“Hugs, not bullets” was the main axis that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador chose to combat organized crime groups from the beginning of his administration on December 1, 2018, a policy that left a figure of more than 200 thousand dead at the end of his six-year term and that practically did not change the panorama of drug trafficking in Mexico despite the relevant arrests he achieved.
President López Obrador received the country with at least six criminal organizations that operated or had a presence in Mexican territory. Two of them were in almost all the states of the Republic because they had great drug trafficking capabilities, military and logistical power, so they could commit all kinds of crimes. Another nine operated regionally or locally, according to the Criminal Map of Mexico (2019-2020) prepared by the consulting firm Lantia Intelligence.
This report mentions that the Sinaloa Cartel (CDS) operated in 28 states of the Mexican Republic, with the exception of Jalisco, San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo and Tlaxcala. The Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG) did so in all the federal entities because the CDS was weakened by the trial and conviction in the United States of Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán in July 2019, according to the report.
The Zetas, which were fragmented by the different arrests and rearrangements, had a presence with some of their divisions – the Cartel del Noroeste, Los Zetas Vieja Escuela, Zetas Sangre Nueva, Los Talibanes – in 12 entities: Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo, Puebla, Veracruz, Tabasco, Chiapas and Quintana Roo.
The Gulf Cartel, which was also divided into fourteen cells, including Los Ciclones, Los Metros, Los Escorpiones, Los Rojos, Especiales Grupo Sombra and Los Pelones, had a presence in eleven states: Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, Puebla, Veracruz, Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo and the State of Mexico.
The Beltrán Leyva Cartel had some cells operating in 13 states in 2019, which were in Baja California Sur, Baja California, Sonora, Sinaloa, Nayarit, Colima, Aguascalientes, Nuevo León, Guerrero, the State of Mexico, Morelos, Puebla and Mexico City.
The Michoacana Family and the Knights Templar were divided into twelve divisions — Los Viagra; the Zicuirán New Generation Cartel; the Tláhuac Cartel; The New Enterprise or Brothers Cartel; The Tequileros; The Michoacana Guard; The Maldonado; The Moicas; Guerrero Guard, and others—and operated in eight states: Michoacán, Jalisco, Colima, Guerrero, Morelos, Mexico City, Hidalgo, and the State of Mexico.
In addition to the aforementioned organizations, there were reports that in 16 states there were 29 local and regional organizations that, due to their roots and other criminal qualities, continued to operate even where other groups with a national presence did.
These are Los Rojos; Guerreros Unidos; Sierra Unida Revolucionaria (SUR)-Cartel del Sur; and the Independent Cartel of Acapulco (CIDA). As well as the Los Arellano Félix Cartel (CAF) or Tijuana Cartel in Baja California; La Línea (New Juárez Cartel) in Chihuahua; La Unión Tepito in Mexico City; the Santa Rosa Lima Cartel in Guanajuato; among others.
During the six-year term of President López Obrador, several violent incidents and significant arrests occurred against different organized crime groups, with the Sinaloa Cartel being one of the most affected structures due to the capture of some of its main leaders.
The most relevant arrests were those of Ovidio Guzmán López, El Ratón, arrested and extradited to the United States in 2023. This without failing to mention that his capture left in the collective memory two violent events that are known as the Culiacanazos in October 2019 and in January of last year.
The capture of El Ratón was followed by the arrest of his brother Joaquín, who betrayed and handed over his godfather Ismael El Mayo Zambada to the US authorities in July of this year. In addition to the arrest of Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, El Nini, head of security for Los Chapitos.
These events have caused a growing wave of violence in the state of Sinaloa, mainly in Culiacán, where the two factions of the Pacific Cartel, Los Chapitos and La Mayiza, coexisted and now maintain a strong dispute that, according to data from the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) and the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), has left a figure of 106 homicides only from September 9 to 27.
The aforementioned homicides are not yet contemplated in the figures of the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP), which indicate that from December 1, 2018 to August 2024, 196,505 homicides were committed in the country and 5,227 femicides, a total of 201,732 violent deaths, making AMLO’s six-year term the most violent in modern Mexican history.
According to the analysis of “Mexico Outlook for 2024” by the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, the Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación cartels were the most active and visible in the country during 2023.
This study highlights that most Mexican cartels are allied with one of these two groups and this is expected to continue during the term of Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, who will assume the presidency of Mexico on October 1, marking a historic milestone by becoming the first woman to hold this position.
On her first day as president, Sheinbaum will present the 100 commitments of her government, which includes a Security Strategy, which was released by the State Commission on Human Rights (CEDH) of Michoacán.
The document entitled Security Strategy for the First 100 Days details the main axes that Sheinbaum Pardo will implement to combat criminal groups.
The initial objectives of the new administration include reducing high-impact crimes, addressing areas with high crime rates, combating drug trafficking (including fentanyl), weapons, and money laundering, among other things.
To achieve peace in the country, the President plans to confront 10 regional cartels that operate in various parts of Mexico, as detailed in a map included in the document and distributed as follows:
The Sinaloa Cartel operates in Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, Nayarit, Veracruz, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo. It stopped having a presence in ten states compared to the 2019 Criminal Map.
Meanwhile, the CJNG controls Nayarit, Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Colima, Guanajuato, Querétaro, Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, Puebla, Morelos, State of Mexico, Michoacán and Guerrero. While it has a presence in Sonora, Zacatecas, Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, Oaxaca, Tabasco, Chiapas, Campeche, Quintana Roo and Yucatán. Six more entities than the CDS, but eight less than in the Lantia Intelligence report.
The Gulf Cartel no longer controls Tamaulipas, but it still has a presence in that entity, as well as in San Luis Potosí; the Arellano Félix do so in Baja California.
The Michoacana Family maintains a presence in Michoacán and the State of Mexico; Los Rusos (linked to the Sinaloa Cartel) already operate in Guerrero; The Beltrán Leyva Cartel has cells in Nayarit and Morelos.
In the case of the Northeast Cartel, it already controls Tamaulipas and has a presence in Nuevo León and Tabasco; the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel remains in Guanajuato, an entity where the Nueva Plaza Cartel also operates, a split from the CJNG that spread to Jalisco.
Claudia Sheinbaum’s security strategy will focus on close collaboration between the armed forces and civil authorities to confront these criminal groups and improve security in the regions most affected by violence.
In this sense, the new administration has a diagnosis of 10 municipalities with the highest incidence of intentional homicides, which are within 6 priority attention entities: Guanajuato, Baja California, Chihuahua, Colima, Guerrero and Jalisco. Although Sinaloa could also be included with the extreme violence that is currently being experienced.
Source: infobae
