Sarah Dunn

Narco Politics in Mexico

Kalli Doubleday

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Narco Politics in Mexico

Drug wars have terrorized the people of Mexico for decades. There are currently seven

major drug cartels in Mexico: the Tijuana/Arellano Felix Cartel; the Gulf Cartel; the Juarez

Cartel; La Familia Michoacana; the Sinaloa Cartel; Los Zetas Cartel; and the Beltran Leyva

Cartel (CNN Library, 2014). Due to their geographical proximity to the United States, these

cartels are “major producers and suppliers to the U.S. market of heroin, methamphetamine, and

marijuana and the principal transit country for cocaine sold in the United States. (Beittel, 2013).

These cartels make “between $19 and $29 billion dollars annually from U.S. drug sales” (CNN

Library, 2014). Mexico is also believed to supply 7% of heroin in the entire world (Beittel,

2013). Since December 2006, the Mexican government has been at war with these cartels, while

the cartels are simultaneously fighting each other for control over certain territories (CNN

Library, 2014). The Beltran Leyva cartel -- founded by the four Beltran Leyva brothers, Arturo,

Carlos, Alfredo and Hector— allied “with Los Zetas against the Sinaloa, Gulf and La Familia

Michoacana cartels” (CNN Library, 2014). Los Zetas Cartel is considered to be the most lethal of

all the cartels currently present in Mexico. Los Zetas Cartel is made up of “former elite members

of the Mexican military” that used to be hit men for the Gulf Cartel (CNN Library, 2014). Soon

they broke away and allied with the Beltran Leyva cartel with the agenda of dominating the

territory controlled by the Gulf Cartel: Tamaulipas and Nuevo León (CNN Library, 2014).

Mexican citizens have endured atrocious acts of violence bestowed upon them by cartel

influence: hangings, shootings, bombings, arson and evident disregard to human life. The

amount of mayhem is excruciating, such that skinning and decapitations prevent many from

acting out against the organized syndicates. The majority of the acts of violence done by cartel

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members are publicly displayed and sometimes recorded; finding their way online to instill

tremendous amounts of fear in Mexican citizens and assert power over one another for many

years. More recently, on September 26, 2014, in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico, a major event that has

sparked worldwide protest was the abduction and suspected mass murder of 46 Mexican

normalistas: students that were learning to become teachers. (Azul, 2014). These students were

from a teacher training college situated in Ayotzinapa and were “travelling to Iguala to protest

against what they said were discriminatory hiring practices” when they were stopped by local

police officers (BBC News, 2013). On the same day, mayor of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca was

attending a speech that was being given by his wife, Maria de Los Angeles Pineda (Archibold,

2014). Ms. Pineda was in charge of the family services office in Iguala and was “giving a speech

in the central square celebrating the year’s accomplishments” (Archibold, 2014). Attorney

General Jesus Murillo Karam says that Ms. Pineda was giving her speech when police opened

fire on the buses that the students were in, “killing three of them and three more people in nearby

vehicles” (BBC News, 2014). Members of a local gang called Guerreros Unidos, which means

United Warriors, came forward and said that 17 students were initially seized by local police

officers and were then handed over to the gang to be killed and buried (Archibold, 2014). A mass

grave consisting of 23 bodies that was found a few days after the incident was initially believed

to have belonged to some of the students, however, “forensic tests suggested 28 bodies found

there were not those of the students, but Mr. Murillo Karam said they “may have been flawed”…

and Argentine forensic experts flown in to help with the investigation” carried out further tests

and ultimately confirmed that the bodies did not belong to the students (BBC News, 2014). In a

country were the infiltration of drug cartel members into the local, state, and even the national

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government is unconventionally common, it came to no surprise to the citizens of Mexico that

