Car bombs. Massacres. A cartel turf war. Mexico’s new president confronts a wave of violence

Views: 2305

MEXICO CITY — Car bombs. Massacres. The slaying of a Roman Catholic priest.

A cartel war that has engulfed a major city. A mayor of another large city beheaded after he dared to call for peace.

Six weeks after taking office, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is contending with a nationwide wave of violence, and is facing increasingly urgent questions about what she plans to do about it.

As a candidate, Sheinbaum vowed to continue the strategy of her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who expanded the military’s reach but sought to avoid direct confrontations with cartels, and insisted that the best path was to address the social conditions that allow violence to flourish.

President Sheinbaum with her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

(Fernando Llano / Associated Press)

A scientist by training, Sheinbaum also pledged to replicate at the national level the security policies she put into action as mayor of Mexico City, where she oversaw a dramatic drop in violent crime , including a 50% plunge in homicides. The strategy is built on professionalizing law enforcement and implementing the sorts of data-driven and community policing models used in many U.S. cities.

“We already did it,” she vowed on the campaign trail. “Of course we will continue.”

Extreme violence has vexed every leader of Mexico since 2006, when then-President Felipe Calderon sent soldiers into the streets to do battle with cartels. Homicides began soaring. Today, much of Mexico is contested by warring criminal groups that operate with near impunity and are often aligned with political leaders.

Sheinbaum’s challenge at the national level, where cartels are more embedded than in Mexico City, has been abundantly clear since she was sworn in Oct. 1. Last month, the country saw an average of 74 homicides a day, up from 69 a day in October 2023. . Every day seems to bring fresh headlines of another massacre.

On Saturday, 10 people were killed and 13 wounded when a gunman opened fire at a bar in Queretaro state.

The next day, a similar attack at a bar in Mexico state killed five and wounded seven.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Two journalists have been slain in recent weeks, as well as a beloved Indigenous … Read More