In Mexico, A Bullet Or A Bribe

Don’t miss Homero Aridjis artful and moving op-ed piece in the New York Times about Walmart, and Mexico’s corruption.

The poet and novelist said:

The consequences of this corruption are clear. When devastating earthquakes hit Mexico City in 1985, an alarming number of shoddily constructed public buildings — schools, hospitals and government offices — were destroyed. . . . Extortion and protection rackets flourish alongside drug trafficking. President Álvaro Obregón, who was assassinated in 1928, once said that “no general can resist a 50,000-peso cannon blast,” a precursor to today’s “plata o plomo” — silver or lead, the drug cartel’s offer to officials of a bribe or a bullet.

‘The Sun, the Moon and Walmart’ is here.