“police officers testified that they had been told to intercept the students ‘on the mayor’s orders’

to prevent them from disrupting his wife’s event” (BBC News, 2014) by telling them to stop the

students and “teach them a lesson” (Archibold, 2014). Furthermore, Ms. Pineda has known

affiliations with the Beltran Leyva cartel, having two brothers who were known operatives in the

cartel that were killed in 2009. As for the mayor, “members of Mr. Abarca’s own party, the left-

leaning Party of the Democratic Revolution, said this week that they had presented complaints to

the federal prosecutor’s office about Mr. Abarca’s suspected ties to organized crime, but that

nothing was done” (Archibold, 2014). The accusation made in the complaint even included

testimony from a witness who said that they saw the mayor shoot and kill a social activist in

2013, but Mr. Murillo Karam said he “never received conclusive evidence of such

allegations” (Archibold, 2014). Arrest warrants have been issued for Ms. Pineda, Mr Abarca, and

the city’s former public safety director, Felipe Flores Velasquez, all of whom disappeared after

the shooting.

The abduction of the students and even the reasons behind drug war violence present in

Mexico can very well be explained by its geography. Mexico’s human-environment interaction

helps explain why the cartels have grown to be such powerful entities by outlining how, as well

as why, the cartel operatives use the environment around them for economic gain. The

geographic idea of diffusion -- the movement of people, ideas or even products-- helps explain

how convenient it is to run or be part of a drug cartel in Mexico because of mostly illegal

institutions that make up the drug trafficking industry. Lastly, both the geographical theme of

human-environment interaction for economic incentive, and the theme of diffusion as being

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responsible for easy access to resources needed to run the drug industry, help explain the third

geographical theme of territoriality—establishing dominion over a certain region. Mexico has

been run by a corrupt government infiltrated by the drug cartels for many years. The events that

took place in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico is just one of many cases where innocent people lost their

lives and they help explain what kind of environment the citizens of Mexico have been enduring

for many years.

The human-environment interaction theme of geography helps explain why the climate

has caused economic stagnation and why citizens are looking for other ways to use available

resources and environment to increase their income. In an article written by Carmen Luna for

CNN Expansión titled Guerrero: Víctima del estancamiento económico y la violencia [Guerrero:

Victim of economic stagnation and violence], Luna describes the primary, secondary and tertiary

activities that make up Guerreros gross domestic product (GDP). Primary activities, which

include agriculture and mining, makes up 5% of Guerreros GDP; secondary activities which is

mostly industrial contributes 21.3%; and tertiary activities which include commercialism,

tourism and services, contribute 73.4% (Luna, 2014). Guerreros average GDP between 2011 and

2013 was averaged at only 0.5% in comparison to the 3% mean at the national level according to

Banamex—a Mexican bank (Luna 2014). Guerrero focuses primarily on agriculture with “15.4%

of the hectares that makeup the state… by producing maize, coconut, coffee, mango, lemons,

melon and watermelon as well as on the production of precious metals” (Luna, 2014). However,

the agricultural sector of Mexico, which is considered to be a semi-peripheral country, has been

directly affected by frequent bad weather events, such as the number of tropical storms that took

place in September 2013 which was disastrous for the entire state of Guerrero that relied on the

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production of agricultural goods. A large portion of the economy also relies on tourism,

especially its popular resorts on the beaches of Acapulco and Ixtapa (Luna, 2014). However, with

the agricultural sector left in shambles due to the weather, many citizens who relied on

agriculture to sustain their lives struggle to find new ways to make money. This struggle for

economic stability may be one of the factors of why individuals decide to become operatives in

the drug cartels because of how much money is circulated within the industry. Citizens may also

try to use their experience in agriculture as a way to become involved with the cartels by actually

growing marijuana and opium on fields, just like the ones present in Iguala, Guerrero (Grillo,

2014). Although one can only speculate, this thirst for money and power was demonstrated by

the former mayor Jose Luis Abarca. Jose Luis Abarca became mayor of Iguala in 2012 but did

not have any political experience prior to that (Sole, 2014). Up to that point he had been selling

clothes and straw hats mostly on the street (Sole, 2014). However, “In 2008, before beginning his

political career, he announced the construction of a 70,000 square meter shopping plaza, the

"Galeria Tamarindos," with seven theaters and 50 stores. The origin of the money that financed

the project remains unknown” (Sole, 2014). If the allegations against Mr. Abarca are proven with

hard evidence that he is in fact affiliated with the Beltran Leyva Cartel, then it is possible that

Mr. Abarca joined a cartel, just as many other individuals have, in order to become wealthier

regardless of the status of the national economy. The infiltration of the cartel members or

affiliations with local, state and national government officials is a good way of demonstrating

how powerful these groups are in Mexico.

