Failed state

This article on Insurance Journal is written one year ago in July.

It invites the reader to imagine a dusty little town in Mexico called Acultzingo  nestled up against the peaks of Sierra Madre. The mountains jut up three to one block away and on the other side of the road a few blocks away are fields then more mountains.

Then the article explains that this tiny town is the epicenter for train robberies not just for Mexico but possibly for the whole world.

521 crimes were recorded against cargo trains in the town within the previous year. That's like what, 365 / 521 = one RR crime every .7 days. Okay, that confusing. 24 hours x .7 = 16.8 that's close to 1 RR robbery every 17 hours.  I think.

Let's double check. 365 days X 24 hours =  8,760 hours divided by 521 RR robberies = 16.81 hours.

Such a little town. Such tremendous crime. The whole town must in the train robbing business.

Like the wild west, except even wilder and not so far west.

They stack up rocks on the railroad tracks then swarm the train and overwhelm law keepers who just stand there and watch them.

They’ve swiped tequila, shoes, toilet paper, tires, whatever they could get their hands on. One particularly violent incident alone, which derailed dozens of train cars a few miles east of Acultzingo, saddled railroad giant GMexico Transportes with more than $15 million in losses. And at Mazda Motor’s offices back in Mexico City, executives got so sick of hearing about how parts were being stripped from their vehicles that they started shipping some of them through the region by highway. 

But how does this make Mexico a failed state?

It’s this kind of extreme lawlessness that has led some Mexico observers to wonder at times whether the country is something of a failed state struggling to rule over the entirety of its territory. Homicides are at a record high. Kidnappings are on the rise, too. Reigning this crime in, at least somewhat, will soon be the task of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the populist leader who rolled to a landslide election victory this month in part on his pledge to restore law and order.

Unless that crime is crashing the American border in waves that pass through Mexico unimpeded  for two thousand miles including riding the tops of trains. Obrador stated he considers it every South American's human right to crash the United States.

What hell these countries must be. Let's look at Acultzingo without actually going there.

It seems a fine place for a town.

Lots of people milling about, walking to and fro. Hard to imagine them all Railroad robbers. Also a lot of semi trucks parked along side the road. They stick out because they're big as the houses and places of business.

Abarrotes means groceries. I noticed a lot of these actually, one after another down the road, dfollowed by somebody's name. Snack shops, and surprisingly a few papelerías, stationary shops. 

What's all the fuzz on the wires? Is it insulation deteriorating in the heat?