Organized Crime in Mexico and the Evolving Government Response Evan Ellis - Global Americans
go to original August 21, 2022

Tijuana Still on Edge After Friday’s Cartel Attacks (KPBS Public Media)

The security and prosperity of the United States are bound to Mexico through ties of geography, commerce, and family. U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade integration through the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), and its predecessor, the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), illustrates how that interdependence can elevate the prosperity of all parties. In addition, the flow of illicit drugs and migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border, and the flow of arms and drug earnings from the U.S. to criminal groups in Mexico illustrate how policies and conditions on one side of the border can work to prejudice the other.

Mexico is currently engulfed in a growing crisis of interdependent criminality and political transformation. COVID-19 and the inflationary effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine accelerated this crisis. It is undermining Mexico’s institutions and harming the nation’s economic base. In the process, it is creating increasing security, economic, and other risks for the United States and its other neighbors in the Western Hemisphere.

The criminal proceeds from the U.S. consumption of drugs produced in or transiting through Mexico fuel an increasingly fragmented, well-armed, and well-financed array of competing criminal actors in the country. Their activities are enabled by law enforcement and judicial systems that are partially compromised at all levels, complemented by competing elites seeking to exploit the corruption in the system, and sometimes the criminal actors, for their own financial and political ends. In the process, their actions further enable the power of the criminal groups, the scope of their activities, and the level of insecurity in Mexico.

The reinforcing challenges of criminality, corruption, and institutional decay strongly impacting Mexico was compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, which destroyed countless small and medium-sized businesses, pushed countless people into the informal sector, and, in the process, expanded the economic vulnerability of countless Mexicans. COVID-19 also drained significant resources from the government and its security forces, which participated in responding in multiple significant ways. The pandemic also increased the leverage of criminal groups over the communities in which they operate. Such groups occasionally provided food boxes and other aid, enforcing curfews, among other activities.

In addition, the response to the pandemic, including the closure of borders, obliged criminal organizations to find new routes and networks, with law enforcement organizations struggling to adapt to the new criminal patterns. Further complicating matters, the inflationary effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine also increased the number of people in need, expanding recruitment and money laundering opportunities.

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Related: Elite Force Infiltrated Local Police in Guanajuato: 150 Had Narco Ties (Mexico News Daily)

Related: Is It Safe to Travel to Mexico After the U.S. State Department Recently Issued an Advisory? (Yucatan Times)

Related: The Lawyers, Auditors and Notaries Who Launder Drug Cartels and Are in the U.S. Crosshairs (NoticiasPV)

Related: Are Cartels Attacking Civilians and Burning Cars, Buses, and Businesses the New Normal for Mexico? (Vallarta Daily News)

Related: Declaring Mexico Safe: The Week at ALMO’s Morning News Conferences (MexicoNewsDaily.com)

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