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 who controlled separate territories, known as "plazas", which they used primarily for drug trafficking. Governmental authority was highly centralized under PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, Institutional Revolutionary Party) rule and by bribing high ranking officials the drug smugglers could conduct their operations largely uninterrupted by the authorities. When single-party rule started to give way to opposition parties in the late 1990s and early 2000s 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 New Generation Cartel (CJNG) was one of the largest drug-trading cartels in Mexico with a confirmed presence in every Mexican state. The Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel (CSRL) was mainly dedicated to “huachicoleo”, fuel-theft, and its main zone of operations was in the Mexican state of Guanajuato but they were also known to be active in the Mexican states of Michoacán and Querétaro. The roots of the conflict can be traced to 2015 when the CJNG first expanded their operations into the state of Guanajuato. However, direct conflict between the CJNG and the CSRL did not officially commence until October of 2017 when the erstwhile leader of the CSRL, José Antonio Yépez Ortiz, “El Marro”, released a video declaring the CSRL’s hostility towards the CJNG. The conflict between these two actors was mainly over control of the criminal activity of oil-theft in the state of Guanajuato, known locally as “huachicoleo”. In the following years, the state of Guanajuato was the focal point of this conflict and violence was widespread through the majority of the state’s municipalities but some places such as the towns of Irapuato and Celaya were the centers of violent activity. The CSRL received support from both La Nueva Familia Michoacana Cartel and the Grupo Sombra of the Gulf Cartel in their fight against the CJNG. After the arrest of the last two known CSRL leaders by the Mexican government in 2020, it has been reported that the remaining CSRL territories find themselves besieged by the CJNG and with little remaining offensive capacity. The non-state conflict between the CJNG and the CSRL is first included in UCDP data in January of 2018. By February of that year, fighting between the two cartels had resulted in more than 25 battle-related deaths.