Can Mexico's Drug War Memorial Honor Both Victims and Criminals? Alissa Walker - Gizmodo
go to original September 6, 2013

Mexico Drug War Memorial (you7uber2)

Since 2006, there have been 60,000 people killed in drug-related violence in Mexico. That's actually a conservative estimate. Some think it's closer to 70,000. And that may not include the missing, up to 10,000 more Mexicans who have simply vanished. In fact, if the new Memorial of the Victims of the Violence in Mexico listed the names of those killed in its drug war, there would be at least as many names there as are found on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C.

But at this memorial, there are no names. While many of the dead include law enforcement officials, border patrol agents, and innocent bystanders, a large number of the deceased are convicted killers, gang members, organized crime kingpins. Victims also, perhaps, of a corrupt government? And with no clear way to define who the victims of the drug war are, adding names becomes problematic. Activist Isabel Miranda de Wallace, whose son was kidnapped and killed, articulated the issue to the Los Angeles Times: She would not want her son's name alongside that of a cartel hit man.

According to the architects, the memorial - which was paid for with money seized from cartels - seeks not to enumerate the lives lost, but to become a conversation about the violence the country has suffered.

Read the rest at Gizmodo

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