Ben Rhodes

They wanted that to be their brand.

That's their model.

And it was effective because certainly if he or his organization was involved,

He would get cooperation because the alternative was pretty bad.

They were also quite showy about trying to put together these armored vehicles with their emblems on them and uniformed people.

And they have an armed wing as if the whole thing weren't sort of an armed organization.

But they – yeah, there was a big show around the use of violence.

The spectacle of violence was important to him.

Yeah, so what happened in Mexico over the weekend is what was expected to happen.

They had threatened large-scale violence if there was any action taken against the leadership of the organization.

They carried it out.

Most of what they did, there was a lot of visibility.

It was very dramatic.

And they did kill at least 25 police officials in Mexico as part of the retaliation.

There were quite a few deaths, mostly lower-level police that were in more vulnerable locations.

And there was a spasm day one, a little bit of violence subsequently.

And it should kind of end with that.

Or there might be other scattered episodes.

But for the most part, this is not like the sustained war of attrition against the state.

They're making a point about their reach.