By killing or capturing at least seven top drug cartel leaders in the past year, the Mexican government is sending a message: “Kingpins, beware.”
But without confronting deeper problems of corruption, money laundering, weak police and courts, and overcrowded prisons, taking down capos will have little effect on the lucrative drug trade, instead risking more of the violence that is scaring off some investors, security experts say.
Late last week, Mexican marines killed Nazario Moreno, a top leader of the La Familia drug cartel in Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s home state of Michoacan.
Clashes caused war-like scenes of burned-out and bullet-riddled cars around Michoacan’s capital of Morelia as marines and federal police clashed with gunmen.
Moreno’s death was the latest in a string of victories for Calderon who has poured billions of dollars into the country’s security forces since deploying the army across Mexico to fight cartels four years ago.
The most wanted traffickers are being successfully targeted thanks to improved police and military operations and intelligence sharing with the US.
Last month, Gulf cartel boss Ezequiel Cardenas was killed by marines in Matamoros across the US border from Brownsville, Texas and in August police arrested a frontman for the Beltran Leyva drug gang in central Mexico.
The head of that cartel, Arturo Beltran Leyva, was killed last December by a Mexican navy unit trained by the US and acting on information from the US embassy, said a State Department cable recently released by WikiLeaks.
The government is eager to laud the successes from fallen drug lords as it faces criticism for a rising drug war death toll
But experts say that as narcotics consumption remains strong in the US and billions of dollars of profits continue to roll south, Mexico is a long way from mirroring Colombia’s successful efforts of improving security after years of narco violence in the 1980s and 1990s.
“Taking out the major capos ... is important but if you think about a comprehensive strategy to fight organized crime, that might be 25 percent, you still have 75 percent to go,” analyst Tony Payan at the University of Texas in El Paso said.
The bulk of the battle should focus on reforming Mexico’s corrupt local police forces and creating jobs to stop poor youths from being lured into crime, Payan said.
The rising drug violence is also becoming a political liability for Calderon and his National Action Party, facing presidential elections in 2012.
Going after the top cartel brass sparks both internal battles for power and attacks from other gangs muscling in on turf.
Bomb scares cleared out schools and hospitals in Matamoros in the days after Ezequiel Cardenas was killed and violence also escalated in the state of Jalisco after security forces killed Sinaloa cartel kingpin Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel in July.
Calderon, faced with legislative deadlock in the congress, has failed to pass meaningful police reform and laws to tighten controls on money laundering and the judicial system is still unable to prosecute cases properly.
A case last year accusing 35 mayors and other government officials in Michoacan of ties to La Familia collapsed in court on faulty evidence.
“The government does not have the capacity to prosecute criminals,” said independent political analyst Alberto Islas. “We have the ability to identify them and assassinate them, but we do not have the ability to put them behind bars.”
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was