A violent start to the term of Mexico’s new president raises questions about strategy, the military

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Just three weeks into office, President Claudia Sheinbaum has inherited a whirlwind of violence that many say was created by her predecessor’s policy of not confronting the drug cartels, and the use of the military for law enforcement.

Sheinbaum, who took office on October 1, would rather talk about the government’s plan to make all judges stand for election.

But instead he had to deal with her the killing of six migrants by the army on the day he took office and the death of three bystanders at the hands of soldiers i in the border town of Nuevo Laredo 10 days later. They were killed by Army and National Guard troops chasing suspected drug cartels.

Sheinbaum’s third week in office was capped by the killing of a crusading Catholic priest who had been threatened by gangs and an unbalanced meeting in the northern state of Sinaloa in which soldiers killed 19 suspected drug cartels, but they did not suffer a scratch. That stirred memories of past human rights abuses, such as a 2014 incident in which soldiers killed about a dozen cartel suspects after they surrendered.

“Everything is very disappointing and looks dark for the future,” said Santiago Aguirre, head of the Miguel Agustín Pro human rights center. “Everything is breaking down and instead of dealing with these priority issues, all the government’s political capital is being wasted on a judicial reform that will cause more problems than solutions.”

Sheinbaum said all the incidents are being investigated, but she has devoted only a few minutes in her first three weeks in office to talking about them, compared to the hours she has spent extolling the virtues of judicial reform. She says electing judges will fix corruption.

But critics note that the real problem is not corrupt judges acquitting suspects; it’s that civilian police and prosecutors have been so underfunded and poorly trained that over 90% of crimes never make it to court in the first place.

It was Sheinbaum’s predecessor and political mentor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador — who left office on September 30 — who decided to make the armed forces the centerpiece of his security strategy and abandon the slow and steady work of police and justice reform. to eliminate corruption.

Sheinbaum vowed to continue all of López Obrador’s policies, including the “hugs, not bullets” strategy of not confronting the cartels but rather trying to exhaust the potential pool of recruits through scholarships and job training programs.

López Obrador has failed to significantly reduce Mexico’s historically high homicide rate, but the charismatic former president has had a knack for portraying himself as a victim, dismissing past incidents and accusing media reports of the violence as “sensationalism” designed to slander him.

But since October 1, the abuse has come so quickly that Sheinbaum has had neither the charisma nor the time to stamp out the incidents. Thursday, a drug cartel set off two near-simultaneous car bombs in the state of Guanajuato, injuring three police officers and scattering burning wreckage in the streets.

“It puts her and the new administration to the test,” acknowledged Juan Ibarrola, a military analyst close to the armed forces.

There is no denying that Mexico’s drug cartels are heavily armed and intent on regional dominance. How to respond to this challenge has baffled four successive presidential administrations in Mexico.

“It’s unfortunate, but the use of violence by the Mexican government is necessary” to meet the challenge, Ibarrola said.

As if to illustrate that, on Friday, Mexico’s top civil security official, Omar García Harfuch, recounted a massive attack early Thursday by a convoy of cartel gunmen traveling in 16 vehicles — some armored – in the southern state of Guerrero.

Garcia Harfuch said the attackers used fully automatic machine guns, explosive devices and .50-caliber sniper rifles in the battle with soldiers and police.

Again, the death toll was lopsided: 17 suspects and two police officers were killed. But the military — which is now in charge of the quasi-military National Guard, the country’s main law enforcement agency — appears to be reacting to three weeks of almost nonstop bad press.

The Department of Defense was quick to share photos of bullet holes in army vehicles and pointed out that three soldiers were wounded in the battle.

The northern border town of Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas, is perhaps the clearest illustration of what happens when a military-led security strategy confronts a heavily armed drug cartel. There, the three civilians – including a nurse and an 8-year-old girl – were killed by troops in separate incidents on October 11 and 12.

Raymundo Ramos, head of the non-governmental Human Rights Commission of Nuevo Laredo, has been fighting for years for justice in the deaths of civilians at the hands of military forces there.

Asked about the October incidents in other parts of Mexico, including the violence-torn northern state of Sinaloa, where rival cartels are battling, Ramos said he feared the military’s “shoot first, ask questions later” tactics. ”, which were used in Nuevo Laredo. now they are spreading across the country.

“It’s the same way it works in Nuevo Laredo,” Ramos said. “They are the same orders all over the country. “Leave no witnesses, the dead do not speak.”