Mexico Is A Failed State: Mexican police free drug lord's son after gun battle

[jimmy olsen]

A total collapse of the rule of law.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-50092641

El Chapo: Mexican police free drug lord's son as Culiacán battle erupts
18 October 2019

Heavy fighting broke out in northern Mexico on Thursday after security forces detained a son of the jailed drug kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.

Fighting raged for hours after Ovidio Guzmán López was found in what authorities said was a routine patrol in the city of Culiacán.

Armed men were seen firing on police with bodies strewn in the road.

Police withdrew without Mr Guzmán in their custody to avoid further violence, officials said.

Mexico's security minister, Alfonso Durazo, told Reuters news agency that a patrol of National Guard militarised police came under intense fire from outside the house where they had located Mr Guzmán, forcing them to retreat from the building for their own safety and "to recover calm in the city".

A lawyer for the Guzmán family told the Associated Press, "Ovidio is alive and free."

Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he would hold a meeting of his security cabinet to discuss the incident.

Mr López Obrador was elected on a platform of cracking down on Mexico's drug cartels, and has tasked a new security force, the National Guard, with fighting the dealers.

Under El Chapo's leadership, the Sinaloa cartel was the biggest supplier of drugs to the US, officials say. With the kingpin now behind bars, the cartel is said to be partially controlled by Ovidio Guzmán Lopez, who is accused of drug trafficking in the US and believed to be in his twenties.

What happened in Culiacán?
The state government said Mr Guzmán was found in a house by a police patrol on a routine search. It said cartel members subsequently launched the huge attack in an attempt to seize him back from the authorities. Fighters also attacked security forces in other parts of Culiacán.

Witnesses described scenes of panic in the city, a stronghold for the Sinaloa cartel, as families with small children fled from gunfire.

"No one knows what is going on but everyone is afraid and they have told us to not come in to work tomorrow," Ricardo González, a city resident, told AP.

Footage on social media showed a pick-up truck with a machine gun mounted on the back, in scenes reminiscent of a war zone.

Other footage showed families scrambling to take cover under cars and in shops as gunfire roared. In one video, a girl asked her father: "Why are they shooting bullets?"

A purported mugshot taken of Mr Guzmán while he was detained by police was shared widely on social media.

Image Copyright @Stephentwoodman@STEPHENTWOODMAN
Report
Sinaloa state's head of security, Cristobal Castañeda, told the Televisa network that two people had been killed and 21 injured, according to preliminary information.

Pictures showing what appeared to be dead bodies on the streets suggest the death toll could rise.

Some police officers were wounded, local officials said, but would not provide further details.

As fighting brought the city to a standstill, the Sinaloa state government said an unknown number of inmates had escaped from the Aguaruto prison.

It said it was "working to restore calm and order" and called on residents to "remain calm, stay off the streets and be very attentive to official advisories on the evolving situation".

A source of great embarrassment
By Juan Carlos Perez Salazar, BBC Mundo

The details of what happened in Culiacán are still sketchy, but it seems that, for a while, Ovidio "The Mouse" Guzmán was in the hands of police.

What followed next, though a source of great embarrassment for the Mexican government, may not be surprising to those who know how powerful drug cartels are in parts of the country.

Culiacán, capital of the state of Sinaloa, is one of those areas. It has been linked with the production of drugs since at least the 1940s, and several of the biggest "capos" (drug lords) were born there. Despite the capture of El Chapo, its most well-known leader, the Sinaloa Cartel is still immensely powerful in the region.

And for critics of Mexico's President, this lays bare the failure of his strategy against the drug cartels. Some even say he has no strategy at all.

[The Brain]

I've seen Narcos Mexico. I know the ways of Mexico. Still, a total eclipse of the law is always sad.

[alfred russel]

A total collapse of the rule of law.

You are an idiot.

[Grinning_Colossus]

AMLO should have just ordered him extrajudicially killed while they had him. I'm not even sure if I'm being ironic.

[Eddie Teach]

I've seen Narcos Mexico. I know the ways of Mexico. Still, a total eclipse of the law is always sad.

Turn around, Bright Eyes.

[The Brain]

I've seen Narcos Mexico. I know the ways of Mexico. Still, a total eclipse of the law is always sad.

Turn around, Bright Eyes.

[viper37]

A total collapse of the rule of law.

When a 3rd world country puts all his military effort into solving the fictional problem of a neighbour, this is what happens.  Lack of resources to enforce the real laws.

[alfred russel]

I'm posting this for those who are less knowledgeable about Mexico, and the idiocy of Tim.

Purchase Price Parity GDP per capita of Mexico, per the IMF in 2018: $20,602

Some other comparables:
Croatia: $26,221
Chile: $25,978
Bulgaria: $23,156
China: $18,110
Costa Rica: $17,599
South Africa: $13,675

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita

Mexico is not a failed state.

[The Brain]

I'm posting this for those who are less knowledgeable about Mexico, and the idiocy of Tim.

Purchase Price Parity GDP per capita of Mexico, per the IMF in 2018: $20,602

Some other comparables:
Croatia: $26,221
Chile: $25,978
Bulgaria: $23,156
China: $18,110
Costa Rica: $17,599
South Africa: $13,675

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita

Mexico is not a failed state.

I don't follow.

[Admiral Yi]

I don't follow.

Of course you do.

[Tonitrus]

I'm posting this for those who are less knowledgeable about Mexico, and the idiocy of Tim.

Purchase Price Parity GDP per capita of Mexico, per the IMF in 2018: $20,602

Some other comparables:
Croatia: $26,221
Chile: $25,978
Bulgaria: $23,156
China: $18,110
Costa Rica: $17,599
South Africa: $13,675

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita

Mexico is not a failed state.

Not everything is about money.

[alfred russel]

Not everything is about money.

A failed state isn't going to have the stability to produce a middle income economy.

[Admiral Yi]

Without necessarily disagreeing with the point you are making Fredo, I will point out that failed states can still generate fairly high incomes just through resource extraction.

For example there's nothing awesome about Nauru, but for a short while they had the highest per capita income on earth.

[Valmy]

Let's just say the failedness varies on a state-by-state basis.

[alfred russel]

Without necessarily disagreeing with the point you are making Fredo, I will point out that failed states can still generate fairly high incomes just through resource extraction.

For example there's nothing awesome about Nauru, but for a short while they had the highest per capita income on earth.

I was considering making that qualification (excluding states with significant resource extraction on a per capita basis), but thought it would be needlessly distracting considering that doesn't apply to Mexico, and I'm not sure there are states to which it would apply.