By Eric Vandenbroeck and co-workers

The War on Drugs in Mexico

Amid Latin America’s undeniable successes, one problem, in particular, festered: organized crime was booming, thanks to growing demand for illicit drugs and goods from consumers in the United States, Europe, and Latin America itself. Mafias and cartels made billions trafficking and selling drugs and illegally mined gold to buyers abroad. Within the region, economic growth upped consumers’ purchasing.

They thrived off growing markets for stolen merchandise, contraband imports, and drugs. Although Latin American governments, often at Washington’s behest, cracked down, the Mafias and cartels learned to outsmart them. They infiltrated states, while some state actors learned how to enlist criminal organizations for personal and political gain.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has escalated efforts to weaken the dominance of drug cartels by deploying thousands of troops to infiltrate a major cartel base in Sinaloa state.

This new approach marks a significant shift in the country’s security strategy. During her campaign, Sheinbaum promised to continue the policies of her predecessor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who prioritized addressing the root social causes of crime rather than directly confronting the cartels—a strategy dubbed “hugs not bullets.”

On the campaign trail, Sheinbaum had promised to largely continue the security policy of her mentor and predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, which prioritized addressing the root social causes of crime rather than attacking the cartels - an approach nicknamed "hugs not bullets" after a catchphrase of the former president.

But initial signs from her first months in office suggest a more aggressive approach with the most substantial deployment in at least six years of military and naval troops, as well as special forces and heavy weaponry to Sinaloa since an intra-cartel war broke out in September.

High-profile arrests and large drug seizures have followed, including a record bust of over a ton of fentanyl.

That more front-footed strategy could align well with President-elect Donald Trump, who has called on Mexico to do more to stop the flow of drugs, and migrants, to the U.S.

But it also risks further inflaming violence and homicides, as a more confrontational position has done in the past in a country where cartels are heavily armed with military-grade weapons.

A Venezuelan migrant at the U.S.-Mexican border, April 2024

Backlash to the post-2020 spike in undocumented immigration from Latin America weighed strongly in Donald Trump’s favor.

Some have also taken it as an indirect admission that Lopez Obrador's less confrontational strategy did not work. Many experts say it helped organized crime groups entrench power in vast swaths of the country.

Ken Salazar, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico publicly criticized the approach, saying it had "failed" and "Mexico is not safe."

 

Military to the Streets

Some security experts have drawn comparisons between the operations in Sinaloa and the military war waged on the cartels by then-President Felipe Calderon in 2006. That triggered a spiral of violence to which many analysts trace the continued high homicide rates in Mexico.

The United Nations has repeatedly criticized the use of the armed forces in the fight against crime in Mexico, arguing that it encourages human rights violations. The Mexican government denies that security in the country has been militarized or that human rights abuses are common.

Key to Sheinbaum's crime-fighting strategy is her new security chief Omar Garcia Harfuch, an experienced policeman who worked for the president while she was mayor of Mexico City.

Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Omar Garcia Harfuch.

"We know how difficult it is to pacify the country," he said last week after an investigator from his ministry was killed in Sinaloa.  

The confrontation between rival groups in Sinaloa, which intensified on Sept. 9, has so far killed some 650 people, with more reported missing. In an attempt to contain the conflict, the local security chief was replaced by a military officer over the weekend.

In the same week, at least three soldiers were killed by land mines laid by organized crime in two separate locations in the western state of Michoacan.

For some experts, there is a danger if Sheinbaum seeks to replicate her strategy in Sinaloa across the country.

Because each one (criminal group) has its personality and its mark, and they have to find the part that hurts them.

The Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Omar Garcia Harfuch has spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Culiacán, Sinaloa to supervise security operations following armed attacks and the burning of establishments that frighten citizens.

García Harfuch has focused on pacifying Sinaloa after disputes between criminal groups have forced him to travel to the state located in the northeast of the country, from where he coordinates the strategy to try to achieve his objective.

President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters during her Thursday morning press conference that García Harfuch will remain in the northwestern state for an undefined period.

After a federal agent was targeted and killed, Security Minister García Harfuch returned to oversee the state’s security operations.

The federal official, together with Governor Rubén Rocha, organized the actions of the three levels of government to restore peace to the people of Sinaloa.

State business leaders say the violence has cost the state economy at least 18 billion pesos.

Even as Rocha claims the violence is being blown out of proportion, the reality of the situation indicates otherwise, according to Proceso.

Last Saturday, a mid-day shootout in which more than 300 rounds were fired off occurred near a baseball park in Culiacán where Little League games were taking place. For five minutes, players and fans lay on the field waiting for the gunfire to stop.

In the aftermath “El Mayo” Zambada’s arrest in the United States, Sinaloa residents have been caught in the middle of a cartel power struggle. (Cuartoscuro)

The next morning, another five-minute-long firefight took place in a residential area of the state capital. One property was shot up as was a recently inaugurated fire station, damaging several fire trucks.

Some online companies have refused to make deliveries in the state due to concerns about the safety of highway travel. There have been shootouts along the Mazatlán-Culiacán highway — where bodies have also been regularly dumped along the road, Proceso reports.

Concern about the public’s psychological health has prompted the Autonomous University of Sinaloa to offer virtual counseling to residents who might be suffering from PTSD, anxiety disorders, and shock.

Even the army is not safe from the violence. On Wednesday, the same day the SSPC agent was killed, soldiers were ambushed in the village of Elota.

Though state authorities insisted no soldiers were wounded in the attack, some publications reported that one soldier was killed and at least four others were wounded.

 

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