Mexico City - Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday ruled out launching a new war against drug cartels, as she presented a national security plan aimed at reducing raging criminal violence. “The war on drugs will not return,” the leftist president told a news conference, referring to an offensive launched in 2006 involving the military and supported by the United States. Since then, a spiral of criminal violence has left more than 450,000 people dead and tens of thousands missing. Sheinbaum, a former Mexico City mayor who was sworn in on October 1, pledged to stick to her predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s “hugs not bullets” strategy of using social policy to address the causes of crime. Prevention, attention to the causes, intelligence and presence” of authorities, she said.

Source: The Nation October 10, 2024 10:59 UTC