Are ISIS and mexican drug cartels alike?

[This story was originally published in spanish at nacion321.com, the news outlet I work for]
Last thursday, a terrorist attack shocked the spanish city of Barcelona. This onslaught put ISIS once again at the spotlight of the media coverage.
Despite ISIS hasn’t attacked Mexico yet, the country has its own groups to be worried about: the drug cartels.
ISIS and narco groups cause violence for different causes, at different places and with different tactics, but there are at least seven similarities between the two of them:
1. TERRITORY CONTROL
ISIS is a terrorist group which has under its control territories in the Middle East, where the syrian city of Raqqa and de iraqi city of Mosul have become its strongholds.
In those cities, and anywhere else under their control, it wasn’t the local governments but ISIS who ruled. Currently, Mosul has been retaken by an internacional coalition, while Raqqa is close to be freed from the terrorists.
Meanwhile, in Mexico, the drug cartels have practically been recognised as de facto governments in many zones in the country. For example, in Michoacán, La Familia Michoacana (The Michoacanan Family) first and the Caballeros Templarios (Knights Templar) later, have subjugated entire towns. There are other examples of this control in different zones of the states of Sinaloa or Tamaulipas, just to mention some of them.
2. ‘TAX’ COLLECTION
When ISIS gained the control of towns, the terrorist group started to replace the State to collect taxes for the use of electrical power, for trade and for internet access. This has been an imporant source of income to finance its criminal activities around the world.
In Mexico, specially in Michoacán, something similar has happened in recent years. The different narco groups that have operated in the state have illegaly taxated the local agriculture industry. For example, media has documentated cases of extortion charges for each hectare (1 h = 2.47 acres) of growing avocado, and also for its packaging, because the state is the world leader of its production and USA’s first supplier.
3. IMPARTING ‘JUSTICE’
Another shared characteristic among ISIS and mexican drug cartel is supplying the State to apply ‘criminal’ sanctions. In the Middle East, ISIS has played as mediator for trade disputes, using its twisted intrpretation of Islam as guideline.
In the same way, NGO’s and media have reported that in mexican states such as Chihuahua or Guerrero, just to mention some, the local civil population turns out to drug dealers to settle pruchase, inheritance and other kind of issues.
4. NATURAL RESOURCES EXTRACTION
The extraction and trade of oil at the black markets has been a key revenue source for ISIS. The terrorist group took control of some oil fields and assembled a supply chain to deliver it at the syrian-turkish border, where companies from Turkey bought it.
As ISIS began to lose ground , the group set on fire the oil fields in attempt to slow down the international coalition advance.
In the mexcan case, the drug cartels have also expanded their activities to fuel robbery. In states such as Veracruz, Tamaulipas, Hidalgo or Puebla, the authorities have detected clandestine fuel taps in the Pemex (the state’s oil company) duct network, where gasoline and diesel are extracted for its illegal selling.
Moreover, there have been cases in Michoacán where chinese companies embarked iron and other mineral shipments, that were illegaly extracted by cartels.
5. COMMON GRAVES
During the last decade, the detection of clandestine mass graves has become a common tragedy in Mexico. One of the most representative cases was de San Fernando’s massacre in Tamaulipas, where around 80 bodied where found, and most of them were centroamerican migrants heading to USA. Veracruz, Guerrero or Jalisco are other mexican states with cases of clandestine mass graves.
On the other side of the world, the international coalition that has engaged in combat against ISIS has found mass graves in the territory that was once under the terrorists’ control. The Associated Press published that 72 mass graves with 5–15 bodies had been found, until the fall of 2016. The victims where mainly religious minorities considered as ‘infidels’, according to ISIS twisted interpretaion of Islam.
6. SOCIAL MEDIA USE
Youtube, Twitter and Facebook have become channels that international criminal groups use to send messages. In the case of ISIS, the terrorists have spread threats to the West and footage of the execution of its prisioners, and also propaganda to attract people from around the world to its cause and rdicalize them.
Meanwhile, the war between durg cartels in Mexico and against the government resulted in the blossoming of specialized blogs where narcos publish messages, threats, and coverage of their killings. Also, social media has been used to the spreading of narcorridos, songs that advocate drug lords and cartels.
7. PRESS ENEMIES
ISIS has spread the beheadings of three journalists. Also, the group has been linked to the missing of at least a dozen of journalistas in Syria an Iraq during the last years.
Since some decades ago, the have bee cases in Mexico of the murdering of journalits who covered narco. Only in 2017, journalist as Miroslava Breach or Javier Valdez have been assesinated after receiving threats from cartel members.
Translation: Juan González Anaya
