CJNG and Sinaloa Cartel: the organizations that have Mexico under fire
With Felipe Calderón, the first months after declaring war on drug traffickers brought “good results.” In December 2006, 849 violent deaths were reported in the country, the whole of the following year, this crime did not exceed 800 events and there were even months like February in which 488 were reported. However, in April 2008, violence rocked the country and there was no point of return. In that month, more than 1,000 intentional homicides were reported for the first time in the six-year term and in the following months this crime showed increases to exceed 3,000 every 30 days, as is the case in the current government.
With Felipe Calderón there were several episodes of violence, including a fire at the Royale casino in Nuevo León, which left 52 people and the discovery of the torsos of 49 people in the community of San Juan in the same state, the killing of 15 young in Villas de Salvárcar in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, the discovery of 72 corpses of migrants in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, among others.
A report prepared by the United States Congressional Research Service entitled “Mexico: Organizations of Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking” warns that in Mexico 12 organizations are in dispute over territory: the Sinaloa Cartel, Los Zetas, the Cartel of Tijuana, the Juárez Cartel, the Gulf Cartel, the Beltrán Leyva, La Familia Michoacana, the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG), the Knights Templar, the Northeast Cartel, Los Viagra and Los Rojos.
The report warns that in the last decade, criminal organizations have fragmented, causing more violence. Those dozen organizations keep Mexico under fire, but the dispute between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel has accentuated the violence in Mexico.
The President of the Republic has recently been politically accused of having a protective relationship with organized crime. This from an occasion in which he was recorded when he greeted the mother of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and for freeing one of the sons of that drug trafficker, Ovidio Guzmán; also for offering as a strategy a policy of “hugs, not bullets” and for ensuring that criminals are respected because they are human. In this regard, the federal president has challenged those who accuse him, to prove it.
Although no one has proven any link between the president and organized crime, experts such as Víctor Hernández assure that in this administration, the Sinaloa Cartel has resurfaced.
“This government has allowed the Sinaloa Cartel to expand. It is inexplicable to me that a Cartel that was dying last six years, after the arrest of its leader, today is prospering and is fighting for territory with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in many towns, and is making various alliances,” he says.
