Mexico’s new president confronts wave of violence: car bombs, massacres and a cartel war
Much of Mexico is contested by warring criminal groups that operate with near impunity
Car bombs. Massacres. The slaying of a Roman Catholic priest. A cartel war that has engulfed a major city. A mayor of another large city beheaded after he dared to call for peace.
Six weeks after taking office, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is contending with a nationwide wave of violence, and is facing increasingly urgent questions about what she plans to do about it.
As a candidate, Sheinbaum vowed to continue the strategy of her predecessor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who expanded the military’s reach but sought to avoid direct confrontations with cartels, and insisted that the best path was to address the social conditions that allow violence to flourish.
A scientist by training, Sheinbaum also pledged to replicate at the national level the security policies she put into action as mayor of Mexico City, where she oversaw a dramatic drop in violent crime, including a 50 per cent plunge in homicides.
The strategy is built on professionalising law enforcement and implementing the sorts of data-driven and community policing models used in many US cities.
