The government of President Enrique Peña Nieto has announced a new anti-kidnapping drive — the fourth of its kind since 1997. Its results will depend heavily on two of its features: the ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards the involvement of law enforcement and other government officials in kidnapping gangs, and the vetting of all the anti-kidnap units set up in Mexico’s 32 federal entities (the states plus Mexico City). These are crucial to overcome the public’s distrust of law enforcement agencies, which has translated into widespread reluctance to report kidnappings. That ‘zero tolerance’ is a distant objective is best illustrated by…

The capture of Joaquín Guzmán Loera (‘el Chapo’), boss of the Sinaloa/Pacífico drug trafficking organisation (DTO) and possibly the world’s leading drug trafficker, has been counted as a great victory for the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto. Speculation is rife about the possible consequences for the DTO, for the inter-DTO war and consequently for the government’s efforts to curb drug-fuelled organised crime. For now, however, information is insufficient for this to go much beyond guesswork. Guzmán, sought unsuccessfully by the authorities since he broke out of the Puente Grande prison in 2001, was captured on 22 February in Mazatlán,…