Will Mexico's capture of 'El Chapo' improve security?

One cartel king behind bars is reason to celebrate. But the outlook is complicated.

|
Adriana Gomez/AP
This house was one of several connected by tunnels that drug boss Joaquin Guzman used to evade authorities.

After the euphoria of El Chapo’s arrest, the reality: one drug lord behind bars does not solve Mexico’s entrenched security issues and violence – even if he was one of the world’s most wanted criminals.

Saturday’s remarkably undramatic capture of Joaquín Guzmán, otherwise known as “El Chapo” or "Shorty," will do nothing to address the challenge of Michoacán. The Western Mexican state to the south of Mr. Guzman’s Sinaloa and the site of a worrisome battle between the Knights Templar cartel and grassroots self-defense forces was, until last weekend, the focus of Mexican security forces.

This high-level arrest won’t have an impact in Veracruz, either. The Gulf coast state has witnessed a dramatic spike in kidnappings and extortion already this year, and 10 journalists investigating state government corruption have been killed in the three years of the current governor’s administration.

Nor is it likely Guzmán’s detention will reduce a trend that by some calculations has Mexico City winning the dubious title of kidnapping capital of the world.

Guzmán ­– who evaded arrest for more than a decade through connections and a level of public support in his home turf of Sinaloa state – was a leading symbol of Mexican impunity. Despite what his arrest won't change in the immediate future, his capture in a modest oceanfront condominium in Mexico’s Pacific coast resort town of Mazatlan was indeed a big victory on several levels.

Taking down the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, which Guzman developed into one of the world’s most sophisticated and ruthless illicit-trade organizations, was a huge win for Mexican security forces. It was a testament to Mexico’s Marines, who carried out the operation. It shined a light on the close working cooperation between the Mexican Navy and the US Drug Enforcement Agency – a relationship with a level of trust often lacking at other higher levels of government.

Guzmán’s fall will no doubt be a feather in the cap of Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto. That’s true even though President Peña Nieto has de-emphasized the war with Mexican narcotraffickers that his predecessor, Felipe Calderón, pursued relentlessly.

For now, Guzmán’s arrest is being hailed as progress. However, if it results in a resurgence of violence, it could end up refocusing attention on the security problems Peña Nieto has tried to downplay as he pursues his priority economic reforms.

“Everyone has been fairly optimistic about Peña Nieto’s reforms, but there’s a dark side to this picture and it’s the security question,” says Jorge Chabat, an expert in Mexico’s drug wars and security issues at Mexico City’s Center for Research and Teaching in Economics.

Since Peña Nieto took office in December 2012, “his defining approach has been, ‘Let’s not talk about the security problem, let’s focus on economic reform,’” says Mr. Chabat.

It may be, however, that the fall of Shorty could force a refocusing on Mexico’s security challenge.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Will Mexico's capture of 'El Chapo' improve security?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Reality-Check/2014/0224/Will-Mexico-s-capture-of-El-Chapo-improve-security
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe