On The Ground: Guadalajara - with Paul Schmidt-Troschke

Latin America Correspondent Jon Bonfiglio speaks to Paul Schmidt-Troschke about the current situation in Guadalajara, hours ahead of the first World Cup Intercontinental Playoff at the city's Estadio Akron. 

Transcript

Jon Bonfiglio 0:00

Hi everyone, welcome back to World Cup etc. where today I'm joined by Paul Schmidt Troschke and we are both in Guadalajara, Jalisco. We're not here for news analysis stuff, we're actually here for sport. We're here because we are very close to the Estadio Akron where tonight the intercontinental semi-final playoff between New Caledonia and Jamaica will take place. But of course it's in it's impossible to forget that the events of a few weeks ago when uh Nemesio Oseguera, the head of the Jalisca New Generation Cartel, better known as El Mencho, was uh pursued and killed. Uh and the resulting chaos and anarchy had to some extent its epicentre in Guadalajara, um, a lot of it actually just a few hundred yards away from the Estadio Akron where we are uh where we are now, of course, that being the base for so much of the Jalisco New Generation Cartels operations. Uh, largely what you might say is that it's kind of home base for them. So here we are uh today. Paul, what what have your impressions been of the situation on the ground and in particular what is the security makeup, security infrastructure look like?

Paul Schmidt-Troschke 1:25

So um, first maybe there is security all over the city, and the closer you get to the stadium, the more security um you're gonna see on your way there. And um helicopters are flying over the city um all all the time, and the the makeup of the security forces is um in the stadium. I would say it's mostly private security, but around the stadium and in the city, of course, it's made up of local police, um municipal police, um, and of course the National Guard, which is a uh a very strong institution here in Mexico, and is uh right now focused um or their deployment is focused on on Guadalajara and the amount of the security forces is not um officially declared or wasn't officially announced how many they are, but from what I've seen they must run into the thousands, if not um yeah, being more than than 10,000. And yeah, I think what uh what is uh also important to note is that today is a day, it's the the first um uh the first World Cup event here in Mexico, the first official one. So today nothing can go wrong. No no bad press can can get out of uh out of Guadalajara.

Jon Bonfiglio 2:46

Yeah, and and in particular, I mean if it was just a normal match and it was just the first in the sort of warm-up sequence of matches ahead of the World Cup, that would be enough reason for things not to go wrong. But given what happened a few weeks ago, it were in even more of a heightened situation because of course the news media uh internationally have been covering what took place here in the west of uh of Mexico, and the the broad narrative is um is it safe enough? Is Mexico able to host um such the a scale of this tournament without things taking place? And again, the epicenter of so Monterrey, relatively quiet, Mexico City also, but the but the epicentre of these difficulties has been Guadalajara, so all eyes, it's fair to say, um, internationally, are on this city and this stadium right now.

Paul Schmidt-Troschke 3:36

Yes, and I think what is very interesting um to point out is that both parties, like um saying one party is the government and the other party is the cartels or the New Generation Jalisco cartel, um they have very much converging interests here. Um maybe contrary to what people would expect. The cartel is not looking to um yeah to create bad press because they also um you make lots of money uh with with tourism business, not of course in in the classic sense. Um but yeah, they also rely on on the tourism and are very much looking forward to uh the hundreds, probably hundreds of thousands of tourists uh yeah coming here to Mexico and specifically to Guadalajara. So today um we should not be um yeah afraid for our security or that anything uh could go wrong, any violence should break out.

Jon Bonfiglio 4:28

Yeah, today is not the day that something is going to take take place. As you say, there is a symbiosis between the cartels and I mean here in particular, sort of state government, that that the state governor here has been at pains to say that everything is under control and there is nothing to fear, but of course he would say that, and it does seem as though he's sort of um he's trying to make a point. Um and there is also a level of symbiosis, as we've said before, in these recordings between the federal government also and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Um, also it's perhaps a little bit more removed than it is at a local level, but it nonetheless it does it does um exist, and it is not in the cartel's interest to rock the boat when there is such a big international event due in town, which is going to bring um serious economy to the to the local area, a lot of which they of course have a piece in, piece of or control um as as well. Um it's uh what took place as regards the violence a few weeks ago was very much a sort of an immediate pushback to the killing of El Mencho. Um, and uh again, as we've said in these uh recordings in the last week or so, what seems to have happened now is that actually the succession for the Jalsico New Generation Cartel has been relatively settled, so we've not seen a second wave of violence that we that we we have expected. Uh what's your sense of um of Guadalajara so far, Paul, as a city?

Paul Schmidt-Troschke 5:58

I mean um I I must say I I really like it. Um for now I only have been to the city center, which is um yeah, just uh full of um colonial, old colonial style buildings. Um the big um I don't know if it's a cathedral or basilica is also beautiful. Um and I mean it's huge. So the I think um the uh the all the Guadalajara area with all their their suburbs um um counts uh more than five million people and is also growing rather quickly. There are construct construction sites all over the city for high-rise uh new high-rise building uh buildings. Um and uh yeah, just uh the the city is very very vibrant and um and I didn't feel uh I didn't feel um like uh unsafe or anything like this. Um it's just very busy.

Jon Bonfiglio 6:53

Yes, it's just it's full of life all the time, 24-7, um, and you you definitely come away with with a sense of the size and the scale of the place. It's not Mexico City, but it's definitely not a million miles away. It's not a 20-minute car ride from one side of the of the city to the other. It is a pretty pretty serious, as they say in Spanish, Mancha Urbana on the map, urban, uh, urban stain. Um so uh here we are in uh in in Guadalajara. Thought that it would be relevant to given again the size scale of events that took place, just to give an update on the situation on the on the ground here. Talk soon.