Unrest in Mexican Army: Generals are no longer willing to cooperate with DEA after Cienfuegos' arrest

The anti-American climate at the top of the Army is deepening. The arrest of General Salvador Cienfuegos upsets a group of high-ranking officials who are already talking about canceling any type of cooperation with the DEA. The argument they are making is that the anti-drug agency decides everything on its own, without notifying their Mexican counterparts, and that instead of having requested the extradition of the general, they waited more than a year to be able to capture him in California.

In the last hours two meetings took place, one in a private home in the luxurious Las Lomas neighborhood in the Mexican capital, where all the operations that Cienfuegos carried out at the request of the DEA and all the cooperation offered were remembered. That account contrasts with this tumultuous present.

One fact: Cienfuegos is going to have a very high level defense team in the United States and it will be covered by Mexican businessmen close to the Army. The presidential staff is well aware of this situation.

LPO revealed this week General Luis Crescencio Sandoval's -the current Secretary of Defense- categorical refusal to remove the Chief of Staff from the Defense Secretariat (Sedena), despite his ties to Cienfuegos.

The military wants to reduce cooperation with the DEA to the National Guard. By the way: at the beginning of the month a letter signed by Sandoval put on record that the National Guard's operations are now absolutely under Sedena's control.

It turns out that the blow to the credibility of the Army -after the detention- has been fulminating and there exist strong doubts about the loyalty of middle ranking officers after what happened. Confidence in the chain of command is an elementary question in any military corporation. That trust now faces an acid test in a U.S. court.