¡Pura Vida!

Homemade Guacamole

Jan's been in Nicaragua since last week at a Pastor's Wives Retreat and will return on Friday but, in the meantime, I'm posting an instructional video she made on how to make guacamole.  Enjoy!

A long time ago in a land far, far away...

there was a young man who wasn't particularly athletic but became a part of two teams just the same:

Bottom row, second from left.

Second row, third from right. (my eyes are closed)

Police vs Police

Last week the army started conducting an operation called "Operation Clean Up" which is a systematic, municipality by municipality sweep of police officers involved with the cartels.  The local news stations are covering the sweeps daily with many images of soldiers disarming and arresting police officers.  So yesterday police from several municipalities decided to imitate February's "tapados" - the gang members who for a week blocked several of the main avenues in Monterrey. Read the AP News story here. About fifty police officers blocked a main avenue with their patrol cars and trucks during the afternoon rush hour causing a traffic gridlock nightmare.  Soon the federal police showed up and immediately confronted the municipal police with assault rifles.  It was a scary scene.  Some of the municipal police were also armed with assault rifles and pointed them back toward the federal police.  Talk about a Mexican standoff! (sorry, couldn't resist!)

The standoff grew in intensity with both sides shouting and continuing to point their weapons at each other until more federal police showed up and tipped the balance - outnumbering the local police.  Officers on both sides were clearly angry and at the point of firing.  One accidental shot would've resulted in both sides mowing each other down in a hail of bullets.  Drivers who had been stopped by the blockade got out of their cars and ran for cover. 

After maybe twenty minutes of the tense standoff the federal police began arresting and dispersing the local officers.  Some were cuffed while others simply drove away.  The media is blasting both sides for their unprofessionalism - the local officers for blocking the avenue in the first place, and the federals for their heavy use of force to get them under control.  Fortunately the army stayed away and didn't get involved.  In this case the army's presence probably would've driven the municipal police to fire - as frustrated as they are with the army crackdowns. 

Fortunately the day ended without shots being fired but the situation remains tense and obviously unresolved.  The army and federal police are continuing with Operation Clean Up and the municipal police forces will continue to be combed through by investigators looking for officers with drug cartels links. 

As always, please pray for Mexico.  This is just another battle in the continuing Drug War.

A new turn in counter-narcotics operations: hit them where they're most vulnerable.

Mexico is a nation not composed primarily of institutions but rather of broad, inter-connected family networks.  If one doesn't understand the dynamics of large families, then one will be very inhibited in trying to understand how this country operates.  Family first, then job.  Family first, then country.  Family first, then whatever. 

Most Americans are independent from their "nuclear" families (with on average only 2 or 3 siblings and a handful of uncles, aunts & cousins they hardly ever see) by their late teens or early twenties.  We are bred to be independent and "self-made" whereas the Mexican is never completely severed from their family connections and, in fact, relies much more on these blood connections for their employment and success than their American counterparts.  Here, the old adage still applies:  "It's not what you know but who you know."  Nepotism is rampant and widely accepted.  This could help explain why corruption is so rampant and deeply seated - employees, being committed more to their family than their job or institution, try and extract the maximum benefit out of their job for the overall advancement and well-being of their extended families.  The family advances as one unit, lockstep as each member contributes to the whole.  This is something, I believe, that is very difficult for the average, non-Latino (or non-Asian for that matter) American to grasp.

This brings us to Mexico's Drug War.  When the federal authorities can't find and arrest the cartel bosses and members themselves, increasingly the authorities have been going after the families of the cartels (see this NY Times article, "Drug Gangs' Kin Ensnared in Mexico").  This is understandable because, as Mexico is, in most cases the cartels are nothing more than extended families - in fact, the Michoacan cartel is actually known as "The Family."  It's debatable as to how deep family ties run in the Gulf Cartel (began as a uncle-nephew operation but now controlled by non-family members), the Sinaloa Cartel (more family involvement - the Beltrán-Leyvy brothers) and the Arellano Felix brothers of the Tijuana Cartel (see poster) but now federal authorities are finding out as they round up, interrogate and question the aunts, uncles, cousins - even grandparents - of the cartel operatives.  The feds know that the extended families are the cartels' soft, vulnerable underbellies.  Case in point - a few weeks ago the feds arrested the elderly parents and other family members of one of the bosses of the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel and suddenly the cartels immediately yelled "foul!" by hanging up banners (their preferred manner of communicating with the federal authorities) saying: 

“We are aware of our acts, but we’re in total disagreement that our parents, siblings and other relatives are involved,” said one banner found in Acapulco.

