Hidden Dangers: Mexico on the Brink of Disaster by Robert Joe Stout (2014, Sunbury Press, 210 pp., $16.95 PB)

Today is the official 104th anniversary of the beginning of the Mexican Revolution. The uprising that began then lasted for nearly two decades and by the time it was over, nearly two million Mexicans were dead, and the country was changed forever. That revolution overthrew a sclerotic, encrusted dictatorship that advanced the country materially and brought it to the brink of the modern era, but which ignored the interests of the vast majority of Mexicans.

What is motivating the protests today -- and for nearly the last two months -- is the disappearance (and almost certain murder) of 43 radical students from a provincial teachers' college in the south central state of Guerrero. It seems clear that the students and their threats of demonstrations were seen as a threat by Maria de los Angeles Pineda, the wife of Iguala Mayor Jose Luis Abarca. Pineda, who has been identified as a leader of the Guerreros Unidos organized crime group (commonly referred to as cartels), is believed to have ordered Iguala municipal police to "take care of" the unruly students.

According to a version of events delivered by Mexican Attorney General Jesus Karam Murillo, Iguala police shot up the commandeered public buses the students were riding in (commandeering buses is not unusual in political protests), killing some of the students on the spot. The remaining students were then allegedly turned over by Iguala police to Guerreros Unidos gang members, who, according to Karam, killed them all, burned their bodies, chopped them to bits, and threw them in a river.

Of course, it took Karam a month to make that announcement, and in the meantime, anger over the disappearances grew by the day. Demonstrators attacked and burnt part of the state capitol complex in Chilpancingo; they attacked and burnt municipal buildings in Iguala; they fought pitched battles with police on the road to the Acapulco airport. And the demonstrations and solidarity protests are spreading.

This is a brutal scandal that has shaken even brutal scandal-plagued Mexico. Federal authorities have now arrested the mayoral couple, along with dozens of police men and gang members (some are undoubtedly both). The governor of Guerrero has been forced to resign. And President Enrique Nieto Pena and his government are now besieged, even though the mayor and the governor belonged to another political party.

This may be the landmine that sets off a long pent-up social explosion south of the border. I use the word "landmine" deliberately, for that is the precise term used by long-time journalist and current Oaxaca resident Robert Stout in his new book, Hidden Dangers. Although it appears to have been largely written before Pena Nieto took office nearly two years ago, it seems remarkably prescient.

In Hidden Dangers, Stout identifies several festering -- and interconnected -- problems facing Mexico, the result of ongoing economic and political changes.Looming large among the potential landmines are emigration, the war on drugs, rising popular political movements of resistance, official corruption and impunity, and increasing environmental degradation.

With the case of the missing 43 students, Mexico is stepping on two of those landmines: the war on drugs and the problem of official complicity and corruption. As Stout makes clear, Mexico's drug corporations (he never uses the word "cartels") have thrived in an atmosphere of violence and corruption and official complicity. I wouldn't say that drug money has corrupted Mexico's institutions because they have been deeply corrupted for years, as Stout illustrates throughout the book, but it has deepened the corruption and blurred the line between organized crime and state power.

What Stout has to say about the drug cartels and the counterproductive policies adopted on both sides of the border to stop them is probably not new to regular readers of these pages. Through violence and cold, hard cash, the cartels manage to suborn security forces, elected officials, and legitimate businesses alike. And heavy-handed, militaristic attempts to quash them, especially with an army that seems to have no notion of human rights, has only resulted in more violence and more mistrust of government.

But it is complicated, and looking at Mexico solely through the prism of its war on drugs is too narrow a focus to get a good grasp on the country's realities. Mexico's drug cartel problem doesn't exist in a vacuum; it is part and parcel of a deeper social and political malaise, which, in Stout's view, is related to the country's authoritarian, unresponsive government and its inability or unwillingness to address the country's aching concerns.

And it's not just the PRI, the party that emerged from the Revolution to govern the country as "the perfect dictatorship" until the election of Coca Cola executive Vicente Fox in 2000. One of Stout's contributions to our understanding is his explication of the authoritarian character that defines all political parties in Mexico. Whether it’s the PRI or the rightist PAN or the leftist PRD, all have adapted the same top-down, strongman politics that characterized the PRI in its heyday.

It is worth noting that the mayor of Iguala and his wife are members of the PRD, which is a sad reflection on the Mexican left. But Mexicans don't need to read Stout's book to understand that the same rot grips all the parties, and that's part of the reason even the PRIista Pena Nieto is feeling the heat over the Iguala disappearances. The problem is systemic, Mexicans understand this, and that's why they're so angrily taking to the streets right now.

Hidden Dangers does a very good job of tying together the disparate "landmines" facing Mexico right now. Especially for readers who have approached the country primarily through the lens of drug policy, it is a welcome opening of perspective. And, at only a bit more than 200 pages, it's a relatively quick read, packed with information and plenty to ponder. Check it out. 

Busy, busy. A crooked FBI agent is wreaking havoc with drug cases in DC, rip-off cops get busted in Chicago and Philly, an Alabama cop gets nailed for making a woman cook meth for him, and more. Let's get to it:

In Chicago, a Cook County sheriff's deputy was arrested on drug corruption charges last Monday. He killed himself the next day. Officer Stanley Kogut apparently hanged himself at the Metropolitan Correctional Center where he was being held. He and his partner, Robert Vaughan, had been arrested in an FBI sting after they robbed an agent posing as a drug dealer of 70 pounds of marijuana.

In Salem, West Virginia, a Salem Correction Facility guard was arrested last Wednesday after she was caught bringing pills, powders, and paraphernalia into the jail. Guard Philomena Liberty got caught during a random pat down at the start of her shift. Officers found she had six different types of pills, a cardboard envelope containing a white powder, and drug paraphernalia. She denied that she intended to traffic the drugs, saying she was going to crush and snort them herself. She is charged with transporting drugs into a correctional facility.

