How Mexico's President Pena Nieto Humiliated His Predecessor in the Drug War Jan-Albert Hootsen - Vocativ
go to original March 18, 2014

Felipe Calderón (R) spent years shaping his image as an Eliot Ness against organized crime. But in 18 months, Enrique Peña Nieto has done far more. (Der Spiegel)

... As politicians and media angrily descended on ex-president Felipe Calderón and his former spokesman on security issues Alejandro Poiré, accusing them of lying to the public, current president Peña was smiling in the background. Lately his government has had success after success in the fight against Mexico’s violent drug trafficking groups. To the public eye, it seems like Peña is cleaning up the mess Calderón created. It is all the more painful to the previous administration, because it was Calderón who started the drug war and molded his image into that of a crusading president fighting the good fight against organized crime.

Few expected it would turn out this way when Peña assumed office in December 2012. He inherited from Calderón a drug war that had killed more than 70,000 people in about seven years, eroded the rule of law and decimated civilian trust in the government’s ability to fight crime. Calderón wanted to crush the drug lords by sending thousands of soldiers and federal police to violent hot spots, which ultimately led to unprecedented violence and carnage as gangland warfare tore whole regions of the country apart. Many Mexicans still blame Calderón for the bloodshed.

There was little faith that Peña would do any better. After all, he’s a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico for 70 years until 2000 and was notorious for turning a blind eye to organized crime. But little over a year later - after a string of arrests and kills of high-profile drug lords - Peña Nieto has proved everyone wrong and left Calderón paling in comparison.

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