14-01-2016: Latin American Weekly Report

“Mission accomplished: we have him. I want to inform Mexicans that Joaquín Guzmán Loera has been arrested.” It is doubtful whether another 100-character tweet has brought Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto as much satisfaction, let alone relief, as this when he posted it on 8 January. The escape of ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, the leader of the Sinaloa drug trafficking organisation (DTO), from a maximum security prison in July 2015 was one of the lowest points of Peña Nieto’s mandate just as his capture 17 months earlier had been one of the highest points, heralded as the most significant blow against drug-trafficking for over a decade. His recapture will go some way towards repairing a rift with Washington but in and of itself it cannot restore credibility to Mexico’s institutions.