MEXICO
Say No to War
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has his own version of “just say no.”
He declared the end of his country’s “war” on drugs Wednesday and said Mexico will no longer prioritize using the army to capture drug lords, as it has done since 2006, Agence France-Presse reported.
“No capos have been arrested, because that is not our main purpose,” the president said in response to a question about the number of kingpins arrested since he took office in December. “The main purpose of the government is to guarantee public safety… What we want is security, to reduce the daily number of homicides.”
Critics questioned the vow, however, noting that the army remains in the streets despite his campaign promises and that he has proposed a national guard that they say would institute another kind of militarization.
The military response to fighting the drug cartels has not ended the trade, of course, and many suggest that it has contributed to escalating violence by creating temporary power vacuums and fracturing the big gangs.
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