{"id":7475,"date":"2017-06-14T19:45:58","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T19:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/?p=6250"},"modified":"2017-06-14T19:45:58","modified_gmt":"2017-06-14T19:45:58","slug":"mexicos-hellish-drug-war-is-getting-worse-but-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/mexicos-hellish-drug-war-is-getting-worse-but-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexico\u2019s Hellish drug War Is Getting Worse, But Why"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/mexicos-hellish-drug-war-is-getting-worse-but-why\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>With violence at \u201chistoric levels,\u201d and no end in sight, it\u2019s time to ask: What\u2019s gone wrong in Mexico?<\/p>\n<p>Wars are not won by targeting the enemy\u2019s generals and leaving their ground forces intact. That\u2019s not a military campaign; it\u2019s not even a serious strategy. As Tolstoy notes in War and Peace, the French would still have gone on to invade Russia, even if someone had bumped off Napoleon.<\/p>\n<p><b>MEXICAN STANDOFF<\/b><\/p>\n<p>And the same rule applies to fighting organized crime groups. You can\u2019t defeat them by just busting top-dog mobsters, while allowing their armies of henchmen to grow and take over the countryside. Somebody always moves up, and from an historical perspective (here\u2019s looking at you, Prohibition), such trickle-down tactics appear futile.<\/p>\n<p>The powers that be in Mexico, however, would have you believe otherwise. Our southern neighbor is now home to the second deadliest conflict zone in the world after Syria, according to a recent survey. Although there is some debate about the metrics used in that study, there\u2019s no question that, as of now, the Mexican government is losing the fight against the cartels.<\/p>\n<p>And there\u2019s a good reason for it: The so-called \u201cKingpin Strategy\u201d employed by military and police in their fight against the cartels has proven itself almost as effective as holding a pocket magnifier over a termite den under a hot sun. You might focus on and fry a few that way, to be sure, but the rest will go right on happily devouring your house.<\/p>\n<p><b>A Lack of \u201cPax\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n<p>So far, 2017 has been a very rough year for Mexican crime fighters. The regional security plan established by President Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto in 2013\u2014which divided the country into five zones and included large-scale military deployments\u2014seems to have backfired.<\/p>\n<p>Violence is up by as much as 60 percent in the region that includes Sinaloa, where the crime syndicate formerly run by Joaqu\u00edn \u201cChapo\u201d Guzm\u00e1n is based. And homicides have increased sharply in each of the other four security zones as well.<\/p>\n<p>As opposed to previous spikes in violence, which tended to be localized, the first five months of this year have seen a nationwide rise in murders\u2014putting it on track to be the worst year for drug war mayhem since such records started to be kept in 1997.<\/p>\n<p>So what\u2019s behind the surging death tolls?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThroughout the drug war the Kingpin Strategy has been the primary tool of the Mexican government in counter narcotics operations,\u201d David Shirk, director of the Justice in Mexico program, tells The Daily Beast.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe effect of that strategy has been to cause internecine conflicts among criminal organizations that are vying to fill the leadership vacuum,\u201d Shirk says.<\/p>\n<p>As cartels fragment, they actually become more violent. And Sinaloa State, part of the region that has seen the sharpest rise in violence this year, is a prime example.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe arrest of Chapo Guzm\u00e1n was a major contributing factor to the unraveling of the Sinaloa cartel,\u201d Shirk explains, referring to the erstwhile \u201cPax Sinaloa,\u201d which kept other groups in line. The takedown of Chapo \u201chas allowed for other organizations to rise,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf this is what we get when we take out Chapo Guzm\u00e1n, I think the average Mexican citizen might question whether it\u2019s worthwhile going after kingpins.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The splintering of major cartels into small and fractious rival gangs also has accelerated of late, leading to a dog-eat-dog mentality that pits well-armed cartel units against each other in vicious turf wars. Once the gloves come off nobody is safe, and civilians\u2014and especially journalists\u2014have become popular targets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you continue to go after the top guy, [like] Chapo Guzm\u00e1n, you should expect to see another Chapo with a different name, but the same MO, in a very short period of time,\u201d says Shirk, who is also a professor at the University of San Diego. \u201cNow that we\u2019ve taken out Chapo the question is who\u2019s the next kingpin we\u2019ll have to take out?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/mexicos-hellish-drug-war-is-getting-worse-but-why.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>News Moderator: Ron Strider <a href=\"http:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">420 MAGAZINE \u00ae<\/a><br \/>\nFull Article: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theyucatantimes.com\/2017\/06\/opinion-mexicos-hellish-drug-war-is-getting-worse-but-why\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Opinion: Mexico\u2019s hellish drug war is getting worse, but why? &#8211; The Yucatan Times<\/a><br \/>\nAuthor: Jeremy Kryt<br \/>\nContact: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theyucatantimes.com\/contact-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Contact Us &#8211; The Yucatan Times<\/a><br \/>\nPhoto Credit: ELIZABETH_BROCKWAY<br \/>\nWebsite: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theyucatantimes.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Yucatan Times &#8211; Yucatan News, Politics, Economics and more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With violence at \u201chistoric levels,\u201d and no end in sight, it\u2019s time to ask: What\u2019s gone wrong in Mexico?<br \/>\nWars&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/2017\/06\/mexicos-hellish-drug-war-getting-worse\/\" class=\"read-more\">[Read More]<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1616,9,1,3],"tags":[4184],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7475\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}