Another banner directly addressed the president. “Felipe Calderón, please don’t mess with the family because it is very sacred,” the message said. “Show respect or face the consequences of our people. They are tired of atrocities.”       

What's telling in this case is the fact that, as illustrated by the rival cartels protesting, these arrests deeply shook cartels other than the Beltrán-Leyva, the one affected.  The feds are hitting them where it hurts.  The down side to this is the government's medieval "guilty until proven innocent" methods of arresting and extracting information of people who may be completely innocent of any involvement.  The government is walking a dangerous line and is opening itself up to taking a beating in the national press and therefore losing vital levels of public support it needs to be successful in this war.   As reports of human rights abuses surface (and they will), the government will find that their gains from arresting cartel families will be lost by their heavy-handed and anti-constitutional methods they are employing.  As the US government is learning in the waterboarding torture cases, the ends do not justify the means. 

Will North Korea be Obama's Cuban Missile Crisis?

For thirteen days during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October, 1962 the world held its breath.  After President John F. Kennedy weathered the terrifying ordeal, he ordered everyone in his cabinet (and I think the State Dept as well) to read Barbara Tuchman's classic work on diplomacy gone wrong - The Guns of August.  This book was required reading because in it Tuchman deftly unfolds the massive diplomatic mistakes - on all sides involved - that led to one of the most bloody and consequential wars in history - the First World War.  The book, which was published in 1962 and the following year won a Pulitzer prize in Non-Fiction Literature, perhaps may also need to be required reading in the Obama administration as the nuclear weapon crisis with North Korea unfolds. 

Just as Khrushchev and Castro took advantage of a perceived young and inexperienced president, so North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il seems to be playing from the same playbook.  President Kennedy showed amazing calm and restraint during the Cuban Missile Crisis as many of his military advisors pleaded for an attack and invasion of Cuba.  Kennedy, who remembered well the British complacency during Hitler's buildup in the 1930s (he wrote the history of it himself), knew the limits both of diplomacy and of force.  He had to walk a tightrope between these two.  At times during the crisis Kennedy had to rattle the sword of American power - which was the only thing the Russians could understand and surely the only thing that will get the North Korean's attention as well - and at other times he had to be diplomatic by courting the world's opinion in order to get the United Nations behind his condemnation of the Soviet missiles in Cuba.  All the while he had to downplay the fact that U.S. missiles had been based in Turkey very close to the borders of the USSR.  We all know how the story ends - in the end Kennedy's diplomacy triumphed and the Soviets withdrew their missiles from Cuba.  Kennedy managed to convince Khrushchev that he could and would use force if it came to it and, at the same time, convinced the world community to wholly support him.  It was a diplomatic grand slam and probably, next to the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the tragically short-lived Kennedy administration's greatest moment.  Let's hope President Obama will learn from his predecessor and, in the same manner, deftly walk the line between force and diplomacy.  The world is again holding its breath.   

Traffic Cops: the worst thing abt living in Latin America

So today I was driving home alone and was in an especially congested part of the city when two motorcycle cops pull up alongside me and wave me over.  So I carefully made my way to a narrow side street and parked.  The following is how the conversation went down and has been translated into English:

