Mexico’s new president has outlined a security strategy aimed at reducing drug war-related violence that, rhetorically at least, contrasts starkly with the emphasis his predecessor placed on using force to go after the cartels.
“Our primary objectives are reducing the violence and recuperating the peace and tranquility of Mexicans,” President Enrique Peña Nieto told state governors, military and security chiefs gathered at a public meeting of the national security council on Monday.
“We are going to focus institutional efforts on attending to the
causes of the criminal phenomenon and not only its consequences,” he said.The president also promised special attention on human rights, and recognised the existence of abductions by the security forces, long a sore point for the previous administration.
Peña Nieto took office on 1 December, replacing President Felipe Calderón whose single six-year term began with a military-led crackdown on organised crime and was subsequently marked by spiralling violence that has killed an estimated 60,000-100,000 people, as well as governability crises in drug war troublespots around the country.
– Read the entire article at The Guardian.
