A lot of the states where violence is surging are controlled by the opposition right wing parties that have always had connections with the cartels. I live in a state where the government is run by right wing PAN; The party endorsed by Trump’s GOP and it is clear to everyone there is a lot of drug money flowing through government and industries.
And this propaganda is perfect to normalize American intervention to take down the rightfully elected social democrat party in power. Funny how that works.
96% of crimes in Mexico go unsolved? Cartels are making hundreds of thousands of people go missing? These sound like numbers that Trump would pull out of his ass, how the actual fuck is the Mexican government this worthless?
The US got them to attack the sinaloa cartel in the 00’s, and the CIA may or may not have helped rig the presidential election for Calderon to do it.
Sinaloa played a sort of long game, worked with established organized crime players. When it got smashed smaller regional players took over that took a more adversarial approach to organized crime players, and each other. In doing so many brought on former Mexican Army for protection and muscle, the zetas, that took over some of the cartels themselves.
They have a huge corruption problem, and the cartels are very big, even having partial control over the goverment. This creates a situation in which few people in power are both willing and capable of doing something, as they are either bribed or murdered.
As an European, it sounds like Mexico is getting invaded by terrorist groups who are trying to take control of the government, and entire country is currently losing to said groups. What happens if the government actually falls? Does UN coalition go in? Does US become world police again?
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Old article, but I think it brings the point across https://www.wsj.com/articles/mexican-army-helicopter-was-shot-down-with-rocket-propelled-grenades-1430783784
And maybe https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/world/americas/mexico-cartel-weapons.html
I am surprised one Cartel hasn’t tried to push them all out and take full control of the government by now. Get a state sanctioned cartel war and eliminate all their competition with government resources.
IMO they prefer this pseudo-clandestinity. There’s a huge difference between operating and securing a criminal group and actually fully running the whole actual country. Plus is not a single cartel, there’s a whole web and war of cartels, depending on the zone.
The cartels presence also depends on the of part of México you look at, and CDMX, the capital, is not in a situation as bad as other regions.
Expanding their ranks often involves forced recruitment, while taking over new territory requires the “annihilation of rival groups”, said Vargas. But simply murdering other gang members is likely to catch the authorities’ attention: instead, cartels bury corpses in unmarked graves, burn them to ash or even dissolve them in vats of acid.
I remember when multiple school busses of students went missing and it turned out the Mexican military thought they were rivals of the local cartel pretending to be students, so they handed the busses over to said cartel. Who immediately murdered everyone on board, then hid the bodies and the vehicles after they realized they fucked up and killed a bunch of innocent students.
The cartels are capital-E Evil to a degree most people can’t conceptualize, and the authorities are hopelessly corrupt and openly assist them.
So, Breaking Bad wasn’t exaggerating too much then?