OFFICER #1:  "Are you trying to run from us?"
ME:  "Ummm, no - here I am.  If I was running I wouldn't have pulled over."
OFFICER #2:  "But we've been following you for two blocks and you wouldn't pull over.  You ran a pedestrian crosswalk when an officer tried to stop traffic and he radioed us to pull you over."
ME:  "WHAT??!!  That's insane b/c when a cop steps out on the street to stop traffic I always stop - otherwise I would've run him over, right?  Plus I'm always super careful here - especially at this hour when the school kids are getting out.  I didn't see anyone step out to stop traffic."
OFFICER #2:  "He was trying to stop traffic from the sidewalk.  He waved at you to stop but you went on."
ME:  "The officers always step out into the street to stop traffic.  I don't believe you."
OFFICER #1:  "Well our commander happened to be there too and he told us to write you up.  Actually we've giving you two infractions - one for not stopping for him and the other for not stopping for us."
OFFICER #2 (chiming in):  "Yeah, and that's a lot of money - two infractions!" 
OFFICER #1 then asked if I had a calculator for him to tell me the amount (could he not count that high?!).  I pulled up the calculator on my cell phone and handed it to him.  He punched in some numbers and then emitted a low whistle and showed it to the other officer before showing it to me.  It was $1,330 pesos ($95 USD).  "Es muuuuucho dinero" he said, elongating the "u's" for emphasis.
ME:  "I can't believe you're trying to give me two infractions.  Have you had a bad day? (I laugh & so do they).
OFFICER #1 & #2:  "Well look, you can pay us half right here.  That would save you a trip downtown to the station and you won't lose your license." (They confiscate your driver's license in most countries of Latin America when you get a ticket). 
ME:  "Well just write me the ticket."  I threw up my hand for emphasis.  The officers were trying to trick me into paying them on the spot.  The "half" ($665 pesos or $47.50 USD) would go right into their pockets.  The majority of drivers don't pay it but, after the cops' offer of half, the bargaining with them begins.  It's a strange unwritten custom. 
The officers shook their heads and exchanged surprised looks for my desire to take the ticket instead of taking a cheaper and more convenient way out.  The surprised, incredulous looks were bluffing, of course, pure theatrics.  And then:
OFFICER #1:  "So you want to pay the whole thing rather than only half then?  That's a lot of money, my friend.  But if that's what you want..."  They both waited for my reaction.  

ME:  "Well go ahead!"  I decided to call their bluff and see where it got me by pulling out my map book and politely asking them to show me exactly where the central office was - where I had to go to pay the ticket & get my license back.  As such, this was bluffing on my part. 
OFFICER #2 (putting the ticket book away):  "Ok, ok, let's be reasonable.  Why not just pay us and get on with your day?"  He smiled a big smile.
ME:  Returning his smile:  "Look, I've lived here for six years.  You think this is the first time I've had to deal with traffic cops?  I'll give you $100 pesos ($7 USD)."
The officers again exchanged looks.  The first one walked away and got back on his bike.  I guess he was done. 
OFFICER #2:  "$400 pesos."
ME:  "Give me a break!  Here's a $200 peso note ($14.28 USD) - take it or give me the ticket...I've got to go."  I handed him the crinkled up bill.
OFFICER #2:  "Alright then.  We'll stop traffic on the street behind you [the avenue I was on when they pulled me over] so you can pull out safely.  Have a nice day!"

So I was on my way only to be pulled over by another motorcycle cop about 10 mins later.  The second stop, however, the officer just reviewed my papers to see if everything was in order.  That stop lasted less than a minute whereas the first one was about twenty minutes.  Thankfully this is not normal - getting so much attention from the police!  

So here comes the ethical reflection on this:  It's not like I pay bribes every time I get pulled over.  In fact many times I've talked them out of giving me a ticket by being nice and cooperative.  That's a technique I learned from Pastor Victor in Nicaragua, an expert in these things if there ever was one.  And yes, I've heard time and time again how horrible it is to contribute in the corruption like this and many Americans who live in Latin America have piously told me they simply do not pay bribes.  They just refuse to "become part" of the corruption, end of story.  Well I do understand and I respect their conviction but that's going counter to the culture here.  Good luck trying to live in the ethical black/white in a culture notoriously gray!  Until things change from the top down and these guys are paid more, the "mordidas" (bribes) will continue to exist.  Everyone here hates it but it's woven into the system itself so deeply that only a top-down reform would make it better.  So while I don't like doing this sometimes you just have to exercise some cultural flexibility...

Wish I would've found this pic 3 weeks ago!

This pic says it all abt the H1N1 "Swine flu":

HUGE Rattlesnakes!

