Mexico faces a crisis of kidnappings, disappearances and other criminal violence that has left Over thirty thousand People who have died every year since 2018. Gangs and drug cartels are largely perpetual this violence, but the state also has engaged human rights violations in his war against these groups. Civilians have the most significant impact, which pushes migrants to the American border. Cartel drugs also flow on the border, refueling An epidemic of overdose of drugs in the United States.
Background
In the 1980s, Mexico criminal groups and drug traffickers became organized (PDF), assigning separate regional control areas for each group and establishing networks and traffic routes. However, as production and distribution increased, groups started struggle For territorial control and access to markets, resulting in an increase in violence across Mexico.
The Mexican government officially Declared war against criminal organizations In 2006, when former President Felipe Calderon launched an initiative to combat cartels using military force. In 2012, President Enrique Peña Nieto revised Calderon’s government strategy, removing the efforts from violent exchanges and improving law capacities and supporting public security support.
However, after the “El Chapo” joaquin of the Sinaloa cartel is, Guzman was Order in 2014,, Arrival in reality in 2016and finally extradited to the United States in 2017A power vacuum cleaner was created Within the Sinaloa cartel, leading to an increase in support for violence between rival factions in search of a new territory and influence. In addition, despite an initial decrease in homicides following the Peña Nieto reforms, Mexico continued to fight with corruption and violence linked to crime. In 2016, drug -related homicides had increased by 22%With more than twenty thousand killed. In 2017, a mass tomb containing the remains of more than 250 victims of violence linked to the crime was discovered In the state of Veracruz. Violence quickly intensified in a culminate 33,341 homicides in 2018, and the murder rate has abandoned Only slightly since then. In addition, from 2017 to 2020, a journalist was killed (PDF) Each week on average.
Recognizing the generalized affirmations according to which the use of military force had only increased the level of violence linked to the crime in Mexico – and the accusations that the military had Human rights violations And Make extrajudicial killings– The presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, popularly known as Amlo, Promised on its campaign track To revolutionize the fight against cartels and return to a police force led by civilians. As part of its amorphous policy of “Câlins, no bullets”, Amlo suggested Poverty reduction programs, the legalization of marijuana and the new directives of determining the sentence for drug traffickers. After winning the election office and assumed in December 2018, Amlo announced the Creation of a new National Guard (a hybrid civilian police and a military force) to fight cartels. In 2019, as part of an agreement with the United States, Amlo deployed A large part of this strength on the southern border with Guatemala to stem migration.
However, amlo tactics have largely failed To curb violence. Although homicide rates have fell slightlyThe country always reports more than thirty thousand deaths linked to crime per year. The general elections of Mexico in 2024 were its most violent In decades, attacks on journalists have continuous to record summits and anti-corruption reforms have paws.
Meanwhile, criminal traffic and drug organizations threaten to undermine the strength and legitimacy of the Mexican government, an important American regional partner, as well as harm the civilian population in the two countries. In 2007, the George W. Bush administration and the Calderon government launched the Merida initiative for improve American-mexico cooperation on security and law of law in Mexico. He stayed in place to Amlo rejected The agreement on his militarized approach and worked with the Biden administration to write the most widely targeted Bicentennial To replace it in 2021.
Recent developments
Despite the initial opinion of a less secure approach to reduce drug trafficking and violence, Amlo extended The role of the army in the police. Although soldiers' participation has been conceived as a temporary measure, the Mexico Congress has passed a reform In August 2022 which allowed soldiers to carry out national police for 2028. AMLO also promised To bring the National Guard under the command of the army despite a decision of the Supreme Court of April 2023 that it must remain under civil control. Rights defense groups say military police have eroded The treatment of civilians, which face arbitrary detention, rapes and extrajudicial murders. Nevertheless, the government seemed to double its approach, granting the navy complete control of Mexico City Airport to combat smuggling in July 2023. transferred several other government functions To the military of Mexico, including the construction of large -scale infrastructure, the development of tourism and the surveillance of customs in the entrance and exit ports.
The president elected Claudia Sheinbaum, the chosen successor of Amlo, said that she was aimed at Strengthen the AMLO National Guardhire more police investigatorsand invest in more social programs for young people has approach violence. Some criticisms argue that the militarized approach of Amlo continues will be insufficient To solve Mexico's safety problems.
In the meantime, the cartels have consolidated and extended their control, struggle each other with heavy weapons and drones. Kidnapping,, killingsand the Type of journalists stay widespread and the state has struggle To do justice to the victims of past crimes, in particular those committed by the military. After the abduction of four Americans in March 2023, some American Republican legislators propose Sending an American military force to Mexico. Amlo rejected The threat, the appellant “irresponsible” and saying that it would not allow intervention.
In May 2024, the cartels checked A third of the territory of MexicoAccording to an estimate of the American army. According to the US Drug Enforcement Agency, the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels are responsible for the vast majority of drug trafficking In the United States, the supply of methamphetamines, cocaine, heroin, marijuana and other drugs. An increasing quantity of fentanyl, the Mélat of medication overdoses In the United States, is also billed through the southern border by the Cartels of Sinaloa and Jalisco and their partners.
