The Mexican government of Claudia Sheinbaum has completed the transfer of 37 high-ranking members of various cartels operating inside Mexican territory on Tuesday.
The Secretary of Public Security, Omar García Harfuch, announced on social media that the transferred individuals were “high impact criminals” who “represented a real threat to the country’s security.”
Relations between the two governments in Mexico City and Washington appear to be on solid ground, but behind the scenes, there are reports that the Trump administration is increasing pressure on the Sheinbaum government to crack down on the violent drug cartels that hold tremendous sway over local, state, and federal officials in Mexico.
In early January, Sociedad Media reported on a phone call that took place between the two heads of state, where Sheinbaum had refused an offer of military support from the U.S. president and to deploy an array of military assets into Mexico to aid the Mexican government in combating the violent drug organizations.
The Trump administration has been eyeing potential military strikes inside Mexican territory as part of its regional campaign to take on the criminal drug groups and reduce the flow of illicit narcotics into the United States from Latin America.
Sheinbaum, however, who is compelled to allay fears from her political base, which is suspicious of U.S. intentions and of any potential military activity on Mexican soil, is in the midst of straddling both sides of the fence, i.e. placating the more nationalist elements of the Mexican electorate and satisfying the demands of a more dominant North American neighbor that seems hell-bent on ending the illicit transportation of drug across its Southern border.
The transfer of cartel members that occurred on Tuesday was the third such transfer in one year, indicating a unique shift in the Mexican approach to the cartel scourge in Mexico.
Such transfers were traditionally considered out of the question by Mexican governments, as nationalist sentiments view the necessity of managing its own security concerns through the Mexican courts as an act of national sovereignty.
Those included in Tuesday’s transfer are numerous high-ranking figures of the Sinaloa Cartel, the Beltrán-Leyva cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), the Northeast Cartel, and a faction of the infamous Zetas based in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas, across from Texas.