The second geographical theme of diffusion helps explain why getting involved in the

drug-cartel business in Mexico is very convenient. “On September 10, 2010, Mexican President

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Felipe Calderon tells CNN en Español, ‘We live next to the world's largest drug consumer, and

all the world wants to sell them drugs through our door and our window. And we live next to the

world's largest arms seller, which is supplying the criminals’” (CNN Library 2014). What the

President of Mexico was referring to was the relationship between Mexico and the United States

in regards to physical diffusion of drugs from Mexico into the United States, and weapons from

the United States into Mexico. Due to the proximity between Mexico and the United States, the

United States is very receptive to the physical form of diffusion. One of the measures taken by

the United States to stop the physical diffusion of weapons into Mexico was when “on July 14,

2011, The U.S. government announced a plan to require gun dealers in California, Arizona, New

Mexico and Texas to report the sales of semiautomatic rifles under certain conditions in an effort

to stem the flow of guns to Mexican drug cartels” (CNN Library, 2014). The United States has

taken measures of creating a physical barrier, the border wall, as well as a barrier of stricter

regulations of who and what is allowed into and out of the country. In addition, many Mexican

nationals diffused in the form of migration, due to fear instilled by the cartels and have sought

asylum in the United States (Beittel, 2014). “According to the U.S. Department of Justice, there

were 6,133 requests for asylum from Mexico in 2011, about double the number of requests made

in the prior year, and only 104 requests (1.7%) were granted” (Beittel, 2013). Another form of

diffusion that the United States is attempting to place barriers on is the diffusion of the Mexican

drug cartels expansion of operations in the United States, or expansion diffusion. In 2013, “the

gang known as Los Zetas is recruiting U.S. prison and street gangs, and non-Mexicans, for its

drug trafficking and support operations in Mexico and the U.S.” (Seper, 2014). This means that

the drug cartels are slowly attempting to make their way across the border into U.S. cities and

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towns to facilitate ties in those areas. This relatively easy access to diffusion across the United

States and Mexican border help to further explain why it is very convenient and economically

efficient to join a Mexican drug cartel, which might also have been an influencing factor of Jose

Luis Abarco’s and María de los Ángeles Pineda’s involvement with the Beltran Leyva cartel. A

final form of diffusion that resulted from the consequences of the violence that took place in

Iguala is that of hierarchical diffusion. Hierarchical diffusion was mainly demonstrated in the

protests that took place a few weeks after the incident in Iguala. Although the incident took place

in Iguala, protests against the kidnappings took place all over the world, including the Americas

and Europe, with the epicenter still being Mexico City (Azul, 2014). “Elsewhere around the

globe students and youth showed their support for the Mexican protests. In Venezuela, students

protested at the Central University of Venezuela. ‘We are making their rage ours,’ declared a

student” (Azul, 2014). These protests demonstrate hierarchical diffusion because the student

protests in Mexico and their beliefs are spreading to other important cities all over the world,

some of which have the power to act, such as the United States. All of these forms of diffusion,

especially those between Mexico and the United States demonstrate how relatively easy it is for

powerful people to influence others using bribes for money, power, or both. It is also the root of

why cartels are struggling for power with the desire to be hegemonic over the other and establish

their desired territories.

