This is historic news because it is the first time in Mexico's history that a former defense minister has been arrested.

At the same time, it is the second spectacular arrest in less than a year.

In December, former security minister Genaro García Luna was arrested on charges of collaborating with the powerful Sinaloa cartel.

And it is the same court in New York that previously convicted the Sinaloa cartel's leader Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, who is now pursuing the case of García Luna and setting the sights on Cienfuegos.

Ministers cooperated with the cartels

García Luna served as Minister under President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) and Cienfuegos under President Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018).

Thus, two people who for twelve long years had key roles in the fight against drug trafficking themselves seem to have had contact with the cartels.

In other words, there are many indications that the Mexican institutions have long been infiltrated by organized crime and that ministers have also worked to promote certain drug cartels.

The revelations cast dark shadows over the entire Mexican state apparatus.

How long has the cartel with the cartels lasted?

Who has been involved?

Who knew but said nothing?

Does it continue under the current government?

But for incumbent President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, paradoxically, arrests can also be a domestic political asset.


Can benefit President López Obrador

López Obrador came to power in 2018 with promises to eradicate the corruption that, according to him, characterized the rule of the traditional parties.

The fact that ministers from previous governments are now at risk of being imprisoned thus confirms his worldview.

And as long as López Obrador's own government survives unscathed, the president will continue to claim to be on the side of the common people and thus different from his corrupt predecessors.

But the arrest of ex-general Cienfuegos could also hit back against López Obrador.

During the election campaign, he promised to put an end to the drug war by slowing down new recruitment to the cartels with scholarships and apprenticeships for young people.

But after pressure from the military and the United States, López Obrador left the soldiers on the streets of Mexico.



And during his nearly two years in power, López Obrador has given the military - which has a much better reputation than the country's police force - an increasing role in terms of security in the country.

The fact that it is a top military that has now been arrested risks seriously damaging the image of the military as relatively honest, thereby complicating the president's current security strategy.

Hundreds of thousands have died

With Cienfuegos, the United States can showcase another trophy in the fight against organized crime.

But in the name of honesty, the case is very embarrassing even for US authorities.

The Mexican state in general and the security apparatus in particular are among the United States' closest partners in the war on drugs.

And it's hard to imagine that the United States has been innocently unaware of the twilight business that its allies seem to have been engaged in for decades.

It has now been almost 50 years since then-US President Richard Nixon declared war on drugs.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed - the vast majority of Hispanics - without the issue coming closer than a solution.

With each passing year, the death toll in Mexico is rising and organized crime just seems to be eating away at the state apparatus.