Mexicans must fight crime from their society(2)

Q: Many people are afraid to speak up.

A: Every path to true freedom is a risky path. We sponsored law 109/96 for the social use of assets confiscated from the mafia, and we set up cooperatives of young people to produce cooking oil, wine and other organic products.

The mafia don't like that, and all of the cooperatives have been harassed and have received threats. But the threats have not been carried out because the community itself protects the cooperatives.

But even if the threats were carried out, it would be necessary to support the cooperatives because to forget our dead is to kill them twice, and it also does a favor to the mafia.

In Sicily (in southern Italy), we organize a gathering every March 21 with the families of victims and with schools where the course on lawfulness is given. That day we read out the names of every one of the victims, and we also hold two contests for the movement for education on legality.

Q: You work with schools at all levels of education?

A: Yes, we have chosen to start with the young, because it is very difficult to bring about a change in mentality among older people. We have a protocol for collaboration with the Education Ministry to carry out our anti-mafia education on lawfulness throughout the entire country.

Q: How important is political will in pushing these processes forward?

A: It is civil society in Mexico that has to start moving. The government isn't going to do it, unless people force it to.

Legal investigation is lacking in Mexico. For example, in the case of the Reyes Salazar family, (three relatives of murdered community activist Josefina Reyes who were killed in February in the northern state of Chihuahua) they were buried and no one said a thing. That is unthinkable in Italy. How can the bodies be buried before the investigation has been completed?

Q: In Mexico, politicians talk about unity and the rule of law, but the people no longer believe in what they say…

A: When we talk about lawfulness, we're talking about democratic legality. It's not simple obedience to the law, but obedience with a critical eye.

If laws were passed in Italy benefiting the enrichment of the prime minister, we would not obey them. Legality does not mean blindly following, but compliance with a pact for an order of society that people make their own.

Q: Is a Latin America-wide anti-organized crime network viable?

A: Yes. We have been in contact with people in Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico, and there are useful, positive experiences everywhere.

Right here we have seen, for example, the work of a very small organization in the Gabriel Hernández slum on the north side of Mexico City, called Marabunta. The work they are doing with former youth gang members is a light that should shine brightly, and that brings hope that there are people who are working for peace.