Recent Developments

Mexican law enforcement and the military have struggled to curb crime-related violence. In
2018, the number of drug-related homicides in Mexico rose to 33,341, a 15 percent
increase from the previous year—and a record high. Moreover, Mexican cartels killed at
least 130 candidates and politicians in the lead-up to Mexico’s 2018 presidential elections.

While on the campaign trail, then-candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (often referred
to as AMLO) proposed several strategies to combat crime-related violence. After winning
the election and assuming office in December 2018, AMLO announced the creation of a
new National Guard (a hybrid civilian police and military force) to fight cartels.

Background

In the 1980s, Mexico’s crime groups and drug traffickers became organized, assigning
distinct regional areas of control for each group and establishing networks and trafficking
routes. However, as production and distribution increased, the groups began fighting for
territorial control and access to markets, leading to an increase in violence across Mexico.  

The Mexican government officially declared war on criminal organizations in 2006, when

former President Felipe Calderon launched an initiative to combat cartels using military
force. In 2012, President Enrique Peña Nieto revised the Calderon government’s strategy,
shifting efforts away from violent exchanges and toward improving law enforcement
capacity and supporting public safety.

However, after the Sinaloa Cartel’s Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was arrested in 2014, re-
arrested in 2016, and finally extradited to the United States in 2017, a power vacuum
was created within the Sinaloa Cartel, resulting in an accompanying increase in violence
between rival factions seeking new territory and influence. Moreover, despite an initial
decrease in homicides following Peña Nieto’s reforms, Mexico continued to struggle
with corruption and crime-related violence. By 2016, drug-related homicides had increased
by 22 percent, with more than twenty thousand killed, and in 2017 a mass grave containing
the remains of more than 250 victims of crime-related violence was uncovered in Veracruz
State. Since 2006, crime-related violence has resulted in an estimated 150,000 deaths.

Recognizing widespread assertions  that the use of military force has only increased the
level of crime-related violence in Mexico—and accusations that the military has committed
human rights abuses and carried out extrajudicial killings—then–presidential candidate
AMLO promised on his campaign trail to revolutionize the fight against cartels and revert
to a civilian-led police force.

Concerns

In 2007, the George W. Bush administration and Calderon government launched the
Merida Initiative to improve U.S.-Mexico cooperation on security and rule of law issues in
Mexico, and support for the initiative has continued under the Donald J. Trump
administration. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, Mexican cartels
represent the greatest drug-related threat, supplying heroin, marijuana, methamphetamines,
and other drugs, to the United States. Criminal and drug trafficking organizations threaten
to undermine the strength and legitimacy of the Mexican government, an important U.S.
regional partner, as well as harm civilian populations in both countries. 

-Analyze any conflict in the world according to the definition of war, the IR Theories
analysis of wars:

Mexico's internal war is based on the principle of radicalism because the drug cartels argue
that there would be no conflict if the government gave in to their claims to market drugs
without being persecuted by the government or external entities such as the U.S. FBI; and
to achieve this there is a dispute over social and political control to achieve the claims of
the drug cartels.

-Categories of War:
The conflict of violence in Mexico is a war instrates wars because they are fighting several
drug cartels of this country against the Mexican government for exercising power in the
territory for the production and sale, both national and international of narcotics; causing
terror and deaths within the population.

2 How Mexico's criminal violence impacts international business

Criminal violence in Mexico affects international business in different ways. As an

important regional partner of the United States and one of the powers of the American
continent, its internal conflict generated by drugs and violence has caused negative impacts
in tangible as well as intangible ways and different economic costs for these (international
business), among the different costs of violence are also indirectly involved activities
related to the prevention and punishment of these atrocious actions, The government
allocates its resources to these activities, neglecting other areas for the development of the
country, which would benefit the different parties related to international business.
However, the most direct impact is the loss of business opportunities, which can be
understood as a decrease in investment or an increase in productive activity; The perception
and feeling of insecurity makes multinationals and other corporations think more about
doing business in countries with high rates of violence, for fear of being affected with direct
costs of the conflict such as payment of extortion, threats, attacks on the company or
workers and closure of the same (companies); to conclude it can be said that the impact of
criminal violence in Mexico on international business is divided into 3 branches
investment, social cohesion and economic growth.