Security Drugs And Violence In Mexico

SECURITY, DRUGS,
AND VIOLENCE
IN MEXICO:
A SURVEY
7th NORTH AMERICAN FORUM
WASHINGTON DC, 2011

Eduardo Guerrero-Gutiérrez

This survey has been carried out for the seventh North American Forum meeting. The
report expresses the opinion of Eduardo Guerrero-Gutiérrez, who performed the study.
These views have not been adopted or in any way approved by the North American Forum
andshould not be relied upon as a statement of the North American Forum’s views.

Lantia Consultores, S.C.
Paseo de la Reforma 389, Piso 12,
México, DF, CP. 06500
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eduardo.guerrero@lantiaconsultores.com
© Copyright 2011
Designed by: Enrico Gianfranchi

PREFACE
For the second consecutive year, this survey was written under the auspices of PedroAspe,
former Mexican Minister of Finance, and North American Forum Co-Chair, to serve as a
reference document at the Seventh North American Forum (NAF). Also, as in the previous
year, Pedro Aspe requested Eduardo Guerrero the elaboration of the survey. NAF is an annual
meeting of American, Canadian and Mexican government and business representatives to
discuss a broad regional policy agendathat includes security, energy, and economic issues.
The Seventh NAF will be held at Washington, D.C. (October 6-8, 2011).
The survey is composed by five sections. The first one is a diagnosis with two components.
The first one is a brief description of Mexico’s security institutions. The survey includes a brief
update of the most significant changes on these institutions during the last year,especially a
report on the current situation of the police forces. The second component has to do with
the present dynamics of Mexican organized crime. Here, the survey provides an account
of Mexico’s drug trafficking organizations, including the different criminal activities these
organizations perform, their geographic distribution, and the relationships among them.
Also, the fragmentationof some of these organizations is described, and a new typology of
cartels is included.
The second section is about organized crime violence. Considering that violence trends are
changing quickly this survey includes a general update of the phenomenon. In addition to the
factors that explain increases of violence, the survey also points out the main factors that explain
the geographicdispersion of violence as well as its regional specifics. The third section reviews the
government’s strategy and actions against organized crime. This section includes an analysis of the
outcomes of the Federal Government’s deployment of the force against organized crime through
“joint operations” (operativos conjuntos), and an assessment of the government’s security policy
impact on violencelevels. The fourth section describes the general traits of the Mexican and North
American drug markets. Finally, the fifth section addresses Mexican public opinion; it brings
together the results of recent polls regarding security and government actions against organized
crime, and provides an account of the government’s communication strategy on security issues.
This Survey’s Data Sources
Thesurvey exhibits extensive public data from Mexican government agencies, and from
American and international agencies such as the U.S. Department of Justice and United
Nations. Some tables and figures derive from two databases constructed by the author,
through the systematic recollection of information in newspapers, weekly magazines, and
press releases from official agencies.

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The firstdatabase shows the number of organized crime executions. For its construction more
than 30,000 news articles related to organized crime homicides were collected. These
articles were taken from the following 19 national and regional newspapers: Crónica, El
Economista, El Financiero, El Gráfico, El Norte, El Sol de México, El Universal, Excélsior,
Imagen, Impacto, La Jornada, La Prensa, La...