A certain atmosphere of “rehearsal” is always present when sub-national or mid-term legislative elections take place with a new race for the national executive already in sight. The electoral dispute for diverse state-level and municipal offices, including the governorship of Mexico’s homonymous metropolitan state (Edomex), on June 4th was no exception.
The combination of high levels of political violence with a relative low number of inter-state armed conflicts has been a secular trend of Latin American history. The 2017 Armed Conflict Survey of the London-based International Institute for International Studies (IIIS) confirms the continuity of that historical pattern –which also happens to confirm a global tendency.
Religion, as a belief system, interacts with virtually every socio-cultural manifestation, such as family, politics, law, economics, clothing, health, diet, and so on. Thus, religion may affect behavior, values, and even --among other things-- what in anthropology we call material culture.(1)
“To make it you have to be fully alive. I do my best to do that. I enjoy every moment because I believe that once we die, that’s it. We’re not coming back. Lovers come back. Styles come back. But time? It never comes”1.
Controversial even then, the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed in 1992 and went into effect in 1994, gradually eliminating most tariffs and other trade barriers on products and services circulating between Mexico, Canada and the U.S.
The scandalous financing of several municipal candidates by the Gulf Cartel in Reynosa and Matamoros in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas in 2012[i] have not been isolated phenomena. Many news media have reported the intrusion of narcos in local (municipal) elections by not only financing specific candidates, but also by threatening or assassinating candidates. Why have narcos been investing resources to interfere in municipal elections?
La guerra contra las drogas que tiene lugar en Latinoamérica ha impactado el desarrollo de los países de la región y la vida cotidiana de sus ciudadanos. El último reporte de la Oficina para las Drogas y el Crimen de las Naciones Unidas (UNODC) reporta en 2014 una tasa de 26 homicidios por 100 mil habitantes para Centroamérica, comparada con una tasa de menos de 5 por 100 mil habitantes para América del Norte y de menos de 2 por 100 mil habitantes en Europa. Venezuela, Colombia y Brasil tienen tasas similares a las de Centroamérica.
When Americans think of cultural products of Mexico, they normally mention items such as tacos, mariachi bands, and the sombrero. However, the country has much more to present than the wonderful yet sometimes superficial artifacts widely known in the United States. One example is the visual arts, and more specifically, muralism.
