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This is historic news because it is the first time in Mexican history that a former defense minister has been arrested. At the same time, it is the second spectacular arrest in less than a year. In December, former Security Minister Genaro García Luna was arrested on charges of collaborating with the powerful Sinaloa cartel.
And it is the same New York court that previously convicted the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is now investigating the García Luna case and setting his sights on Cienfuegos.
The ministers cooperated with the cartels
García Luna served as minister under President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) and Cienfuegos under President Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018). Thus, two people who for twelve long years have played a key role in the fight against drug trafficking seem to have had contact with the cartels. In other words, there are many indications that Mexican institutions have long been infiltrated by organized crime and that ministers have also worked to promote certain drug cartels.
The revelations cast dark shadows over the entire Mexican state apparatus. How long has the cartel been involved? Who has been involved? Who knew but didn’t say anything? Are you still under the current government? But for current president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, paradoxically, arrests can also be an internal political asset.
It can benefit President López Obrador
López Obrador came to power in 2018 with promises to eradicate the corruption that, according to him, characterized the dominance of traditional parties. The fact that ministers from previous governments are now at risk of imprisonment confirms their worldview. And as long as the López Obrador government itself survives unscathed, the president will continue to claim to be on the side of the common people and thus different from his corrupt predecessors.
But the arrest of former General Cienfuegos could also backfire on López Obrador. During the election campaign, he vowed to end the war on drugs by curbing new recruitment of the cartels with scholarships and apprenticeships for young people. But after pressure from the army and the United States, López Obrador left the soldiers on the streets of Mexico.
And during his nearly two years in power, López Obrador has given the military, which has a much better reputation than the country’s police force, an increasingly important role in terms of security in the country. The fact that a high-ranking military man has now been arrested runs the risk of seriously damaging the image of the military as relatively honest, thus complicating the president’s current security strategy.
Hundreds of thousands have died
With Cienfuegos, the United States can show off one more trophy in the fight against organized crime. But in the name of honesty, the case is very shameful even for the American authorities. The Mexican state in general and the security apparatus in particular are among the United States’ closest partners in the war on drugs.
And it’s hard to imagine that the United States has innocently ignored the twilight business its allies seem to have been involved in for decades.
Almost 50 years have passed since the then President of the United States, Richard Nixon, declared a war on drugs. Hundreds of thousands of people have died, the vast majority Hispanic, with the problem coming close to a solution. With each passing year, the death toll in Mexico increases and organized crime seems to be eating away at the state apparatus.
