The Mexican Drug War: Another View

Last year the Mexican Drug War was responsible for over 6,000 deaths in that country. Although seen as "Mexico's problem" by the Bush and Obama Administrations, the violence is spreading across the border and into America. Sadly, most Americans are unaware that this isn't the first time that political and social instability in Mexico has involved direct assaults on Americans.

Although it was only mentioned briefly mentioned (if at all) by the American news media, March 9, 2009 marked the 92^nd anniversary of another terrorist attack on America: the attack on Columbus, NM by Doroteo Arango, who is better as Francisco "Pancho" Villa. Despite the tendency of the American and Mexican media to portray Villa as a "revolutionary" or "freedom fighter," the historical record confirms that he was nothing more than, at best, a bandit and a cold-blooded murderer.

The story behind Pancho Villa's rise to a position of power in Mexico is somewhat cloudy although it is known that Villa, at the age of sixteen (ca 1894), killed the son of a wealthy ranchero owner who had allegedly tried to rape Villa's sister. Villa then fled to the mountains of northern Mexico where he eventually formed a loose group of fellow outlaws to raid Mexican landowners and Mexican-American business owners and, eventually, to rob trains that were operating between Mexico and the United States.

Due to his strength in the northern state of Chihuahua, Villa was appointed a "General" in the portion of the Mexican Army that was loyal to President Francisco I. Madero. After the assassination of Madero during the La Decena Tragica ("The Ten Tragic Days;" February 9-22, 1913) Villa, who had political ambitions of his own, opposed the plans of General Victoriano Huerta to make himself dictator. After learning that the American Ambassador to Mexico, Henry Lane Wilson, had unofficially committed American support to Huerta, Villa began a campaign of guerilla war against Huerta from the mountains of Chihuahua.

After Ambassador Wilson was fired by President Wilson the United States actually sold ammunition and other military supplies to Villa for about 2 years, which Villa paid for with "loans" extorted from wealthy landowners and American companies doing business in Mexico. The activities of Villa's Division del Norte (Division of the North) were so successful that they became the primary force behind the forced "resignation" of President Huerta in July, 1914. The Wilson Administration then double-crossed Villa by throwing American support to his political rival, Venustiano Carranza. This did not sit well with Pancho Villa, who then led his "revolutionary" Villanistas in attacks against American business interests operating in Mexico.

Although initially successful, Villa's forces were soundly defeated by the Mexican Army in a battle near the town of Celaya on April 6, 1915. Villa and the remnants of his army again fled to the mountains of Chihuahua, from which they continued their raids on Mexican-American commercial targets. These raids accomplished very little and Villa, once the "darling" of the American media, was exposed as nothing more than a common bandit. In our time, we would call Villa what he was: a terrorist.

In January, 1916 Villa's men attacked a train o the Mexico North Western Railway near the town of Santa Isabel, Chihuahua. During the attack, 15 employees of ASARCO (American Smelting and Refining Company) were removed from the train and executed. One man, however, feigned death and escaped to San Isabel where he reported the incident to the Mexican authorities and the press. Villa later admitted to ordering the attack, but claimed that he was not responsible for the murders of American citizens. Villa's denial inflamed the residents of American towns along the American-Mexican border to the extent that martial law was declared in El Paso, Texas, to prevent retaliations against Mexican citizens for the San Isabel murders.

On March 9, 1916 Villa ordered some 500 men to attack the American Army outpost near Columbus, New Mexico. The town was looted and partially burned before the American cavalry arrived and drove the invaders away. The raiders killed 18 Americans but lost about 80 killed during the attack and subsequent retreat back into the safety of Mexico. Villa's outlaws later attacked Glen Springs, Texas, on May 15 where they killed a civilian employee of the army and wounded 3 soldiers. Other deliberate attacks killed 4 soldiers (June 15, at San Ygnacio, Texas) and another soldier as well as a US Customs agent (again near San Ygnacio, in July).

In retaliation Woodrow Wilson, fearing that Germany might be tempted to support Villa's terrorists, ordered the United States Army into Mexico with the intent of destroying Villa and his followers. This met with little success except to drive Villa further into the mountains of Chihuahua, where he was to remain in hiding until the American forces withdrew when the United States entered the European War in April, 1917. By this time Villa had ceased to be a major political force in Mexico and was himself murdered in a July 20, 1923, ambush by the Mexican Army.

The point of this essay is to call attention to a few simple facts, the first being that whether an armed terrorist is hiding in the mountains of Afghanistan or in the mountains of Mexico he is still an armed terrorist. The second fact is that the Bush and Obama Administrations did nothing, and apparently are doing nothing, to protect Americans from the violence in Mexico that is now migrating to the United States. In doing so, they have placed their political well-being ahead of their responsibilities to the American citizens.

It is high time for Americans to demand that the incumbent administration act now to prevent another Columbus, New Mexico, at the hands of narco-terrorists.