One of the things about living in arid, northern Mexico is that it's the natural home of the rattlesnake.  We have several species of rattlers - Diamondbacks, Sidewinders, and Timbers to name a few.  We've had our run-ins with rattlers (Jackson walked right over this one on our front sidewalk in 2006) and we even once found one in the desert and ate it.  So it wasn't a big surprise when one of my Bible School students brought me this snakeskin he found while on work detail the other day.  The piece he gave me is a little over three feet long and appears to be only half the snakeskin!  In it's widest part you can place a U.S. dollar bill!  So this beast is still at large and living very close to where we live, work and play! 

San Antonio for Max's B-Day

At Mi Tierra restaurant

The boys with Nana & Papa at the Riverwalk

Max jamming out in the hotel room.

Our Family!

America's Backyard Challenge

As I've blogged several times, the Drug War in Mexico should be considered one of the biggest foreign policy issues the United States faces.  The number of people killed in the Mexican Drug Wars has now topped 10,000 and, judging by the headlines this year certainly isn't getting any better.  In February and March the country seemed like it was exploding in violence - for awhile things got pretty scary but have since, thank God, calmed down.  The Mexican army has done a good job in quelling the violence in Ciudad Juarez by occupying the city in March and taking over all police responsabilities with more than 5,000 troops.  Things have quieted down in our area except for a firefight last Sunday between an army patrol and a group of police officers.  Unsurprisingly, the army, with their mounted .50 cals and assault rifles, settled the matter pretty quickly and had six Monterrey-area police officers in custody -  allegedly the officers were working for the cartels.  Imagine the bystanders in that exchange of gunfire - cops vs soldiers - doesn't do much for confidence in the civil authorities, does it?

The Battle of Puebla - The Meaning Behind Cinco de Mayo

The reason behind the Mexican American celebration Cinco de Mayo (which is not a national holiday in Mexico by the way and is more celebrated in the US than here thanks to savvy Mexican beer companies) is the Battle of Puebla during the French occupation of Mexico (1862-67).   In 1862 French Emperor Napoleon III, along with the Spanish and British, sent troops to Mexico to collect debts owed by the Mexican government.  The Spanish and Brits soon returned home but Emperor Napoleon III decided to stay and try and add Mexico to the French Second Empire.  To do so he needed an "emperor" of Mexico so he chose the Hapsburg Maximilian and offered the "throne" of Mexico to him.  Maximilian arrived in Mexico in 1864 to find a nation divided in civil war  between liberal and conservative elements - the conservatives had welcomed the French and maintained a tenuous alliance with them while the liberals, or Republicans, headed by Benito Juarez, continued a guerilla war against the French and Mexican monarchists.  It was Juarez's General Ignacio Zaragoza who defeated the French in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. 

As for the French occupation of Mexico?  They evacuated their military forces by the end of 1866 and by May of the following year Maximilian, his situation now hopeless without French military support, was captured by the Republicans and executed by firing squad on June 19, 1867.  Thus ended the French intervention in Mexico - best remembered on May 5 with the Mexican victory in the Battle of Puebla.    

Mexico Woes Continue

Disturbing news tonight that the Health Secretary & Federal Government have suspended all federal govt operations & non-essential private sector jobs as well. I'm not clear if this is nation-wide or just in Mexico City, but it's troubling! Already, they have been losing $57 million DOLLARS a day due to the swine flu, with closings of restaurants (except for take-out), museums, cinemas, etc...

Just a few weeks ago Mexico was #1 on the list of countries to watch on the verge of economic collapse. This is serious stuff for a country that was working so hard to climb out of third-world status. Now, factories and businesses will be closing and waiting for the flu to pass, meaning that people will not be making money, not spending money, and not making products to export. Here in Monterrey, the Lego factory has closed through next week. I am waiting to see who will follow.

Please keep Mexico in your prayers. This goes so much deeper than health.

Mexicans Put Faith in Masks - But Do They Work? (AP News)

 

Mexico Puts Faith in Masks - But Do They Work?
(From the Associated Press)  Apparently the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control says that surgical masks (cubrebocas, in Spanish) do little to stop the transmission of viruses.  Leave it to the CDC to poo-poo our current fashion trend.  Whether of not they put any stock in these masks north of the border, however, doesn't diminish their importance in Mexico where the police, army, and local governments are passing them out en masse.  If nothing else, they do provide a needed psychological comfort - maybe people are better off when they at least feel safer.  We think so!

