“Mexican cartels couldn’t operate without the support of corrupt officials” (Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles Times staff writer Kate Linthicum says Mexican drug cartels are powerful because of their alliances with corrupt government officials.

Oswaldo Zavala is a Mexican academic and writer whose provocatively titled 2022 book — “Drug Cartels Do Not Exist” — calls for a bold rethinking of how we think about organized crime in his country. Zavala argues that the cartels are not as all-powerful as U.S. and Mexican authorities claim, and that they could not flourish without the support of corrupt officials.

Following the arrest last month of two leaders of the Sinaloa drug trafficking organization, The Times’ Kate Linthicum spoke with Zavala about the “kingpin strategy” that targets cartel leaders and the ways he says authorities have built up the idea of ​​all-powerful narco “bogeymen” to cover up government officials’ involvement in the drug trade.

Their conversation has been edited for clarity.

What did you think when you heard news reports that two high-ranking members of the Sinaloa Cartel had been arrested outside prison? El Paso?

The first thing that came to my mind was, “Oh, here we go again.” It’s the repetition of the narco-narrative again, only with a rearrangement of the names.

Click here to read the full, original article in the Los Angeles Times

Source: Los Angeles Times

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