Mexico Must Not Capitulate to Criminals
By: Elliot Johnson
Shots rang out across the Mexican city of Culiacán this January. Before the fires emanating from the hundreds of burning cars had died out, Ovidio Guzmán lay behind bars. Ovidio’s father is the notorious “El Chapo,” the imprisoned former leader of the Sinaloa cartel. Ovidio possesses a large stake and leadership position in this cartel. After carrying out a deadly operation that cost ten Mexican soldiers their lives, Ovidio was captured. However, a federal judge in Mexico city has made it clear that Guzmán will not be immediately extradited to the U.S. like his father was in 2017. This refusal sends a clear message of cooperation and capitulation to the cartels that are pervasive in daily Mexican life. If the Mexican government wishes to rid the country of cartel influence, it must set the precedent that it will not negotiate with criminals. The Mexican government must extradite Ovidio Guzmán to the U.S. as soon as possible.
The Mexican government is no stranger to this situation. In fact, Mexican authorities first arrested Guzmán in 2019. However, President Manuel López Obrador’s administration set a dangerous precedent by choosing to release him after hundreds of henchmen affiliated with the Sinaloa cartel pitched a series of battles against governmental law enforcement. Obrador stated that he released him “so as not to put the population at risk.” While it is understandable for President Obrador to make this decision, as releasing Guzmán likely saved many lives, by letting Guzmán go, Obrador willfully negotiated with some of the most dangerous and violent criminals in the world; it is estimated that at least 30,000 people are killed each year in Mexico due to the activities of the Sinaloa and other cartels. Not only does this mean that the Mexican government was willing to capitulate to the demands of their country’s biggest enemies, but it also sent a message to all Mexican cartels that the government will concede and shy away from conflict. For this reason, what happened in 2019 is unacceptable and cannot happen again.
Culiacán after cartel soldiers set fire to several vehicles in early January 2023.
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Considering that corruption is so prevalent in Mexico, Guzmán escaping from captivity or receiving a light sentence is entirely possible. After all, his father, the notorious “El Chapo,” escaped from Mexican prisons twice. In both of these cases, El Chapo had been placed in a “super-maximum” security prison. Since El Chapo easily escaped, Mexican detention centers are clearly unreliable when it comes to securing high-profile criminals. The Sinaloa cartel has mastered springing its leaders from Mexican facilities and could easily do so again. To prevent this, and to avoid further bloodshed, Guzmán should be extradited to the United States, where his father has already languished for three years. Not only will this lower the risk of escape, but it will also end the cartel’s violence immediately, as they will no longer have a reason to fight once all hope for Guzmán’s release has been lost.
By denying Guzmán’s immediate extradition to the United States, the federal government of Mexico is, once again, sending a weak message to the criminals of their country. Further, the Mexican government is effectively nullifying its own authority in favor of the cartels’ authority. If the federal government of Mexico wishes to rid itself of its cartels, it must start by extraditing Guzmán to the United States as soon as possible, proving to the criminal cartels and to the world that it will not negotiate with those who use violence against others. Allowing cartels to walk all over the government only proves that it is these very cartels, not the government, that have true control over Mexico.
