Politics: Implications of AMLO’s laissez-faire attitude towards cartels for security and future relations with Washington
Following last week’s discussion of President López Obrador's legacy in terms of the assets and liabilities for governance he bequeaths the next presidential administration, we are expanding our focus to the main issues on the national agenda, starting with the further erosion of the already tenuous rule of law. Behind his “hugs, not bullets” approach to cartels, ostensibly to prevent an escalation of violence, lurks a permissiveness that throws the door open for criminal organizations to further expand territorially, politically, socially and economically. This phenomenon is reflected in the extent of violence witnessed in the run-up to the June 2 elections.
This is the context in which Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada's letter was published on August 9, in which he claims he was bound and put on a flight to the US after being fooled into thinking he was headed to a meeting with Sinaloa Governor Ruben Rocha (Morena). In his account of the events, he refers to the Governor of Sinaloa as a person very close to him and says that he was kidnapped in a meeting at which he had been told the governor would be present; furthermore, the head of his bodyguards for the last 10 years was an active commander in the Sinaloa prosecutor's office.
At this point, it would hardly be unreasonable to suppose, at least as a hypothesis, that the risk perceived in Washington of a more organic and deliberate link between the so-called "4T" and organized crime would be a cause of further deteriorating relations between Mexico and the US.
Now read on...
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