Mexico and Organised Crime
The escalating violence is a clear message according to Elijah Glantz, research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute – the UK’s leading independent defence and security think tank. The CJNG are showing they are still in power, still in control and furious that authorities would dare to take such a step against them. He tells us: “This violence means two things, one that the CJNG – that El Mencho was at the head of – are defending against external or internal pushes to seize their operations. “There will be continued typical shows of forces, using the extreme violence they have used for the last decade in their rise to deter rivals, competitors or parties wishing to capitalise on their perceived weakness. Secondly, this will be a very interesting and violent dialogue – violence over words – with Mexican authorities for crossing the line by killing a cartel leader. This will either continue to spiral or they will find some sort of truce, that is yet to be seen. The wild card is that President Trump will be putting a lot of pressure to continue these types of operations.”
