(Mexico) Mexico’s future president Claudia Sheinbaum, who will take office on May 1,er October, on Tuesday rejected any direct “war” with the cartels, believing that this would lead to even more deadly violence.
These statements come as gangs have been fighting each other in the state of Sinaloa for a week.
“Commit the firepower [de l’État] “would lead to war, that’s what happened before and it didn’t get us anywhere,” Mr.me Sheinbaum to the press, referring to the war against drug trafficking launched in 2006 by former President Felipe Calderon.
PHOTO FELIX MARQUEZ, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Mexico’s future president, Claudia Sheinbaum (center)
“What would we provoke by entering into a violent confrontation? [avec les narcos] ?Probably more violence,” the president-elect added.
Mme Sheinbaum is taking up the “abrazos no balazos” (“hugs, not shootouts”) security strategy of his ally, outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Since September 9, the conflict between two factions of the Sinaloa cartel, one of the main ones in the country, has caused the death of at least 32 people, including 30 civilians and two soldiers, according to the Ministry of Defense (Sedena, army).
The approximately 2,200 members of the security forces deployed were the target of thirteen attacks and nine soldiers were injured, detailed the head of Sedena, Luis Cresencio Sandova.
The “first step” is to protect citizens, preventing criminal groups from “fighting and losing lives,” President Lopez Obrador said Tuesday at his daily press conference.
The wave of violence in the state of Sinaloa “stems” from the arrest on July 25 in the United States of drug lord Ismael Zambada García, known as El Mayo.
He accuses one of the two sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel, of having betrayed him and handed him over to the American authorities.