Será cierto? (Could it be true?) Guzman, Mexico's Largest Employer, Is Arrested In Mazatlan

Guzman was reported to have been non-violently arrested in Mazatlan.
(This link says otherwise)

Do you want to know what happened when the Mexican farmer was displaced by the ravages of NAFTA?

Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman happened.

Today he was captured in a hotel in Mazatlan and instantly his arrest became world news of the moment.  Some people hardly know about El Chapo, but few of them are Mexican.  Shorty Guzman, as he is often called, is a ruthless leader of industry.

I often refer to him in this light because there is something to be said for the head of an organization.  A lot of people bemoan the huge wages that business executives get for what they do.  Personally I believe that the market sets the demand.  Failure has its rewards in business just like success does and no unsuccessful CEO remains in position.

Sometimes success can be a function of market climate, but drugs have been around for too long for drug dealers to be concerned with market climate.  Those who seize power through drugs must be leaders of another level.  It is likely that they would be successful in any industry, but life has found them in an illegal one.  Rising in the world of crime demands murderous intent, but the plight of Mexico has become somewhat life or death anyway.

Losing the Mexican farming industry to the US was devastating.  Losing it's population to the job magnets in the US has transformed Mexico's key industries, and drugs and guns have taken a stronghold.  Guzman is the head of the largest crime industry in Mexico (maybe the world), but he is only a piece of a greater problem.  What do you do when you have no options left?

Young men who grow up in Mexico have to protect themselves from the forces of crime that make everyone choose a side.  Being on the outside of Mexican criminality is as dangerous as being inside of it all.  Even if you insist on staying away, you may struggle to find work that pays anywhere close to what can be earned in the Mexican drug trade.  Growing up within such an environment is becoming a world with two options. Sell drugs or move to America illegally.  The legal alternatives are much more bleak.

The arrest of Guzman doesn't change the job prospect in Mexico.  It is likely that he has an organization that essentially runs itself.  Eventually the impact will be felt because leaders have a value that can't be minimized.  Whether or not his leadership team can hold things together without a defined head is what everyone interested will wait and see.

What we do know is for every Pablo Escobar you take down there is a Joaquin El Chapo Guzman ready to take his place.  Especially in the absence of a really good job in Mexico.