With more capos in prison, Mexico has more deaths in its streets

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Sinembargo article

Subject Matter: Cartel Capos, impunity, collusion
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

The last two Presidents of Mexico have followed the politics of  "cut off the head", but with the capture of  big capos the violence hasn't reduced. In the last three years, nothing has changed in comparison to 2016, quite simply they have resorted to administration of the killings, disappearances and the dead.

Reporter: Sandra Rodriguez Nieto

While the Presidency of Enrique Pena Nieto differs from that of Felipe Calderon Hinojosa by nuances in the attention that each one has given to the issue of drug trafficking, both administrations, warn analysts, say a strategy of only " cutting off the head" of the alleged groups of organized crime which in any case has been accompanied by persecution of political networks and by laundering of resources.

One example, says Raul Benitez Manaut, investigator from the Centre of Investigations for North America from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), is the inaction in Mexico concerning the ex Governor and ex PRI party member, Humberto Moreira, detained in Spain, one week after Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera for alleged money laundering for the criminal organization known as Los Zetas.




"It is not about to give a blow to the business and political networks". In the United States and Spain they say that Moreira has connections with Los Zetas, and in Mexico that is not investigated, says Benitez, also the director of the Group for Safety Analysis and Democracy (Casede).

The constant in the search for the denominated " 122 primary objectives " is other evidence of the continuity of the politics of " cutting off the head" is only punitive, suggests Erubiel Tirado, coordinator of the Program for National Security in the Ibero-America University. "The structures of organized crime persist, the networks of complicity have not been attacked: each time that they speak of the capture of a capo this is not going to be accompanied by a dismantling of that organization, of the complicity networks with the political classes, impresarios; that wont be investigated", he says.

After the "frontal combat" against organized crime dominion the agenda of the Panista President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, the current executive, emanated from the PRI, marked distance in its speeches and focused its Government in the adoption of "structural reforms".

That way, at the start of the previous six years, on the 11th of December of 2006, the Government of Felipe Calderon announced the start of Operation Conjunta Michoacan, and sent 5000 soldiers to this state to effectively confront the narco traffickers and organized crime. Later he sent similar operations to Chihuahua, Baja California, Guerrero, Sinaloa to the region denominated the Golden Triangle, integrated into the States of Chihuahua, Durango and Sinaloa, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.

The result, according to a published comparative this 20th of January by the Executive Secretariat of the National System of Public Security, was an almost incomparable augmentation of the violence, above all to share the first year data for military deployments: 2007 closed with 10,253 investigation of homicides, 2008 had 13,155; 2009 with 16,118; 2010 had 20,680; 2011 had 22,852 and 2012 with 21,736. In total more than 104,000 murder victims.

In contrast, Pena Nieto also at the start of his six years, presented what he dominated a " new politics of state for the security and justice of Mexicans", based in the planning, prevention and protection of human rights, between other lines of action they revealed on 17th of December of 2012, in the second extraordinary session of the national counsel for public security.

"The citizen mandate is very clear: Mexicans want a peaceful Mexico. They urge respect and protection of human rights" said Pena Nieto citing the name of the primary goal of his national plan for development.

"Our priority objectives are to reduce the violence and recuperate the peace and tranquility of Mexican families. In particular to diminish the indicators related to homicide, kidnapping and extortion", he added.

The dead of Pena Nieto

Click on image to enlarge

The widespread study released the passed week by the Segob and titled " Levels of homicide, kidnapping, extortion and vehicle robbery 1997 - 2015, shows that the intention to support only the first two years, due to decreases recorded in the first year of administration, when homicide records fell to 18,322 cases around the country, and in the second year with 15,653 cases, was reversed last year, closing 2015 with 17,013 cases. In total, according to the new released data , 50,998 cases between 2013 and 2015 ; more than 11,400 more than those recorded in the same period of Felipe Calderon, 39,526.

The above, more than the accumulation of massive violation of human rights, like the forced disappearance of the 43 students of Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, that is already added to another 26,000 disappearances; the cases of mal treatment of persons and of femicide probably linked to armed operatives, as an argument in a trial in Ciudad Juarez, and the increased risk of fatality in professions such as journalism, Law, the office of human rights and even health care services.

