A spokeswoman for Mexico’s ruling party, MORENA, sparked considerable controversy after publicly claiming that fighting organized crime is not doable because cartels are one of the country’s largest employers. In response to the outrage sparked by the comment, the MORENA party issued a statement distancing itself from it and claiming that political opponents were taking it out of context to attack them.
The controversy began this week, when Adriana Marin, the head of communications for the MORENA party’s Parliamentary Group in Mexico City’s Congress, went to a debate on a local show. During the debate, one of the individuals called for the Narco Pact to end, referring to the government’s protection of criminal organizations in Mexico.
In her response, Marin said, “The drug trade is one of the largest employers at the national level,” Marin said. “They recruit 160,000 to 180,000 persons, and in reality, you need 350 people a week to cover those who are arrested or murdered.”
In response to her comment, one individual asked whether organized crime should remain untouched in Mexico.
Marin claimed that the issue was complex because drug cartels “received help from the United States” and generated employment for thousands whom private entities and the government had not been able to employ.
“What are you going to do with those people?” she asked. “What are you going to do with the people who were promised money and fame? They have no hope, because the state has made it so they have no hope.”
In her defense of criminal organizations, the MORENA party member made no mention of the hundreds of thousands of victims that have been extorted, kidnapped, murdered, or have had their loved ones taken by drug cartels — some of which have been labelled as foreign terrorist organizations by the United States government.
Other individuals in the show quickly condemned Marin’s comments, calling them sad and reprehensible.
Soon after the show was streamed, Marin’s comments went viral in Mexico, with critics using her words as a confession of sorts to numerous allegations and prior cases of MORENA party individuals having protected or worked with criminal organizations. The MORENA party issued a statement trying to distance itself from Marin’s comments, claiming that she had spoken in her capacity as an individual and not on behalf of the party. The statement also claimed that political opponents were using the video of the comments to spread hate and attack Marin and the party.
As Breitbart Texas has reported extensively, key figures within the MORENA party used money from cartel-connected fuel smuggling organizations to fund their campaigns. Additionally, the governor of Tamaulipas, Americo Villarreal, had members of the Gulf Cartel pressure locals to vote for him during his electoral campaign. Similar cases have been reported in other states like Sinaloa, Zacatecas, and Michoacán.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].
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