Wed, Dec 15, 2010 page7

• Mexico kills top capos, but drug trade keeps thriving

  • Reuters, MEXICO CITY
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  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.”
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