And Bartlett's position continues to erode...
I can only wonder what will happen to the Zapatistas.
I can only wonder what will happen to the Zapatistas.
Al Grito de Guerra: the Second Mexican Revolution
- Thread starter Roberto El Rey
- Start date
What does that have to do with the Zapatistas or Bartlett's decaying position? I know what a sexenio is, I'm just confused. I doubt Bartlett will fulfill whatever term he was given, though.
This chapter has been a ride, can't wait for the inevitable fuck up from PRI.
Also, Mexican Army vs Zapatistas Round two? Place your bets, everybody!
What have the Zapatistas been doing since the battle?
Rooting for the insurgentes here, and I'm interested in seeing the role Subcomandante Marcos takes in the Zapatista movement ITTL given that in the least few years OTL he has assumed a new name (from a fallen compañero) and has tried to take more of a backseat role in the movement... with much more spotlight and an explosive role his trajectory as a political figure will be interesting to see!
Bookmark1995
Banned
I remember watching a news report by Charlie LeDuff about the maquiladoras. The nice, modern factory was surrounded by these awful slums. It really surprises me that there haven't been more protests by the American people.
I can't believe it's already been a year since I started posting this timeline! Thanks to everyone who has stuck with Al Grito de Guerra since the beginning, and to everyone who's started reading it since. After spending many hours researching and writing each update, it's incredibly gratifying to read your observations, and your feedback—whether positive or negative—is what makes it all worth it! By my current plan, we'll reach the "climax" of the timeline within three more updates, so not much longer to go before the "explosion" many of you have been talking about. The next post will be another narrative piece, and I hope to have it up by next week.
Now, on to your comments!
I do think the main weakness of this project is my characterization of Manuel Bartlett. The man isn't a blood-drenched totalitarian, and I've tried not to portray him as such—if you're a normal person in TTL's Mexico, you won't have to face much government oppression provided you stay out of politics and don't criticize the regime too loudly or publicly. Still, Bartlett does strike me as a less-than-moral man who cares much more about accumulating power and influence than about the welfare of the people he ostensibly serves. From my research, I've been able to draw a number of more specific conclusions about his style: his involvement in the Camarena killing shows that he has no qualms about collaborating with criminals and using torture and murder to advance his career; his actions as Government Secretary show he has little problem using violent force against threats to PRI rule; and his conduct in situations like the governor’s race in Chihuahua in 1986 and the presidential election of 1988 (insistently denying electoral fraud despite incredibly obvious evidence) and the election of 2000 (not accepting Vicente Fox's victory until many hours after the election had been called) shows that he's the type of state official to continue denying reality long after everyone has stopped believing him. For these reasons, I imagine that Manuel Bartlett as President would be like a mix of Manuel Noriega and Konstantin Chernenko: repressing political opposition, consorting with the cartels and taking reckless risks to centralize and increase his power, all while generally being incompetent and blind to the fact that the people have completely lost faith in his leadership and his party is rotting from the inside.
That being said, he definitely has a much more acute and rational political mind than I'm giving him credit for here. Otherwise, he would never have been elected to the Senate twice, and he wouldn't have convinced AMLO to appoint him CEO of the national electricity monopoly at the age of 82, a position which he still holds as of this writing. I certainly don't think it's unrealistic for a world leader to be as daft as Bartlett is being here (see: Idi Amin, Nicolás Maduro, Fulgencio Bautista, François Duvalier...) but I do think that if Bartlett actually had managed to become President in OTL, he might have done a bit better than he's doing in this timeline. Still, in writing this story, I've sometimes felt that Bartlett has to make a Cersei-esque decision from time to time in order to keep things interesting and entertaining. Hopefully that doesn't detract too much from the readers' suspension of disbelief. And if it does, then I hope the final payoff makes up for it!
For the most part, surviving. The ELM may have won the Battle of San Cristóbal, but it was a fairly Pyrrhic victory, as it cost the State of Zapata much of its military strength and internal unity. Many of the individual Zapatista townships have been adhering to doctrines of isolation and self-sufficiency, and have therefore been largely indifferent to the military side of the rebellion, but that's about to change with the new offensive. More on that in the next update!
