in territory controlled by organized crime was not easy.
In some cases, for example, the neighbors "kindly" recommended that the census-takers not enter a particular neighborhood. In others, the criminal groups authorized their entrance only to certain streets and during restricted hours.
"They are very capable people. They locate the census-takers and tell them, 'do not enter, do not walk through this area, or do not knock on the door of some homes,'' commented Cervera.
Despite these incidents, the census was applied without larger problems. In fact, the census-takers were more vulnerable to robbery or dog bites than to the aggression of narco-traffickers."
"Applying the census in territory controlled by organized crime was not easy.
In some cases, for example, the neighbors "kindly" recommended that the census-takers not enter a particular neighborhood. In others, the criminal groups authorized their entrance only to certain streets and during restricted hours.
"They are very capable people. They locate the census-takers and tell them, 'do not enter, do not walk through this area, or do not knock on the door of some homes,'' commented Cervera.
Despite these incidents, the census was applied without larger problems. In fact, the census-takers were more vulnerable to robbery or dog bites than to the aggression of narco-traffickers."
We commonly think of areas outside of legitimate government control as regions of anarchy and chaos. In fact, criminal insurgencies require a degree of security to maintain the support of the populace that they operate in as well as for their businesses to function optimally. Nonetheless, their control is ever-present; Mexican federal employees have to ask the insurgents for authorization just to conduct their jobs.
- Russ
In my town last fall a certain cartel killed a group of kidnappers who came into town looking for possible victims. I agree that narco-traffickers would pay little or no attention to the census personnel.
Posted by: Greg and Jan | June 29, 2010 at 12:51 AM
The Michoacan public safety minister can't do her job due to cartel interference as well: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-bautista-20100627,0,1441936.story?page=1
Since a massive assault in April where the chief suspects are her own people, "she no longer lives at home with her parents but in a safe house, and she moves around with a mini-army of soldiers as guards. Public knowledge of her schedule is kept deliberately vague; her once customary visits to city halls, neighborhoods, schools and prison yards now curtailed. And she has had to recalibrate how, and whom, to trust... Three senior members of the Security Ministry were killed last year, and Bautista's predecessor was arrested on drug-trafficking charges."
Posted by: Alex @ I-Con | June 29, 2010 at 12:03 PM