Last week there was a short article in Hoy, the free Spanish language daily paper owned by the Chicago Tribune, about a new documentary film, 8 Murders a Day, a damning portrait of life in Juarez, Mexico, where the “war on drugs” waged by both the Mexican and American governments has resulted in incredible levels of violence on the streets of Juarez, a city of 1.2 million people where an average of 8 people –often innocent bystanders or good people being punished for standing up to the narcotraficantes–are murdered every day. In 1990, before the escalation of drug trafficking, before NAFTA, before the related economic collapse for the poor and middle classes, there were 40 murders in Juarez for the whole year; now there are 40 murders in five days.
The film is remarkable, compelling, totally bilingual, yet there were only ten of us watching the film on a Wednesday night, prime time, when the other theaters in the complex were full of people watching Kung Fu Pandas and other current hits. I am hoping it will be distributed more widely in the Anglo community, either in commercial venues or shown in churches, synagogues and at gatherings of immigrant advocacy groups. Go to YouTube or the film’s web site and at least watch the trailer…and weep.
This reality touches my heart. Many of the immigration deportees are dropped off in Juarez. A Columban priest (Fr. Bill Morton) had to leave the Juarez are because he was threatened for defending people in his community from this violence.
What is happening in the border towns is disastorous and a national disgrace. The guns are flowing from The Wild West of America into the hands of the gangsters in Mexico. Our senseless criminalization of Marijuana fuels the violence of the cartels. The “Southern Answer” is to build a giant wall and pretend that it is a Mexican problem.