When we do protest the existence of maquiladoras, it's usually from the perspective of "those jobs should be brought back to America" rather than "those poor Mexicans live in such terrible conditions". From time to time we can be surprisingly good at using coordinating protest to achieve social change, but it's almost always for issues that directly affect us rather than people in other countries.
Now, on to your comments!
I do think the main weakness of this project is my characterization of Manuel Bartlett. The man isn't a blood-drenched totalitarian, and I've tried not to portray him as such—if you're a normal person in TTL's Mexico, you won't have to face much government oppression provided you stay out of politics and don't criticize the regime too loudly or publicly. Still, Bartlett does strike me as a less-than-moral man who cares much more about accumulating power and influence than about the welfare of the people he ostensibly serves. From my research, I've been able to draw a number of more specific conclusions about his style: his involvement in the Camarena killing shows that he has no qualms about collaborating with criminals and using torture and murder to advance his career; his actions as Government Secretary show he has little problem using violent force against threats to PRI rule; and his conduct in situations like the governor’s race in Chihuahua in 1986 and the presidential election of 1988 (insistently denying electoral fraud despite incredibly obvious evidence) and the election of 2000 (not accepting Vicente Fox's victory until many hours after the election had been called) shows that he's the type of state official to continue denying reality long after everyone has stopped believing him. For these reasons, I imagine that Manuel Bartlett as President would be like a mix of Manuel Noriega and Konstantin Chernenko: repressing political opposition, consorting with the cartels and taking reckless risks to centralize and increase his power, all while generally being incompetent and blind to the fact that the people have completely lost faith in his leadership and his party is rotting from the inside.
That being said, he definitely has a much more acute and rational political mind than I'm giving him credit for here. Otherwise, he would never have been elected to the Senate twice, and he wouldn't have convinced AMLO to appoint him CEO of the national electricity monopoly at the age of 82, a position which he still holds as of this writing. I certainly don't think it's unrealistic for a world leader to be as daft as Bartlett is being here (see: Idi Amin, Nicolás Maduro, Fulgencio Bautista, François Duvalier...) but I do think that if Bartlett actually had managed to become President in OTL, he might have done a bit better than he's doing in this timeline. Still, in writing this story, I've sometimes felt that Bartlett has to make a Cersei-esque decision from time to time in order to keep things interesting and entertaining. Hopefully that doesn't detract too much from the readers' suspension of disbelief. And if it does, then I hope the final payoff makes up for it!
For the most part, surviving. The ELM may have won the Battle of San Cristóbal, but it was a fairly Pyrrhic victory, as it cost the State of Zapata much of its military strength and internal unity. Many of the individual Zapatista townships have been adhering to doctrines of isolation and self-sufficiency, and have therefore been largely indifferent to the military side of the rebellion, but that's about to change with the new offensive. More on that in the next update!
When we do protest the existence of maquiladoras, it's usually from the perspective of "those jobs should be brought back to America" rather than "those poor Mexicans live in such terrible conditions". From time to time we can be surprisingly good at using coordinating protest to achieve social change, but it's almost always for issues that directly affect us rather than people in other countries.
Last edited:
Bookmark1995
Banned
Honesty...I don't find your portrayal of Bartlett to be any way surprising.
I don't believe "absolute power corrupts absolutely." After all, there are many kings who DON'T become Caligula-style madmen. The better saying is that "power brings out both the best and worst in us." History's villains are people who were already disturbed.
Ivan the Terrible was already a troubled person when he became the first Russian Tsar. He had been surrounded by monstrous corruption that killed his mother and loved to torture animals.
Hitler was already a twitchy nutcase. Becoming Fuhrer just gave him the ability to build on his already demented ideals.
A ATL example is Mao Yuanxin from Fear Loathing and Gumbo. He was OTL a brutal and vicious man who was willing to shed blood for an ideology. It was only natural that given the power his uncle once held, he could become one of history's monsters.
