Mexico decapitates Knights Templar, but the narco-networks remain

Two recent arrests of drug kingpins were welcomed by embattled President Enrique Peña Nieto. But Mexico's history is of allowing drug empires to survive the deaths of their leaders.

|
Edgard Garrido/Reuters
Omar Trevino Morales (2nd r.), known as the Z42 leader of the Zetas drug cartel, is escorted by soldiers during a media conference on his arrest in Mexico City March 4, 2015. Omar Trevino, brother of captured ex-Zetas leader Miguel Angel Trevino, was caught by Mexican soldiers and the federal police in the northern city of Monterrey at around 4 a.m. local time on Wednesday, a senior government official said.

Mexican authorities Wednesday captured the second cartel kingpin in the span of a week, good news for President Enrique Peña Nieto, who is struggling with voter anger over his handling of drug-related violence in parts of the country.

But the back-to-back, high-profile arrests are mostly a coincidence, analysts say, and will do little to curb violence in the long term.

“Until there’s a real change in government strategy [to combat criminal organizations], this growing list of captures means little … for security,” says Erubiel Tirado, a security expert at the Iberoamerican University in Mexico City.

On Feb. 27, Mexico caught its most wanted drug lord, former primary school teacher Servando “La Tuta” Gomez. He was the head of the Knights Templar, a criminal organization that controls large parts of the western state of Michoacan and has been in conflict with local vigilante groups.

Just five days later, Mexican police and soldiers arrested Omar Treviño Morales. Also known as Z42, Mr. Treviño Morales led the Zetas, considered Mexico’s most brutal criminal organization and known for vicious tactics like beheadings and the mass killing of migrants.

These “gets” top off a list of other high-profile arrests since President Peña Nieto took office, including the 2014 capture of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, head of the Sinaloa Cartel.

“This arrest strengthens the rule of law in the country as we continue to advance to a Mexico at peace,” Peña Nieto tweeted of Treviño Morales’ capture.

Tirado says there’s merit to putting high profile criminals behind bars. But unless the official corruption that abets Mexico's web of criminal syndicates is tackled, the gains will prove fleeting.

“The news of a kingpin capture is good, but it’s better if his accomplices are then targeted as well,” he says, referring to corrupt police and soldiers, or businessmen who launder cartel money. “You’ll notice, when the government makes these announcements they aren’t followed up by other related arrests or other lines of investigations.”

Peña Nieto’s strategy has that weakness in common with his predecessors Felipe Calderon and Vicente Fox, from the National Action Party (PAN). All three appear to believe that chopping off the head of an organization would lead it to crumble.

But the Zetas are a good example of how capturing a kingpin only goes so far. Treviño Gomez took over the organization from his brother, and now another sibling is expected to step into the top role.

Peña Nieto’s approval ratings dropped to 39 percent in December, according to a poll by Mexican newspaper Reforma. It’s the lowest level for any Mexican president since the mid-1990s. Public support took a big hit in September, due in large part to how his government responded to the disappearance of 43 teaching students in Guerrero state. His credibility was further hit by a home-purchase corruption scandal.

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 Mexico decapitates Knights Templar, but the narco-networks remain
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/Latin-America-Monitor/2015/0305/Mexico-decapitates-Knights-Templar-but-the-narco-networks-remain
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe