Proceso (9-23-14)
By Jenaro Villamil, translated by un vato for Borderland Beat
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| La Tuta in one of his videos |
MEXICO, D.F. (apro).- Servando Gomez, La Tuta, is not just any criminal. He's not just the leader of a cartel, the terror animator in Michoacan, the political puppeteer of all the political parties and the only one who has not been substantially affected nine months after the appointment of a presidential commissioner to his state.
He is all that and more. He is also a skillful producer and distributor of videos, telephone conversation intercepts, compromising audio recordings and Internet threats that transform him into a mix of hacker and Osama Bin Laden. Gomez has known how to capitalize on his own scandal to demonstrate that everybody (or almost everybody) sat at his party table. He's a post-modern Carlos Ahumada who does not bother to hide his agenda. [Carlos Ahumada was a political prisoner during the Salinas administration. -- un vato]
La Tuta TV has obtained a residence card on the social networks. Not without some sarcasm, several Twitter accounts announce: Who's the next protagonist in La Tuta TV? Rodrigo Vallejo, son of the former PRI governor, has already appeared, the mayors (alcaldes) businessmen and the Televisa correspondent in Purepecha territory.
La Tuta TV is a slap in the face to the government's justification for intercepting social networks and telephone calls. Very paradoxical! Meanwhile, the Secretariat of the Interior (Segob), the Federal Telecommunications Institute, the majority of senators and "specialists" twist themselves into knots trying to justify why Articles 189 and 190 in the Chapter titled "Collaboration with Justice", which allow privacy violations and spying on citizens, were allowed to remain in the Telecommunications Law. They told us endlessly that it was about combating organized crime. That it will be supervised by a judge and will not be employed arbitrarily.
La Tuta TV has shown that not even the billions of pesos in the budget assigned to CISEN's espionage, nor the invasions of privacy nor international legislation on Internet and telephone matters are sufficient to catch him or stop his media counteroffensive. He is capable of "geo-locating" anybody before they can find him.
He is able to do more than the entire State apparatus. Or, maybe, with the collaboration of a part of that apparatus that he keeps under the permanent blackmail of his multiple videos and meetings "at the table."
La Tuta TV is a clear demonstration of the corruption that is not resolved with police forces, community police, rural guards or espionage equipment. Because all of that security model does not alter the fundamental equation of the Caballeros Templarios cartel; its status as a parallel state and its penetration into society.
As with any good parallel State, La Tuta's cartel also has its television enterprise. He does not, like multimillionaire German Larrea or magnate Carlos Slim, need to purchase a television network to defend his interests. Neither does he need a permit, as if he was a community network, to distribute its contents. For that, he's got YouTube, the social networks and the journalists at several electronic media whom he pressures and blackmails.
La Tuta TV contacts reporters, makes fun of Televisa, pressures MVS, passes out "chayos" (favors) at will, orders harassment or murder of commentators who do not want to come sit at his table. La Tuta TV is like fire. Whoever gets close to him will get scorched.
His arguments are as cynical as that of any mafia: why are they harassing him, when "they" are all corrupt? Servando Gomez is a blend of the methods used by Marcial Maciel [Very corrupt Catholic priest.-- un vato], the violent philanthropy of La Mama Rosa, the criminal millenialism of La NuevaJerusalen (New Jerusalem cult) and even the messianic style of PAN president Felipe Calderon. All of them Michoacan phenomena. That is the most cruel inheritance left by La Familia Michoacana and Los Zetas.
La Tuta TV has demonstrated that if they want to finish him, they must first assume that they collaborated with him. That the problem in Michoacan is not just one sharp, unscrupulous individual. The real problem is the failure of a military operation that was empowered by an ungovernable State but which only aggravated the State of terror.
http://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=382878
La Tuta TV has obtained a residence card on the social networks. Not without some sarcasm, several Twitter accounts announce: Who's the next protagonist in La Tuta TV? Rodrigo Vallejo, son of the former PRI governor, has already appeared, the mayors (alcaldes) businessmen and the Televisa correspondent in Purepecha territory.
La Tuta TV is a slap in the face to the government's justification for intercepting social networks and telephone calls. Very paradoxical! Meanwhile, the Secretariat of the Interior (Segob), the Federal Telecommunications Institute, the majority of senators and "specialists" twist themselves into knots trying to justify why Articles 189 and 190 in the Chapter titled "Collaboration with Justice", which allow privacy violations and spying on citizens, were allowed to remain in the Telecommunications Law. They told us endlessly that it was about combating organized crime. That it will be supervised by a judge and will not be employed arbitrarily.
La Tuta TV has shown that not even the billions of pesos in the budget assigned to CISEN's espionage, nor the invasions of privacy nor international legislation on Internet and telephone matters are sufficient to catch him or stop his media counteroffensive. He is capable of "geo-locating" anybody before they can find him.
He is able to do more than the entire State apparatus. Or, maybe, with the collaboration of a part of that apparatus that he keeps under the permanent blackmail of his multiple videos and meetings "at the table."
La Tuta TV is a clear demonstration of the corruption that is not resolved with police forces, community police, rural guards or espionage equipment. Because all of that security model does not alter the fundamental equation of the Caballeros Templarios cartel; its status as a parallel state and its penetration into society.
As with any good parallel State, La Tuta's cartel also has its television enterprise. He does not, like multimillionaire German Larrea or magnate Carlos Slim, need to purchase a television network to defend his interests. Neither does he need a permit, as if he was a community network, to distribute its contents. For that, he's got YouTube, the social networks and the journalists at several electronic media whom he pressures and blackmails.
La Tuta TV contacts reporters, makes fun of Televisa, pressures MVS, passes out "chayos" (favors) at will, orders harassment or murder of commentators who do not want to come sit at his table. La Tuta TV is like fire. Whoever gets close to him will get scorched.
His arguments are as cynical as that of any mafia: why are they harassing him, when "they" are all corrupt? Servando Gomez is a blend of the methods used by Marcial Maciel [Very corrupt Catholic priest.-- un vato], the violent philanthropy of La Mama Rosa, the criminal millenialism of La NuevaJerusalen (New Jerusalem cult) and even the messianic style of PAN president Felipe Calderon. All of them Michoacan phenomena. That is the most cruel inheritance left by La Familia Michoacana and Los Zetas.
La Tuta TV has demonstrated that if they want to finish him, they must first assume that they collaborated with him. That the problem in Michoacan is not just one sharp, unscrupulous individual. The real problem is the failure of a military operation that was empowered by an ungovernable State but which only aggravated the State of terror.
http://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=382878