Mexico's Sheinbaum rolls out security strategy to strengthen police, intelligence
World
Mexico's Sheinbaum rolls out security strategy to strengthen police, intelligence
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's new government on Tuesday presented its plan to combat violence and crime, vowing to strengthen the National Guard police force and boost intelligence gathering in a bid to reduce murders, kidnappings and extortion.
Speaking at President Claudia Sheinbaum's morning press conference, Security Minister Omar Garcia Harfuch outlined a four-pronged approach that will also focus on treating the economic and social causes of crime and improving coordination between crime-fighting institutions.
The National Guard is currently made up of 133,000 members, Garcia Harfuch said, and can serve areas that do not have access to reliable local policing.
In recent weeks, the mayor of the state capital of Guerrero was violently murdered, and an intra-cartel war in Sinaloa has killed more than 150 people
Sheinbaum, who pledged her government would not wage a new war on Mexico's powerful drug cartels, said the strategy would continue the work of her predecessor and mentor, former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
"The first thing that is very important is that (former President Felipe) Calderon's war against the cartels is not going to return. We are not looking for extrajudicial executions, which was what was happening," Sheinbaum said, referring to the bloody crackdown launched in 2006.
Instead, the plan aims to support the public in areas hit especially hard by violent crime, as well as young people suffering drug addictions, she said.
Lopez Obrador faced criticism for his "hugs not bullets" strategy, which prioritized the social roots of crime rather than direct conflict with armed cartels. Opponents said it was too soft and allowed criminal groups to expand and strengthen.
"Sheinbaum seems to be more willing than her predecessor to take a different approach to combat organized crime, but the task ahead of her seems herculean with many areas of Mexico being effectively under control of organized crime," said Rodolfo Ramos of investment bank Bradesco BBI.
