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domingo, 5 de diciembre de 2010

Teenage Assassins? What next?!

For the past few days, I've seen the same story in a variety of newspapers and online news pages about a 14-year old boy arrested in an airport near Cuernavaca and charged with at least four drug-related murders.  What's always stressed in these stories is that the boy was involved in the decapitation of the victims, an especially gruesome detail that's guaranteed to make readers sit up and take notice of how out of hand the situation in Mexico has become.  While no one would argue that murder is, indeed, a terrible thing, I'm surprised that it's getting so much attention in the U.S. press.  Reporters act as if we've never heard of teenage assassins before, as if we weren't used to seeing news stories about horrendous violence carried out by teens in our own country.

The story of  "El Ponchis" is tragic and brutal, not only because a boy who is barely into his teens has committed murder but because it underscores that Mexico's drug problem is societal problem that extends way beyond the borders of one country.   This boy was not born in Mexico, but in the United States, like the famous "La Barbie" (Edgar Valdez Villarreal) who was captured at the end of August this year.  "El Ponchis" told reporters that he was kidnapped when he was 11 years old and forced to work for the Pacific drug cartel associated with the Beltran Leyva family.  "I participated in four executions, but I did it drugged and under threat that if I didn't, they would kill me," the boy told reporters.  Fox news emphasized that he spoke in a calm voice and showed "no remorse"  for his actions.  While many people in the U.S. might raise their eyebrows in shock or suprise, or suspect that the boy is lying about his unfortunate past, I believe him.  I've seen abandoned children in the streets, not only in Mexico but in many places around the world where parents simply cannot afford to take care of their children, where the parents are still children themselves, some of them have drug problems, or they're deathly ill, or they've been raped and have no idea how to raise a child.  Some are runaways, they're displaced, they're undereducated, they're poor, and they have no family or friends to help them. "El Ponchis" apparently has a couple of sisters, but they have no idea where their parents are.  They have a step mother in San Diego who was willing to send them money to flee across the border, but where have the adults been to guide "El Ponchis" and his sisters during their childhood years? 

 Abandoned street kids, portrayed so poignantly by Luis Buñuel in his 1950 film, Los olvidados, are not a new problem.  The only thing that's changed is that now children are recruited by drug gangs to carry out dirty work before they have acquired the ability to make moral judgments and ethical decisions on their own.  They're no longer picking pockets and begging for coins; now they're cutting off heads and dumping bodies around town.  "El Ponchis" bragged that he was paid as much $3000 for a murder.  For a 14-year old boy on the streets $3000 is a fortune; but in the world of paid assassins, it's a bargain-basement price.  If we're going to portray "El Ponchis" as a monster, let's at least put his crime in the proper context.  For the poor, life is very hard, and it's easy for homeless kids to be led astray.   I'm not excusing his crime, but I'm aware that his crime is symptomatic of a larger issue, and it's not just limited to Mexico.

I did a simple Google search for news items related to murders committed by teenagers in the U.S. during the past six months, and I got so many hits, I can't include them all here. But I noted some of the major stories, and the details seem as shocking and horrible as the story of "El Ponchis."   These teen murderers are not homeless children kidnapped and raised by drug lords.  But, in many cases, they are poor, many are African American, Latino or belong to an ethnic minority, they're marginalized from mainstream society because of socio-economic conditions, and they don't think they have the same kinds of options and opportunities that middle and upper class kids have. They've committed murder for less money and for less obvious reasons than "El Ponchis."  If they had a chance to work as paid assassins, who can say they wouldn't see it as an "opportunity" for a "better life"?

Consider these stories:

Macon, Georgia. December 1, 2010.  Three teens charged with murder in the shooting death of an employee at a supermarket.

Detroit, November 27, 2010. Two teen gangs fired shots in a suburban Detroit mall on the busiest shopping day of the year.  One teen was critically wounded and employees of a clothing stores were also hit in the crossfire.

Atlanta, Ga. November 20, 2010.  Two teenagers bludgeoned to death an 88 year old woman after breaking into her house.  The motive was burglary.

Douglas Co, Georgia. November 8, 2010. Four teens charged with murder after stomping another to death at a house party.  The mother of one of the murderers stood by and watched while this happened.

Louisville, Ky.  Nov. 7, 2010. Three teens held for murder of a young woman. They bragged about their crime on Facebook, which eventually caught the attention of police.

Tacoma, Wa. October 15, 2010. Three teens were charged with murder in a drug-related robbery gone wrong.  The murder is assumed to be gang-related.

Victoria, B.C. September 28, 2010. Two teens are held on charges of the kidnap, rape, torture and murder of a high school girl.  After killing her, they burned her remains and threw them under a bridge.

Birmingham, Alabama, September 10, 2010.  Two teens murdered another teen who was riding his bicycle to the store.  They pulled him off his bike, beat him, and shot him twice in the chest.

Philadelphia, August 23, 2010. Two teens are being held on murder charges after killing an 87 year old man in the driveway of his home.  He had just finished mowing his lawn when the teenagers approached him and shot him, apparently for the motive of robbery.

Summit NJ,  July 28, 2010. Three teens charged with murder of an immigrant from El Salvador, the father of four small children,  as the man was leaving his shift at a restaurant.  The teens videotaped the murder on their cell phones and circulated the video to their friends.

Indianapolis, In. July 26, 2010. Teenager charged with shooting nine people in the street during a summer celebration.  They were leaving a fast-food restaurant as he open fired.

I see stories almost every day about teenagers in this country committing murder.  I'm not even going to mention the school shootings, because that's another topic. It's upsetting to think about young people committing acts of extreme violence and cruelty, but why are we so horrified at "El Ponchis"?  Don't we have kids like him here?

Mexico's president, Felipe Calderon, has acknowledged that "in the most violent areas of the country, there is an unending recruitment of young people without hope, without opportunities."  I don't think I've ever heard a U.S. politician admit that same problem exists in our country, but clearly, the level of gang-related violence in our country suggests a similar pattern.  If young boys like "El Ponchis" cross the border into Mexico and work for the drug cartels there, is it because they see more opportunity for a life of crime on that side of the border?  Or, is it because on both sides of the border, they live in a world where they have little hope for a different kind of future?  Arresting young criminals like "El Ponchis" will stop a few individuals, but it won't clear up the problem.  As long as children like him are without hope for a better future, they'll continue to look to the drug cartels for employment opportunties, and violence will become the norm for many of our young people. The next time we shake our heads at dismay in how the world has gone beserk, let's ask ourselves honestly what's at the root of the problem, and what we can do to change the dynamics.

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