Images and horror stories involving the hyper-violent drug cartels in Mexico have almost become commonplace in the news and online, desensitizing those who regularly witness such encounters.
In a new video, however, social action group Nuestro Mexico del Futuro (Our Mexico of the Future) puts a different and shocking twist on the situation to help raise awareness about the deadly situation.
The four-minute-long video shows children dealing drugs, rioting in the streets, and smuggling people into the U.S., what the Los Angeles Times called “pint-sized perps and kiddie kidnappers going about the ugly business that is otherwise so familiar in Mexico.”
“If this is the future that awaits me, I do not want,” one of the children says in the video. “Mexico has bottomed out.”
The controversial video was posted on YouTube on April 9, where it collected about three million views. The video, which was created to raise awareness over the violence in Mexico and political corruption, has since been taken down from Our Mexico of the Future’s official YouTube page.
But that hasn’t stopped YouTubers from re-posting the video and commenting on its message.
“[T]hese situations that the video shows are present in many Latin countries,” commented SuperAnny9. “That’s enough of such ineptitude.”
Even though the video has been taken down, that hasn’t stopped Mexican politicians like Vazquez Mota and Lopez Obrador from supporting its message.
“In reality, the video is not reflecting anything that people have not experienced,” said Rosenda Martinez, a spokeswoman for Our Mexico of the Future.
Mexico’s general election will be held on July 1. The country will vote on a new president to replace Felipe Calderon.