Final week, two Seattle buddies of mine flew south to attend a music pageant in San Pancho, a small seashore city on Mexico’s Pacific coast. On Sunday, they awoke to a warning from native officers telling them to shelter in place and never journey wherever with out an “pressing motive.”
Right here, a pair thousand miles to the north, the information was already being broadcast: The head man of the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel had been killed by the Mexican army and, in response, cartel gunmen were spreading violence across the country and engaging in deadly skirmishes with government forces. One of many hardest hit locations was Puerto Vallarta, the place thugs on bikes have been stopping vehicles and vehicles on the streets and highways and setting them on hearth.
I contacted my pal, Steve, to see how he was doing. He mentioned the music pageant had been canceled, however, in any other case, San Pancho, 30 miles north of Puerto Vallarta, was quiet. His spouse, Sheryl, was out “foraging” for meals. I advised him to combine some margaritas and keep secure.
In case you hadn’t observed, it’s a loopy world and even a seashore can, in a second, flip right into a battle zone.
In that regard, I typically take into consideration folks I met in Ukraine again in 2012 once I was in Kyiv for an exhibit of my cartoons sponsored by the State Division. Having damaged from the grip of Moscow, the Ukrainians have been dwelling lives very very similar to mine or yours till, on a surprising morning 4 years in the past, Russian tanks rolled throughout the border of their nation. Ever since, they’ve survived – or not – beneath the fixed menace of Russian missile assaults.
All of us count on our lives to roll on tomorrow just about as they’ve at this time and yesterday, however earthquakes occur, floods strike, wars erupt, merciless males with weapons can present up and every thing can change immediately.
Mexico is a rustic of various magnificence. Just a few many years in the past, I drove throughout the border into the desert, went via a panorama of spectacular mesas that gave strategy to forested hills, then crossed via the jungle to the seashores at Puerto Vallarta. That highway journey gave me inspiration for my novel, “Seashore of Stars,” and in addition left me with a whole lot of sympathy for the fantastic Mexican folks I met alongside the way in which.
It’s a tragedy {that a} nation with such a vibrant tradition and a lot potential for financial success is within the grip of ruthless felony cartels that appear extra highly effective than the considerably hapless federal authorities in Mexico Metropolis. A number of cartel kingpins have been arrested or killed, however there isn’t a scarcity of latest felony bosses to take their place.
Perhaps Seattle vacationers will now suppose twice earlier than returning to a favourite strip of sand down on the Mexican shore. For now, we’re safer staying house (at the least till Immigration and Customs Enforcement knocks on the door). However the Mexican individuals are caught. They’re captive victims in a battle between civilization and savagery, and, as is the case in Ukraine, it’s removed from clear which facet will prevail.
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