Criminal dictatorship in Michoacán: the thin line between violence, political improvisation and the failures of the penal system

Last Sunday night, a group of between ten and fifteen members of the Michoacán Family arrived at the El Paraíso ranch in Zinapécuaro, Michoacán, where several men had gathered since the afternoon in a clandestine palenque to witness rooster battles. The aggressors, dressed as if they were military, arrived hidden in a distributor truck of potatoes Sabritas, like Trojan Horse Michoacán version, and just they passed through the entrance to the compound and killed about twenty people with their weapons known as goat horns.

His main target was a leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). Almost all the dead belonged to the four-letter cartel, although some of the victims were also galleros, according to information from local sources. Zinapécuaro was the last chapter in a series of violent events that in the last four months have done nothing but dramatically increase the death toll in Michoacán: since November 2021 to date, two journalists, two mayors and 48 people have been killed in three massacres.

The violence in Michoacán, and in much of the country, is, of course, due to organized crime, but also to the authorities and their lack of leadership, as well as to a sector of society. Javier Ulises Oliva Posada, a full-time research professor at UNAM, was categorical about this and stated that on the one hand there are the new state governments, which came to power only last June 6, who, without having a clear idea of what they want to do in terms of public security, and in the face of a weakness structural in local police, prefer to opt for improvisation.

“There are David Monreal's statements in Zacatecas — the governor asked to “entrust himself to God” after 10 bodies appeared in an abandoned van in front of the Government Palace —, or the case of Alfonso Durazo, even more controversial, because came from being the secretary of security when a group of criminals took the municipality of Caborca for more than 6 hours, and so did the case of Colima with the governor (Indira Vizcaíno) who even raised the possibility of requesting leave after 10 consecutive days of shootings in the state,” he explained to Infobae.

This cocktail of improvisation and lack of professionalism is used by criminal groups to expand their areas of influence or maintain them through violence. In the specific case of Michoacán, the traces of drug trafficking can be traced up to 40 years ago, but for the national security expert, one of the most serious mistakes dates back to the six-year term of former President Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), when he and his secretary of the interior, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, decided to tolerate the self-defense groups. “They gave entry to irregular and armed groups that we see today are indistinctly on one side or the other. They extort money from avocado and lemon producers and cover drug-producing areas,” said Oliva Posada.

But the situation in Michoacán, which also serves as a reflection of other entities of the Republic, should not only be attributed to politicians or these armed groups. For the expert, the social context is an equally important third factor that explains the current climate of violence. The Zinapécuaro massacre occurred in an illegal palenque without any kind of registration. For years this type of event has coexisted with organized crime. On November 21, 2021, in Zitácuaro, an armed commando broke into a palenque in the community of La Gironde, killing four assistants and injuring 11 others. In May 2017, another similar show in the municipality of Lazaro Cardenas was the scene of a confrontation between armed civilians.

“The practices of illegality in different societal meetings explain part of the climate of violence that has been endemic. It should be remembered that in these mountain areas, far from urban centers, these disputes over territorial control can occur more easily. Not only is it drug trafficking, it is also extortion, kidnapping, floor charges, murders of journalists and environmental leaders. They act as if it were some kind of criminal dictatorship,” said the academician.

On February 8, members of the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) and the National Guard recovered the municipality of Aguililla after more than nine months in which the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) was established. Father Gilberto Vergara told Infobae that they had never seen such a strong presence of the armed forces. There were at least 60 patrols that had taken over the municipal seat. However, expectations would not last long because only a month later the mayor of the municipality, César Arturo Valencia, was assassinated, very close to the winery of the Municipal Palace of Aguililla.

This paradox of the deployment of military forces without containment of violence, according to the expert, has not only to do with an issue of improvisation of decisions but also with a budget issue — Morena, the party to which the Mexican president belongs, cut a third of the budget allocated to municipal security — and limitations in the legal framework. “The porosity of the accusatory penal system, ironically known as the 'revolving door' — criminals take longer to enter than to leave — is unquestionable, because of these limitations criminals can act with impunity. They know that once they are presented to the authority they have very little chance of being prosecuted. This situation has led, over the years and decades, to a weakening of the size we are experiencing.”

For the researcher, President López Obrador's strategy of attacking causes and not effects directly is correct, but not enough. Simultaneously, the social fabric must be re-established and the law enforced, criminals punished and brought before the authorities. “A heavy hand is undoubtedly required. That's what the National Guard was created for. No one is talking about human rights violations or acts of arbitrariness. Not only is this a matter of force and subjugation, but a more consistent presentation of the Mexican State is needed to be able to deal with the situation in Michoacán and the country in general.”

Without a serious readjustment and a thorough revision, scenarios such as Zinapécuaro's are likely to continue to be replicated in Michoacán and other troubled regions of Mexico, Oliva Posada predicted, but stronger commitments from society are also required. “We must not accept or tolerate criminal practices as if they were commendable. Let us not spread the group music that advocates gender violence, crime and drug trafficking. We want the government and the authorities to do everything, but we as citizens also have a lot of responsibility for what is happening.”

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