EL PASO, Texas ( Border Report ) – The Mexican government will target criminal activity and social disparity in a handful of states accounting for most murders and other “high impact crimes.”
President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo said on Tuesday that those states include Chihuahua, Baja California, Guanajuato, Jalisco, and six others where organized criminal groups have a strong presence.
Government data shows almost 2,300 people have been murdered in the central state of Guanajuato since Jan. 1, 2024, while more than 1,700 have been killed in Baja California and nearly 1,500 in Chihuahua – which includes Juarez just across the border from El Paso.
“We are not going back to (former President Felipe) Calderon’s narco war. There will not be extrajudicial executions and such. Our tools will be prevention, attention to the root causes, intelligence and presence” of law enforcement, Sheinbaum said.
Calderon, in the early 2000s, mobilized police and the military against the cartels, which resulted in a historic spike in homicides and more criminal activity, not less.