Zetas cartel moves into the crosshairs
Gang is seen as heavy threat to Mexico’s national security
MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government is refocusing its drug-war strategy to take down the Zetas paramilitary cartel, a significant shift in approach that is likely to be met with increased violence, according to U.S. and Mexican officials familiar with the plan.
Underscoring the shift is a series of bloody confrontations in the past several weeks pitting the Zetas against Mexican marines. The targets of those clashes were “senior Zetas leaders,” said a U.S. law enforcement official. The battles led to dozens of cartel members being killed or arrested, helping to weaken what many consider to be the most violent cartel group and the one that poses the biggest threat to Mexico’s national security.
On Monday, an alleged top leader and founding member of the Zetas, Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar, known as “El Mamito,” was paraded before the media after his capture Sunday in Mexico state. He was named a suspect in an attack in February against two U.S. agents in which one was killed and the other wounded.
The U.S. law enforcement official confirmed the strategy against the Zetas and insisted that the U.S. government continues to play a minor role, limited to sharing “reliable intelligence” with Mexican officials.
A Mexican intelligence official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, played down the shift, saying that the Mexican government will “continue to look after targets of opportunity” regardless of criminal group, but added: “No doubt we have increased the pressure on the Zetas.”
A security expert applauded the move.
“Given the extreme levels of violence attributed to the Zetas, it would make sense for the government to focus its attention and resources on this particular group,” said Eric Olson, security expert at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute, which recently completed a weeklong fact-finding mission in Mexico City that included meetings with key U.S. and Mexican officials. “They may not be the most powerful or richest of the cartels, but they are amongst the bloodiest and are extending their reach from their base in the north and along the entire Mexican Gulf and into Central America.”
Over the Fourth of July weekend, Texas authorities warned U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to Nuevo Laredo, citing intelligence that the Zetas planned to target Americans tourists. So far, no incidents have been reported.
Some question whether the new strategy will work.
“The marines are capable of dealing a major blow to the Zetas, but they’re understaffed and underfunded,” said Alberto Islas, a security expert in Mexico City. “The marines have not affected their operations in a significant way. … That is why the Zetas have expanded into other states and countries. The marines are heading a containment strategy, not a decapitation strategy against the Zetas.”