Perspective: A look at notable dates in Mexico’s decade-old drug war
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Mexico’s most notorious cartel kingpin who twice made brazen prison escapes and spent years on the run as the country’s most wanted man, was extradited to the U.S. on Thursday to face drug trafficking and other charges.
A look at key events in Mexico’s war on drugs following the extradition of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
– Dec. 11, 2006: Then-President Felipe Calderon orders almost 7,000 soldiers to his home state of Michoacan to fight drug cartels.
– June 30, 2008: U.S. announces $1.6 billion in anti-drug aid for Mexico under the Merida Initiative.
– Jan. 31, 2008: A gang bursts into a party and kills 16 young people in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. The victims’ relatives yell at Calderon.
– Aug. 23, 2010: The bodies of 72 migrants killed by the Zetas drug gang are found in San Fernando, Tamaulipas state.
– May 5, 2011: An organized victims’ movement is born with the start of the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity.
– Aug. 25, 2011: Zetas gunmen set fire to the Casino Royale in Monterrey, killing 52 people.
– May 13, 2012: The mutilated bodies of 49 people are dumped on a northern highway.
– Feb 24, 2013: The first of the “self-defense” vigilante forces takes up arms against the cartels in Michoacan.
– Feb. 22, 2014: Drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman of the Sinaloa cartel is arrested. He escapes from prison the following year, and is recaptured in early 2016.
– June 30, 2014: Mexican soldiers kill 22 suspects at a warehouse in Tlatlaya, Mexico State. News media later present evidence that most were executed after being captured.
– Sept. 26, 2014: In the city of Iguala, Guerrero state, 43 students disappear after corrupt police detain and turn them over to a drug gang.
– December 2016: Homicide rates, which had fallen, return to levels near those of 2012.
– Jan. 19, 2017: Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is extradited to the United States.
