Recent news from Mexico: continuing problems and emerging threats Share This /

Public security in Monterrey

• The past week in Monterrey has witnessed almost daily violent public assassinations, bringing the total number of violent deaths in metropolitan Monterrey in the past year up to 1100. On Tuesday, May 31 five men and one woman were murdered at close to the same location where four taxi drivers were shot to death a week earlier. On Wednesday, June 1 unknown assailants threw a hand grenade into the Nuevo Leon state police headquarters, injuring three and killing one officer.
• Nik Steinberg explores how the cartel violence spread to Monterrey in “The Monster and Monterrey: the Politics and Cartels of Mexico’s Drug War” .
• A special report by Robin Emmott examines Monterrey’s transition from enjoying a reputation as the “Safest City in Latin America” in 2004 to facing daily firefights and “narco-blockades.” Monterrey’s national and international reputation as a leader in business, education, and development is at risk. Business leaders worry that the risk of violence, the threat of extortion, and the cost of security measures may lead wary investors and tourists to take their money elsewhere.
• Nuevo Leon’s ex-Secretary of Security and head of “Mexicanos al Grito de Paz” Aldo Fasci Zuazua warns that organized crime has divided Mexican society, concluding that “organized crime beat us.” Fasci Zuazua called on President Calderón to implement a strategy that capitalizes on the cartels’ internal divisions.
• Kindergarten teacher Martha Rivera Alanis’s video from inside her classroom as a firefight raged outside shows the impact narco-violence has had on the lives of ordinary citizens in Monterrey. Rivera, who kept her students calm during the ordeal by leading them in a sing-along, was honored this week for "outstanding civic courage.”

Security and the economy

• While Mexico has recovered well from the 2008-2009 economic downturn, many are concerned over the sharp slowdown of growth in the first quarter.
• Oil production has recovered following a five-year slump, but a recent study showed that Mexico will lose its spot as the world’s seventh largest exporter of petroleum and become a net importer by 2016 if the current demand and domestic supply of oil remain the same.
• On Thursday, June 2 El Universal reported that almost a third of Mexican economists believe that public insecurity poses the biggest threat to Mexico’s economic growth in the next six months.

Arms trafficking

• The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms study estimates that 90% of guns confiscated from cartels and submitted for tracing by Mexican authorities are from the United States. The AK-47, which is imported into the United States as a semi-automatic weapon and then easily converted to automatic, is the weapon of choice for organized crime, holding up to 30-round magazines. These high-powered weapons have allowed organized crime to overwhelm the police and even take on the military.
• While the southbound flow of arms from the United States into Mexico continues to provide the majority of the cartels’ weapons, reports indicate that Mexican traffickers are turning to Central America to obtain heavy arms. The ATF reports that since late 2009 the Zetas have bought military-grade automatic weapons and explosives from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—weapons that are “walking out the back door” from Central American military stockpiles.
• A new survey of guns purchased in the United States and trafficked to Mexicoshows that California’s tough gun control laws have pushed Mexican organized crime to other border states. The survey by Heart Newspapers shows that weapons from California account for only 3% of the weapons trafficking across the U.S.-Mexico border.

The spread of Mexican organized crime

• Many Mexican cartels have pushed into Central America, taking advantage of the weak state presence and endemic poverty. Jason Beaubien conducts a three-part investigation into how Mexican organized crime is endangering development in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
• Mexican organized crime has expanded into the lucrative venture of human trafficking , which is estimated to worth around $2 billion a year. Officials estimate that the majority of smuggled migrants come from Central America. The gangs often hold migrants for random, killing them if their families cannot pay.

This post was written by CIP intern Claire O'Neill McCleskey