“Criminal groups that distribute fentanyl and methamphetamines to the United States have grown since the administration began due to security policies”. The Wall Street Journal
NY/CDMX (WSJ) – Under the policy of “hugs, not bullets” of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, criminal groups have grown and control more territory in Mexico, where they no longer only manage drug trafficking and intensify violence. Still, They have expanded to extortion and even public contracts, the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) warned yesterday Sunday, February 25, 2024.
The New York based newspaper published a report highlighting that the criminals behind the fentanyl and methamphetamine epidemic in the United States are free to murder their rivals, neutralize the police, confiscate property, and force municipalities to give them positions in their treasuries. “Criminal groups affiliated with Mexico’s two largest cartels (Sinaloa and Jalisco) have increased their influence since López Obrador took office,” noted the WSJ.
Arrests by the Mexican National Guard, created during the López Obrador government to replace the Federal Police, fell from 21,700 in 2018 to 2,800 in 2022, according to the national statistics agency. This relaxation opened the door to an expansion of the cartels’ operations, whose most lucrative business continues to be the production and transportation of fentanyl and methamphetamines to the United States.
Falling cocaine and marijuana prices have reduced profits, prompting cartels to expand their extortion networks and pursue new money-making schemes.
Under the threat of force, some mayors appoint criminal group members to positions in local treasuries, two former mayors of the state of Guerrero revealed. Those jobs effectively give cartels control over municipal construction contracts, procurement, and other public services. Murders of government officials, candidates, and members of political parties increased from 94 in 2018 to 355 last year, said Sandra Ley, a security expert at the “México Evalúa” research center.
Expanding cartel control and increasingly violent tactics have brought Mexican families to the United States in record numbers. Around 87,000 Mexicans traveling with children were detained on the southwest border of the United States in the fiscal year that ended September 30, almost four times more than the previous year, the Border Patrol reports.
The crime of extortion has increased since 2018, according to Inegi data. Avocado and lemon producers in Michoacán, an export hub for US markets, have blocked roads in recent months to demonstrate against extortion and theft of their products by criminals, which has tripled in the last year.
Many local officials in López Obrador’s Morena party, which governs 23 of Mexico’s 32 states, interpreted the “hugs, not bullets” policy as permission to accommodate criminal groups as a way to quell crime. Violent attacks and reduce death threats, said Samuel Logan, head of Southern Pulse, a US security consultancy.
Some cartels now finance the election campaigns of their allies, in addition to eliminating officials who oppose them. As an example: Norma Otilia Hernández, the Mayor of Chilpancingo, Guerrero, and a Morenista militant – a place completely taken over by organized crime, even accepted by President López Obrador in one of his mornings – was videotaped in a restaurant with the alleged leader from a local drug group.
The policy of “hugs and no bullets” has turned Mexico into one of the most violent and dangerous countries in the world.
With information from The Wall Street Journal and Times Media Mexico
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