Mexico City.– With drug trafficking ravaging states such as Michoacán, Sinaloa, Durango, Chiapas and even Tabasco, despite the presence of the military, and with more than 193 thousand homicides in the six-year term, 59 percent more than in Felipe Calderón’s term, violence is the worst legacy of the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, accused Senators Marko Cortés, of the PAN, and Clemente Castañeda, of Movimiento Ciudadano.
The senators reacted in this way to the report published by Reforma on the increase in violence due to organized crime in several states.
“Violence and disappearances increased with the policy of ‘hugging’ drug cartels. Without a doubt, violence and insecurity are the worst legacy of López Obrador,” said Cortés. Cortés, a leader of the PAN, accused López Obrador of refusing to guarantee the security of Mexicans during his government.
“In six years, drug cartels have taken on a dynamic of empowerment, with more territory under their control and more activities under their control, such as imposing protection rights on lemon and avocado producers, among others,” he added.
According to a report from the Citizen Security Program of the Ibero-American University, 2023 closed with more than 261 thousand soldiers deployed throughout the country, while the total number of police was 251 thousand, but despite that, this week there has been an escalation of violence in different states, to the point that President López Obrador asked criminals to no longer do harm. “They (the drug traffickers) must also act with a minimum of responsibility, it is their family, they are their countrymen, it is their municipality, it is their state, it is their country,” he said. Although López Obrador criticized the militarization of public security initiated by Felipe Calderón, as President, he increased the number of soldiers on the streets, even created the National Guard with military personnel and tries to ensure that its command is not civilian, as he promised, but rather sent to Congress an initiative to reform the Constitution so that it can depend completely on the Ministry of National Defense. The coordinator of the senators of Movimiento Ciudadano, Clemente Castañeda, considered that the military route had already failed in the past and that the same thing happened in the six-year term of López Obrador, which has 16 days left. “The security crisis that affects a large part of the national territory is a direct consequence of this failed policy,” he said. “From Movimiento Ciudadano, we insist that the militarization of public life is a serious mistake. We demand a security model that prioritizes the training and strengthening of local and state police forces, which are well trained, well paid and effective,” he added. In July, the civil organization Causa en Común reported an excessive increase in the budget for the Armed Forces, which in 2025 will spend 383 thousand 673 million pesos plus direct transfers and the companies they manage, this does not correspond to the effectiveness of the fight against crime. In 2022, for example, the National Guard had 128,233 officers, but only made 2,814 arrests of suspected criminals, fewer than those made by the Celaya municipal police, which had 600 members. On the 3rd of this month, the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC) reported a cumulative total of 193,612 intentional homicides, which represents an increase of 23 percent compared to the government of Enrique Peña Nieto, and 59 percent compared to that of Felipe Calderón. According to a comparative graph, presented during the biweekly report on security at López Obrador’s morning conference, the PRI government, between 2012 and 2018, accumulated 157,158 murders, while the PAN government, from 2006 to 2012, totaled 121,613 deaths. This Friday, the Tresearch International agency reported 71 new intentional homicides, bringing the total number for the six-year term to 197,297. Before the end of the six-year term, Cortés said that the dilemma for the next Government is whether to continue “with arms crossed” or act in defense of the citizenry.
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