Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Attacking the top

The Mexican government strategy now is to fight the drub cartels at the very top. Will this make a difference? Will it reduce violence? Will it preserve a sense of legitimacy? Will it help win the next election?

Capture of a Drug Lord Is a Small Win in Mexico

The Mexican police captured the leader of the Knights Templar drug gang on Friday, a victory against the brutal group but one that experts say will make little difference in the larger battle against criminal organizations that are rapidly splintering.

Gómez

The gang leader, Servando Gómez — known as La Tuta, or the Teacher — was one of the most-wanted kingpins in the country…

His arrest is unlikely to bring peace to Michoacán, where the federal police and soldiers have weakened the Knights Templar only to have smaller groups arise, fight over territory and branch out to kidnapping and extortion. The pattern has been repeated across Mexico as the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto arrests and kills kingpins such as Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the leader of the powerful Sinaloa cartel. He was arrested in February 2014…

Zetas Leader Is Arrested in Mexico

The leader of the Zetas — a Mexican criminal group notorious for its brutal murders — was arrested Wednesday without a shot fired in northern Mexico, as the authorities toppled yet another kingpin in a long and aggressive campaign against the group…

Mr. Morales, 38, had not led the group for long. In July 2013, his brother, Miguel Angel Treviño Morales — considered one of the gang’s most ruthless enforcers — was arrested just a year after taking over from another top leader, Heriberto Lazcano…

Authorities Kill Gang Leader, Mexico Says

The Mexican authorities said on Tuesday that they had killed another leader of the feared Knights Templar drug gang, adding to a string of successes against the organization that seemed to leave only one boss still at large: a former schoolteacher believed to be hiding in the hills of the Pacific state of Michoacán…

El Chapo, Most-Wanted Drug Lord, Is Captured in Mexico

Just before 7 a.m. on Saturday, dozens of soldiers and police officers descended on a condominium tower in Mazatlán, Mexico…

The forces were following yet another tip about the whereabouts of one of the world’s most wanted drug kingpins, Joaquín Guzmán Loera — known as El Chapo, which means “Shorty” — who had eluded such raids for 13 years since escaping from prison…

Mexican marines and the police, aided by information from the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, immigration and customs officials and the United States Marshals Service, took him into custody without firing a shot, according to Mexican officials…

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