4 ★ FT Weekend 19 October/20 October 2019
major clashes elsewhere in Mexico this
week left 29 people dead. In one, police
were ambushed by the Jalisco New Gen-
eration Cartel, Mexico’s most aggressive
— 13 officers were killed.
Mr López Obrador has vowed to pac-
ify the country, where several states are
immersed in extreme violence, and says
his programmes of bursaries for young
people will help stop them falling into
the clutches of organised crime.
But this has been a bloody year. Mr
Márquez Blas expected 2019 to close
with an unprecedented 36,500 mur-
ders, up from some 34,000 last year.
The president sums up his security
strategy with the slogan “hugs not bul-
lets” and has urged cartel members to
“think of their mothers”. He dismissed
the suggestion cartel members could be
emboldened by Thursday’s events: “We
are not going to change our policy.”because we are dealing with the causes
that lead to violence,” he said in the
southern city of Oaxaca. “You can’t put
out fire with fire. Our strategy is differ-
ent to that of previous governments. We
don’t want deaths. We don’t want war.”
Explaining why Mr Guzmán, who had
been held for two hours, was let go, the
president said his security cabinet was
anxious to prevent widespread blood-
shed. The family of “the Mouse” was
reportedly planning a news conference
to thank the government.
The message to Mexican cartels was
“you can blackmail the Mexican state at
will”, said Alejandro Hope, a security
consultant. “This has been a terrible
week for Amlo [the president] on the
security front. It’s not a week to claim
you’ve reached an inflection point.”
Thursday’s warlike scenes marked a
serious escalation of violence after twomember, a prisoner and five suspected
cartel members were killed, and 16 peo-
ple were wounded. In addition, 49 pris-
oners broke out of jail in the city, and to
date only two have been recaptured.
Gen Sandoval admitted the security
forces “underestimated the criminals’
capacity to summon support and to
respond”. Alfonso Durazo, security min-
ister, who only on Monday had been
hailing a “tipping point” in the rising
number of murders in Mexico, said he
would be willing to resign.
“The clear message was that the state
does not have control in that territory,”
said Catalina Pérez Correa, security
expert at CIDE university.
If his ministers sounded contrite, Mr
López Obrador, who on Thursday
launched work on a new Mexico City
airport being built by the army, was
defiant. “Our strategy is going very wellJ U D E W E B B E R— MEXICO CITY
Looking fidgety, Mexico president
Andrés Manuel López Obrador yester-
day sought to explain away the humili-
ating events of the previous afternoon
when security forces bungled an opera-
tion to arrest the son of jailed drug lord
Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Earlier this week, the government —
which had promised to deliver results
on security within six months — had
boasted it was turning the tide in Mex-
ico’s surging violence.
Not only were the security forces out-
manned and outgunned by the fire-
power of the Sinaloa Cartel but Mr
López Obrador told reporters he had
personally approved of the decision to
release Ovidio Guzmán, 28, whose drug-
running reputation has earned him his
own nickname, “The Mouse”.
In a separate news conference, Luis
Cresencio Sandoval, defence minister,
admitted the operation, at a house in
Culiacán, the Sinaloa state capital with a
population of 800,000, was “rushed and
badly planned”. As officials, acting on an
extradition request from the US, were
waiting for a formal arrest warrant, 30
to 35 police and troops were surrounded
by cartel members and one official and
seven soldiers were taken hostage.
Cartel members cruised the streets
with high-calibre weapons, sowing
panic among residents who took cover
with small children behind cars. The
cartel blockaded roads with burning
trucks and shot up a state helicopter and
eight vehicles, Gen Sandoval said. Two
vehicles belonging to security forces
were still missing yesterday.
Images on social media appeared to
show convoys of cartel trucks patrolling
the city’s streets on Thursday night.
“This was a disaster... Last night the
city was completely theirs,” said Ricardo
Márquez Blas, a security expert.
One civilian, one National Guard
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
M I C H A E L P E E L A N D V I C TO R M A L L E T
BRUSSELS
VA L E R I E H O P K I N S— BELGRADEFrance faced a backlash after blocking
the start of formal EU talks with
North Macedonia and Albania to join
the bloc, deepening a dispute over
enlargement that has become a defin-
ing test of the EU’s post-Brexit
strategic ambitions.The US intervened yesterday to urge
that both countries be allowed to start
the accession process, after French pres-
ident Emmanuel Macron stood alone in
opposing both their membership bids
during talks with fellow EU leaders at a
Brussels summit.
“The time to open accession negotia-
tions with Albania and North Macedo-
nia is now,” Morgan Ortagus, US state
department spokesperson, said on
Twitter yesterday. “The United States
will welcome an affirmative... deci-
sion, recognising both countries’ hard
fought gains on necessary reforms.”
European critics of Paris’s stance say
it is a betrayal of promises made to the
two western Balkan states and risks
pushing them and other countries in
their region into the orbit of rival pow-
ers such as Russia and China.
Giuseppe Conte, Italy’s prime minis-
ter, said failure to open EU enlargement
to both countries would “be remem-
bered as a historic error”. Donald Tusk,
European Council president, said it was
a “mistake” not to begin accession talks.
The postponement has plunged the
government of North Macedonia into
crisis. The main opposition party has
called for the pro-EU government of
Prime Minister Zoran Zaev to resign.
“I don’t know if France or anybody
else in Europe is really aware of the dis-
aster brewing in the region,” said Agon
Maliqi, a Kosovo policy analyst based in
Albania. “For us in the Balkans, yester-
day Emmanuel Macron sounded like
the European Trump.”Membership bids
France under
fire as Balkan
EU accession
talks blocked
Cartels.Gunfight
Mexico red-faced after botched raid
President orders release of ‘El
Chapo’ son, held for two hours,
in operation that left 8 dead
Ablaze: a bus,
set alight by
cartel gunmen
to block a road,
burns during
clashes with
forces in the
arrest of Ovidio
Guzmán, son
of Joaquín
‘El Chapo’
Guzmán, below
Jesus Bustamante/Reuters‘This was a
disaster.Last night
the city wascompletely
theirs [thecartel’s]’
Security expert