Mexico’s new president announces security plan amid wave of violence

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Mexico’s new president Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday announced a security strategy focused on combating the most dangerous criminals in the country’s six most violent states and beefing up national intelligence capacity.

Sheinbaum, a former mayor of the capital, took office last week and has made security a priority amid a wave of violence in multiple states across the country.

The strategy was one of the first measures outlined by the president. She has appointed a former senior policeman, Omar García Harfuch, to take charge of implementing the plan. He will oversee a strengthening of the country’s intelligence apparatus under a new national system with more field agents and analysts.

The plan will focus on “neutralising” the criminals who perpetrate violence in areas with high crime rates, with the federal authorities evaluating state-level police, prosecutors and prison systems.

Polls show the high levels of violence have become the main concern of ordinary Mexicans.

In the past week, a city mayor in the state of Guerrero was killed and beheaded; the army engaged in open gun battles with drug traffickers in Sinaloa state; and 12 homicides were reported a single municipality in Guanajuato state.

García Harfuch said Sheinbaum’s strategy was a “continuation” of the policies pursued by recently departed leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The former president’s approach of “hugs not bullets”, which focused on the root causes of violence and avoiding confrontation between security forces and criminals, has been widely criticised.

Security analysts say it led to organised crime groups increasing their territorial control across the country, with the number of homicides and missing people hitting record highs.

López Obrador’s tenure also coincided with a low point in security co-operation with the US. Security in the two nations is interconnected, with American guns flowing south to Mexican drug trafficking groups who send deadly drugs, such as fentanyl, north.

The former president greatly empowered the Mexican military, handing it vast economic responsibilities from running customs to airports. He also replaced the federal police with a new National Guard and put it under the charge of the defence ministry.

As a result, García Harfuch will not have direct control over the security force and instead will have to co-ordinate with the military, which is traditionally reluctant to share information with civilian agencies, and state governments.

In 2020, gunmen tried to kill García Harfuch, who was then Mexico City’s police chief. He survived the assassination attempt but travels with a security detail.

US officials have expressed optimism that security co-operation could improve under Sheinbaum’s government, based on their experience with her and her officials.

Homicides in Mexico first jumped in 2008 during the presidency of Felipe Calderón, as he pursued an open war on the drug cartels. There is also a long history of corruption, with public officials on the payroll of the powerful drug trafficking groups.

This history makes some Mexicans wary of an all-out offensive against them.

“The war on drugs cartels is not coming back, we aren’t looking for extrajudicial killings,” Sheinbaum said on Tuesday. “We will use prevention, attention to causes and intelligence and physical presence.”