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Topic summary

Mexican drug war

Mexican drug war
Belligerents
Foreign support:
Other cartels and gangs:
Defunct cartels:
Other support:
Commanders and leaders
See full list:
See full list:
Strength
  • Total: 784,300
See full list:
    • 368,000 police officers
    • 277,000 soldiers
    • 107,000 National Guard members
    • 23,300 self-defense group
    • 9,000 guerrilla group
Cartels: 175,000 (2022 est.)Casualties and losses
  • Total: 4,986 killed or missing
See full list:
    • 743 servicemen killed and 137 missing
    • 4,038 federal, state, and municipal police killed
    • 66 members of the Policía Comunitaria killed
    • EPR:
    • 2 EPR members killed
  • Total: 12,456 killed (2006–10 est.)
Captured:
    • 121,199 cartel members detained (2006–2009)
    • 8,500 cartel members convicted (2006–2010)
  • Total deaths: 350,000–400,000 (2006–2021)
Other info:
    • 41,034 dead in war conflicts between identified parties from 2006–2020
    • 60,000+ missing (2020)
Presidency
Tenure
Establishments and projects
Events and controversies


The Mexican drug war (Spanish: Guerra contra el narcotráfico en México) is an ongoingasymmetric armed conflict between the Mexican government and various drug trafficking syndicates. When the Mexican military intervened in 2006, the government's main objective was to reduce drug-related violence. The Mexican government has asserted that its primary focus is on dismantling the cartels and preventing drug trafficking. The conflict has been described as the Mexican theater of the global war on drugs, as led by the United States federal government. Analysts estimate wholesale earnings from illicit drug sales range from $13.6 to $49.4 billion annually.

Although Mexican drug trafficking organizations have existed for decades, their power increased after the demise of the Colombian Cali and Medellín cartels in the 1990s, and the fragmentation of the Guadalajara Cartel in the late 1980s. The conflict formally began with President Felipe Calderón (2006–2012) launching Operation Michoacán in 2006, which deployed tens of thousands of federal troops and police in a militarized campaign against the cartels initially targeted in Michoacán, Ciudad Juárez, Tijuana, and Tamaulipas. However, arrests and killings of cartel leaders caused cartels to splinter into smaller, more violent factions, escalating turf wars and contributing to rising homicide rates nationwide. By the end of Calderón's administration in 2012, the official death toll of the Mexican drug war was at least 60,000. Estimates set the death toll above 120,000 killed by 2013, not counting 27,000 missing.

Successive administrations have promised changes in strategy but have upheld the use of militarized tactics. Under President Enrique Peña Nieto (2012–2018), the government pledged to shift focus from high-profile arrests to de-escalation and reducing violence, but setbacks such as the prison escape of cartel leader Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán and the 2014 Iguala mass kidnapping drew international condemnation. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018–2024) pledged to address the social roots of crime through poverty reduction and youth programs, and declared that the war was over; however, the statement was criticized, as security policy continued to rely on the newly created National Guard, which has gradually replaced the Mexican Army in policing roles. This strategy has continued under President Claudia Sheinbaum (2024–present).

Since the beginning of the conflict, law enforcement in Mexico has been criticized for corruption, collusion with cartels, and impunity. Federal law enforcement has been reorganized at least five times since 1982. During this period, there have been at least four elite special forces created as new, corruption-free soldiers who could fight Mexico's endemic bribery system. The militarization of Mexican society has drawn criticism for human rights abuses, such as extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, targeting of journalists, and torture.

Wikipedia source