US Border Patrol Smuggles PSYOP-Corridos Into Mexico
PSYOPS is the phrase of the decade. From Fake Iraq news to fake US news and now in the form of secretly produced corridos meant to slip into Mexican society and deter border crossings. La Migra fancy themselves clever with a new jazzy form of deception.
APPARENTLY, our tax monies are being used not only to grow the prison systems that contain both migrants as well as the abuses they suffer, but also to produce fake corridos that are being secretly sent to radio stations in Mexico to fool the population and seed their minds with the great danger that faces anyone crossing the deserts and harsh terrain between Texas/Arizona/Califas and places like Michoacan.
They are the new secret weapon of the US Border Patrol: toe-tapping ballads with Spanish lyrics that tell of the risks of trying to cross illegally into the US from Mexico.
The songs are on a CD that has been distributed free to dozens of radio stations in northern Mexico as part of a campaign called “No more crosses on the border” – a reference both to the illegal crossings and to those who have lost their lives in the attempt. The songs are all tragic, giving accounts of abuse, rape and death as immigrants embark on the often dangerous journey. …
The US Border Patrol commissioned the CD from Elevacion, a Washington-based Hispanic advertising agency. Elevacion’s president Jimmy Learned told BBC Mundo that the songs had been well received by the public. …
The fact that the migracorridos were commissioned by the US Border Patrol has not been publicised. Mr Learned and Agent Rodriguez both said this was to avoid rejection and make sure the campaign had the maximum impact. Jose Luis Gasca, director of operations at La Zeta, a radio station in Morelia, Michoacan, told BBC Mundo that he did not know where the songs – which are often played on his station – came from. …
It is still too early to assess the effect of the migracorridos. … [Mr Learned] says another two songs are expected to be released in April and that the campaign could be extended to the rest of Mexico and Central America.
“The important thing is that the campaign has found a niche in the community,” Mr Learned said.
Wikipedia talks about “the ‘decaying’ stage of the genre”—
With the consolidation of “Presidencialismo” (the political era following the Mexican Revolution) and the success of electronic mass-media, the corrido lost its primacy as a mass communications form, becoming part of a folklorist cult on one branch, and on another, the voice of the new subversives: oppressed workers, drug growers or traffickers; leftist activists, emigrated farmworkers (mainly to the USA)… This is what scholars call the “decaying” stage of the genre, which tends to erase the stylistic or structural characteristics of “revolutionary” or traditional corrido, without a clear and unified understanding of its evolution.
I’m not sure how to convey what a huge and gross offense this feels to me. Narcocorridos are one thing. Wikipedia goes on to say that these are this “decay” manifested. Perhaps, yeah. If we go back to how corridos began and what they were used to talk of for so long. And yet, those do not offend me like US lawmen hiring companies to create these musical viruses. Narcocorridos are made by Mexicans. And the reason the cartels are so huge, one very massive reason, is our drug appetite, our nation’s drug appetite and perverse puritan corporate hypocrisy about what drugs are morally okay (the ones that profit Big Pharma and other US corporations) and which ones are EEEEEEvil (the ones that are easy to produce on our own and that do not profit corporate interests). The cartels are not huge because of Mexico’s Deviant Nature® or anything like that. People make money the way they can. Especially when they live under one oppression or another, one corrupt governing body or another.
But the United States Border Patrol? Proliferating Mexican radio on the sly and thinking they can first fool and then scare desperate people into staying where they are so they can starve quietly? Do they honestly think border crossing is all about some kind of vacation? Do they really think this is the best use of US money? Do they really not understand that you can crush a set of works, but that won’t touch the itch under your breastplate that wakes you and shakes you down the street to cop another bundle? That you can step on a million symptoms and if you don’t address the cause, you will be stepping forever?
No, of course they don’t. They are part and parcel of the same backward ignorant Imperialist Western mindset that flooded Iraq with fake news that nobody heeded as if that would right the wrong that brought us there. As if that would cure the problems that speckle and infect our misguided and malicious actions. They are part and parcel of the same mindset that thinks if there is a problem, the way to cure it is by better salesmanship. They are idiots and they insult la cultura.
