Paul Gillingham: observation

Transcript context

…Now more recently, Mexico has a reputation for being very violent, but Yucatán is especially peaceful. There are years where it’s had a lower murder rate, I think, than Finland. Why is that part of the country, after this chaotic beginning, after independence, recently so peaceful, and so safe? Again, a good question. It, I think, explains broader patterns of drugs and violence in Mexican history. The first is that foreigners in Mexico have carte blanche, or what in colonial times we call a fuero. Foreigners are untouchable. Because much of Yucatán, the Yucatán economy centers on tourism, the Riviera Maya, Cozumel, et cetera, there’s an awful lot in these key populated coastal strips of foreigners. Killing them is bad business. Stability is better for business anywhere. In Yucatán, there’s more of an imperative for that. That’s one. The other is that it has ceased being what it used to be, which is a major transit and transshipment route. When I proposed to my wife on a beach in Quintana Roo, we could go out at 8:00 a.m. next to Tulum, when Tulum was a small dusty town. We could go out, and twice a day, we would see small planes coming up from Central America. We knew perfectly well as they headed north up through Quintana Roo that this was a drugs run. As a transshipment route, it has been far surpassed. That other great reason for violence is absent. Why did the central government even create the state of Quintana Roo, now that you mention it?…

Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.