Mexico’s security strategy draws criticism at forum in Europe

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The federal government’s security strategy was criticized in a virtual forum hosted by four organized crime research organizations.

Among the issues that drew criticism were the continuation of the militarized security strategy of the two previous governments and the inability to deal with the police at the local level.

Romain Le Cour Grandmaison, co-founder of Noria Research, an organization that studies international affairs and conflict, criticized President López Obrador’s government for perpetuating the controversial military strategy.

The court, also program director for public safety and violence reduction at think tank México Evalúa, told the forum – The Politics of Violence in Mexico and Central America – that federal security forces are responding to the violence rather than being proactive and preventing it from happening. in the first place.

He cited Zacatecas as an example, noting that the government has deployed additional troops to the northern state after a recent wave of violence that included the discovery of nine bodies hanging from a highway overpass.

The Court said the problem of violence is complex and requires a strategy that goes beyond deploying the military in a reactive manner.

However, it is not the goal of anyone in Mexico – including public, private, criminal and state actors – to end the violence, he said.

“No one, unfortunately, in these regions today is fundamentally interested in ending violence because violence is a very central political resource,” said Le Cour.

“So when violence is such a political resource and when violence is so functional in the political system, how can you really make it go away? “

Sandra Ley, a political professor at the Mexico City Center for Economic Research and Education, criticized the federal government for failing to build the capacity of security forces at the municipal level. There is too much emphasis on solving the problem of violence with a top-down approach, she said.

The forum, which is part of a 24-hour conference on global organized crime held last week, was hosted by the Netherlands Center for Organized Crime Information and Research, the International Association for the Study of Crime organized, the Standing Group on Organized Crime and the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime.

With reports from El Universal

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