You want less border crossings? You want less of people trying to level the playing field to improve their lives? Then seek another kind of equilibrium. An economic and moral one. If you maintain the border as a one-way valve meant to swell our nation with cash at the expense of all others, you struggle to maintain a very painful façade and one day it will fall right on top of you.
Posted in Borders, Cultura, Immigration, Media, Messaging, Police, PSYOPS, Putos, Raza, The Long War on the Indigenous, U.S.A., United States Politics
What words can even express the pain this story brings? Knowing this makes me want to stand on the roof and call out and tell everyone – believing if we all only knew, than we could put a stop to it, put a stop to all our country’s lies and deceptions, wars and lies about wars. But, who cares enough, who listens? Sorry, it’s a cold winter day in Southern California and …
Thank you for keeping us informed, Nez
Yes, I feel you. I can’t even explain how this hurts me. Saddens me. Enrages me. I know México will suffer even more in the years ahead, and I know it’s going to be terrible to watch it from here. This is just one more way in which the US smacks her around to keep her in line.
i’m glad you have feelings about it. it’s good to know i’m not alone in feeling so sickened. and i’m glad to help keep awareness up, thanks.
The narcocorridos are — in their own way — very much in the tradition of political/social subversion, no different than the 19th century songs celebrating bandits and anti-Porfirio activists (who today would be branded as “guerillas” or even “terrorists”).
Gangsters (like Chapo Guzman) are not really a danger to the state. The U.S. government did plenty of business with such stellar characters as Lucky Luciano and various mafiosi without anyone talking about immanent collapse. And does anyone complain that Las Vegas was built with gangster funding? Of course not.
The narco-war is a political event, for the benefit of the conservative presidential administration (sound familiar?) but much less expensive than the U.S. war on Iraq/Afghanistan. It’s probably going to peter out, without any real damage to Mexico as a whole.
Yes, we probably are being hurt by the financial mess left from the Bush administration, but Mexico is hardly poor, and no where near social or political collapse. All that aside, the migra-corridos sound like a loser. Even with a catchy beat, and a good story line, there’s no way to write a pro-establishment corrido that’s worth a damn. Especially one supporting a foreign establishment.
well it seems they are framing the migracorridos not in support of any pro-establishment agenda, but in terms of the pain of losing family and friends to the wilds and dangers and abuses that sprout like springtime in the borderlands. so i think gente can plug into that. and its not untrue, but the intent and method disgust me.
on the whole i agree that narcocorridos are a natural outgrowth of the corrido. certainly not a perversion in the realm of this one.
and talk about terrorists, what would even the US’s dear Sons of Liberty be, in this day and age? it’s all okay now, because we are the empire. but the UK tried to kill those “patriots” because of course to the standing order, resistance and revolt from the status quo is always terrifying.
on mexico, well, i cant predict how close any nation is to collapse, nor did i say they were. but if the governing powers have their way, continue to have their way, what will “México” even mean soon? already the US and the corruptos in MX office do their best to hollow it out and exploit all that is exploitable at the expense of the people. cancún may be thriving, the tourist situation may be booming, US expats may be scooping up land cheaply, but that is not how i measure mexico’s health.
we both know that the US worming its way into Mexican affairs is hardly new. this Migracorrido bullshit is nothing new. the US has been doing this since before Tlaltelolco that’s for sure. and helping F. Calderón steal the election won’t be the last time we interfere, nor this. it never gets easier to know about tho. and i do think things are headed to some kind of boiling point unless both countries look realistically at the pressure and persecution the people suffer as a result of so many unrealistic arrangements that barely glue us together.
Hi again. This morning I stumbled upon this … again not so good with the words…(I’m going to attempt to place a link below, if that is ok with you, Nezua). Title: “Mobility and Security at the US-Mexico Border: Policy Challenges and Institutional Responses.”
It is a disturbing, by invitation only “get together”, having ties to the Army War College, an organization called the Strategic Studies Institute, and something calling itself the Migration Policy Institute.
Mobility and Security at the US-Mexico Border: Policy Challenges and Institutional Responses
The site is just full of … well, you’ll see.
