Showing posts with label Mexico. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mexico. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Mexico's Most Violent Cartel is Now Without a Leader, But That May Not Be a Good Thing


Just before dawn yesterday morning, Mexican Marines captured and detained the monster known as Miguel Angel Trevino Morales – the leader of Los Zetas, arguably the largest drug cartel in Mexico today. Trevino Morales has been accused of ordering the executions of hundreds of immigrant workers from Central America, and as head of Los Zetas, is responsible for hundreds of pounds of drugs moving north into the U.S. every single week. In recent years, Los Zetas have even expanded their operations further than this, to include human trafficking, distribution of pirated DVDs and CDs, and kidnapping and extortion. To say Los Zetas and their infamous leader are a detriment to society is like saying Osama Bin Laden was a criminal – it is a significant understatement. However, is this arrest worthy of the celebrating that is undoubtedly taking place throughout Mexico and many of the border towns on the U.S. side in Texas? What has really been accomplished? For anyone who knows the history of the drug cartels in Mexico, the answer is not much.

Trevino Morales

Monday, March 18, 2013

Enrique Peña Nieto: On a Path to Reform in Mexico?


Earlier this year, I wrote about the Mexican presidential elections and the massive wave of protests they inspired. Yet in his first few months in office, Enrique Peña Nieto has taken impressive steps that have led many to be cautiously optimistic for Mexico’s future. Despite the ongoing drug war, which saw an equal number of kidnappings under Peña Nieto as under his predecessor in the same period, the new president has enacted educational reform, arrested a famously corrupt teacher’s union leader, made a cross-party “Pact for Mexico,” and brought privatization of the state oil company PEMEX to the table. He has also initiated an investigation into the over 27,000 people who were “disappeared” during Felipe Calderon’s presidency.

"La Maestra:" Elba Esther Gordillo, teacher's union leader arrested for embezzlement