"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat
In the wake of natural disasters or during holidays such as Three Kings Day or Mother's Day, there have been reports of organised crime groups delivering gifts to communities in various states across the country.
The rain and the rivers swept away everything. Northern Veracruz and various municipalities in Hidalgo, Puebla, Querétaro, and San Luis Potosí are suffering the ravages of a natural disaster that, so far, has left 66 people dead and around 75 missing.
Photographs of alleged "support" from organised crime for victims in Poza Rica have begun to circulate on social media.
In the face of the tragedy, the federal government has deployed multiple efforts to support the affected communities, while the solidarity of citizens has been evident with multiple collection centers set up both in Mexico City and throughout the country.
Little by little, entire communities are seeking to return to normal; however, amid the chaos and despair, an old wolf in sheep's clothing has reappeared: organized crime. In recent days, photographs and videos of alleged members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) distributing bags of groceries to victims have circulated on social media.
According to the recording, the events occurred in Tihuatlán, Veracruz, an area where they have a great deal of influence, according to a report by AC Consultores leaked by Guacamaya Leaks from the servers of the Ministry of National Defense (Defense).
Given the vulnerability of the disaster, the video shows residents of the municipality approaching the group of heavily armed civilians distributing clear plastic bags of supplies, emphasizing that they are "from the Lord of the Palms and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel." The food parcels also carry a card printed with the acronym CJNG.
After being posted on social media, the video quickly went viral and sparked a controversy that even reached President Claudia Sheinbaum. Although the president avoided commenting on the matter, the recording revived that old practice, which many criminal organizations often resort to in the face of natural disasters or holidays, but whose objective goes beyond providing selfless aid.
The 'narco's' gifts and food parcels
Delivery of food parcels by criminals reported.
The interaction between organized crime and the civilian population through gift-giving is nothing new. Various reports and journalistic investigations show that the practice has been present since the days of the Guadalajara Cartel, whose leaders also "helped" with the construction of roads, schools, and even churches.
From the Sinaloa Cartel to the brutal Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, the same steps have been followed, which the Jalisco New Generation Cartel is now also following. For example, in December 2024, during a public event in Coalcomán, Michoacán, a group of people publicly thanked the leader of the so-called four-letter cartel, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as El Mencho, and a man nicknamed Commander Delta 1, for a series of gifts delivered to the community on Christmas Eve.
A year earlier, in November 2023, after Hurricane Otis devastated the coast of Guerrero, residents of the affected areas also received food supplies from criminal groups whose members arrived in the communities masked and heavily armed, as described by journalist Óscar Balderas in a report for MILENIO.
That same year, Tropical Storm Norma left damage in various areas of Sinaloa, where food supplies arrived "signed" with the initials JGL, belonging to Joaquín Guzmán Loera, alias El Chapo, founder of the Sinaloa Cartel.
According to reports by journalist Rubén Mosso for MILENIO, on May 10, 2020, the CJNG delivered household appliances as Mother's Day gifts to the women of Tototlán, Jalisco, in addition to food to working-class neighborhoods.
Holidays such as Children's Day and Three Kings' Day have also been exploited by both the Four-Letter Cartel and the feared Osiel Cárdenas Guillén to distribute toys for the most vulnerable children in the communities where they operate.
The distribution of food supplies and medical supplies by criminal groups during the COVID-19 pandemic was reported in at least ten states, demonstrating how, even in times of adversity, their interests come first.
What lies behind false altruism
Food parcels bearing the image of 'El Chapo' Guzmán are being delivered due to coronavirus.
"We continue to have problems with homicides, and they haven't calmed down even because of this coronavirus situation. Don't come now and say 'we're handing out food supplies,' better tone it down," declared former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador when questioned about the "support" that criminal organizations distributed during the pandemic.
With this statement, the former Tabasco president captured the dual nature of organized crime in Mexico, which, while sowing violence in various states and municipalities, attempts to present itself as a benefactor to the civilian population during emergencies or holidays.
An article published in the Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Autonomous University of Chiapas explains that the delivery of food supplies or gifts to communities by criminal organizations is a practice used to gain social approval.
"If a portion of the profits generated by crime are used to alleviate the poverty experienced by many of the communities where they operate, criminal activity lessens its harmful significance in the eyes of that community and provides legitimacy to the extent that it can provide services and functions traditionally associated with the State," explains the article by researchers Jesús Alberto López González and Mauricio Lascuráin Fernández.
In this way, "narco-food stores" have become part of a dynamic of organized crime that, according to Isaac Enríquez Pérez, PhD in International Economics and Development, seeks to establish and "normalize" a concept and way of life in which certain sectors of society view illicit operations and activities with "favor."
Gaining approval among communities is just one of the steps criminal organizations follow in their drive to delimit and appropriate territories. It is, in essence, a relevant component of their power and their strategies of domination, and even of their struggle against rival criminal groups.
"Territory is the basis for criminal organizations to impose their own norms and standards of power. Through it, they aspire to resemble a state, while seeking—and often succeeding—to undermine and usurp the functions of public powers and institutions," explains Dr. Isaac Enríque Pérez in an article in the Journal of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at the Complutense University of Madrid.
The intention to control various communities is seen by their inhabitants as a "protection sale" or as "charity," which, in the words of Doctor of Sociology Luis Astorga, is nothing more than simple extortion.
Here we share unique images that have been fostered during the COVID-19 contingency.
The brand "El Chapo 701", through the foundation Alejandrina Guzmán, daughter of the drug trafficker, distributed food parcels.
In an interview with MILENIO, the researcher at the UNAM Institute for Social Research explained that the occupation of territory by criminal organizations leaves its inhabitants in a status more like that of hostages, who are sold the idea that they are protecting them.
"I'm going to sell them the idea because they're going to have no choice but to do what I want to do, that is, to replace the work of the State by extracting taxes, in other words, vile extortion [...] It will depend on the strength of the criminal organization to impose the rules of the game and also on the competition with another criminal organization. In other words, 'I'm protecting you from the danger I represent but also from the danger posed by others,' it's vile extortion," the academic asserted.
The criminal dynamics and the way in which criminal organizations have taken root in various municipalities in Mexico reveal what lies behind the aid and gifts they distribute to the civilian population. While they may alleviate adversity, their true cost is always high.
Source: Milenio
