According to disturbing research, organized crime groups in Mexico have risen to the fifth-largest employer in the country. According to a new study published in the journal Science, Mexican cartels may employ more than 175,000 people in total, with recruitment numbers increasing dramatically to compensate for losses caused by incarceration or death of members. According to the Guardian, researchers developed a statistical model to track cartel recruiting using homicide, missing persons, and jail statistics. The study intends to assist the government in developing a better plan to combat the cartel threat by researching their recruitment patterns and operational designs.
Over the last ten years, several countries have killed or imprisoned 37% of the members of these Mexican gangs. This has increased recruiting in Latin American countries, particularly Mexico. According to a July US Drug Enforcement Administration study, the two major cartels, Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation, employed about 44,800 people. However, the report on Thursday revealed that the figures did not completely reflect the depth of the issue.
Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador’s “hugs, not bullets” approach has failed
“The model only accounts for those directly involved in work that puts them at risk of violence, and not members—such as bankers—who help move and launder cartels’ money,” it stated. Victoria Dittmar, a researcher for Insight Crime who did not take part in the study, told The Guardian that the numbers depend on the definition of a cartel and what constitutes membership. “It can be very difficult to say who is a member of a criminal organization and who isn’t,” Dittmar said, adding, “What about a politician that receives the money? Or someone who cooperates with the group just once?”
The study investigates various strategies for combating organized crime while offering light on the radically different approaches taken by Mexico and El Salvador. According to the report, young people should be provided additional possibilities and economic incentives to deter them from joining cartels, similar to Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador’s “hugs, not bullets” approach. However, this technique has failed to contain the threat in Mexico. President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, on the other hand, has drastically reduced violence by doing the exact opposite of what the paper recommends: around 2% of the country’s population has been imprisoned in a mass incarceration spree that has prompted accusations of systematic human rights violations.