OTL Bartlett was already a corrupt, duplicitous and selfish man. TTL, he has become the leader of an institution that is slowly dying. A man like Bartlett, seeing the end of his power and privilege, is likely to double down on his already wretched behavior.
Narrative Interlude #7
March 7, 1993
Cancún, Quintana Roo
Cancún, Quintana Roo
Thud.
The rickety desk shook as the manuscript struck it, causing the lamp to tremble and shadows to quiver around every corner of the dimly-lit office.
“There it is,” said Lydia Cacho as she leaned back in her chair.
The editor picked up the thick sheaf of papers and studied the cover. “MARIO VILLANUEVA: EL CHUECO?” was neatly stamped across the middle of the page. He winced. Mario Villanueva Madrid—the PRI senator who had just been elected Governor of Quintana Roo in a near-uncontested race—was known for his unsettlingly asymmetrical facial features, and he was likely to take the phrase “EL CHUECO” (“the crooked one”) as a personal insult rather than an ethical slight.
Swallowing his reservations, the editor peeled back the cover and started reading. The opening line was bold in substance but subdued in rhetoric: “Though his campaign projected a clean and orderly image, a closer look at our soon-to-be governor’s background suggests that certain criminal interests may assume a commanding influence in his administration”. The rest of the article took a similar style: intensive speculation about all the corrupt, shady and amoral things Villanueva was probably going to do as Governor of Quintana Roo, peppered in with the occasional disclaimer that he wasn’t in office yet and so it was still impossible to know for sure. As he read on, the editor realized that Lydia’s predictions were becoming uncomfortably specific: not only did she accuse Villanueva of having contacts with the Juárez Cartel, she went on to claim that Amado Carrillo Fuentes had been one of Villanueva’s largest campaign donors, and that, once inaugurated, Villanueva would rent out the Quintana Roo's airstrips to Carrillo’s cocaine-carrying cargo jets.
He felt a spidery chill crawl up his spine as he reached the last page. Even in a country with a fair court system, this sort of ungrounded speculation would be grounds for a libel suit; in Manuel Bartlett’s Mexico, it was probably punishable by crucifixion. He looked back up at Lydia, still watching him intently.
“Lydia, you know I can’t print this,” he said. “It’s all guesswork. Everyone knows Villanueva’s a corrupt pendejo, but until he actually starts doing all of these shady things, you might as well be screaming into a brick wall.”
Lydia, hands clasped and resting on her lap, was unfazed. “Turn the page,” she said simply.
Reluctantly, the editor did. The rest of the packet consisted not of tidy typescript, but of official documents from many different firms and institutions, interspersed with wrinkled, handwritten notes. The first page of this section was a police description of one José González Rosas, an associate of the Juárez Cartel who had been arrested in Mexico City in November, and then released suddenly after just three days in custody. This information seemed entirely inconsequential until one read Lydia’s notes from her interview with Villanueva's secretary in the Federal District, who recalled that the day before his arrest, a man perfectly matching González Rosas's description had visited the office to have a three-hour-long discussion with Senator Villanueva. This was followed by a bank report showing that, the day after this conversation, Villanueva’s campaign had received a donation of three million U.S. dollars from a suspicious-looking bank account in Switzerland. Now, the story was starting to come together.
Equally unremarkable at first glance was an invoice for the purchase of twelve million pesos's worth of asphalt and heavy equipment by a Puerto Juárez construction firm, presumably to be used on state-funded construction projects. Nor did the editor bat an eye at a certificate proving that Senator Villanueva was one of this firm’s largest shareholders; for an American or a European politician, that sort of conflict of interest would be considered a scandal, but for a priísta, it was, at best, a lack of imagination. What gave him pause, however, was the memo from Villanueva to the Quintana Roo air traffic controllers’ union, informing them that many of the state’s airstrips were to be extended and re-paved under his watch, and that they could expect to be handling many more cargo flights once he took office. Anyone who knew why Amado Carrillo Fuentes was called “Lord of the Skies” would find that suspicious, particularly if they’d just seen the bank report.
