TY - JOUR PY - 2011// TI - A broken Mexico: allegations of collusion between the Sinaloa cartel and Mexican political parties JO - Small wars and insurgencies A1 - Beith, Malcolm SP - 787 EP - 806 VL - 22 IS - 5 N2 - The Mexican drug war, in full swing since December 2006, has now claimed more than 40,000 lives. Dozens of high-level cartel operatives have been captured or killed, yet the leadership of one cartel, from Sinaloa in northwestern Mexico, has remained apparently untouched. The apparent lack of a crackdown on the Sinaloa Cartel has spurred criticisms of the Calderón administration, as well as US authorities aiding in the drug fight - some critics contend that the Sinaloa Cartel has enjoyed protection from the authorities. The Sinaloa Cartel's history of protection and collusion by authorities goes back a long way - during the reign of the PRI from 1929 to 2000, Sinaloa's drug traffickers were allowed to operate with near-total impunity. But mounting evidence - captures and deaths of high-level operatives from Sinaloa as well as arrests of relatives of the leadership - suggests that the claims of collusion against the current Mexican administration are false.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0959-2318 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2011.620813 ID - ref1 ER -