Bishops worried Mexico could become next Colombia

Mexico City, Mexico, Jun 13, 2005 / 22:00 pm

The president of the Bishops’ Conference of Mexico, Bishop Jose Guadalupe Martin Rabago, warned this week that if the control of drug traffickers over certain areas of the country is not contained, Mexico could see the same suffering being endured in Colombia.

Bishop Martin was referring to the violence that has taken place in Nuevo Laredo in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, where the post of security chief was vacant from more than thirty days, and when Alejandro Dominguez Coello was nominated to be chief of police, he was assassinated on the day he was sworn in.

“Here is my interpretation of this act: Drug traffickers say, ‘We are willing to accept as security chiefs those whom we choose,’ and this is a risk, a very grave risk that the security forces will be chosen by drug traffickers themselves,” the bishop warned.

“This means that, in the end, political power and state institutions would be in the hands of drug traffickers.  This is what is happening in Colombia and it appears that we are traveling down the same path, with very serious risks,” said Bishop Martin.

He underscored that “if drug traffickers have the power to decide in the end who they are, who will want to take up the task of protecting the public order?  In other words, if we allow the wolves to care for the sheep, in whose hands are we?”

“I can’t say that everyone in security positions in these states is a drug trafficker, but we have just seen what took place in Nuevo Laredo,” the bishop noted.