Quico Toro said that Mexico's judicial system is largely run by cartels, which operate as a "quasi-government" and have gained control over the Mexican government under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Toro's statements come from a Sept. 16 Persuasion Magazine commentary.
"Elections, in other words, will become little more than cover for a power play to monopolize state power in López Obrador's hands," said Toro, Contributing Editor at Persuasion. "But it's even worse than that, because Mexico's system is badly distorted by its hugely powerful drug cartels. These aren't just sprawling criminal enterprises but, in many cases, quasi-governments that monopolize violence and administer some version of justice across wide swathes of territory."
According to Toro, Obrador proposed judicial reforms three weeks before he will step down as President. The reforms changed Mexico's judges from appointments to elections, which Toro said will give cartels more power to influence and control the government through elections: "Mexican elections are increasingly disfigured by the toxic influence of the cartels: they intimidate voters, finance friendly political bosses and murder troublesome candidates as a matter of course." This potential shift would allow cartels to operate with greater impunity, effectively turning Mexico’s judicial system into an instrument for their benefit.
Toro explained that Mexican cartels already operate as state institutions in areas of Mexico that lack democratic stability. By subjecting judges to elections, Obrador's "softly-softly approach" will allow the cartels to influence the judiciary, aligning the justice system with criminal interests rather than upholding the law for ordinary Mexicans. He added that this degradation of democracy in Mexico will turn the country into a "mafia state." Long-term, this will affect the U.S. as immigration is dependent on economic security of neighboring nations and cartel-controlled territory bordering the U.S. affects national security issues.
The Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels have enabled the presence of fentanyl in all 50 U.S. states, producing the drug in Mexico and smuggling it into the United States for profit, according to the 2024 Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) National Drug Threat Assessment. Fentanyl is described as the deadliest drug in American history, primarily produced and trafficked into the U.S. by cartels.
According to the Center for Immigration Studies, cartels' drug trafficking and human smuggling operations gain nearly $1 billion per month. This money is being used to expand operations across the southwest border into the United States.
Quico Toro is a contributing editor for Persuasion, a non-profit magazine, according to his Substack bio.
