Many Basotho, with an aversion to reading and who live under huge rocks, would most probably never have heard of the name Archivaldo Guzman Loera or simply El Chapo.
For their benefit, allow me to provide a bit of background. El Chapo is a Mexican drug lord and a former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, an international crime syndicate involved in shipping drugs to every nook and cranny of the globe, from Mexico to Arizona to Qacha’s Nek. Son of a cattle herder, El Chapo grew up in extreme poverty, was essentially an uneducated buffoon who could hardly read or write.
However, he found his place in criminality, evolving into becoming the second richest drug dealer in the world after Pablo Escobar. Just like our Famo gang leaders, El Chapo was instrumental in carving Mexico into drug enclaves each with its own leaders. To appear like nice people, the Mexican drug lords and their nyatsis appeared like good music and fun-loving people promoting good causes in their enclaves.
But there was always something sinister about their ways. The drug lords had a penchant for pretty girls. They splurged on the finer things in life. They feasted on caviar. They splurged on private jets and mansions and unimaginable ranches from where they conducted their illicit activities. But they were ruthless operators. They killed anyone who stood in their way. El Chapo became known for his ruthlessness. He beheaded any of his runners who delayed in bringing back his drug trade income from his main market, the United States. He raped girls at will, fathering dozens of children in the process. Despite his legendary criminality, he evaded authorities for years. In fact, he moved like a head of state with more than 300 bodyguards. When he was finally arrested, he escaped from jail twice.
First by hiding in a washing machine which was pushed out of jail by a prison collaborator. After his re-arrest, he got his fellow criminals to dig a long underground tunnel from outside prison to his cell. He then escaped using that tunnel.
El Chapo is a textbook example of what happens when a nation loses its soul. Law enforcement authorities, who should have reined in El Chapo, aided and abetted him. Corrupt judicial officials flourished from his bribes. His country Mexico in general and his Sinaloa home region in particular became hell holes. There are many parallels and similarities between the Mexican criminal cartels and Lesotho’s Famo gangs. Both groups are legendary in their brutality. They attach no value to human life. They are a law unto themselves. One Lesotho Famo gang leader (name being withheld) even looks like El Chapo. The gangs are all notoriously corrupt. They buy politicians to keep them in their pockets. El Chapo even funded the successful campaign of former Mexican President Enrique Pene Nieto. Just like a leader of a now fallen political party in Lesotho so no shame in flaunting a Famo gangster at his election rallies (pre-October 2022). But more importantly, the criminality of both Mexican drug Famos and Lesotho’s own music Famos are all enabled by the inaction of politicians and authorities. At least in Mexico, the authorities there have started acting.
It’s not as if successive Lesotho governments and our law enforcement authorities don’t know the destructive nature of the local Famo gangs. They have nonetheless left them to evolve and flourish. The so-called National Security Service (NSS) has rightly declared these Famo gangsters’ domestic terrorists. But sadly, the NSS has done nothing to track and pre-empt these gangsters. Is the NSS a real intelligence agency after all? Are there any intelligent people there? It doesn’t look like. El Chapo would have felt at home in Lesotho. Unfortunately for El Chapo, his main market (the United States) could no longer afford his unrelenting criminality. Most of the drugs in the USA were supplied by him. When he was arrested for the last time, the US demanded his extradition from Mexico. El Chapo is now a permanent inmate at the incorruptible maximum-security prison in Florence, Colorado, where he is only allowed an hour of sunlight a day and is locked up for the remaining 23. There, he will never escape. His cartel members, his many sons and enablers, are now being extradited to the USA. His pretty young wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, whom he abducted and first raped as a young virgin, has also done time in the US for aiding his criminal husband.
The latest brutal murder of six people in Mafeteng – five from one family – including a pregnant woman- has got me thinking? Will Lesotho ever contain the ever-escalating Famo violence that has earned us the dubious honour of being one of the top most homicidal nations in the world? Not with the current state of our so-called security agencies? Holomo Molibeli may have gone, but he left a police force hard to reform. Our intelligence service does not look like it is staffed by an intelligent face at all? Some of our soldiers are allegedly Famo enablers? And America is not about to develop any interest in helping track and arrest our Famo gangsters just as it has helped Mexico contain the El Chapos. Lesotho’s Famos pose no threat to America.
So, what next my fellow Basotho? If only South Africa could use its better resourced army and police to come here and round up the Famo gangsters and the politicians who enable them? After all Lesotho’s Famos are wreaking havoc in South Africa, just like El Chapo and his coterie wreaked havoc in America? Sadly, unlike Donald Trump, Joe Biden or even any previous American president, Cyril Ramaphosa has proved to be a sick dodo. Many had hoped his tenure would be a relief to the whole SADC region after the destructive reign of the singing, giggling, laughing, dancing, philandering and ever sexting Jacob Zuma. Acting Police Commissioner M’e Morai has promised the police will finally act against the Famos. I am not holding my breath. When human beings become so callous as to perpetrate murders in the manner, we saw in Leribe this week, including shooting a pregnant woman in the stomach, then such humans are no longer human. They don’t deserve to live. They should be incinerated alive. Sadly, these callous murderers will live to see another day. They will not be arrested. They will not be caught. They will not be held accountable. So, the mayhem continues making this Majestic Kingdom a hell hole.
There is only one option left for any Mosotho wanting to live and who can afford it. Get yourself a gun and keep it cocked up for you don’t know when the next gangster will turn up at your door. If you can’t afford a gun, keep a bow and arrow. Just accept that we are now a lawless country and nobody will protect you except yourself?
I dedicate this column to all those slain in Leribe this week. May they find love and eternal peace in St Peter’s vineyards. And may all those enabling callous gangsterism be forever cursed?
Ache!!!