In Philadelphia, a former Philadelphia police officer was arrested last Wednesday for allegedly ripping off drug dealers and buyers along with three middlemen. Christopher Saravello is accused of using the middlemen to buy or sell drugs to others and then providing him with information on their locations. Saravello would then show up in uniform in his police vehicle, pretend to lock up his middlemen, and then let the buyers and dealers go, but only after stealing their cash and drugs. Saravello had resigned from the department in 2012, as it prepared to fire him for being strung out on prescription drugs.

In Mt. Vernon, New York, a former Mt. Vernon police officer was arrested Monday for illegally obtaining nearly 4,000 hydrocodone pills. Joseph Russo used forged prescriptions in his and his wife's name to obtain the pills. He also filed fake insurance claims to pay for the prescriptions. He is charged with second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument and first degree scheming to defraud, but, oddly enough, not drug possession.

In Colchester, Vermont, a Colchester police detective was arrested Tuesday after a gun that was supposed to be in the department's evidence room turned up at a house in a Burlington drug raid. Corporal Tyler Kinney, 38, is now accused of taking drugs and the gun from the evidence room. He was expected to be charged in federal court today with drug distribution and gun trafficking offenses. The Colchester Police say they have now ordered an external audit of the evidence room and procedures for handling evidence.

In Birmingham, Alabama, a former Winston County sheriff's deputy pleaded guilty Monday to federal charges that he forced a woman to cook meth for him. Grady Concord, 42, had been hit with a single count of meth manufacture in June, but prosecutors added new counts of extortion under color of law, meth manufacture, and meth distribution where children are present. The woman said Concord threatened her with arrest if she didn't cook for him and provided pseudoephedrine tablets for her. Some of them were stolen from the department evidence room. Concord copped to the three later counts Monday and is looking at up to 20 years in prison at sentencing.

New York, San Francisco, and Phoenix all had corrupt cop cases this week. So did East Orange, New Jersey. Let's get to it:

In San Francisco, a former San Francisco police officer pleaded guilty last Thursday in a major corruption case that involved stealing money and drugs from suspects and distributing the ripped off drugs. Reynaldo Vargas copped to four felony counts and promised to testify against his former colleagues in their upcoming trial. In his plea agreement, he admitted that "I stole computers and other property from subjects during searches and arrests. I took the computers and other property, including gift cards and money, during law enforcement operations and, rather than booking them into evidence as I was required to do, I kept them for my own personal use and enrichment." He also admitted stealing marijuana from a UPS parcel police had intercepted and turning it over to informants to sell.

In New York City, a former NYPD officer was found guilty Monday of helping what he thought were drug dealers to move several kilos of heroin from the Bronx to Brooklyn. Jose Ramos went down in a sting operation and was convicted of attempted possession of a controlled substance, attempted grand larceny, and attempted robbery. It's not over for Ramos. He still faces a conspiracy count for trying to get an informant killed. The Ramos case also led directly to the NYPD ticket-fixing scandal, in which more than a dozen cops are accused of fixing parking and traffic tickets for friends and family members. Those cops go on trial in January.

In Phoenix, a former Phoenix police officer was sentenced last Friday to 3 ½ years in prison for stealing drugs from the department evidence room. William McCartney had pleaded guilty in June to one count each of theft and fraudulent schemes. He originally faced 40 counts. 

A pill-popping, prescription-forging North Carolina narc, a pair of lying New York City narcs, a crack-slinging Baltimore schools police officer, and a pot-growing California prison guard are among the corrupt cops in the news this week. Let's get to it:

In New York City, two former Yonkers narcotics officers were arrested last Wednesday for lying about drug activity in order to obtain search warrants. Former narcs Neil Vera and Christian Koch are accused of lying to a Yonkers City Court judge to convince him to sign a search warrant in a drug raid that resulted in a man's death. Dario Tena fell to his death from a window during the raid. The two former officers pleaded not guilty to one count of felony perjury.

In Sacramento, a California state prison guard was arrested last Wednesday when an investigation into gang activity resulted in the seizure of 617 marijuana plants. Guard Eddie Lay, 32, is charged with cultivation of marijuana for sale. Four others were also arrested, and police seized guns, 248 pounds of packaged pot, and more than $5,000 in cash in addition to the plants.

In Houston, a former Houston police officer pleaded guilty last Thursday to playing a role in a drug conspiracy. Marcos Carrion admitted to providing security for a drug deal involving 10 kilograms of cocaine in exchange for $2,500. He also admitted agreeing to provide security for future dope deals. He copped to one count of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute five or more kilos of cocaine and is looking at a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison.

In Baltimore, a former Baltimore school police officer was sentenced last Friday to two years in federal prison for dealing in cocaine. Napoleon McLain, 31, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine base. He admitted buying various ounces of cocaine base and reselling them to others between December 2012 and August 2013.

In Wilmington, North Carolina, a former New Hanover County sheriff's narcotics lieutenant was sentenced Monday to seven years in state prison for stealing evidence and forging court orders to obtain prescription medications. Joseph Antoine LeBlanc, 42, had pleaded guilty to a hundred felony charges including four counts of embezzlement; four counts of obstruction of justice; four counts of altering, destroying or stealing criminal evidence; four counts of obtaining property by false pretense; 28 counts of uttering forged papers; 28 counts of forgery; and 28 counts of obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception or subterfuge. Another 40 counts of trafficking opium or heroin and 21 counts of possession of a controlled substance were dismissed. LeBlanc admitted forging the names of local judges and assistant DAs to obtain the prescriptions.