A link to the Migration Policy Institute, at above mentioned site, looks as though this organization might just be compassionate towards all people; hence “Migrant” rather than “immigrants” or “illegals.” With so many groups and government agencies in the pot it takes some digging to search and, hopefully, find some truth. Don’t mean to hog the comments section. Back to digging…Nora
hog away! gracias.
Fascinating!!!
it is good to be reading you again nez…i know you are busy, and i have been mia.
i feel your disgust for the disrespect shown for the origins of the corridos. i kept visualizing gwb singing “if i had a hammer” for some reason. the commissioning of this by the us border patrol is the blasphemy of use which is a common method (of no respect) of operation of this country. the real agenda is falsified/hidden by the manifestation of a chosen form of propaganda. this is but another example that accumulates into what undermines a healthy psyche of a population, which i would guess is part of the hidden agenda. always there are hoped for predictable outcomes for pavlo’s dogs, i spose.
“And the reason the cartels are so huge, one very massive reason, is our drug appetite, our nation’s drug appetite and perverse puritan corporate hypocrisy about what drugs are morally okay (the ones that profit Big Pharma and other US corporations) and which ones are EEEEEEvil (the ones that are easy to produce on our own and that do not profit corporate interests).”
truer words are not spoken… this is a big part of the agenda that is hidden…i have no doubt.
i think of mexico/central america as an incredibly beautiful landscape with an awesome strength of heritage that gets compromised the closer it gets to the border of this country. one end result of immigration problems is the huge resource for the prison industrial complex economic base. this suggests a certain intent and motive to me, to perpetuate and continue “this problem” for what works for a corporate few. the human being/individual and family, then becomes a measured casualty that is overlooked by the distraction of the propaganda and what is programmed to be believed as action for a greater good? it is infuriating and come on people wake up…f that…
anyway, thank you for your part in delivering the source, which can so explain the not feel right of something because of the not knowing. it is a good reminder to us all to stay vigilant, to remain conscious and not be lulled into a rhythm not of our choosing.
thanks nezua for passing it on.
Whenever I think I’ve heard it all, they go and pull some shit like this. You summed it up nicely when you said “What, do they think these people are looking to go on vacation?”
No, actually, they would probably like something to feed their kid.
I’ve long since stopped trying to understand the Minutemen type who seem to think that Mexican people have nothing better to do than play “dodge the border patrol” so that they can then come “steal jobs” just for shits and giggles.
In most cultures, a person willing to risk his or her life for the mere possibility of getting a crappy job (where they have no rights if they get exploited) so they can make sure their family has food…that person would be viewed as a fucking HERO, an ICON. Not like an opportunistic sociopath who *might* be in cahoots w/ Al Queida (and fuck you for that one, Lou Dobbs)
It’s the same hypnotic effect that the corporate media has on the American mindset when it comes to the situation in Palestine. Israel is armed to the teeth with nukes that we paid for, the Palestinians are basically living in a large concentration camp, yet the kids throwing rocks at Israeli tanks are somehow the aggressors.
And I think I’m seriously going to lose it the next time I hear Lou Dobbs criticize the American-educated elites in the Mexican government for the “illegal alien” problem (man, I hate that fucker). The US fucked over Mexico and Latin AMerican a long time ago, and until they stop stealing and hoarding the world’s resources, people are gonna have no other choice but to try to go to where the food is. It’s that simple.
I mean, in an economic sense, Mexico is the United States’ Gaza.
Great post. Very enlightening. Thank you.
Thank you sweetleaf, and Elián. You said some good stuff.
I agree i don;t thing this is the right thing to do regarding the immigration policy. But you also have to understand that its not just the US hordeing and useing all natural resources. it al comes down to the corrupt individual in there home countries who are also willing to sell out there own people in times of hard economic decisions. Those officaals in mexio and other latin american countires need to make a stand and help the integrity of there own countires before makeing interenational decisions that hurts there own countires in the eyes of self interest
i have to say i dont really understand what you are getting at. but please feel free to draw out your thoughts on what it is you think i am not getting about this.