I was only 11 years old, and yet I perfectly remember the day when Amado Carrillo Fuentes “El Señor de los Cielos” died and the news being all over the Spanish speaking media. Now over 16 years later, with the capture of Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman, it news too is all over the media. Surely the capture of one of the leaders of the most powerful organized crime syndicate in the Western Hemisphere is big news, it is absolutely appalling some journalists (Univision from what I’ve seen) report of this being a significant blow to the Sinaloa criminal organization. The fact of the matter is while it’s good news that Chapo Guzman was capture, it is far away from weakening the Sinaloa Federation. To put it into perspective, it is believed Guzman only has a fourth grade education. Chapo, the person that up until a few hours ago was the most wanted man in the world, at the helm of an organization that profits annually about the same amount of money that Apple, Inc. makes, and has been able to capture public institutions of over 50 foreign countries through corruption. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that all of this couldn’t be done by a single person, but rather a whole chain of actions coordinated by a board of directors. Similar in how large corporations operate, again think of Apple Inc. and the death of Steve Jobs in comparison. In the case of Sinaloa, needless to say it’s board of directors would also consist of many public elected officials, business, and bankers that allowed Sinaloa to become as powerful as it currently is.

While Mexico parades it’s drug kingpins on television, by the same token; I have yet to see any big time business and banking money launderer captured and paraded on tv. So the vicious cycle continues, in years to come another so called top legendary drug capo will emerge and ultimately demise.

Dr. Edgardo Buscaglia does an awesome job describing this.