President Enrique Pena Nieto Reprises Mexico’s Controversial Kingpin Strategy Patrick Corcoran - InSight Crime
go to original June 6, 2017

A costume and a mask representing Mexican drug trafficker Joaquin Guzman Loera, aka "El Chapo", are pictured in a factory (Ronaldo Schemidt/Getty Images)

Recent boasting by government officials in Mexico about the country’s success in capturing criminal bosses has reopened a longstanding debate about the strategic goals of Mexico's organized crime policies.

The administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto recently disclosed that during his five and a half years in office, 107 of 122 high-ranking members of organized crime groups have been either arrested or killed.

These include Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán; El Chapo's right-hand man Dámaso López Núñez, alias "El Licenciado"; Servando "La Tuta" Gómez, the founder of the Knights Templar; Juárez Cartel leader Vicente Carrillo; and Héctor Beltrán Leyva, the leader of the eponymous Sinaloa offshoot organization.

The capos now dead or behind bars represent a wide swath of the elite criminal landscape, though arguably Mexico's government is disproportionately failing to target the Sinaloa Cartel's foremost figures, a major criticism of the policy under prior administration, headed by Felipe Calderón. The group of Sinaloa bosses still at large reportedly includes Sinaloa bosses Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and Juan José "El Azul" Esparragoza, the latter of whose death was the subject of unconfirmed rumors in 2014, and Chapo Guzmán's sons, Iván Archivaldo and Alfredo.

Another major figure still outside of government control is Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación - CJNG) boss Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera Cervantes. While he enjoys a lower profile than many other criminal suspects, his group has emerged as one of Mexico's most formidable over the past couple of years, fighting for territory across western Mexico.

The Peña Nieto administration painted the results in detaining major criminals as a sign of its firmness and success in combatting organized crime, but the reality is far more complicated.

Taken at face value, the figures are indeed impressive. Few prominent gangsters have managed to escape the government's grasp, and Mexico has created an environment in which becoming a notorious capo almost always leads to becoming a detained or deceased capo. This reflects the state's fundamental superiority over its outlaws, something that has appeared uncertain at times in Mexico's recent history. In the long term, this would seem a prerequisite for Mexico definitively overcoming its public security challenge.

But though a necessary condition, it is not sufficient to put Mexico on a path to domestic tranquility; the ability to track down criminals does nothing to address corruption nor the absence of economic opportunities in marginalized communities, to say nothing of the drug prohibition that has kept prices high and therefore created stratospheric profit margins. Without address these and other issues, the no broader strategy will likely have much success.

Read the rest at InSight Crime

Related: Mexico Public Security: Next President Needs Comprehensive Domestic Security Strategy (Mexico Voices)

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