Crime in Mexico – El Mencho A general overview of crime in Mexico from somebody who has lived here since 1986.
Contents
History of Mexico and Crime
In the history of Mexico, violence has been a common element. When the Indian tribes were the only inhabitants, their histories show a lot of violence. One of the pyramids near Mexico City, they had yearly 20,000 human sacrifices numbering. These were other competing tribes usually.
The Spaniards came and brought violence with them. They made Catholic converts of the indigenous people offering them a choice, become Catholic or have your head cut off. They choose Catholicism,yet under the Catholic altars in these Catholic churches, they had idols of their previous gods hidden under the altar. The priests knew this. So the people conformed to this violence, but with hidden resistance.
Government Corruption
Likewise, the governments in Mexico have had a lot of corruption. Under Spanish rule, different noble families from Spain came to Mexico to settle the country. These nobles were given large areas of land where the head of the family was the ruler, like a governor. From the granting of these “caudillos” fiefdoms to how they were run, there was a corruption and strong arm basis to everything. The law means little. It is who you know, and how you make backroom deals with people that really matters.
With the independence of Mexico from Spain, Mexico set up its own self-government, and these powerful families are the ones that formed the political parties and hold the real power in Mexico. They are also the richest people in Mexico.
The common folk “got by” somehow, but the same thing as with the rich passed with the poor. They call this “amiguismo” here. The word comes from the base of “amigo” or friend, and when you need power turned on at a property, you file the request, and it can take months to never. But if you have a friend in the power company, within a few days, you can be up and with power. If he cannot get that done, he will come and help you direct connect to rob power from the power lines directly without a meter.
The Drug Cartels
It is very common knowledge that the cartels are powerful, and basically have been protected by the government. Both the previous president Lopez Manuel Obrador (Morena party) and Claudia Shenbaum (Morena party) took a lax position as far as organized crime. Obrador’s slogan still rings in Mexico politics with Shenbaum, “abrazos no balazas” (hugs not bullets). Shenbaum says that she will not make a war against crime because in doing so, she would be infringing on the drug lord’s “human rights.” Those human rights are more important in Claudia’s mind than the rights of the people who have the possessions stolen, the lost of their health by drugs, or the loss of their lives by cartel violence. In Mexico, the movement and organization of human rights has gone completely crazy. That organization basically defends the rights of criminals, and ignores the rights of all others.
Whatever the shady relationship between the government and the crime lords, they usually don’t come to justice. Once I saw where there was a large drug bust, and I mentioned that to a Mexican friend. He told me he was not impressed. Why not? Because the government does prosecute, capture drug shipments, and even end up “accidentally” killing criminals in trying to arrest them. But usually that is a smaller group that didn’t pay their protection money to the government or the larger cartel. (One cartel is favored while the other is not and a nuisance to the one with favor. So the favored drug cartel will give the police information about the whereabouts and shipments of other groups because there is an intense competition between them. So not everything “good” you see in the news has any real good in it. They are clearing the field for the cartels in power.
The Death of Mencho and the Jalisco Cartel CNGJ
Mencho’s group is very large and powerful. They grew very fast. He used the American franchise system, where instead of killing the competition, he enlisted them in his organization. They were paying a percent of their business to him, and in return he didn’t fight them, and even helped defend them. The complication that system presents today is very simply, who takes over? They say that this cartel is the largest and most powerful cartel in the world, with roots in 40 countries around the world. Since President Claudia Sheinbaum gave the green light on the operation to capture el Mencho, she should be very nervous these days (and for the rest of her life).
El Mencho made his reputation in violence. His trademarks were beheaded people and people with their arms and legs cut off (presumably before they died). Whoever takes over the cartel will have to equal or be more violent than that to gain the respect and loyalty of the group. Usually when a head of a cartel is taken down, there are turf wars that break out, and in Sinaloa (a Mexican state), that has happened, and it was several years ago, and there is still no winner.
Mexico awaits to see what will happen next.
Claudia Sheinbaum and Donald Trump
Sheinbaum is a Communist. She is pretty much the opposite of Trump. But Donald Trump is a special president. Whether you like him or hate him, you have to deal with him, and he is hard to deal with. He gets his way it seems as a rule. So el Mencho fell as Trump wanted (to stop drugs from coming into the US), but we have no idea how things will shape up in the next few years.
Crime in Mexico – El Mencho