Calderón warns organized crime threatens Mexico

Reporting and context

Former Mexican President Felipe Calderón said organized crime, rather than the political opposition, poses the greater threat to Mexico, warning that criminal groups could capture parts of the state.

Speaking at the fourth Foro América Libre in Mexico City, Calderón argued that the problem goes beyond drugs and includes the growing influence of organized crime in Mexican politics. El Financiero reported that he cited an April indictment by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York against Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya and nine other current and former Mexican officials. U.S. prosecutors allege that the defendants conspired with Sinaloa Cartel leaders to facilitate drug trafficking in exchange for bribes and political support.

Calderón, who governed from 2006 to 2012 and led the government’s so-called war on drugs, also said Mexico’s electoral and judicial institutions were being weakened. According to El Financiero, he urged opposition parties to widen citizen participation and acknowledged that they had not adopted proposals he made before the 2024 elections to strengthen their territorial organization.

President Claudia Sheinbaum responded earlier in her morning news conference by criticizing Calderón’s participation in the meeting. Former workers of the dissolved Luz y Fuerza del Centro protested outside the forum venue, and another group later protested at Los Pinos, where a statue of Calderón was decapitated in opposition to the 2009 decree that ended the public company.