I have posted this basic message in a few places to try and get different ideas from folks.

RFI #1 is:
Is there a ethnic/group self-identification side to the war in Mexico that we're not seeing?

Yugoslavia had 3 official languages.
Mexico has over 60.

I know that there are over 180 total langages "spoken" in Mexico, but that only about 5 of them are significant.

But how significant? Since we tend to learn about other folks social and ethnic composition the hard way....is anybody thinking about this? Again- we tend to learn the hard way and then to unlearn as fast as we can.

The Westies (an NYC gang) required you be Irish, or from the Westside. The mafia was more open, but still ethnically/regionally based. I'd be surprised if there is not a simmilar dynamic in Mexico. You start "a family business" with people you know and trust....like La Familia.

RFI #2: Any ideas about how the Mexican mid-term elections will impact the level of violence? My personal read is the election cycle will be a violent referendum on the Government. Any ideas?


My soap box:
url]http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-drug-kidnappings12-2009feb12,0,3927610.story[/url]

The war in Mexico is being "fought" here in the US and the only folks covering it - the LA Times. The LA Times is doing a good job, but the rest of the media (Glen Beck is the recent exception) appears to be working hard to ignore the war on our boarder. Why?

A different soap box: (on a different subject): when I was at the Army FA Advanced Course in 1998 (dating myself) there was a Brazilian Officer who had seen combat primarily in San Palo, Rio, and in the jungle war zone along the boarder. His "war" was more like the movie "Elite Squad": http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/f...ok-Brazil.html
While the movie is baised, it is worth getting it.

To quote the article in the Telegraph:
"For, as lurid and far-fetched as Elite Squad seems, it pales beside reality. A recent report by Amnesty International found that last year police killed at least 1,260 people in the state of Rio de Janeiro alone - and that's just according to official figures."

I know the folks on SWJ know the difference between Brazil and Mexico, I'm just offering the movie as something to sitimulate discussion: Is this what we're seeing in Mexico?

I welcome any response. Thanks for your time.