In a pre-dawn operation on January 5, Mexican army forces captured Ovidio Guzmán López, unleashing a wave of violence across the entire state of Sinaloa. The terror mimicked the events of October 17, 2019, when blockades and shootouts in Culiacán forced security forces to release Guzmán López after briefly detaining him.

In many ways, a recap of 2022 would sound very similar to that of any other year in Mexico’s recent history. At the same time, the past twelve months have not been simple repetition of history, and it is worth examining some of the most significant developments to understand what 2023 might have in store.

How do we make sense of 2022? For this special edition of El Acarreo, we turned to some of our favorite observers and analysts to help explain the past 12 months.

Early Saturday morning, in a largely party-line vote, Mexico’s congress passed a set of controversial reforms to the National Guard. The Senate is expected to approve the legislation in the coming days. Here are four points help understand the significance of these reforms...

Two weeks ago, residents of several Mexican cities experienced frightening waves of violence and intimidation. Should we call these events "narcoterrorism"?

Only July 15, Mexican Marines arrested Rafael Caro Quintero, one of the most infamous figures in the history of Mexican drug trafficking. Our interview with Benjamin Smith helps explain what Caro Quintero represents.

US-Mexico security cooperation is once again a hot button topic this month, in the wake of news reports that Mexico has all but stopped collaborating with the DEA on drug trafficking investigations. With intense, close operational cooperation appearing unlikely to return anytime soon, what might the security partnership look like going forward?

In many ways, the past year demonstrated that violence and security policy in Mexico must be understood in long-term context. Reflecting on the major trends we saw, here are our five takeaways from 2021:

Last Tuesday it was reported that a judge had ordered the release of twelve Marines, who had been arrested earlier this year in connection with a string of enforced disappearances that occurred in Nuevo Laredo in 2018.

Tamaulipas is a state that simultaneously exemplifies and exaggerates many aspects of the drug war. The site of one of the earliest media blackouts due to threats from organized crime, it is also a place that is difficult to understand, where nuance and context are absent from the narrative.

Campaigns for Mexico’s June 6 election officially kicked off just over a week ago. The elections are the largest in the country’s history, and they are occurring in the shadow of a wave of political violence.

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As the new Biden administration begins to chart a path for what is bound to be a complicated relationship with Mexico, the case of Salvador Cienfuegos remains both a topic of conversation and a source of conflict.