The presence of Mexican cartels in Latin America is getting stronger. These organizations have developed a strategy to permeate other Countries of South America from alliances with local groups and thus gain invisibility and speed. 

Some countries such as Colombia and Venezuela, alliances are a little stronger than with the rest of the territory, thus reaching large instances such as governments and state entities at the security level. In the specific case of Colombia, these Mexican gangs work together with dissidents such as the FARC, ELN and Clan del Golfo; while in Venezuela the alliances are with the Cartel de los Soles.

Two of Mexico’s largest cartels are Sinaloa and Jalisco. They are the two largest criminal organizations in Mexico and whose networks, in addition to having a presence in Central and South America, also have allies in Europe and the United States, countries that represent the final destination of most of the drugs that depart from Latin America.

Colombia is the number one producer of cocaine worldwide.

Colombia 

Colombia is the world’s largest producer of cocaine. In the country” there are 143,000 hectares planted with coca bushes, which is equivalent to an annual production of 1,180 tons of cocaine. Drug crops are concentrated in five departments: Norte de Santander (40,084 hectares), Nariño (30,751 hectares), Putumayo (19,986 hectares), Cauca (16,544 hectares) and Antioquia (12,090 hectares).” These regions are where there is the greatest presence of criminal and lawless gangs such as the ELN, FARC, and small groups of drug traffickers.

The drug trade is organized and delimited. The drug trafficking micro-gangs buy the crops from the peasants and the peasants in turn sell them to the Mexican emissaries. In Colombia, the presence of these Mexican emissaries is not constant, however they travel for short periods to the areas where the crops are located to supervise agreed quantities and quality of them. Official sources of the National Police assure that 75% of the coca produced in the country is sold to Mexican cartels. 

Venezuela

“In the case of Venezuela, InSightCrime, a research center on organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean, documented in 2020 the presence of the Sinaloa cartel in Zulia State. According to the organization, the presence of the Mexican narco has grown to such an extent that “there is a town in the state that has been renamed Sinaloa,” according to the leading press in Colombia, El Tiempo.

The United Nations, UN, in a 2021 report stated that it had evidence that the Sinaloa Cartel had a presence in Zulia, which borders the Catatumbo region of Colombia and where “it has taken advantage of the airstrips for the construction of transit centers and collection of narcotics with the support of the National Liberation Army of Colombia,  that extended its activities to Venezuela.” 

These cartels have gained such power that they have begun to act as “peace negotiators” between Colombian guerrillas such as the FARC and ELN to stop the attacks and confrontations of the two gangs, since this phenomenon was generating millionaire losses for the cartels because they prevented drug trafficking.

Jeremy McDermott, co-director and co-founder of InsightCrime, states, “The difference in Venezuela compared to Mexico and Colombia is that within Venezuela a good percentage of the business is managed within the State.” 

El Salvador.

The Mexican cartels in Salvador have been in place since 2012, but it was from 2018 where their stay in this territory became evident. These cartels made great alliances with the historical leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), who from the prisons organize a strong operation managed by cells throughout the extension of El Salvador. 

MS-13 is a key player in drug trafficking from Latin America to the United States, as well as human smuggling and trafficking.

Peru.

The Sinaloa Cartel has also had a presence in Peru for more than a decade. In Peru, the objective is to buy the cocaine produced in the Vraem region from family clans located in the region. From there the cocaine is transported by sea to the United States and Europe. Peruvian locals are limited to the task of moving drugs from the jungle to coastal cities to cross borders.

Argentina.

In northern Argentina, Mexican cartels operate regularly. They act in conjunction with local groups to secure the cocaine market and with the fledgling heroin business as well. In addition to these lines of business, they are currently engaged in money laundering with investors, mostly from the real estate sector. Argentina does not have an effective program to eradicate drug trafficking and for this reason more and more these criminal gangs from different parts of the world break into the country for profit exercising drug trafficking. 

Mexican cartels also infiltrated Brazil, during the last years they have operated through agreements with the First Capital Command (PCC), the largest criminal organization not only in Brazil, but in South America, and to whom countless murders are attributed.

Despite the well-known alliances between Mexican drug cartels and outlaw groups at the local level in the different countries of South America, governments have not established joint actions to eradicate these criminal activities. Each government has imposed certain measures within each country to address the issue of drug trafficking, without taking into account the programs and measures established by other governments. In this way, the tools become useless to eradicate drug trafficking and for their part, these criminal gangs dedicated to the drug business have been strengthened through alliances and joint actions throughout the region.