Rejecting a renewed “war” against drug traffickers, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday unveiled her strategy to battle organized crime in a nation where each day brings word of new assassinations, gang wars, massacres and other bloodshed.
. . .
Instead, she outlined a four-point strategy that emphasized intelligence-gathering, troop deployment, improved federal-state coordination and providing opportunities to dissuade impoverished young people from joining organized crime — which is among Mexico’s major employers.
A centerpiece of the plan is doubling down on the often-criticized “hugs not bullets” strategy of Sheinbaum’s predecessor and mentor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
I think the key is to tackle the incentives that brought narcos into existence in the first place. Unfortunately, a lot of that is outside of Mexico’s control. As long as there is demand in the US and drugs remain criminalized, impoverished people in Mexico will be attracted to the drug trade. Also lax US gun laws make it easy for weapons to flow to the narcos making them a tougher target.