HomeNewsAnalysisMexico State Violence a Reflection of Chaotic Underworld
ANALYSIS

Mexico State Violence a Reflection of Chaotic Underworld

GUERREROS UNIDOS / 22 JAN 2013 BY DUDLEY ALTHAUS EN

Mexico's gangland violence is licking once again at the crowded and chaotic edges of the nation's capital, claiming more than two score lives since January 14 and illustrating again how chopping off the head of an organization can lead to turmoil below.

Officials blame a war between the Familia Michoacana and an alliance formed by two breakaway groups: the Caballeros Templarios, or Knights Templar, and a recently formed gang called the Guerreros Unidos. Smaller cells of the Zetas may also be in the mix, according to police in Mexico state, which encloses Mexico City like a cupped hand.

At least 46 people have been killed gangland style in a week, including 16 killed last Monday in and around Toluca, Mexico state's capital and another 14 murdered in the sprawling working class bedroom communities on Mexico City's eastern flanks. 

Authorities tie the current slaughter to a feud between Jose Maria Chavez-Magaña, the purported boss of the Familia Michoacana in Mexico state, and several of his former lieutenants, who split with him over money issues last spring and who have since allied with the Knights Templar and Guerreros Unidos.

According to the newspaper Reforma's version of events, Guerreros Unidos was founded by Mario Covarrubias Salgado, nicknameed "El M" o "El Gordo" (the Fat Man), a former underling of the Beltran Leyva crime family. He had briefly joined the Familia Michoacana after Mexican marines killed clan boss Arturo Beltran Leyva in December 2009, but quickly left to start his own group. Banners signed by the Familia have accused Mexican state police officials of allying with Guerreros Unidos.

InSight Crime Analysis

Renewed violence in Mexico state again throws into question the effectiveness of the US-supported kingpin strategy of former President Felipe Calderon, which focused on taking down the country's 37 most important gangsters in order to disrupt their trafficking networks and splinter their gangs into less threatening sizes. Critics, including Mexico's new attorney general, Jesus Murrillo-Karam, say the strategy spawns even more violence as former gang lords' underlings turn on one another to inherit the the criminal empires.

That appears to be what's happening now in the state of Mexico.

Federal officials had assured Mexicans that Familia Michoacana -- whose brutal falling out with the Zetas in 2006 initiated the hyper-violence still racking the country -- was finished following the reported December 2010 killing by security forces of of Nazario Moreno, nicknamed "the Craziest One." Moreno had instilled the Familia Michoacana with a quasi-religious ethic along with its criminal livelihood.

Soon after Moreno's disappearance, his Familia underbosses split into antagonistic factions, several creating the Knights Templar and going to war with the remnants of Familia and other gangs in west-central Mexico. Moreno's death has always been questioned -- his body was never recovered following the shootout in which he was reported killed. And press reports last fall claimed that new evidence seized by security forces suggest he's still alive and perhaps directing the Knights Templar. Sources also tell InSight Crime the crime boss has called local business leaders to meetings to discuss regular extortion payments.

Whether he's dead or alive, Moreno's exit from active control of the Familia broke up what was once a cohesive -- if brutal and politically threatening -- gang into viciously warring fragments. Those slivers now are fighting for control of retail drug sales and wholesale trafficking routes in the states of Mexico, Guerrero and Michoacan.

The gangs likely have been joined by some former members of the Beltran Leyva Organization, which splintered following Arturo's death by Mexican naval special forces troops. Led by Arturo's brother Hector, the Beltran Leyvas are still active but their influence has waned in Mexico state and Mexico City's suburbs since the August 2010 arrest of Arturo's lieutenant, Edgar Valdez Villarreal, known as La Barbie.

President Enrique Peña Nieto, who served as Mexico state's governor during the Familia's rise to power there, has vowed to focus more on reducing violence than attacking drug trafficking or kingpins. Some analysts have suggested that strategy must entail negotiating peace with at least some of the gangs.

Even if Peña were open to such talks, the kaleidoscoped reality of Mexico's underworld today -- evidenced by Mexico state's ongoing bloodshed -- makes them difficult to achieve at best.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

CRIMINAL MIGRATION / 15 FEB 2023

In Mexico's hotly contested Tierra Caliente region, one priest is caught between the CJNG and a smattering of violent criminal…

FEATURED / 20 SEP 2022

Authorities in Arizona are sounding the alarm about the rising use of outsiders as drivers for human smuggling.

FENTANYL / 28 SEP 2022

Migrant encounters and seizures of the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl are often erroneously conflated and linked together.

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Chemical Precursor Report continues to be a reference in the region

19 MAY 2023

For the second week in a row, our investigation into the flow of precursor chemicals for the manufacture of synthetic drugs in Mexico has been cited by multiple regional media…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime’s Chemical Precursor Report Widely Cited

THE ORGANIZATION / 12 MAY 2023

We are proud to see that our recently published investigation into the supply chain of chemical precursors feeding Mexico’s synthetic drug production has been warmly received.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime’s Paraguay Election Coverage Draws Attention 

5 MAY 2023

InSight Crime looked at the various anti-organized crime policies proposed by the candidates in Paraguay’s presidential election, which was won on April 30 by Santiago Peña. Our pre-election coverage was cited…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in OAS, CARICOM Reports

28 APR 2023

This week, InSight Crime’s work was cited nine times in a new report by the Organization of American States (OAS) titled “The Impact of Organized Crime on Women,…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Staff Cited as Experts by International Media

21 APR 2023

This week, InSight Crime deputy editor, Juan Diego Posada, was interviewed by the Associated Press about connections between the ex-FARC mafia and Brazilian criminal groups, and…