Mexican authorities continue pushing a PR campaign on both the state and federal levels aimed at painting an embellished image that Mexico is fighting against organized crime. While government officials are busy announcing large deployments of police and military forces, as well as highlighting the arrests of minor criminals and portraying suspicious seizures as trophies, in reality, cartel bosses continue to operate with relative impunity.
As Breitbart Texas extensively reported, the PR campaign is the brainchild of Mexico’s top security official, Omar Garcia Harfuch. The security chief has been constantly embellishing seizures as a way to appease the U.S. government and head off threats of tariffs pushed by the Trump administration over Mexico’s alleged complicity with cartels. Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald J. Trump announced that he would be imposing a 30 percent tariff on Mexican imports, claiming that the country had not done enough against cartels.
Earlier this month, the Michoacan state government announced a large-scale deployment of troops for Operation Apatzingan — an effort to restore peace in a municipality that has seen much cartel violence. While on social media, authorities shared photographs of the deployment, local residents in Michoacan revealed to Breitbart Texas that the police presence is only within the urban areas, and they have not carried out any operations in the rural areas and ranches where drug cartels operate and carry out most of their violence.
As Breitbart Texas reported, in Michoacan, cartel bosses have been waging fierce turf wars using not only armies of gunmen, but also explosives and landmines that have killed Mexican soldiers. Despite the high levels of violence, Mexico’s government has not cracked down on those cartel bosses who include individuals tied to both Carteles Unidos and their rivals, Cartel Jalisco New Generation.
Local news outlets highlighted this issue last week when they pointed out a recent arrest by state police forces where authorities sent out a large contingent of officers and tactical units to arrest a man and woman who were riding a motorcycle that had been previously reported stolen.
In Mexico State, government officials recently announced a large-scale operation called Liberation, where they raided an extortion group tied to La Familia Michoacana cartel that had been targeting numerous businesses. La Familia is one of the six Mexican cartels designated by the Trump administration as a foreign terrorist organization.
The operation resulted in the arrest of eight low-level members of La Familia. While presenting the results of their work, officials claimed that the group had been extorting victims in 14 municipalities and that they had the support of corrupt public officials.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].
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