Sinaloa.- Isaac Tomas Guevara Martinez is he pioneer in the study of violence in Sinaloa and founder of the Laboratory of Psychosocial Studies of Violence in the Faculty of Psychology of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS), and who offers an outline of this problem in the state.
Why the interest in the study of violence?
“An issue that seemed to me to be important for Sinaloa, and that was important because it crossed all spheres of daily life: education, age differences, social culture, the tastes of the population, the level of education , public health. All of this was crossed by a theme that is always present in any theme, and that theme was violence.
“The level of violence was higher than in the society I came from. Here the shootings were common. In the early ’80s, women were being robbed, car-to-car plumbing, et cetera. All that was common, but I did not know that. I didn’t think that existed in Mexico. Inevitably, that situation, those events, were related to the problem of drug trafficking. There was no way around it, and if it wasn’t drug trafficking, it was what was already called narcoculture back then.
“In other words, drug trafficking was leaving its mark on the daily lives of Sinaloans. In fashion, in the type of car to bring, gold chains, clothing, ways of dealing with people. Topics, common words, “buchones”, roosts, etc. Words that were not common except from here and that came precisely from the culture of drug trafficking.
“It is such a strong topic that it can offer us the way of thinking of the population. That’s why I chose violence.”
What is the objective of this study and of the Laboratory of Psychosocial Studies of Violence?
“We start from the idea that the first thing required to be able to solve a problem is to know its dimensions as precisely as possible. To the extent that the characteristics of the problem are better known, the possibility of finding solutions is greater.
“Our job as academics is to explain the phenomenon. Why is there violence in Sinaloa, where does it come from, why this type of violence, why drug trafficking, why drug trafficking generates culture in Sinaloa society, why does this drug culture have such a great impact on the population? Those are questions that we ask ourselves and to the extent that we are answering.”
Have these investigations generated public policies against violence?
“It is no coincidence that the invitation to researchers like us who are working on the subject of violence is more frequent, and not only the invitation, but also the discussion of the problem. There are more and more congresses on violence, and it seems to me that it is related a little or a lot, but I think that our work has been able to contribute pebbles so that the subject of violence is taken as a transcendental problem. For me is the capital issue of the state of Sinaloa”.
What is the evolution of violence?
“The violence now is not the same as in the 80s and 90s of the last century, where it can clearly be said that there was collusion between the authorities and the gangsters. We know that not only because of the reports from researchers…”.
Do you study violence or human behavior?
“Strictly speaking, we as social psychologists do not study violence. What we study is the behavior of the population, what the population does, what social groups do, women, men, adults, youth, businessmen, workers or peasants, professionals or those who could not to study.
What do all those social groups do when violence is part of this society, what do they do, what response do they give, how do they live, what happens in their heads, in their behavior, in their relationship with others. That’s what we study.”
What impact did the ‘culiacanazo’ have?
“The The impact of the ‘culiacanazo’ is something that has not been properly addressed. We take care of security, that it doesn’t happen to us again, that they come in and that they take over, and that they close here, that they disarm, etc. It has not been addressed in the sense of emotional impact left in the population, especially in the young. That is why it seems to me that it is an issue, this treatment of effects, which is very important”.
Has the rule been broken among drug traffickers?
“A lot of rules were broken. The first that was broken is that unwritten pact between organized crime groups and the State. The State told them: your power is only within the business that you have. You cannot get into social-political power. That was some kind of pact…
Has the non-aggression pact on innocents been broken?
“That pact in Sinaloa it broke the day of the ‘culiacanazo’. That day they shot people who had nothing to do with it. It is the first time that we have seen panic in the civilian population before the groups of hitmen who were closing the streets and taking over the city. No respect for the lives of others. At that moment that pact was broken.
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The Profile
Isaac Tomas Guevara, psychologist
*Full name: Isaac Tomás Guevara Martínez
*Place of birth: Puebla, Puebla
*Career: Retired full-time research professor at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa
Founder of the Laboratory of Psychosocial Studies of Violence in the Faculty of Psychology of the UAS.
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