Articles, Government » The Crippled State of Juárez.

The Crippled State of Juárez.

by Anonymous
April 12, 2010

The large investments and capital transfers made by displaced Ciudad Juárez citizens has stimulated El Paso’s economy and social scene. Some El Paso citizens argue that this has been great for their city’s economic development. This may be true, but have these citizens considered at what cost? More than 4,500 deaths, thousands of lost jobs and a community that lives in fear is an excessive price to pay for economic development.

The following is an account of the events that lead to the present reality of El Paso’s border community.

June 9, 1993

A sad day for the Sinaloa drug cartel. On this date, Guatemalan authorities apprehended Joaquin Guzmán Loera, nicknamed El Chapo. El Chapo, predecessor of drug lord Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, was sentenced to 20 years in jail and was scheduled to be extradited to the United States in early 2001. He remained powerful even behind bars because of his influence over prominent politicians, prison guards, and public office candidates.

2000

Seven years passed and El Chapo was now incarcerated in the “maximum security” Puente Grande prison in Jalisco, Mexico. In this same year, the PAN party celebrated the victory of Vicente Fox, the first non-PRI party President in over 70 years.

January 19, 2001

El Chapo escaped from prison a few days before his scheduled extradition, apparently hidden inside a laundry van. Curiously enough, Calderon’s recently appointed Sub-secretary of Public Security, Jorge Tello Peón, visited the prison a few days prior to the escape to conduct a “surprise inspection” of the facility. Peón announced El Chapo’s escape and was later investigated for possibly collaborating in the incident. Although the Mexican government found no connection, Peón resigned 45 days later citing personal reasons. Peón’s resigning sparked a series of investigations that lead to the implication of at least 78 people.

With El Chapo’s return, the Sinaloa Cartel, whose main operation was smuggling cocaine from Colombia to the United States, began to rebuild.

El Chapo began to exercise his tremendous influence to extend the Cartel’s operations across the country. He became Mexico’s top drug kingpin in 2003 when Cárdenas, leader of the Gulf Cartel, was arrested. With Cárdenas’s arrest, the Sinaloa Cartel became the most powerful Mexican cartel. The Sinaloa Cartel added production, transshipment, storage, and marijuana and heroin distribution to its list of illicit activities.

2004

Mexico held its presidential election. Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, the top contender, lost to PAN candidate Felipe Calderón Hinojosa by a small margin (35.31% to 35.89%). The small margin raised suspicions of corruption and electoral fraud because a vote-by-vote recount was never granted, although a general recount took place.

President Calderón vouched to fight the drug cartels by cutting their money supply and using the military to command captures. Calderon’s pledge marks the beginning of Juárez’s current violent reality.

Juárez’s drug trafficking activity was under the control of the Juárez Cartel, an ally of the Gulf Cartel, lead by Vicente Carrillo Fuentes. Juárez Cartel’s activities ran smoothly and rarely had incidents with authorities and civilians. The city ran its normal course; business was flourishing, U.S. imports and exports were growing, and economic development was advancing. Although Juárez occasionally did see murders, the targets of these attacks were connected to drug-related activities.

Late 2007

The Sinaloa Cartel, intending to extend its control, began to infiltrate the operations of the Juárez Cartel. This sparked an inter-cartel war that lives to date.

2008

Up to this point, Calderon had curiously directed his anti-drug war only to El Chapo’s enemies. Calderon’s administration captured leaders of the Gulf Cartel, dissidents of the Sinaloa Cartel, and leaders of the Juarez Cartel, including Alfredo Beltrán Leyva.

In addition, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán, Chapo’s brother, and Claudia Adriana Elenes Salazar, Chapo’s cousin, were both released from jail. Furthermore, El Chapo openly married beauty queen Emma Coronel Aizpuru in Canales, Durango in 2007. Authorities did nothing to stop him. Finally, a study by the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México yielded that out of 53,174 drug trafficking related detentions, only 941 were related to Sinaloa Cartel operations.

Pressure mounted as Calderon’s initiatives began to take a toll on the Juárez Cartel’s finances and operations, which lead to an obscure and rarely mentioned event. Governor José Reyes Baeza walked into his Chihuahua City residence to find his family at gunpoint. The governor has had his hands tied to the Juárez Cartel since. The Juárez Cartel has responded to its decreasing money supply by extorting prominent individuals, business owners and civilians, and brutally killing innocent bystanders to demonstrate authority.

The Future

These events outline an inter-cartel power struggle that has killed thousands of Mexican residents, annihilated business creation and growth, and has caused community anger, fear and disbelief.

As Juárez’s sister city, El Paso has a duty to support its brothers and sisters from Juárez. It is essential that Calderon’s successor do everything in his power to stop the violence in Mexico.