ABSTRACT
The presidential candidate of the leftist Morena party, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who campaigned on a different security policy, including amnesty and truth commissions, won the election and took office in December. In 2018, the armed conflict among the drug cartels and between them and the Mexican state continued to drive high levels of violence. Criminal groups in Mexico fight against each other and against the state to control strategic territories and drug routes. In 2018, the US Drug Enforcement Administration tive since 1994 and was one of the strongest criminal organisations in the country until its leader, Guzman Loera, better known as ‘El Chapo’, was captured in 2016. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel operates in the centre and south of the country and on the Pacific coast. Led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as ‘El Mencho’, the cartel has expanded significantly since it was created in 2011 after splintering from the Millennium Cartel.
