El chapo arrested- what does this mean for Mexico

Before anything, I want to point out the repeated entries on this blog on the topic of Chapo's arrest, but I find that it hits close to home for me and, thus, I'll write a third post.

This past week, Mexico's and, for that matter, the world's most influential drug lord, Joaquin Guzman was arrested in Mazatlan, Sinaloa by Mexican marines acting on information supplied by a joint U.S.-Mexican effort. This historic is important because of the sheer volume of illegal drugs El Chapo is supposedly in charge of moving. For many years, Mexico and many other south and central American countries have struggled with dealing with cartels dealing drugs to beyond the United States' border. In return, money and weapons travel back. American and Mexican officials have had a joint missions such as maintaining peace in the border City of Juarez. In 2006, the war on drugs was declared by, then president, Felipe Calderon. This unprecedented assault on the cartels led to levels of violence never before seen. Over 60,000 thousand people have been killed or reported missing since 2006. this has caused many citizens to change their views towards calderon.  Even though the Mexican government has managed to remove many high ranking people from the streets, there has been a feeling running through Mexican citizens that the war on drugs has been lost. Many have lost faith in the government and have grown tired;   many actually ready to accept drug business as legitimate. With the arrest of the most notorious, what does this mean for the future of Mexican security and government functionality. Well, for the present moment, it is important for El Chapo to be extradited to the United States lest he is provided the opportunity to escape once again. In the case of successful extradition, I suspect there will be a power vacuum where Guzman once filled. A spike in violence might happen, but after that moment, the business will normalize again. It is an especially difficult problem that Mexico faces when, as President Calderon put it, "the whole world wants to moves drugs to the United States through Mexico".

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/23/world/americas/el-chapo-capture/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

http://www.elblogdelnarco.info/2014/02/ubican-el-chapo-por-el-uso-de-su.html

by Sergio Vargas