No Fun for Cab Drivers in Taxco, Mexico, One of Mexico's Famous Silver Cities
While Seattle cabbies have been subject over these many years to belligerent cops, rampant road rage and racial discrimination and profiling, it pales in the color scheme to what the Taxco taxi drivers are experiencing. Taxco, home to a centuries long tradition of silver handcrafting, draws tourists from around the globe, making it a good place to drive taxi. But unfortunately for Taxco cabbies, Taxco is located in the Mexican state of Guerrero, a part of Mexico in large part controlled by Mexican Drug Cartel gangs who, in addition to smuggling drugs to the United States and Europe, also extort money from cabbies, van drivers and other local businesses. If you don't pay up, they kill you.
A recent Taxco cab driver strike occurred when one member of their fraternity was murdered. Four bus/van drivers were also murdered in a warning to all who would not pay. And to display that they mean business, two Taxco police detectives were also murdered, their bullet-ridden, tortured bodies discovered outstde of town. How this will ultimately end is predictable: the murders will continue until the cabbies relent and pay up.
In Mexico, less than 5% of the many thousands of annual murders ever result in arrest and conviction. To the Drug Cartels, everyone is expendable. When they threaten to kill you, you can be assured they will follow through and do it if you resist their authority. Making matters worse, Mexico's president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, does little to nothing to stop the Cartel's criminal rampage. "They also have families, you must understand," he says.
Soon he will be leaving office and suddenly, there is a good chance he will be living the life of a millionaire. Many will question his new lifestyle but Mexico being Mexico there will be no accountability for his living the "good life" while Taxco cabbies dodge Narco bullets.
Pay or die, and everyone knows the reason why.
Cruising Begins: P-66, Saturday April 6th
Yes everyone, it is that time of year again, along with the first red robin singing and yellow daffodils blooming, that the first giant cruise ship of the year will be docking in Seattle disembarking all those dumbbell tourists needing to go here and there and everywhere. Scanning the schedule, there appears to be a real cruise ship invasion this Spring, Summer and Fall, with arrivals not only on Saturday and Sunday but also Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Go git em!
24.7 % Rate Increase Granted
This morning's "The Seattle Times" features a story about WA State residents freaking out over new car insurance rates. The State of Washington government gave this rate increase to the insurers voluntarily due to the many car accidents occurring statewide. Ain't it sad that the insurers have to pay up? And sadder still is that we WA State residents have to pay for other's poor driving decisions. How is that fair? Why must all of us pay for the sins of others? Where is the priest with whom I can confess, "I didn't do nothing, I swear it!" Problem is, even with a priest's benison, my higher insurance premiums will remain, even God's intervention not enough to sway away Beelzebub's invective---damnation on the roadways our personal Hades, the flames licking upon our heels and tires.
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