This persistence in violent events, according to different diagnostics, like the continuity of narco trafficking business, shows the limitations of actual politics of only arresting the alleged heads of the organizations dedicated to the production, storage and transportation nationally and internationally of illegal drugs without attacking the economic interests or their links to the different levels of Government.

Since January of 2015, statistics of the PGR given to Sinembargo indicate that the thousands of assassinations contrast with the levels of judicial processing of the crimes attributed to organized crime, like the laundering of illicit proceeds.

In this sense, the statistics have shown that between 2006 and September of 2014, the Federal Government has started 1135 previous investigations for alleged operations with respect to illicit proceeds and, in total, found proof and alleged responsible in 257 cases; that is to say, in only 22% of the open investigations since 2006.

In the analysis for the year observed, is also notes a marked downward trend in the research during the change in sexenios, since the opening of enquiries for this crime fell from 96 cases in 2012 to 23 in 2013 and 12 in the first nine months of 2014. the same thing happened to confiscations, which fell from 25 to 15 in 2013 and then to four in the first nine months of 2014.

In general, the statistics show that investigation against all crimes set forth in the Federal law against organized crime was on a downward trend, on having gone from 2270 cases opened in 2012 to on 1302 in 2013, that is to say, 42% less.

Not even Guzman Loera, who media and authorities identify as one of the most important cartel leaders in the world, faces charges for money laundering or even homicide before the power Mexican Judiciary.

Until the date of his second escape, this July past, against the alleged capo there are only charges of being a member of organized crime, crimes against health and one more for possession of firearms and ammunition for exclusive use of the armed forces, linked to the raid and his capture in Mazatlan on 22nd of February of 2014.

The arrest warrants in penal causes 50/2009, 206/2010, 65/2011, 364/2012 and 10/2014, in whose informative notes one can observe that there were allegations that the Federal Public Ministry was unable to prove, as his probable responsibility in an offence against health in the form of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking brought against him in July of 2009.

"The Fifth District Court of Federal Criminal Processes in the State of Mexico reports that at 14:30 hours of Feb 25th 2014, within the criminal case 50/2009, issued a detention order against Joaquin Guzman Loera, as likely responsible in the commission of the crime of being a member of organized crime," says the report of the Judiciary.

" In the same manner, they dictated a release order for lack of evidence to process the charge within the confines of the law, not being able to demonstrate his probable responsibility in the crimes against health, in the modality of possession with intent to supply, in the hypothesis of sale of cocaine hydrochloride", they added.

Since the days after the first recapture in February of 2014, the Department of the Treasury of the Government of the United States advised that " based on this success, the Office of Control of active foreigners will continue to focus on the finances and operations of the Sinaloa Cartel".

Then, on the 27th of February of 2014, the public treasury published a list of 10 businesses allegedly linked with the activities of criminals of the Sinaloa cartel; six of those located in Colombia and another four in the metropolitan zone of Guadalajara, a region in where the Government of the United States located dozens of businesses that were laundering money and which the Mexican Government have not started action.

"I dont know what happens at the second level, one captures the bosses but they don't destroy the business organizations, and the those organizations recover and keep operating", said Raul Benitez Manaut.

Another intact problem, commented those interviewed, is the collusion of politicians with organized crime; a situation that has left vast territories under the power of armed forces that work for the delinquents.

Only in Tamaulipas, bordering Texas and home to heavy drug trafficking, the United States continues its accusations of money laundering against former Governors Tomas Yarrington and Eugenio Hernandez Flores; the latter received with applause in the last report of Governor Egidio Torre Cantu.

This type of collusion, added Benitez Manaut, could be registered in other States like Michoacan, Coahuila, Sinaloa, State of Mexico, Guerrero and Morelos.

The lack of investigation around the political classes, says the specialist, has been annoying even members of the armed forces who have been responsible for operations against the alleged leaders of the organizations. "They, the military, say that they are making a serious effort but are making no headway in other areas, such as the relationship of political cartels and companies that launder monies. They are not working to continue the effort", he insists.

Original article in Spanish at Sinembargo