Capture of El Chapo: Like a Drop of
Water in Rain (La Jornada, Mexico)
"Society demands to see all legal businesses under his control dismantled, and public servants, politicians, and members of civil society that helped him reach such heights, put behind bars ... Without politicians arrested, and their real assets and
property seized and forfeited, and even more; without reducing the availability
of drugs and combating the collateral damage to victims of civil society;
without the reduction and elimination of crimes associated with drug trafficking,
such as kidnapping and extortion; and without the destruction of the structures
of the rest of the cartels, the recapture of El Chapo
is in vain."
A U.S. Department of Justice wanted poster for Joaquín
Guzmán Loera, alias 'El Chapo.' With copious help from the United States, El Chapo is finally in custody - for the third time. But Should the average Mexican take any comfort in it?
In
December 2013 , the Attorney General's Office released a list of 69 of the 122 capos
most wanted for drug trafficking who were arrested or killed during President
Enrique Peña Nieto's administration. This was a
follow up on previous arrest priorities implemented under the administration of
Felipe Calderón, the success of who's security strategy
was measured based on the number of criminal detainees, and without connection
to the nation's prevailing insecurity.
On
February 21, during a presentation on governance and the rule of law as a strategy
for development at the 2014 National Industrial Convention, Interior Minister
Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said that of the 122 criminal ringleaders, 74 have
been detained.
Now,
with the arrest of Joaquin Guzman Loera, alias El Chapo, the number of captured organized crime leaders has
reached 75. However, it wasn't only the Mexican authorities that targeted El Chapo. The drug trafficker was one of the U.S. government's
most wanted criminals, with the Obama Administration offering a $5 million reward
for information leading to his capture [see photo box, right].
In
this context, Joaquin El Chapo Guzman was identified
by the U.S. Department of Justice as fugitive number W613028312, and was wanted
for violations of U.S. Codes 841 ( a) (1 ) and 846, which relate to
the production and distribution of illegal drugs in the United States. In
addition, along with Rafael
Caro Quintero and Vicente Carrillo
Fuentes, El Chapo was included on the Drug
Enforcement Administration's list of most wanted.
Today
[Feb. 24], the Interior Secretary Miguel Angel
Osorio Chong asserted that unlike the previous administration, his is taking
responsibility for the intelligence against offenders, and that the three
levels of government are working together. Yet perceptions about public safety remain
negative. According to The
National Institute of Statistics and Geography, 57.8 percent of the population
18 years and over consider crime and safety to be the most pressing issue confronting
the federal government.
In
December 2013, the National
Survey of Urban Public Safety reported that 68 percent of public considers
their residence unsafe, 69.9 percent of respondents rated the performance of police
as hardly effective or not effective at all in terms of crime fighting and crime
prevention (a pillar of the new strategy).
Therefore,
the detention of one kingpin doesn't guarantee improved security in the
country, because, as noted by Dr. EdgardoBuscaglia, to damage the structure of a criminal
organization like the Sinaloa
Cartel, which is located in 54 countries, one would need to fill in the
gaping holes of the Mexican state and the other states in which Sinaloa is
located, with functionally-independent agencies operating in unison, a
condition that is spectacularly absent in Mexico.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
With
this situation coupled with the recapture of El Chapo,
society demands to see all legal businesses under his control dismantled, and
public servants, politicians, and members of civil society that helped him reach
such heights, put behind bars, "because El Chapo
Guzman and his people have hundreds of Mexican politicians in their pocket,"
as Buscaglia put it, adding that it's time to start seeing
politicians arrested, and their real assets and property seized and forfeited.
During
his transfer to Toluca in 1993 [after which he escaped], El Chapo
asked officials who were escorting him: "How much money do you want? I
have a lot. I'll give you the names of the commanders, officials, people in my
service. I'm very fixed up."
Many
questions remain, for example, how and under what circumstances was El Chapo captured in 1993? How did he manage to escape on January
19, 2001, from the maximum security Puente Grande prison? Who facilitated his
escape? Who allowed him to reach this level of influence - and on a global
scale?
Without
these answers, and even more; without reducing the availability of drugs and combating
the collateral damage to victims of civil society; without the reduction and
elimination of crimes associated with drug trafficking, such as kidnapping and
extortion; and without the destruction of the structures of the rest of the cartels,
the recapture of El Chapo is in vain.
*Simon Vargas
Aguilar is president of Education and Training with Values, and is an analyst
on security, education and justice
