Mexico Program Non-Resident Senior Fellow Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, talked with Organized Crime Dispatch (by GI-TOC) regarding the recent military operation in Mexico that resulted in the capture and death of the high-profile Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) leader, El Mencho. Notably, the operation publicly involved cooperation from the U.S., presumably through intelligence-sharing efforts.
COMMENTS FROM FARFÁN-MÉNDEZ:
“This could lead to more violence in the country and specifically some of the states where Jalisco Nueva Generacion operated.”
“The timing, of course, raises questions. Since President Sheinbaum came into office, [there has been] a very different tone of cooperation with the United States, and we do know that El Mencho has been wanted by the U.S., we saw the comments from the U.S. Press Secretary commenting about his profile and how he’s seen in the U.S. In that way, it matters to show and provide an action that is very readable to the U.S. government against a person that, again, the U.S. also wanted to target.”
“The initial response—and this is important to also put into context—is that we have seen similar responses before. For instance, with the Sinaloa organization, essentially there were gun fights against the army and members of the National Guard in Mexico. […] What we saw was the criminal organization responding.”
“I think symbolically for law enforcement agencies, as we are seeing both in the U.S. and Mexico this matters a lot, precisely because he has been in the top wanted list in both countries. However, the evidence shows that this kind of kingpin strategy is not particularly useful or robust in weakening or eliminating the activity of a criminal group. I think now, especially in the case of Mexico, with two decades of evidence, we know that these removals don’t make a criminal group go away. While there may be some degree of disruption, over time, criminal groups have also adapted to the kingpin strategy, and they have become much more horizontal.”
“It is very important to see that there is a different tone now in actual actions between the Sheinbaum and the López Obrador administration. […] this is important on two levels, at least. One is because it should bring again to the forefront the conversation about firearms trafficking. A lot of the reasons that we are having this conversation of the firepower capacity of CJNG related to firearms trafficking, which is part of the bilateral agenda. The other thing I would say is it should also lead to questions about how to reduce levels of impunity in Mexico. Now, after 20 years of such violence what we know is that killing a purported leader of a criminal group is not seen as a justice process in the country.”
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