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Caribbean-Latin America
Crime-weary Mexico muted at US execution
2008-08-07
Mexicans struggling with increasingly gruesome crimes at home gave the most muted reactions in recent memory to the execution of one of their own citizens in Texas.

With Mexican news dominated by the kidnap-killing of 14-year-old Fernando Marti, the execution of Mexican Jose Medellin for the 1993 rape-murder of two girls in Texas appears to have sparked far less outrage than people here have shown in previous death penalty cases.

Some Mexicans are even calling for the death penalty here.

"The terrible news of the Marti youngster has overshadowed the execution in Texas last night of a Mexican," said Gabriel Guerra, a political analyst on the Televisa television network.

Indeed, banner headlines about the domestic kidnapping case dominated in almost all of the country's daily newspapers. Medellin's execution was relegated to small mentions lower down on the front pages -- and in some cases, wasn't on the front page at all.

"There is no reason for outrage. The man was a rapist," said lawyer Gustavo Sanchez, 40, as he got a shoeshine on a Mexico City street. "If we had the death penalty here, there wouldn't be so many crimes."

Marti, the son of a prominent businessman, was kidnapped on a Mexico City street in June and found dead last week, even though his family paid the ransom his captors demanded. Several Mexico City policemen have been detained for questioning in the death; prosecutors believe they may have supplied kidnappers with information about the victim.

Guerra noted that "there are those who see this as an opportunity to call for a return to the death penalty." In fact, the congressional leader of Mexico's former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, Emilio Gamboa, said earlier this week that he supported capital punishment, long a taboo in Mexico.
Posted by:Fred

#14  The Mexicans lost many more in their revolution than we did in our own Civil War. Some estimate 2 million or more.
Posted by: Pholurong the Really Smart3447   2008-08-07 21:49  

#13  The historical reason for abhorring the death penalty in Mexico comes from their very bloody revolution. Much like the French revolution, but lasting for decades of bloodletting.

A group of Mexicans or Indians would be met by an indistinguishable armed group, who would ask them a question of which of two sides they supported. Most people supported neither side, but if they answered wrong, or if they said they didn't support either, they would be killed on the spot.

To this day, the Yaqui Indians still have the strong cultural trait that they will divide right down the middle on every issue. This was learned so that at least half of them would survive. Big issue or small, if you ask a group of Yaquis if they like apples, for example, half will say yes and the other half no.

It was that traumatic. So there is a general deep fear of the death penalty for anything.

Variations on this appear throughout Mexican culture. It really messed them up.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2008-08-07 13:48  

#12  Actually the Catholic Church does allow for capital punishment. Its against the defective way that the death penalty is frequently given in most places (i.e. error).
Posted by: OldSpook   2008-08-07 13:27  

#11  You should never be surprised when ordinary Mexicans exhibit common sense just like ordinary Americans. The problems we have with Mexico are due to the corruption in their government and in our own government.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305   2008-08-07 12:39  

#10  The Catholic Church is opposed to the death penalty and Mexico is a Catholic country so it will take a lot to change the mindset.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2008-08-07 12:06  

#9  That's why Mexico loves illegal immigration so much. They get to dump the worst people that they have on us, and get off scot-free.

That's also how Europeans felt when our ancestors came over.
Posted by: DoDo   2008-08-07 11:50  

#8  The US had cowboys & Indians, Mexico has Spaniards & Indians.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2008-08-07 11:34  

#7  And most of wealth is held by the top 1%, most of whom are elitest Spaniards that have no intention in putting their own money into social programs for the indigenous Indians they despise. That leaves them all at the mercy of drug lords.
Posted by: Danielle   2008-08-07 11:23  

#6  That's why Mexico loves illegal immigration so much. They get to dump the worst people that they have on us, and get off scot-free.
Posted by: gromky   2008-08-07 10:53  

#5  This doesn't surprise me at all, Mexico is a very conservative country, probably more conservative than the U.S.
If you ever get the chance to spend some time there (and I'm not talking about Cabo)you will come back with a different attitude towards them. The only ones you generally meet in the mid-west are illegals and "activists", both pains in the ass. When you go to Mexico you meet actual Mexicans that love their country and have jobs, families, houses. The ones that come to the US are all poor country folk, for the most part, and are usually no better than semi-literate.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2008-08-07 10:21  

#4  Mexico is just another case in which the 'elites' refuse to allow the 'people' to actually have their way on the issue of a 'death penalty'. Wait, there's another country or two that reminds me of that description. :)
Posted by: Procopius2k   2008-08-07 09:18  

#3  Most Mexicans are OK once you get them out of Mexico. The place is a medieval society in modern architecture financed by oil money. Wait, there's another country or two that reminds me of that description.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2008-08-07 07:20  

#2  "There is no reason for outrage. The man was a rapist."

Weird, good sense coming out of someone in Mexico? They typically never lose an opportunity to hate America.
Posted by: gromky   2008-08-07 06:44  

#1  "There is no reason for outrage. The man was a rapist," said lawyer Gustavo Sanchez, 40, as he got a shoeshine on a Mexico City street. "If we had the death penalty here, there wouldn't be so many crimes."

You mean the conservative path saves lives? Whoda thunk it.
Posted by: gorb   2008-08-07 01:21  

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