By Denise Tessier
Well aware that it’s operating with a skeleton staff, I held out little hope the Albuquerque Journal would send a reporter to cover the “Mexico in a Nutshell” speech by Carlos Fuentes the day before Halloween. As expected, the state’s largest daily did not provide reportage from the lecture that drew nearly 300 people to the Student Union Building at the University of New Mexico.
Regular readers of this site are probably not surprised to hear that I think they should have.
Fuentes, perhaps best known for his novel El Gringo Viejo (The Old Gringo) because it was made into a movie, is so renowned in Mexico for his essays and historical short stories his works have been part of Mexican school curriculums since the 1960s. Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez called him “Mexico’s greatest living writer” in declaring Oct. 30 “Carlos Fuentes Day.”
Considering he is a historian and observer of Mexico now in his eighth decade of life, his talk offered a rare opportunity to gain insight into the country’s history and, more importantly, to hear first-hand an articulate expert’s perspective on what should be done to alleviate the turmoil that is racking our closest neighbor to the south.
But both the Journal and Chavez apparently felt touting the author in advance was enough; according to the news account of Fuentes’ talk in the UNM Daily Lobo , Chavez didn’t attend Fuentes’ lecture either.
Fuentes’ address was the last in a UNM series of three lectures on Mexican themes and immigration that launched Sept. 15 with a talk by another author, Sam Quinones, followed by that of former Mexican President Vicente Fox, the Journal’s inadequate coverage of which I’ve already lamented.
As the leading newspaper in a state sharing both a border and name with Mexico, the Journal is missing an opportunity to provide a strong voice and platform for dialogue on immigration and drug issues, both of which were touched on in the lectures by Fuentes and Fox.
Especially pertinent was Fuentes’ perspective on the Mexican drug wars, which was markedly different from Fox’s take. Interestingly, neither speaker included drug war comments as part of their lectures, but made them in response to questions from their audiences.
Fox couched his comment in bridge-building terms, saying current President Felipe Calderon has armed the Mexican military in a war against cartels and crime “ to cut the supply of drugs to this nation (the U.S.),” saying that Mexico is doing this for “your sons, your nation.”
Fuentes was more direct, saying Mexico’s drug war problems are “inseparable from the demand in the United States. Our two societies must come together (to come up with a solution).”
Many of those interested in Mexico are familiar with the names of the Mexican drug cartel leaders because of courageous media coverage in that country. In striking contrast, Fuentes demanded, “Who are the drug lords in this country?”
He concluded his brief answer with a simple statement:
I am in favor of decriminalizing and legalizing all drugs.
Fuentes’ scripted lecture was both informative and eloquent. He called Mexico, a nation of 110 million, the “face of an unfinished creation” and a “freshly minted democracy” where “too often, our human capital is wasted” both through the denial of justice and the condoning of crime. As Americans well know, he added, “democracy does not suppress crime” without a strong judiciary.
To rise up from poverty and thrive as a nation, he said, Mexico needs to: 1) reform telecommunications and allow competition (Carlos Slim , one of the richest men in the world, controls much of the industry); 2) reform its energy system by making PEMEX “less of a bureaucratic cow and more a public corporation” (despite its massive oil reserves, by 2017 Mexico will be an importer without reform, Fuentes said); 3) improve public education; and 4) embrace labor reform. More than once Fuentes said Mexico needs a program like FDR’s New Deal to build new schools, hospitals and roads and give México’s people “the capacity to grow” and not be so dependent on jobs in the United States.
Conversely, he emphasized that he believes the United States needs Mexican immigrants, saying:
Without migrant workers this country’s going to face a hell of a problem.
But back to his comment on the legalization of drugs: This is especially pertinent — not only because of the need for dialogue on all the possible solutions to failed drug war policies — but because an international conference on drug reform is rolling into Albuquerque this week.
Thursday through Saturday, the International Drug Policy Reform Conference will bring together drug reform advocates, doctors, lawyers, treatment providers, law enforcement, students, educators and former inmates to discuss a number of topics, chief among them marijuana legalization.
According to an advance piece on the conference written by Anthony Papa for the Drug Policy Alliance, which appeared in the Journal Oct. 8:
The conference comes at a crucial time: More people than ever grasp the need for our drug policy to shift from criminalization to a public health model.
And:
Holding the conference in Albuquerque gives us a unique opportunity to examine the intersection of immigration policy and drug policy reform, as well as drug war violence on both sides of the border.
Here’s hoping the Journal gives this conference the coverage it deserves.
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