Calderón Launches Military Offensive Against Cartels

In December 2006, newly inaugurated President Felipe Calderón deployed the Mexican military against drug cartels, beginning with Operation Michoacán. The decision dramatically escalated violence across Mexico — homicides surged from approximately 10,000 per year to over 27,000 by 2011. Over 60,000 people were killed during his six-year term.

The strategy was widely criticized for lacking clear objectives, for allegedly favoring the Sinaloa Cartel while targeting its rivals, and for unleashing the military with inadequate human rights oversight. It triggered the militarization of cartel operations in response and set in motion many of the fragmentations and conflicts that defined the following decade.