SUMMARY
The outbreak of fighting between different drug-trafficking gangs in Mexico can be understood against the background of changes in the Mexican political landscape during the last decades. During the 1980s, there was a loose network of drug smugglers controlling their own "plaza" for drug trafficking. Governmental authority was highly centralized under PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, Institutional Revolutionary Party) rule and by bribing high officials, the drug smugglers could control their businesses without getting interrupted by the authorities. When single-party rule started to give way to local opposition these networks and relationships were transformed, to the advantage of some actors but to the disadvantage of others. The drug cartels started to fight each other for control over territory and previous alliances fell apart.
The Jalisco Cartel New Generation and the Sinaloa Cartel are two of the major drug trafficking groups in Mexico. The Jalisco Cartel New Generation was formed out of the remnants of the Milenio faction of the Sinaloa Cartel in 2010. The two cartels have had an ambivalent relationship since then where they both have been rivals and in alliance with each other during different periods of time.
The Jalisco Cartel New Generation has had its base and stronghold in the Jalisco state on the western coast of Mexico. The cartel has expanded its area of influence and has, among other cartels, used the neighboring state of Colima and the port city of Manzanillo as one of its transit routes for shipping drugs and other illegal goods. In September 2015 there were reports of that the Sinaloa Cartel had begun to “clean-up the plaza” in Colima, targeting the Jalisco Cartel New Generation, which resulted in clashes between the two cartels and a spike of drug-related killings in the state. The threshold of 25 battle-related deaths was met by the end of that year.
The non-state conflict between the Jalisco Cartel New Generation and the Sinaloa Cartel was first included in UCDP data in 2015.
