In Mexico, the war within a war

The Christian Science Monitor Magazine last week published “Mexico: The War Within,” a cover story about the effects on ordinary Mexicans of the country’s rampant drug violence. The story, written by staffer Sara Miller Llana, was edited by Clara Germani, the 2009 Mimi honorable mention.

Journalists, law enforcement officials, and rival traffickers, among others, are known targets of drug gangs in Mexico. But, Miller Llana writes, “there is a growing sense – especially as violence spreads to new parts of the country like Veracruz – that there is another kind of victim. Most Mexicans are not direct targets – traffickers, public officials, police, journalists. They do not figure into any official violence tallies, but many feel that they are more than mere bystanders. They have been forced to change how they live: how they commute to work, how they travel, what they do in the evenings, how they dress, and how they socialize.”

Her piece looks at the big picture of drug activity and violence, but it’s the human details she includes that elevate the piece. She focuses on the Gomez family, uninvolved in the drug trade, which has nevertheless altered their lives. They stay home more often; they’re thinking of moving. And the son, “Enrique[,] took ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ off his cellphone, instead using their middle names, in case he was kidnapped.”

Read the full story here.

Art courtesy of Christian Science Monitor.