The editor looked back up at Lydia, who was no longer staring at him, but at the papers in his hand. He was in awe that she'd managed to gather all of this evidence and somehow keep it all straight. As he turned back and reread the middle pages of the article, every one of her claims now seemed startlingly well-founded.
He could feel the heat rising as his heart pounded on the walls of his chest. He probably had some sort of moral imperative to publish the article, and yet—he realized as he thought through the impact of this story—he could not. He suddenly became aware that what he was holding in his hands was not simply a sheaf of papers, but power: the power to ruin a chueco’s political career, and to get himself thrown in some hellhole prison for God knew how long. Could he send this story to the press, knowing that he and most of his staff would, in all likelihood, be incarcerated for it?
Frantically he seized upon the nearest rationalization.
“I’m impressed. Actually, I’m a hell of a lot more than impressed,” he said. Lydia tightened her lips in affirmation. “But it’s all circumstantial," he continued. "There’s nothing in here that some coño lawyer couldn’t weasel his way out of. We’ll probably get our asses thrown in Lecumberri for this anyway, but if I’m going to be locked up for a story, it’s going to be a story no one can deny—not even someone with his head as far up his ass as Manolito,” he explained, using the popular, less-than-affectionate nickname for President Bartlett. “I really want to print this, Lydia," he said. "Find me a prueba tangible, and I’ll make sure this article gets put on every newsstand in the state.”
Wordlessly, Lydia nodded, rose and held out her hand. The editor handed back the papers. She took them and walked out of the office, closing the door behind her.
The editor sighed. He’d bought himself some time. But what would happen if—when—she found that smoking gun? Would he still be able to find an excuse?
Well, he thought grimly, she might just get herself killed and save me the trouble.
__________
Lydia looked up at the soldier with an iron-hewed gaze. Expecting an equally stern pair of eyes, she instead found herself face-to-face with a nervous, young man, clearly one of the thousands of new recruits President Bartlett had mobilized to fight his two-front war against the Zapatistas and against common decency.
Lydia felt her expression soften. She almost felt sorry for the boy—he surely hadn’t asked to be in the Army, and yet here he was, invading a bus and disturbing innocent strangers’ travel plans. A more confident soldier would see this security check as a prime opportunity for extortion; this boy, however, was so hesitant that he trembled when he asked for Lydia’s passport. But, as she handed it over, Lydia stiffened up once again. She remembered the message Octavio Paz had sent to the country in October: “If wrongs are being committed against the Mexican people, I call on them to right those wrongs on an individual basis, and to resist any encroachment upon their freedoms with whatever means lay at their disposal”. Her freedom of movement was being encroached, and it was her civic duty to resist. She would have liked to refuse to show her passport outright, but she did need to get where she was going somehow. So instead she resisted, as she often did, with her eyes. As he compared Lydia face with the image on her passport, she ensured her stare was powerful enough to chill the boy's blood.
His shiver was barely perceptible, but it was enough. The soldier handed back her passport without another word, and within ten minutes he’d finished his duties and scampered off the bus. A moment later, the doors shut, and the rusty coach pulled out onto the road and shunted off toward the highway.
Off she went to Chihuahua.
Last edited:
This remains an excellent and deeply engrossing story, and speaking as an American it's fascinatingly informative about Mexican political history as well. Thank you for writing this and please, keep going! I'm subscribed with bated breath. 
Thank you so muchThis remains an excellent and deeply engrossing story, and speaking as an American it's fascinatingly informative about Mexican political history as well. Thank you for writing this and please, keep going! I'm subscribed with bated breath.
I'm glad this story is still entertaining after more than a year, and I hope all my other readers are still as interested as you are!I'm going to try and get the next update up within the next week. We're getting closer to the "climax" of the TL so buckle up everyone!
I don't think I'm ready for the climax.Thank you so much
I'm going to try and get the next update up within the next week. We're getting closer to the "climax" of the TL so buckle up everyone!
Thank you so much
I'm going to try and get the next update up within the next week. We're getting closer to the "climax" of the TL so buckle up everyone!
I am really looking forward to this.
Also, I found these pics online that relates to the 1988 election.
