Sheinbaum focuses on violence in states under siege by cartels

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

President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo said Tuesday that these states include Chihuahua, Baja California, Guanajuato, Jalisco and six other states where organized crime groups have a strong presence.

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

“We are not going back to (former President Felipe) Calderon’s narco war. There will be no extrajudicial killings and the like. Our tools will consist of prevention, attention to root causes, intelligence and law enforcement presence,” Sheinbaum said.

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

Newly appointed Minister of Public Security Omar Harfuch said the government will intensify intelligence collection and expand the use of technology to identify leaders of criminal organizations, arrest them, ensure their trial and seize their assets to take.

Sheinbaum said the FBI will work 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 workers into high-crime neighborhoods in those states to meet the needs of families.

“If the (teenagers) don’t go to school, we give them scholarships. If they don’t have a job, we will provide 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 citizen watchdog group Juarez Strategic Plan, said criminals respond to the actions or inactions of the federal government. He urged Sheinbaum to abandon strategies that did not work for her predecessor, former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and not to shun the benefits of U.S. law enforcement cooperation.

“International cooperation is very important because crimes and murders are committed by organized crime in connection with activities in the United States (…) Such as drug trafficking, human smuggling, arms and money smuggling,” Meza said. “We need strong institutions. This will not be solved by a single action by a few people. We need a strong state that deals with everything from crime prevention to prosecution.”