Also from the Mirror News (UK):  Swine Flu Fashion:  People Decorate Their Face Masks in a Bid to Stay Positive

Swine Flu update

There are long lines at all the pharmacies to buy these masks... school is canceled until May 6th, daycares are closed, University classes as well. Apparently, if a school decides to have class anyway, the directors will go to jail. In the midst of all this craziness today, a 6.0 quake hit outside of Mexico City.

Pray for this nation. It is being shaken to its core.

As if Mexico needs this!

So on one side we've got the Drug Wars going on (9 bullet-riddled bodies were found yesterday in the Acapulco area) and on the other a deadly strain of swine influenza has broken out in Mexico City.  So far more than 60 people have died - nearly all perfectly healthy and between the ages of 25 - 45.  This virus is a mix of human, pig and bird strains that has epidemiologists around the world deeply concerned. The World Health Organization is meeting in Geneva today to consider whether to declare an international public health emergency — a step that could lead to travel advisories, trade restrictions and border closures.  In the meantime, the government has cancelled all public activities in Mexico City in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus.  

The New U.S. Ambassador to Mexico (pending Senate approval, of course)

The Obama administration has chosen Carlos Pascual to replace Tona Garza as the U.S. ambassador to Mexico.  Mr. Pascual, a Cuban-American, seems to be a good choice for this important position as he has a track record as a specialist in post-conflict stabilization and crisis management.  From 200 to 2003 he was the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and also served as coordinator for reconstruction and stabilization at the U.S. State Department. Most recently he has been a fellow at the Brookings Institution where he has served both as vice president and as director of foreign policy.      

GLOBAL CHRISTIANITY: New Voices at the Table 04 - the Redeemed Christian Church of God

In author and Penn State Religious Scholar Philip Jenkins' bestsellers The Next Christendom:  The Coming of Global Christianity (2002) and The New Faces of Christianity:  Believing the Bible in the Global South (2008) lucidly explained how the center of global Christianity has now shifted from the West (Europe & North America) to the Global South (formerly known as the "Third World" or "Developing World").  The implications of this seismic shift are huge and are now beginning to be felt in the secular West.  In the 17th to the 20th centuries Christian missions activity was a one-way street - missionaries from Europe and North America evangelized in the Developing World but now that one-way street has shifted to a two-way one.  The West is still sending out missionaries but, increasingly, the Global South is sending waves of missionaries in order to evangelize a post-Christian, secular West. 
For example in Kiev, Ukraine, a Nigerian-based Pentecostal church has a church of 30,000 people - including the city's mayor.  The pastor is Nigerian and the church is composed predominately of Ukrainians.  Four of the ten largest megachurches in London are run by Africans.  Of the many new African denominations evangelizing the West, notes Jenkins, none are as organized or dedicated as the R.C.C.C. - the Redeemed Christian Church of God.  In fact, says Jenkins, "I always cite the R.C.C.C. as the best example of a rising church that, probably by the time I die [Jenkins is 57] , is going to be a global denomination.  It really is pushing so hard in all possible directions." 
The R.C.C.C. was formed in Nigeria in 1952 and has since grown and expanded to more than 30 countries.  The New York Times Magazine has a fascinating article on the R.C.C.C. in their latest issue ("Mission From Africa").

Previous entries on GLOBAL CHRISTIANITY:  New Voices at the Table series are here:  01, 02 and 03.

IMC Semana Santa Mission Trip

During Semana Santa (Holy Week) the Bible school students embark on their annual missions trips.  This year I took the first year students to the neighboring state of Tamaulipas while the second year group went into the mountains of San Luís Potosí state.  Here are a few pics from my trip last week:

With 3 of my Bible school students, Xochitl (staff member) and some of the brothers & sisters of La Coma, Tamaulipas, México

New life!  Two pastors baptize a new convert in Benito Juárez, Tamaulipas, México.

The hospitality and food were tremendous!

He's Alive!

Just take a minute to listen and reflect!

Washington Post "Mexico At War" Series

The veritable Washington Post has introduced an ongoing series on the Drug War in Mexico with this first installment in their "Mexico At War" series.

The LA Times, though, is still the big daddy in coverage of this conflict with their "Mexico Under Siege:  The War At Our Doorstep."