Mexico President Sheinbaum Unveils Plan to Reduce Murders

(Bloomberg) — President Claudia Sheinbaum called for increased intelligence to curb the violent crime that gripped Mexico under her predecessor, who oversaw one of the deadliest periods in the country’s recent history.
Sheinbaum and Security Minister Omar Garcia Harfuch announced Tuesday that they would create a new intelligence unit to address high-crime states, part of the plan to reduce the nearly 200,000 homicides that occurred during former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s six years in office.
The plan, Sheinbaum said, is meant to nationalize the approach she took as mayor of Mexico City, where she oversaw a reduction in violent crime with Garcia Harfuch as her security chief. 
But many of her core strategies also follow the contours of Lopez Obrador’s approach, including Sheinbaum’s focus on addressing the root causes of crime, consolidating the role of Mexico’s National Guard in public security and improving coordination between states and the national government.
AMLO, as the former president is known, made improved education and economic opportunities a centerpiece of his crime-fighting strategy, as he sought to move away from the harsher policies that that characterized previous governments, like Felipe Calderon’s violent war against drug trafficking.
“Calderon’s drug war is not going to return. We are not looking for extrajudicial executions, which is what used to happen,” Sheinbaum said, adding that her focus will be on crime prevention.
Sheinbaum is inheriting a security crisis that stretches beyond homicides to include rampant disappearances and gang-related extortion that has increased the price of several key products like avocados and limes. Earlier this year, the US temporarily suspended some new avocado shipments from Mexico amid security concerns involving agricultural inspectors.
Mexican governments have promised to prioritize security for decades, only for criminal groups to evade their policies while alarming cases of collusion with officials have also come to light. Under AMLO, the issue often took a back seat to his efforts to use the military to fuel a domestic construction boom.
Last month, the Senate approved AMLO’s plan to bring the National Guard under military command despite concerns that it would give the armed forces too much power.
The former president said it would make the guard more efficient, an argument Sheinbaum and Garcia Harfuch made again on Tuesday.
“There are families that don’t have access to reliable municipal police or fully-strengthened state police,” Garcia Harfuch said. “This is where the National Guard will play an important role.”
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