Killings fill void left by exit of ‘ El Chapo’
Mexico’s homicide rate is up, and so is U. S. heroin use
Last year’s capture of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán led to a surge in homicides inMexico as cartel leaders fought to fill the vacuum created by his arrest.
The apprehension of Guzmán in January 2016 was hailed by Mexican and U. S. officials as a watershed moment in the war on drugs. But Mexico’s homicide rate for the year spiked to 21.3 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, a steep rise from 17.5 in 2015 that rivals record numbers earlier in the decade, according to a report released Friday by the Justice inMexico Project at the University of San Diego.
Mexico had just started emerging from its bloody battle with drug cartels, with murder rates dropping for four consecutive years from 2011 to 2014. Since the removal of Guzmán, violence is back on the rise. The drug lord was extradited to the United States in January to face criminal charges for his leadership of the trafficking syndicate known as the Sinaloa Cartel.
“It’s kind of two steps forward, one step back,” said David Shirk, director of the Justice inMexico Project and co- author of the report. “We took out a very powerful and important drug trafficker. But as a result, we have destabilized the ecosystem of organized crime in a way that has led to internal struggles within the Sinaloa Cartel, and encroachment from other organizations that would like to take over their business.”
The spike in violence also helps explain the resurgence in heroin use in the U. S. The problem has become so widespread that President Trump created a national opioid addiction commission.
Shirk said the battles between cartels have upset the “traditional” drug routes — including cocaine — that run from South America through Mexico to the U. S. That has made it more difficult for American users to find cocaine, opening the door for heroin and other opioids, which can be produced in Mexico and smuggled more easily into the U. S.
Mexico experienced its worst period of violence starting in 2007. The government quelled that violence through a combination of anti- corruption measures and big increases in military and police spending. Mexico received help from the U. S. government, which sends $ 320 million a year.
That could change under President Trump, who has proposed slashing State Department and foreign aid budgets 37%.