Latest on Cuba & The Killing of El Mencho - Updates & Analysis

Latin America Correspondent Jon Bonfiglio picks up on the two big stories of the week from the region. 

Transcript

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Latin America Correspondent, after a non-stop few days. Latin America, it feels, has never been as much in-focus in the world’s attention as in the last couple of months, and this last week has felt even more pronounced, given the killing of El Mencho and incidents in Cuba, within the broader context of what is happening there. And given the scale and importance of the stories, I wanted to look back on them and give an update on where things are at. 

As mentioned in previous recordings, this week also saw the coming together of Caribbean countries at the CARICOM summit, towards the end of which the community pledged humanitarian support to Cuba, whilst at the same time issuing no united position on US policy towards the island. The US has its supporters in the region, little doubt, most notably the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago, but most are aware of the support they have received from Cuba over the years, and the fact that if US foreign policy continues to rampage unchecked through the region, then everyone has a problem. It’s very clear, hearing the speeches of leaders such as Andrew Holness, that he and others are aware that we are not that far away at all from brazen colonial acts on the region, and that current developments very much take us back to those dark, dark days. 

Staying with Cuba for the moment, new information has emerged on the offshore skirmish earlier this week which left 4 dead. One of the questions at the time was as regards why ten men were so tightly packed into one vessel, and it’s now emerged that two speedboats in fact left Florida, but one failed en route, forcing the men into one vessel. The sheer scale of the weapons and firepower available to the men also brought back into sharp relief the scale and problem of liberal gun laws in the United States, which are the single, main, overwhelming cause for Latin America’s extensive militarization. The guns here all come from one place, and it’s there. And finally, as well as the ten men on the boat, one individual was arrested on the island, accused of planning support for the men. But there is no broader cell network of support believed to be in place on the island. 

Additionally, it was interesting today - Saturday 28th February, the day in which the US began its attack on Iran - to see Cuba’s reaction to the military strikes, forcefully condemning them, declaring them “a flagrant violation of International Law and the UN Charter.” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel then added that “the international community must act immediately to stop this aggression and escalation.” A defiant tone, and one which suggests that Diaz-Canel knows that the international community is Cuba’s only hope of avoiding becoming the next in line. But the international community has shown little appetite so far to stand in defence of anything much, except expediency.

Trump’s attention - and his new language of a “friendly takeover” of Cuba - will return to the island all too soon.

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Let’s also do a short update on the killing of El Mencho, of course, where a few things have struck me in the days since the killing. The first of these is that it’s brought out the very worst side of the international media, as everyone tries to cash in on the story and make themselves relevant. One of the worst examples I saw of this was with the BBC, which is ironic, because they don’t need to make themselves relevant, and producing heightened reporting on the topic, on issues which are barely relevant, does them a real disservice. What I’m specifically referring to here is a series of reports which the BBC issued, from Sinaloa, nothing to do with El Mencho and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which ran under headlines like “BBC on streets of Mexican city gripped by deadly cartel violence”, and which simply seemed to glory in the violence and the killing, and do little serious reporting which gave context and explanation for what was taking place. They weren’t alone, but when a news agency is desperate to get “inside”a story, and does so just by being somewhere, rather than actually getting inside it, red lights start to flash.

The second thing which struck me, and which in a way is no great story because it is the most modern of stories, was the scale of disinformation which followed the killing, from all angles. In a way, I suppose, it is the same motivation as with the news media just mentioned - getting things viewed is the priority, veracity is a general irrelevance, a hindrance even. 

And finally, I was reminded of the mundanity of violence, because of how rapidly Mexico and Mexicans just went back to getting on with things, without complaint. None of this is new here, it has been a lived reality for 20 years, and one which shows no sign of easing. Which is honestly another frustration with the media, because it is all so quick that it only ever “reports”, and generally has little interest in trying to understand. Going back to the Cuban attack, and the provenance of the weapons being used there, the same is true of how cartels are armed, and how often is that mentioned in any news cycle? A tiny fraction of the time. It would behoove the media to look less on telling the story of what are intimated to be a savage people, and look at the complexities of how these societies negotiate highly unfavourable, stacked conditions.

Nemesio Oseguera’s body has now been returned to his family, we learned today, from the office of Mexico’s Attorney General. The office said that they had positively identified the body through genetic testing, and had it passed it to the family, which had requested it. There was no mention of the handover, where it took place, or who it was given to. Get ready for the rumor mill on this. The last known resting place of El Mencho? There is not a town in the state of Jalisco which will not lay a claim to it. 

Goodnight everyone. It’s a crazy world, and we’re in it.