Great Decisions 2012 Winter Update: Mexico


Great Decisions Updates are issued seasonally and provide groups with the latest news and analysis on topics. The Winter 2012 Update is current as of January 13, 2012. Download the Winter 2012 Update as a PDF here.

by Leslie Huang, assistant editor

 

In December, the New York Times reported that undercover narcotics agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)—with the support and knowledge of the Mexican government—had laundered millions of dollars of drug money for Mexican drug cartels over the past several years, in an effort to gain intelligence about their operations and their leaders.  In one such operation that began in 2007, the DEA allegedly helped to launder millions of dollars and to smuggle cocaine across the Texas border for Harold Mauricio Poveda-Ortega (“The Rabbit”), a cocaine trafficker from Colombia who has been linked to the Beltran Leyva cartel, in an effort to infiltrate his operation.

Republicans in the House of Representatives announced that they would open an investigation into these operations. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., however, was defiant when called to testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee on December 8 about “Fast and Furious,” an arms-smuggling scheme carried out by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The government ended up losing track of hundreds of weapons sold to drug cartel associates under that operation, and two such guns were implicated in the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent last year.

Unofficial statistics from the U.S. Border Patrol indicated that illegal crossings of the U.S.-Mexico border are at the lowest level in 40 years. 327,500 apprehensions of illegal immigrants were reported during 2011, a 25 percent decrease from the 448,000 immigrants apprehended in 2010.

Although the fences and federal agents along the border appear to have somewhat stemmed the flow of humans, drug cartels are circumventing law enforcement with elaborate tunnels, sometimes equipped with elevators or ventilation systems. Connecting Tijuana to San Diego, the tunnels primarily serve as a highway for marijuana—over 32 tons of it, worth $65 million, was seized from a single tunnel discovered by U.S. and Mexican authorities late last year.

In December, Mexico announced that it had foiled a plot to smuggle Saadi Qadhafi, one of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi’s sons, into the country. Saadi was reportedly planning to employ a string of safe houses and fake identities to make his way to Mexico from Niger, where he fled last fall.

On December 2, Humberto Moreira, the president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), stepped down from his post. He denied any involvement in a scandal involving fraudulent loans made during his tenure as governor of Coahuila, a state that is now $3 billion in debt, but acknowledged that the scandal was becoming a distraction from the PRI’s presidential candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto. Moreira had been governor until early 2011, when he became head of the PRI; his brother Ruben is now governor of Coahuila.

The ruling party of President Felipe Calderón, the National Action Party (PAN), has been beset with setbacks at all levels of government. Calderón’s sister, Luisa María Calderón, lost the gubernatorial election of Michoacán to Fausto Vallejo Figueroa, the PRI’s candidate.

Meanwhile, a Mexican human rights lawyer, Netzaí Sandoval, filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC), accusing Calderón and the Mexican military of participating in, tolerating and covering up crimes against humanity and war crimes. The complaint also calls for an investigation of Joaquin (“El Chapo”) Guzman, a fugitive drug cartel leader. Meanwhile, Calderón named Alejandro Poiré as the new interior minister in November, replacing Francisco Blake Mora, who was killed in a helicopter crash. Formerly Mexico’s intelligence chief, Poiré will oversee the government’s war on the drug cartels.