MEXICO CITY — Shackled in chains, he grimaced in apparent pain as he heaved his hefty body from the back of a police van. Jose de Jesus “El Chango” Mendez was paraded before reporters Wednesday, a day after the reputed drug lord was captured by federal police.
Authorities identify Mendez as the reigning leader of the notorious La Familia cartel, and his capture — with nary a shot fired, officials say — is an important coup for the besieged government of President Felipe Calderon, whose drug war has claimed nearly 40,000 lives in 4 1/2 years.
But will the removal of Mendez destroy La Familia, the largest supplier of methamphetamine to the United States? And, more important for Mexicans, will it lessen the deadly violence gripping the country and eroding its institutions?
If recent history is any indication, the answer in both cases likely is no.
“The government always thinks, kill the dog, you kill the rabies,” said Jose Reveles, author of several books on Mexico’s drug war. “If La Familia disappears, it will be from its own divisions.”
Mendez, whose nom de guerre means “the Monkey,” had moved into the top slot at La Familia after its founder, the Bible-thumping messianic Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, was killed by security forces in a major offensive in December. After that, the group began to splinter, but it did not halt its operations.
Facundo Rosas, general commissioner of the Federal Police, said Wednesday that Mendez recently took refuge in the relatively placid state of Aguascalientes, with government troops and, perhaps more crucially, enemy drug gangsters in hot pursuit. It was there he was found Tuesday.
A law enforcement operation May 27-28 — in which authorities killed 15 members of Mendez’s cartel and captured another 39 — yielded actionable intelligence on the capo’s movements, Rosas said. In the past, gangs have often tipped authorities to their rivals’ whereabouts.
“He had begun looking for where to protect himself. The authorities were closing in, and his adversaries were also searching for him to do him serious damage,” Rosas said. “With this, La Familia is totally weakened and effectively taken apart.”
Government security-affairs spokesman Alejandro Poire said La Familia had suffered “the biggest blow in its history.”
When Moreno was killed two weeks before Christmas, officials at the time used nearly identical language to proclaim victory over La Familia, an often cultlike and vicious gang based in Calderon’s home state of Michoacan. But violence rose as gang leaders fought for control.
It is a familiar pattern. Removing the top capos provokes violent power struggles as potential successors compete for their share of the drug trade. Such was the case after the killing by Mexican marines of Arturo Beltran Leyva, chief of another, older cartel in December 2009.
With presidential elections set for next year, the Calderon government has come under severe pressure as the death toll mounts and the public demands better security. The president and his aides defend their strategy, say it is bearing fruit and will require time to reduce violence.
