Last Friday, Mexican authorities opened a new front in their anti-drug campaign by launching an offensive in the State of Jalisco against two of the country’s most profitable cartels. And, all hell broke loose. Within hours, the New Generation Cartel of Jalisco (CJNG) and Los Cuinis mobilized more than 500 men in coordinated counterattacks, shooting down a military helicopter; burning 11 banks, five gas stations, and 36 buses; and killing 15 people and injuring 20 others. The criminals also blocked 12 highways affecting the central states of Jalisco, Colima, Guanajuato, and Michoacán.
This brazen retaliation by two cartels, which had been far less aggressive than other ultraviolent groups operating in the country, represents a daunting new challenge for Mexico’s federal government. Although it will be difficult to dismantle Mexico’s richest criminal organizations, it is expected that the federal government will mobilize a significant amount of troops and resources in response to their violent defiance.
The CJNG and Los Cuinis are considered to be Mexico’s wealthiest drug trafficking cartels. According to a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official quoted by the Mexican newsmagazine, Proceso, “[These two cartels] are the major methamphetamine trafficking organizations in Canada and Europe, the biggest traffickers of chemical precursors [from] Asia and Europe to Mexico, and possibly the best-positioned for cocaine trafficking worldwide.” A DEA official explains, “[These cartels] are richer because they sell methamphetamines in Europe, and European authorities fail to confiscate almost any money or drugs—meaning their profits could be close to 100 percent.”
By choosing not to battle other crime syndicates for a share of the US market, the CGNJ and Los Cuinis established a less visible and more profitable criminal enterprise servicing Europe. Now, as the government gears up to respond to their counterattacks in Jalisco, these cartels may find their operations seriously disrupted, as was the case with the Zetas, the Knights Templar, La Familia Michoacána, and other groups that challenged federal authority.
Although authorities have managed to shatter important syndicates and detain their leaders, splinter organizations emerge to claim new turf and some battered syndicates have recovered under new leadership. As a result, the federal government has been unable to break the cycle of violence, kidnapping, and extortion in states like Jalisco, Michoacán, Guerrero, Tamaulipas, the eponymous State of Mexico, Chihuahua, and Sinaloa.
President Enrique Peña Nieto took office in December 2012 focusing on a host of important economic and social reforms, consciously minimizing the so-called “drug war.” After more than a year of neglect, infamous cases of narco-related corruption and atrocities forced Peña Nieto to take ad hoc security measures in an effort to quell disturbances as they flared up.
Nearly halfway through his six-year term, Peña Nieto does not appear to have a comprehensive strategy for dealing with lawlessness in many parts of the country. The flare up in Jalisco—home to Mexico’s second-largest city, Guadalajara—is dramatic evidence that improvised law enforcement offensives are no substitute for a national strategy for imposing the rule of law against organized crime.
Follow AEIdeas on Twitter at @AEIdeas.
from AEI » Latest Content http://ift.tt/1RasSAd
0 التعليقات:
Post a Comment