Federal police officer in Uruapan
Last weekend we spent a couple of days in Uruapan, home of the annual Michoacan crafts festival. Just a few hours after I took this photo of a Federale on guard outside the hotel in the main square, seven bodies were discovered at a nearby traffic intersection, each with a bullet through their head and taped to plastic chairs. This time possibly a vigilante response to the drug trade. The problem here in Mexico is that there is still very little accountability, and this kind of thing can happen with apparent impunity despite the fact that at the time the town was full of heavily armed Federales. So what does it feel like to live here in Mexico? Just the same as anywhere in the States. It never really appears on your personal radar. The biggest danger you will ever encounter is your taxi ride to LaGuardia. Unpleasant as it is, it is sad that people are so irrationally frightened of something that is way way down on the list of anything that can personally affect them. Not many folks live in fear in the USA where more people have died from gun violence since 1968, the year I emigrated from England, than have been killed in all the wars Americans have fought in all history, including the Civil War. Although this figure includes suicides, just look at the numbers and calculate the odds. I don’t buy lottery tickets either.