Measuring the Aftermath of a Cartel Arrest in Mexico

Updated July 16 - A drug cartel in Mexico fought back with a vengeance in recent days after authorities took a step forward in their battle against organized crime. On Friday, federal police arrested Arnaldo “La Minsa” Rueda Medina, a top-level kingpin active in a cartel known as “La Familia.” Bloodshed marked the next few days as gunmen attacked federal police stations, mostly in cities across Michoacan, the state where Rueda operated as a second in command for the cartel. The latest violence raised concerns that the arrest opened a pandora’s box of brutality. But the federal government said the attacks constituted short-lived acts of revenge and that it would not be intimidated by drug gangs. Officials also rejected any notion that they would give in to calls from La Familia calls suggesting negotiations.

The weekend’s cartel killings claimed 30 lives in 48 hours. The grisliest of the attacks involved the execution of a dozen federal officers, whose bodies were found on the side of a Michoacan road. The Los Angeles Times reports that, even though the rate of cartel murders has dropped since February, the latest offensive has stirred up a cartel “wasp nest” and Mexicans appear increasingly wary of the government’s ability to rein in organized crime and over accusations of human rights violations by military forces. The recent days’ killings led columnist Ciro Gómez Leyva to compare the synchronized, Hollywood-style nature of the attacks to the Tet Offensive launched during the Vietnam War in 1968.

But the federal government refuted the idea that the latest violence constitutes a point of no return. “The cartel violence will only last a few days,” said Mexican National Security spokesman Monte Alejandro Rubido García in an interview with MILENIO. He described the attacks as evidence of damage inflicted by Mexican forces on La Familia. After a man who identified himself as Servando ''La Tuta'' Gomez, leader of La Familia, called into a television station on July 15 to suggest negotiating a truce with authorities, the government came out against the idea. In a speech rejecting the idea of the federal government negotiating with criminals, Secretary of the Government Fernando Gómez Mont said: "For as much as they mask their actions with all types of explanations, these groups extort, threaten, kidnap, torture, and murder without scruples." The Mexican Senate backed the refusal to dialogue with the cartels. To underline the point, authorities dispatched additional troops to Michoacan Thursday.

President Felipe Calderón’s government launched their offensive days after he took office in January 2006. Since then, his government has deployed some 45,000 troops in a war claiming thousands of lives, including 3,600 this year alone. Along the way, deep levels of corruption have been exposed, not only in local police forces but also in government posts. As recently as the end of May, police arrested 10 mayors with cartel links in Michoacan, Calderón’s home state. Then authorities arrested the half-brother of Michoacan’s governor for his ties to La Familia earlier this week. Although such investigations linked officials in all three major political parties to organized crime, some say the country’s frustration with ongoing violence had the most negative effect on Calderón’s center-right National Action Party in the July 5 congressional elections.

After the weekend attacks, Calderón said the cartels will not intimidate the federal government. At AS/COA’s Mexico City conference in March, the president stressed the shared responsibility with Washington in combating the drug war, given the smuggling of arms from and consumption of drugs in the United States. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged “co-responsibility” when she visited Mexico in March, as did U.S. President Barack Obama during his trip there a few weeks later. Obama is expected to return in August to discuss the joint security program known as the Merida Initiative.

Learn more:

• AS/COA coverage of organized crime’s hemispheric reach, visits to Mexico by President Obama and Secretary Clinton, and a new border security initiative.
• “The Mexico Challenge,” by COA’s Eric Farnsworth, Poder magazine
• President Calderón’s response to the latest wave of attacks and his remarks at the 2009 AS/COA Mexico City conference.
• July 16 remarks by Mexico's Secretary of the Government Fernando Gómez Mont rejecting cartel suggestions of negotiations.
• U.S. State Department page about Merida Initiative.
• Mexico’s El Universal graphic charting the leadership of La Familia.
• Interactive map from The New York Times with information about Mexico’s major cartels and where they operate.
• “Mexico Under Siege”—multimedia coverage of the drug war by The Los Angeles Times.