JAKARTA - On November 8, 2013, the mayor of Santa Ana Maya in Mexico, Ygnacio Lopez Mendoza, died and was found in an abandoned car by the side of the road. The director of the Mexican Association of Local Authorities said Lopez Mendoza was kidnapped, tortured and killed by drug cartels.
Lopez Mendoza is known for his outspoken against drug cartels who often carry out extortion. Santa Ana Maya is a municipality in the state of Michoacan. Michoacan is controlled by a drug gang, the Knights Templar or its Spanish name Los Caballeros Templarios. Lopez is loud to fight the Knights Templar who control various vital things in Michoacan. Lopez also went on a hunger strike for 18 days to demand more funding for his municipality.
Citing the Los Angeles Times, Lopez's death comes at a time when Mexicans are wondering whether Michoacan, a major agricultural area west of Mexico City, has really been controlled by drug cartels. The Knights Templar wage war with rivals for drug routes, destroying businesses large and small, and clashing with rising peasant groups in a number of states.
The government of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto is considered not serious about providing security to Michoacan. Michoacan has long been out of control as other parts of Mexico, including areas near the US border, have seen a reduction in violence. In May 2013, Peña Nieto sent troops to calm a number of Michoacan hotspots.
Peña Nieto also sent troops and federal police to the port of Lazaro Cardenas in Michoacan. The port was where members of the Knights Templar drug cartel made a fortune by controlling drug trafficking and massive extortion.
Local governments continue to get caught in the crossfire in Michoacan and sometimes end up getting involved. In 2009, when Mexican President Felipe Calderon was in power, 35 mayors, prosecutors and officials were accused of taking bribes from drug cartels. But the case was not resolved and the 35 mayors were eventually acquitted. Several mayors allied with the cartels left their towns after a vigilante group emerged.
The Knights Templar were also known to control the timber and cattle markets. They collect payments from homeowners, lime pickers, tortilla sellers and local governments.
Meanwhile, Lopez Mendoza objected to the 10-cent cut that the Knights Templar demanded from his government salary. “I would say that all mayors of Michoacan have this problem,” Lopez said in October 2013. This prompted the drug cartel to kidnap and kill Lopez.
The president of the Mayors' Association, Ricardo Bautista, said Lopez Mendoza told many at a meeting in Mexico City shortly before his death that he was being targeted for extortion by drug cartels.
Mexican authorities have waged a deadly battle against drug cartels for more than a decade, but with little success. Thousands of Mexicans—including politicians, students, and journalists—die in the conflict every year. The country has seen more than three hundred thousand murders since 2006, when the government declared war on the cartels.
The United States (US) has partnered closely in this fight. Citing a Council Foreign Relations report, the US gave Mexico billions of dollars to modernize its security forces, reform its justice system and make other investments. The US is also trying to stem the flow of illegal drugs by strengthening security along the Mexico-US border.
Mexican drug trafficking groups dominate the import and distribution of cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine in the US. Mexican suppliers are responsible for most of the production of heroin and methamphetamine, while cocaine is mostly produced in Colombia and then transported to the US by Mexican criminal organizations.
Mexico, along with China, is also a major source of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is many times more potent than heroin. The amount of fentanyl seized by Mexican authorities nearly quadrupled between 2019 and 2020.
Experts point to the domestic and international forces that make drug cartels in Mexico thrive. In Mexico, cartels use part of their huge profits to pay judges, police and politicians. They also force officials to cooperate, so the killing of civil servants is relatively common.
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