The violence in Mexico continues, and in diverse locales:
1. In the eastern state of Chiapas, criminal groups connected to the Sinaloa Cartel battle those connected with the CJNG (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación). See here.
2. In Sonora state, the internecine war between factions of the Sinaloa Cartel continue (see here, here and here) with over 150 dead.
3. The most violent state is currently Guanajuato, where 12 dead bodies were recently found.
4. Alejandro Arcos Catalan, mayor Chilpancingo (capital of Guerrero state) was murdered and beheaded shortly after taking office.
On October 8th, in her morning press conference, President Sheinbaum’s four point security plan was presented. It was first presented by Omar Garcia Harfuch, Sheinbaum’s Secretary of Security and Civilian Protection, then reiterated by President Sheinbaum herself.
Here is a photo from the news conference, with Secretary Garcia Harfuch speaking and President Sheinbaum in the background:
The four points, or axes as they are called in Spanish, are:
- Dealing with Root Causes
- The consolidation of the National Guard in the Department of Defense
- The strengthening of intelligence and investigation
- Coordination, in the words of Garcia Harfuch, “among the institutions of the Security Cabinet and also, when necessary, with the state authorities.”
These four axes were reiterated by President Sheinbaum.
Garcia Harfuch said the government had three objectives:
1. Decrease crime, especially murder and extortion.
2. “Neutralize generators of violence and criminal networks with attention to high crime areas.”
3. “Strengthen the ability of prevention and social proximity of local police and improve the dialogue with all sectors of society.”
To effectively fight the Mexican drug cartels is a great challenge.
When you remove one drug baron, another rushes to take his place. Then there’s the problem of corruption and collaboration with government officials. And money laundering.
The cartels have a massive quantity of money available, mostly supplied by their American drug customers.
And nowadays, the drug cartels are not just involved with drugs, but various illicit businesses. (See here).
So how about this Sheinbaum plan? An Associated Press article was not optimistic. It begins thusly: “Mexico’s new president laid out a plan Tuesday [October 8th] to combat drug cartel violence, but analysts say it appears to be largely a continuation of previous policy…Mike Vigil, a former head of the DEA’s foreign operations, said that the new plan appears to be ‘more of the same.’ “
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