Mexico’s Drug War Moves Into Mexico City Amid Its Greatest Spike In Violence In 20 Years

Mexico’s military clashes with drug cartels in the nation’s capital, which has long been considered isolated from the drug violence afflicting other regions of the country.

Last Thursday, amid a backdrop of spiraling violence across Mexico, marines exchanged gunfire with a heavily armed gangs and eventually shot down eight gangsters in Tlahuac, an outer borough in Mexico City.

Suspected cartel members responded with a “narcobloqueo” facilitated by taxi drivers in the area who were affiliated with the gangsters. Major thoroughfares were blocked with buses and then set ablaze. In what normally was a bustling district of Mexico City, storekeepers kept their stores closed and residents stayed indoors as police in riot gear and marines in humvees patrolled the neighborhood. Meanwhile, flames consumed empty vehicles spotted along the streets.

Thursday’s violence was the culmination of months of investigation by Mexico’s marines into a well-known drug cartel boss named Felipe de Jesus Pérez Luna, nicknamed “El Ojos.” Pérez Luna oversaw drug deals to UNAM, Mexico’s largest university with a student body of more than 100,000 people, and had been known to kidnap enemies and extort local businesses. He was among the eight cartel members killed on Thursday.

Apart from the fact that gang violence seems to have traversed into new territory with the surge of supposedly cartel related bloodshed in Mexico City, perhaps the most unexpected aspect of Thursday’s incident was the reactions of locals, which revealed the strong ties that Pérez Luna’s group had with the community. Motorcycle taxi drivers who helped cartel members deliver drugs and stay on the lookout for authorities remained loyal to the gang leader. According to the Los Angeles Times, handwritten signs stating that “El Ojos” was a good man who “helped the people” began to appear throughout the neighborhood in the aftermath of his death.

Despite the popularity of the late gang leader among some of the residents, last week’s events have stirred fears among the wider population. If large scale cartel groups operate in the city, such groups might retaliate against authorities. While Mexico City always had problems with crime, it also has a reputation for being insulated from the cartel related violence ravaging surrounding Mexican states. The city, which is a cultural hub and home to Mexico’s political and economic elite, is generally regarded as distinct from the narco-states near the United States border and elsewhere in the country. Recent events have begun to threaten this image.

In response to Thursday’s events, Mexico City’s mayor, Miguel Ángel Mancera Espinosa, publicly insisted that drug cartels do not operate in the city. Mancera, a member of the left-of-center opposition party of the Democratic Revolution, claimed that the criminal group led by El Ojos was just a small-time operation in comparison to the more sophisticated international cartels that are afflicting other areas of the country.

“This is not about the presence of a cartel in the city; it is a band of small-level narcos,” Mancera said in a statement. “Obviously, this is a big organization and we are not minimizing it. … But we are not talking about the presence of a cartel in the city.”

Mancera has drawn much criticism for his assertions that there are no cartels operating in Mexico City. Ernesto Cordero of the conservative opposition National Action Party suggested that the recent incident in Mexico City disproves Mancera’s insistence that Mexico City is safe from drug cartel related violence.

“Reality has overtaken the comments of Mancera and demonstrates that in Mexico City organized crime operates through the narco trafficker cartels,” Cordero told reporters on Thursday.

Recently released data regarding violence across Mexico underscore events in the nation’s capital in the past weeks. The government released a report on Friday that indicated that violence in Mexico has reached new heights. This past June was Mexico’s deadliest month in at least 20 years, with a total of 2,234 murders across the country reported in that month alone. States that have traditionally struggled with violence such as Guerrero and Mexico state have seen increased murders this year. Yet states that do not typically see as much violence, such as Colima and Baja California Sur, which are popular for their tourist resorts, have also seen upshots in murders. The recent surge in violence in Mexico City, including Thursday’s incident, is just a small part of the trend of increased violence across the country.

As for the debate over what constitutes a “cartel” – and whether cartels are operating in Mexico City – it is unlikely that there is a simple answer. However, according to Francisco Rivas, the director of the National Citizen Observatory which monitors justice and security in Mexico, regardless of whether the small gangs in the capital are officially “drug cartels,” the days of Mexico City being isolated from drug related violence are over.

“What’s happening in Mexico City reflects the national outlook,” he said. “We have a crisis of organized crime.”

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