Politics: Ties between organized crime and political figures pose a major challenge to Mexico’s stability and future
A key point of contention between the U.S. and Mexican governments has been the link between organized crime and key public officials and politicians. While tariff disputes have their ups and downs, this claim has been a constant for Washington, but has resulted in an unambiguous denial on the part of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
The issue has again come to the fore with Washington’s decision to revoke the U.S. visas of Mexican political figures it suspects of having ties to organized crime. According to journalist Tim Golden, U.S. authorities have had a list of several dozen politicians suspected of such ties, and the cancellation of their visas would only be the lightest sanction, since Washington can freeze their financial assets and launch criminal investigations to bring them to trial.
Sheinbaum faces the dilemma of protecting public officials who are allied with her government in the name of defending national sovereignty, or cleaning house. The latter course of action could provoke internal political divisions in her coalition. A favorable outcome does not seem to be in the cards.
For many observers, the situation has seriously deteriorated since 2018, when AMLO took office and declared his policy of “hugs not bullets” as a strategy for confronting organized crime. The cartels took this as carte blanche to step up their operations, and there is increasing evidence that organized crime has strengthened its ties to the political world on several fronts. Its modus vivendi has evolved from bribing state and local officials and judges individually, to taking over entire local governments and geographical areas. This has been coupled with cartel financing of election campaigns.
A new modality for this collaboration has been business ventures involving organized crime and public officials, which now competes with drug trafficking and migrant smuggling in terms of illicit profits. Cross-border fuel smuggling is a relatively new variant of such ties, and has cost the national treasury a whopping US$ 9.03 billion last year. Furthermore, there is a clear danger that this panorama could worsen with the June 1 judicial elections, as the opposition charges that many candidates have questionable backgrounds and, if elected, could further weaken the justice system as a bulwark against illicit activity.
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