This scene I’ve found among the hardest to digest in a decade in&out of Michoacán. Reenacting an execution was this veteran sicario’s sense of humor – but it reflects a cruel reality. That of the nearly half million people killed or disappeared in🇲🇽since 2007, and his role in it

El terror cotidiana que vive la población civil de Tierra Caliente. Una bomba tirada desde un dron explotó a un lado de la cama de un señor. Todavía se ven las huellas de sangre en el piso. Siguió una batalla de horas, sin intervención del Estado. Y sigue la carrera armamentista

What do you want to know?.

Michoacán has gone from bad to disastrous. Spent time in a village close to the frontline with the Jalisco Cartel. The explosions sound like a thunderstorm unloading on the horizon. Civilians are being blown up. Villages abandoned. Wrote this for @FAZ_NET .

Michoacán. Una guerra que oficialmente no existe cobra otra vida. Un cortador de limón muere por una mina terrestre. Pasó esta mañana, cerca de Apatzingán. Aquí se mezclan lágrimas, desesperación y enojo, frente a un gobierno en negación de un conflicto armado cada vez más cruel.

RT @anmexico: Au #Mexique, le président « AMLO » @lopezobrador_ laisse à sa successeure @Claudiashein une économie dynamique mais un tris….

RT @joraplas: En México hay indicios de una solución similar. La más reciente: investigación periodística de @CrisisGroup a cargo de @falko….

Spiking killings, stores shut, and school suspended amid constant armed clashes. Part of the fallout of the now-overt rupture of the Sinaloa Cartel. Meanwhile, the army general in charge of the area says that the return of peace "depends on them, not us"👇

But the reform's drastic ways are a risky bet, and its outcomes far from certain. The same is true for Morena's general project of state, ostensibly looking to bundle power and regain lost control. The Sheinbaum years will show how effective it is& what ends it serves in practice.

Chunks of institutions inscribed in competing illegal agendas have largely rendered serving the public a pipe dream. The fallout: Deepening armed conflict, increasing criminal power. Where the law is for sale, often as a matter of routine, there's indeed an urgent need for change.

In a recent report, we show how even within the armed forces cliques of officers do their own thing, often outside of the law. In the state attorneys’ offices – absent from the reform in spite of their protagonism in dishing out impunity – it’s worse.

But so far, power's been amassed largely for its own sake. The outgoing presidency has been rich in discourse but strangely devoid of concrete policy solutions in many fields, notably in security. The key obstacle to a safer Mexico: Split institutions, and rampant collusion.

The reform is part of a wider concentration of power under Morena. This has been central to its agenda from day one, and in many ways it's succeeded. Among other things, today there’s no competitive opposition and the armed forces have become a central pillar of the state.

Elections have also been a rich playground for criminal co-option & capture, with scores of candidates killed. So far, there’s no indication how judicial elections would be better protected. Underworld contacts of mine, for one, see an expanding horizon of influence.

How independent will judges having to campaign for (re)election be? . Doing so requires appealing to a given moment's political preferences. Third-party (financial) support. And to begin with a place on the ballot - with executive & legislature to preselect some of the candidates.

Under the reform, all federal judges will be elected by popular vote, initially in one sweep. A clean slate? Or a flood of new faces who’ll be slow to learn the ropes and prove more ineffective yet?. Morena's expressed intention is to empower the people to hold them accountable.

As is abandoning the idea of gradual improvements - which arguably would've been within reach of governing party Morena's vast majorities. But beyond valid questions of conformity to democratic labels, stability is at stake. Can an already deeply flawed justice system get worse?.

Some thoughts on 🇲🇽’s judicial reform🧵. To opponents, it spells doom for democracy. But what enabled it in the first place is the deep impunity & corruption of a justice system that’s catered to the powerful. True, fewer checks & balances is bad news.

Lots of movement in State-Sinaloa relation as of late. A power play by MX federal government to reestablish historical power relation? An effect of U.S. pressure? Too early to call but certainly eyes on this.

Same script, ostensibly. Archivaldo, one of Chapo’s offsprings, apparently detained again, triggering the same defense mechanisms by Sinaloa Cartel that led to his release in 2019. This time you’d think operation was designed to prevent a full back-to-back.

RT @ElFinanciero_Mx: #ElFinancieroTV | Abundan las armas en México porque es demasiado fácil importarlas y usarlas en las calles, resaltó F….

RT @EroComfort: The drums of war are beating louder and louder. More escalatory attacks draws the region closer to a disastrous situation.….