Mexico: The inside dope

THE INSIDE DOPE

A PRIMER ON AN INCREASINGLY DEADLY DRUG WAR

' n December the drug war in Mexico enters its fifth year. The I Mexican government cites the ever-growing death toll—24,000 fy and counting—as evidence of the war's success. Not long ago, 'of course, Colombia was the epicenter of drug mayhem, but billions of dollars in U.S. aid helped shut down trafficking routes in the Caribbean, stai"ving Pablo Kscobai' and his cohorts. It also

inadvertently empowered the Mexican cartels, which controlled

overland enlry points into the U.S. At about the same time, the political dynamic shifted within Mexico. The centralized one-party rule that for decades tolerated drug traffickers gave way to leaders willing to confront the cartels. In 2006 President Felipe Calderon, freshly and narrowly elected, made eradicating the

Tijuana is home base ol I lie narcacorridos band LOS

TUCANES DE TIJUANA,

which plays ballads that depict — or lionize the drug culture.

Ilie latest low lech drug trafficking strategy? Tunneling. U.S. Customs and Border Protection last year found 26 such underground passages, 20 of which were situated either near NOGALES or elsewhere along the Arizona Mexico border.

Perhaps the most dangerous place on earth—think

Baghdad circa 2004—CIUDAD JUAREZ is more

a combat zone than a functioning municipality as

the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels fight it out. I

The SINALOA CARTEL and its near mylhu leader, El Chapo, probably qualily as Mexico's most powerful trafficking organization—if not the drug war's outright winners mainly because El Chapo and his lieutenants, unlike their compel i tion, remain aboveground and out of prison.

osielcArdenas

GUILLEN

The head of the Gulf cartel is currently serv­ing 25 years after being extradited to the U.S. in 2007.

EDUARDO ARELLANO FELIX

One of five brothers who ran the Tijuana cartel, he was arrested in 2008, causing the cartel to break into two factions.

JOAQUlN

•ELCHAPO"

GUZMAN LOERA

The elusive leader of the Sinaloa cartel escaped from a Mexican prison via a laundry truck in 2001.

VICENTE CARRILLO FUENTES

The whereabouts of the Juirez cartel boss are unknown, though he is thought to be some where in Mexico.

ARNOLDORUEDA MEDINA

Part of the upper ech­elon of the cultlike, meth-producing La Familia, he was arrested inluly 2009.

I

drug trade official policy, ultimately ordering 45,000 soldiers into the streets to bust up the cartels. On the positive side: The govern­ment has killed or apprehended many senior cartel leaders. On the negative side: Such turnover has created a barbaric struggle. And because there is power (and market share) to be seized, the car­tels are battling one another and the government. Some of the

cartels, now culled to five or so organizations, are also fractur­ing from within. For instance, the Zetas, once the armed wing of the Gulf cartel, have struck out on their own. The brutality of this intercartel bloodshed is partly intended to turn public opin­ion against Calderon and place liis presidency in peril. Calderon, however, remains resolute. And so Mexico continues to burn.

While drugs flow north, gun .>n.i i ^>h FLOW SOUTH, into Mexico—a sore point for the Calder6n administration, which wants the U.S. to adopt stricter

gun-control measures.

The CALDERON ADMINISTRA­TION, heeding popular outcry, has begun to consider adding a social component (the usual pro education, antipoverly programs) to its military focused carlel lighting strategy.

Recent talk aboui spillover violence has involved mostly the U.S., but many experts are more con cernedabout Mexico's weaker neighbors

GUATEMALA, 1 r

example, a country some fear is close to be coming a narco state.

GUERRERO is a known grow area, predominantly lor pot but lor some poppy as well. The National Drug Intelligence Center estimates heroin

product ion in Mexico increased nearly fivefold from 2004 to 2008.