Mexico has a problem with violence. Organized crime, closely associated with drug trafficking, has penetrated all social layers, reaching a point where wars between cartels have turned into genuine civil wars, with major corporations claiming that these organizations control large parts of their operations.

This affects not only companies but also parts of the population. Beyond the direct violence against the population or the collateral damage of these gang wars, there are also known cases of people changing their daily habits (carrying replicas of mobile phones to hand in during robberies) and even directly financing organized crime due to gangs hacking internet antennas. .

However – and fortunately – this is not the case in all regions and there is one ten years ago it was dominated by organized crimebut it is now one of the safest urban areas in Mexico. This is the story of Tampico, a city whose residents are fed up with organized crime and strike out on their own.

Voluntary curfew

Tampico is a port city located in the Huasteca region. This area is of great cultural importance because the Mayans had direct access to the Atlantic here, making it a very important cultural focal point. Tampico has a population of about 300,000, and in 2010 residents decided to implement something that seemed crazy: a voluntary curfew.

They recall that period in a report by Milenio. As is currently the case in other municipalities, there was a rift between the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas in February 2010. Thereupon, an armed conflict broke out between the gangs, leaving civilians stranded. Local criminal groups took advantage of this chaos and took action, and in the following days, violence broke out in Tampico, Madero and Altamira.

Without official reports from the authorities, with people missing work and police officers being killed —their bodies displayed in public—The atmosphere in the municipalities was one of complete terror. A report published by BBC Mundo recalls that there are more than 30 kidnappings a month and more than 100 murders a year, making Tampico one of the most dangerous cities in the country.

In that article, a local businessman describes how criminal groups kidnap different citizens one by one. They detained them for a day or two, demanded ransom, or took them to the accomplice police stations, where they were forced to abandon their property. Between the violence and corruption of the institutions, Tampico was hell. That’s when citizens self-imposed a curfew and change began to take shape.

Tampico case

This change came hand in hand with the creation of the Tamaulipas Southern District Citizen Security and Justice Desk, a meeting attended by army generals, top police officers, university presidents, and business leaders. They met once a month for a decade to discuss the best way to keep the area safe, but it all started with the first session, where they discussed the core issue: attacking the roots of organized crime in the area.

Luis Apperti is a businessman and one of the founders of Table, who was subjected to violence from organized gangs in his own family. He commented on BBC Mundo: Seeing that the authorities can’t do anythingThe table was created to confront crime. But they realized they couldn’t solve everything and focused on one of the causes.

In his words, the root of this organized crime was corruption, beyond poverty and lack of opportunities for young people. “The level of co-operation by organized crime on the part of the authorities was so high that you couldn’t report it, because when you went to report it, the bad guys were already notified and they stopped you along the way,” Apperti says.

Therefore, the Board launched campaigns to raise large amounts of money to strengthen the police infrastructure and create a complaints center completely independent of local governments. And the results are obvious.

“We tripled the number of police officers in three years. We achieved the original goal of zero kidnappings in five years, and six years ago we became one of the safest cities in the country.” As a result, the move away from corruption by police and judicial authorities and the effectiveness of legal channels led society to begin cooperating with the Round Table. Like? Daring to report would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

Thus, the city has achieved enviable figures compared to other Mexican towns, with zero cases of murder and kidnapping and only two cases of mugging in recent months. Corruption is Mexico’s main problemBeyond the aforementioned poverty, Willy Zúñiga, president of the Tamaulipas University of Security and Justice, where police forces are trained, agrees.

Therefore, today Tampico serves as an example for Mexico. Apperti confirms that they are not States and cannot put an end to drug trafficking, but comments that “what we can do is create a credible institutional framework that involves society and facilitates complaints so that the authorities can do their job.”

This citizens’ organization is no stranger to some parts of Mexico. An example of this is local militias trying to prevent the mass expansion of avocado cultivation (organized crime also has an influence due to the great importance of this product for the country). And recently Mexico’s current president detailed his plan to end the violence at the state level.

Claudia Sheinbaum, understanding of causes, National Guard cooperation, use of intelligence systems, and Interdepartmental coordination will be key to ending this violence. However, it is stated that one of the main reasons why young people join these groups is poverty, and among those who criticize these measures, there are also those who state that the real problem is political and police corruption.

And as we’ve seen, that’s what Tampico has demonstrated over the last decade.

Pictures | Mexican Film Commission from Mexico City, Jonas Zacarias

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