Sheinbaum targets violence in states besieged by cartels

EL PASO, Texas ( Border Report ) – The Mexican government will target criminal activity and social disparity in a handful of states accounting for most murders and other “high impact crimes.”

President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo said on Tuesday that those states include Chihuahua, Baja California, Guanajuato, Jalisco, and six others where organized criminal groups have a strong presence.

Government data shows almost 2,300 people have been murdered in the central state of Guanajuato since Jan. 1, 2024, while more than 1,700 have been killed in Baja California and nearly 1,500 in Chihuahua – which includes Juarez just across the border from El Paso.

“We are not going back to (former President Felipe) Calderon’s narco war. There will not be extrajudicial executions and such. Our tools will be prevention, attention to the root causes, intelligence and presence” of law enforcement, Sheinbaum said.

Calderon, in the early 2000s, mobilized police and the military against the cartels, which resulted in a historic spike in homicides and more criminal activity, not less.

Newly appointed Public Safety Secretary Omar Harfuch said the administration will beef up intelligence gathering and expand the use of technology to identify criminal organization leaders, apprehend them, ensure their trial, and seize their assets.

Sheinbaum said the feds will coordinate with states because “public safety is a shared responsibility.”

As for how she will address the root causes of crime, Sheinbaum said she would send brigades of social services workers to high-crime neighborhoods in those states to attend to the needs of families.

“If the (teenagers) are not going to school, we will give them scholarships. If they have no jobs, we get them jobs. (The point) is to help needy families and prevent young people from joining criminal groups,” the president said.

Sergio Meza de Anda, director of the citizens’ watchdog group Juarez Strategic Plan, said criminals react to action or inaction of the federal government. He urged Sheinbaum to do away with strategies that did not work for her predecessor, former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and to not eschew the benefits of U.S. law enforcement cooperation.

“International cooperation is very important because crimes, murders are committed by organized crime in connection with activities in the United States […] Such as drug trafficking, human smuggling, gun and cash smuggling,” Meza said. “We need strong institutions. This will not be solved with a single action by a few people. We need a strong state working on everything from crime prevention to prosecutions.”

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