The final geographic theme of territoriality is what explains the dramatic increase in

lethal drug-related violence in Mexico that has led to the deaths of more than 60,000 people

between 2006 and 2012 (CNN Library, 2014). “Territoriality can be defined as any attempt to

assert control over other people, resources, or relationships over a specific geographic area

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(Knox and Marston, 2010). The amount of power that cartels have over one another is largely

determined by which territory they occupy making territory one of the most important aspects in

drug trafficking. The rival cartels’ desire to establish dominion over one another by obtaining

certain territories is why the magnitude of violence has increased so drastically in the past six

years. Along with fighting with each other, the cartels also want to facilitate power over the

citizens by instilling tremendous amounts of fear. Narco Politico, or Narco Politics, is a term

used widely throughout Mexico to describe how drug cartels are infiltrating the government

system, “from local police forces to city and state governments. Sometimes, they control the

officials; other times, cartel members themselves are the officials” (Grillo. 2014). Infiltration of

the government has allowed drug cartel members to act with impunity, which only further

increases the use of violence: “They (politicians) respond to rowdy students in the only way they

understand: with extreme violence designed to cause terror. They stick the mutilated body of a

student on public display in the same way they do rival traffickers” (Grillo, 2014). With so much

widespread knowledge and acceptance of the presence of corruption facilitated in the Mexican

government, the presumed involvement of the Iguala mayor, his wife, and the head of the

Security Council in the Beltran Leyva cartel was not surprising: “It was something of an open

secret…residents of this city (Iguala)… readily whisper that city leaders ‘were all narcos’” and

that the federal government did not really take action to investigate or bringing them to justice

(Archibold, 2014). “Marcela Turari, a Mexican reporter from Iguala for the Mexican Weekly,

Processo, said: ‘We’ve seen many episodes of brutality in recent years… but perhaps because

they’re students, this one feels different’” (BBC News, 2014).

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At the beginning of the drug wars in 2006, by 2007, approximately 2,837 people were

killed. By 2012, that number has multiplied a little over 21 times in just six years. Demonstrators

that marched and rallied all over the world. The level of distrust that citizens have toward their

government is so drastic that the other student demonstrators “are demanding that the

investigation into the killing and abduction of their classmates be taken out of the hands of the

government and placed into the hands of a people’s committee” (Azul, 2014). Mexico has

regrettably become a functional region under narco politics because of all the connections that

have been established between cartel operatives and leaders of the country. The disputes for

dominion over certain territories due to their receptivity to diffusion into the United States has

only worsened relations between the cartels, and the acceptance of narco politics has only

heightened the violence bestowed upon the citizens of Mexico.

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References:

Archibold, R. C. (2014, October, 8) In case of missing students, hillside mass graves point to a death march. The New York Times. Retrieved by http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/09/world/americas/in-case-of-mexicos-missing-students-hillside-mass-graves-point-to-a-death-march.html?_r=1

Azul, R.. (2014, October, 24). Mass protests in Mexico over Iguala Massacre. World Socialist Web Site. Retrieved from http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/10/24/mexi-o24.html BBC News (2014, October, 11). Mexico: Iguala mass grave bodies ‘not all of missing students’. BBC News: Latin America & Caribbean. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-29585715

BBC News (2014, October, 12). Mexicans unimpressed my cartel raids after student horror. BBC News: Latin America & Caribbean. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-29587084

BBC News (2014, October, 23). Missing Mexico students: Iguala major “ordered attack.” BBC News: Latin American & Carribean. BBC News: Latin America and Caribbean. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-29732720

Beittel, J. S. (2013, April, 15). Mexico’s drug trafficking organizations: source and scope of the violence. Congressional Research Service. Retrieved from http://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R41576.pdf

CNN Library (2014, October, 15). Mexico Drug War Fast Facts. CNN World. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/02/world/americas/mexico-drug-war-fast-facts/

Grillo, I, (2014, October, 9). Mexico’s deadly narco politics. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/10/opinion/mexicos-deadly-narco-politics.html?_r=0

Luna, C. (2014, October, 7). Guerrero: Víctima del estancamiento económico y la violencia [Guerrero: Victim of economic stagnation and violence]. CNN expansión. Retrieved from http://www.cnnexpansion.com/economia/2014/10/07/guerrero-una-economia-afectada-por-la-violencia

Sole, C. (2014, October, 24) Mayoral couple flee after attack on Mexican students. Yahoo News. Retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/mayoral-couple-flee-attack-mexican-students-215541120.html