Mexico Sends Trump A Message Of Effectiveness With The Arrest Of Drug Trafficker ‘El Jardinero’

With the arrest of Audias Flores, aka “El Jardinero” (The Gardener), one of Mexico’s most wanted drug traffickers and a leading contender to take over the decapitated Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), Mexico has not only dealt a brutal blow to that criminal organization, but is also trying to send a message of effectiveness to Washington and contain Donald Trump’s interventionist impulse in his crusade against drugs.

Just a few hours after the Mexican government released the image of the cornered drug lord, military authorities provided details of the capture. Not a single shot was fired, and the two-hour operation took place after 19 months of investigation. That same day, authorities also arrested César Alejandro N., alias “El Güero Contra,” in charge of the cartel’s finances and logistics, as well as Metro 9, the leader of one of the Gulf Cartel’s factions in Tamaulipas, on the border with the United States.

It was all in stark contrast to the bloody operation in February that captured the cartel’s leader, Nemesio Oseguera, alias “El Mencho,” and triggered a wave of violence across the country that left 25 soldiers dead. While the violence was quelled within 72 hours, it left a sense of chaos and uncertainty for several weeks.

The arrest of El Jardinero involved U.S. intelligence, a cooperation that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum wants to leave at that, given Trump’s repeated offers and pressure to intervene more directly on Mexican soil. Sheinbaum’s containment strategy hinges on demonstrating results to Trump to convince him that Mexico is capable of managing the problem by itself, at a tense moment in relations with Washington, with whom Mexico is negotiating the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), vital to its economy.

El Jardinero, in addition to managing a significant flow of cocaine north and a large extortion network targeting truckers, had been a prime target of the DEA, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, for years. While awaiting a judge’s decision on his legal future, the possibility of his extradition to the United States remains high, and it has been requested. The Sheinbaum administration has already sent 92 prisoners to the U.S. in the past year to face charges related to organized crime. “It’s another offering to Trump, yes, but also a victory for the Navy [one of the Mexican military branches], and they’ve done it with zero deaths,” explains Carlos Pérez Ricart, a researcher at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching.

In a new version of the Monroe Doctrine, Trump has been exerting strong pressure for months on several Latin American countries, in what he considers his hegemonic sphere of influence. The fight against drug trafficking, curbing migration, and limiting China’s influence in the region are the pillars of his Shield of the Americas, the alliance he presented a month ago with 12 leaders from the region, all ideologically aligned with him.

With Mexico, Washington employs a threatening rhetoric, hinting at attacks against cartels on Mexican soil and embracing the notion that the cartels control the country. And this isn’t limited to security matters; it also extends to Mexico’s alliances, such as the oil shipments to Cuba that ceased after Trump threatened tariffs on any supplier, and to economic relations as well. Last September, Mexico raised tariffs on Chinese cars to 50%, a move viewed in Beijing as a sign of submission to U.S. “coercion.”

Although security cooperation with the United States is fluid, as seen in these recent operations, the limits that Sheinbaum tries to impose often face even more pressure from the other side of the border. The arrest of El Jardinero, which had been in the works for months, also “serves to demonstrate the government’s effectiveness and decisiveness” to Washington, explains Maria Teresa Martínez Trujillo, a specialist in violence and professor at the Monterrey Institute of Technology.

Domestically, the president is sending a message of sovereignty, which has been called into question by the scandal generated by the fortuitous revelation—following a traffic accident in which two Mexican and two American officials died—of the presence of CIA agents on Mexican territory without the authorization of the federal government, once again raising concerns about interference.

Partisan use

Regarding the arrest of El Jardinero, Sheinbaum said on Tuesday: “There may be information from some U.S. government agency, but it has to be within the framework of the existing understanding and not from a ground operation with elements of any of the investigative agencies.” And she added, to emphasize the difference with other administrations: “That was the daily reality during [President Felipe] Calderón’s term. All Mexicans are very protective of our independence, and particularly the Mexican government. This government. The government of [Sheinbaum’s predecessor and founder of the leftist Morena party Andrés Manuel] López Obrador.”

The statement was also a swipe at the war on drugs that Calderón implemented starting in 2006, and which dramatically increased the number of homicides and disappearances by militarizing security. Calderón belongs to the right-wing National Action Party (PAN), the same as the governor of the state of Chihuahua, on the northern border, where CIA agents were involved in a joint operation with state officials.

Chihuahua is one of the few states not controlled by Morena, Sheinbaum’s party, and there are elections scheduled for next year. The president demanded explanations from the governor about the CIA agents’ presence in her state; this led to an investigation that ended with the resignation of the state prosecutor, who gave contradictory accounts of what happened.

“The president has been very harsh with the governor and very lenient with the United States,” says Pérez Ricart. “Many state governments have their own logic regarding cooperation with the United States; that’s a fact. But the president can’t acknowledge this publicly, and we only found out because they died in an accident,” he says. In this way, “Morena found a way to damage an opponent of the PAN party to weaken her in the lead-up to the elections.”

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