Mexico: Cartel Busts Made Violence Worse

Arrests of “high-value” cartel targets by Mexican authorities have fragmented the organizations, The New York Times reports, causing violence to spike as factions fight for control. Small groups don’t have the monopoly-like control of larger groups, and don’t have the resources to bribe federal government officials, leading them to focus on municipal levels of government and resulting in mass kidnappings. “For Mexican organized crime, El Chapo is not the future,” a former Mexican intelligence official told the Times. “El Chapo is a remnant, a powerful remnant, but a remnant of the past all the same.”