By now, most of us have read about the violence in the streets of Puerto Vallarta on the western coast of Mexico as members of the largest drug cartel in the country react to the killing of their leader. The cartel is called the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and prides itself to be the most powerful and most violent drug cartel in Mexico. But this latest spate of violence is the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The history of Mexico’s drug cartels has been painted with the blood o many. The drug cartels migrated from Miami in the 1980s, to Colombia in the 1990s and then to Mexico in the 2000s, each time becoming more powerful and more violent. In 2012, murders committed by drug cartels in Mexico stand at 60,000 souls. That is 60,000 in that year. In 2013, the number was 120,000. Though cartel violence has strictly avoided tourists, kidnappings and murders of Mexican nationals is out of control. It is driven by corruption of every political administration that has ruled Mexico. The police and the courts are likewise corrupted, and the impunity rates (i.e., the inability to prosecute successfully) are at about 95%. Drug routes and illegal supply chains have carried everything from fentanyl, cocaine, and heroine to the most modern deadly drug cocktails that have hit the global market. In Mexico, the cartels have diversified to weapons trade – grenades, assault rifles, carbines, body armor – an entire inventory of everything one needs to go to war. Most of the population live in abject poverty and with only 5.6% of the population having more than 6 years of schooling, the problem of drugs and weapons has deep social roots as well.
In the midst of these humanitarian disasters, small groups of evangelical Christians have spoken out against the violence, helped the poor and educated the children. And they are at risk. The most common gang kidnappings are of teachers, perhaps as a strategy to keep the population uneducated. Open Doors Ministry has rated Mexico among the top 30 countries in the world where active Christian persecution takes place. Yet, their voices have not silenced. “Unrighteousness must be spoken against,” said a Mexican Christian leader not long ago. That is a wise and courageous voice. That counsel, however, is not confined to Mexico alone. It applies to us as well. It has to do with being a courageous voice to speak about Christ to a friend going in the wrong direction. It has to do with finding the opportunity to share what the Bible has taught you when a family member is believing the philosophies of this world. The writer of Hebrews is very plain about these acts of righteousness, “In your struggle against sin, you have not resisted to the point of shedding blood. Don’t grow weary. Don’t lose heart” (Hebrews 12:3,4). When we hear of 120,000 per year being murdered, or 47,000 being kidnapped, we shrink at the enormity of the human loss. “But take heart,” Jesus says, “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Indeed, “you are from God and have overcome them, for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world…For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith (1 John 4:4; 5:4)
