Politics: The tale and toll of Culiacan
Myriad doubts remain as to how, when and by whom the October 17 police-military operation in Culiacan was planned and executed, and even who decided to sound retreat and release the prime subject slated for arrest, Ovidio Guzmán, the son of cartel leader Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, who is serving a life sentence in a US maximum security prison.
Officials have yet to clear up the doubts as to what and when President Andrés Manuel López Obrador knew about the failed attempt to arrest the younger Guzmán. AMLO himself has stated that he was given no advance warning regarding the operation, although that strains credulity given the President’s hands-on approach to governing, his propensity for micromanaging the work of government departments, and the fact that he has a daily morning meeting with his security cabinet.
There are many indications of a total breakdown in the lines of command and inter-institutional coordination from the top down, and questions persist as to the role played by US intelligence agencies in planning and implementing the operation, and whether they continue to enjoy a decisive role over major anti-drug policy decisions.
If AMLO’s improbable claims of being entirely unaware of the entire Culiacan operation are just an effort to shirk responsibility, they could have dire consequences, including a breakdown in relations with the armed forces. And that could pose serious problems, not the least of which would be conditions increasingly conducive to a major expansion of criminal organizations.
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