Lessons learned from Pablo Escobar to the fall of El Mencho

"The actions of the Colombian government and society as a whole, with the death of Escobar, changed the equation in favor of the state and thus reached a turning point in the fight against drug trafficking within the framework of an accumulation of projections that predicted that Colombia would move toward becoming a failed state."

"The death of the drug lord represented a new dawn for the country and the consolidation of an innovative strategy to dismantle, one by one, the other cartels in record time, which at that time had transformed into transnational criminal structures that shared the cocaine production and trafficking chain with the Mexican organizations."

"This disruption was achieved by the institutions thanks to a series of decisions that offer valuable lessons, such as the decisive and unanimous political will to confront the phenomenon head-on, the unprecedented purging of the National Police ranks, the creation of a Search Bloc with the exclusive mission of pursuing the cartels, the modernization."

El Mencho's fall as leader of the CJNG parallels Pablo Escobar's 1993 death in Colombia, both representing critical turning points in their respective nations' fights against drug trafficking. Escobar's death, responsible for over 5,000 Colombian deaths including police officers and political leaders, shifted power dynamics in favor of the state. Colombia's success stemmed from decisive political will, police institutional purging, specialized task forces like the Search Bloc, and modernization efforts. These coordinated strategies enabled rapid dismantling of subsequent cartels including Cali and North Valley organizations. The lessons from Colombia's experience—combining institutional reform, unified government commitment, and targeted operations—provide valuable strategic insights for Mexico's current confrontation with organized crime and cartel structures.

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