By JESSICA GUERRERO MORELIA, Michoacán — The evolution of Mexico’s cartels over the last decades has been exponential and incredibly abrupt. Despite much-touted government efforts to dismantle and eradicate these criminal groups since the beginning of the drug war in 2006, these criminal organizations have managed not only to survive, but to thrive, strengthening and strategically expanding beyond the country’s
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By EARL ANTHONY WAYNE, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico
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By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS Based on the Guacamaya Leaks — a collection of over 4 million confidential Mexican government documents that were released in early October by a group of national hackers exposing how the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) has been monitoring journalists using Israeli Pegasus spyware and how the military under his regime sold arms to
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By EARL ANTHONY WAYNE, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico
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By MARK LORENZANA Ricardo Mejía Berdeja, Mexican Undersecretary of Public Security, announced on Wednesday, Oct. 13, that César Augusto “N,” alias El Gafe — the alleged leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) involved in the shooting at a shopping center in Zapopan, Jalisco, on the afternoon of Oct. 2 — was arrested. In a press conference, Mejía Berdeja explained that El
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By MARK LORENZANA Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) confirmed on Thursday, Sept. 29, the disappearance of two elements of Mexico’s Secretariat of the Navy (Semar) since March of this year in Acapulco, Guerrero. AMLO, however, denied that the sailors had been assigned as permanent bodyguards of José Narro Céspedes, a senator from López Obrador’s leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena). During his daily morning press
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By MARK LORENZANA Six police officers from the municipality of Calera in the north-central Mexican state of Zacatecas were killed on Wednesday, September 28, after gunmen opened fire on them while they were exercising at a sports center. Zacatecas Governor David Monreal condemned what he called a “cowardly attack,” and offered his condolences to the family, loved ones and colleagues
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By MARK LORENZANA In the last year, complaints for the crime of extortion increased in most of the boroughs in Mexico City. In 2020 there were 54 complaints filed at the Cuauhtémoc Mayor’s Office, but by 2021 the complaints grew to 73. According to data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP), from January to
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By MARK LORENZANA Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Wednesday, Sept. 21, issued an executive order designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations. He likewise instructed the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to “take immediate action” to “keep Texans safe amid the growing national fentanyl crisis.” At the roundtable discussion and news conference, Abbott likewise sent a letter to U.S.
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By MARK LORENZANA A shootout that lasted more than an hour on Monday, Sept. 12, forced the residents of Orizaba, in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz, to run for cover in a day of violence that left an armed civilian dead. According to police reports, the shooting took place at 4 p.m. in the city center, where armed individuals
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