Narcocorridos: The Cartels Stretch Their Wings
Los Tucanes de Tijuana, a prominent "narcocorrido" group
In the first weeks of the new administration, much attention has been committed to standard geopolitical hotspots like Iran and Afghanistan. While these theaters will continue to merit strategic efforts by the United States, Barack Obama’s top brass would be well-advised to deal more forcefully with terrorism along the Mexican border that presents arguably trickier security challenges. Last week, an Army analyst team out of Ft. Leavenworth released a disturbing assessment of emergent recruitment tactics employed by the principal cartels. Among new outreach channels is the use of large cloth banners draped on scaffolding at border checkpoints and exhorting Mexican youths to call listed cell phone numbers if they desire money and safety. Accompanying these displays that blatantly flaunt the atrophied clout of Mexico’s police forces are ads taken out in major city newspapers, gang-sponsored community events and marketing that utilizes social networking platforms like Myspace.
Principal Trafficking Networks of Mexico's Cartels, BBC
One area where cartel advertising extends most potently—and perhaps most bizarrely—is in the form of “narcocorridos,” traditional “Norteno-style” polkas lionizing drug dealers. For Americans accustomed to the coarse edges of the “gangsta rap” that was used prominently in the mid-1980s to glorify organized crime in Los Angeles and New York, the characteristic Bohemian accordions and upbeat laughing of narcocorridos can catch a listener off guard. That said, a quick survey of narcocorrido lyrics leaves little doubt that the songs’ intended messages do not seek parallel states of joviality. Recent hits, echoing early 20th century Norteno ballads that commemorated rebel activists like Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, have come to celebrate prominent narcotrafficers as misunderstood champions of the people. Ramon Arellano Felix, head of the Tijuana cartel until his 2002 assassination well-known for ordering a hit to be carried out on a Catholic priest in church, is painted as a weary hero with gentle forcefulness:
20 years in the business,// Not everyone could tolerate that// …. though his voice was not powerful,// It made everybody tremble.
That the situation along the border has worsened over the course of the preceding decade is not news. Instead, what is concerning is that the cartels appear to be “democratizing” their recruitment, drawing more heavily from civilian ranks and in this process winning even more hearts and minds for their cause. As recently as five years ago, armed members of the biggest gangs were handpicked almost exclusively from GAFES (“Grupo Aeromovil de Fuerzas Especiales” or “Special Air Mobile Force Group”) and Kaibiles (Guatemalan equivalent of GAFES) ranks using ad language that would be familiar to anyone familiar with Pablo Escobar’s Colombia:
The Zetas [the “Gulf Cartel” operating primarily out of Matamoros in Estado Tamaulipas] are looking for you if you are military or ex-military. We offer a good salary, food, and care for your family. Furthermore, you will not be mistreated or left hungry. We will give you the best. Those with poor work ethic, refrain from calling. If interested call 8671687423.
One wonders if the mass-scale implementation of more sophisticated marketing channels and the growing commercialization of drug-related niche industries like narcocorrido pop groups may presage a feudal Mexico possessing almost nothing in the way of federal legitimacy and vulnerable to the whims of caballero drug dealers who go untended by US forces.