Los 12 grupos criminales de la era López Obrador
El País — Mexico edition
Los 12 grupos criminales de la era López Obrador
El País — Mexico edition Spain / Mexico · July 18, 2021 International press piece distilling the CIDE 148-groups mapping into the twelve criminal organizations most active during the López Obrador administration. Photo: El País / Prisa
12 Nuevos Grupos — La Evidencia
My CIDE study documented 12 new organized crime groups in Mexico, all formed during the López Obrador administration, spread across both coasts and in several cases competing for the same territory as older organizations. This directly contradicted the government’s official position at the time.
At commemorative events marking the third anniversary of Morena’s electoral victory, López Obrador had stated: “No creo que se hayan creado nuevos grupos en estos dos años y medio.” In the same address he acknowledged the existence of only three organizations: “El cartel Jalisco, el del Pacífico (Sinaloa) y el de Guanajuato. Los que ya habían. Los que estamos enfrentando.”
Photo: Presidencia de la República
Data vs. Doctrine
AMLO named three organizations. I had identified twelve new ones alone, on top of the 148 already mapped, at the same time the administration was governing under “Abrazos, no balazos.” El País used my data to make that contradiction legible for a global Spanish-language readership.