Law, Power, and Justice

MONDAY 27 MAY 2024

NEWS NOTES: VIOLENCE IN MEXICO (Al Jazeera Podcast)

Carlos Bravo Regidor, Political Analyst

• Crime and insecurity is of the most concern.   
• Cash transfers, however, by this government are approved.
• Lopez Obrador has built a reputation with the lower classes.  The traditional political parties are discredited.
• There is a lot of anger about the past against these parties.
• The base of the outgoing president is fed up with the right wing, they are willing to forgive him for a lot of things.  His likely successor is Claudia Sheinbaum.
• The level of crime is very high.  Politically motivated crime is high.

Falko Ernst, International Crisis Group

• Criminal groups are getting involved in local control.  They have expanded their institutional control. 
• Promises to do something about crime and insecurity is a risky business because there have been so many promises and failures.
• Criminal networks are moving into licit endeavors.  They have made a  deal with politicians to decrease the public and sensational crime and in exchange work their way into more and more areas of the economy.
• There are at least 200 criminal groups, high homicide rates. 

Maureen Meyer, Washington Office on Latin America

• “Hugs not bullets” is a policy of Obredor.  Saying we need social welfare programs.
• Obredor promised to shift away from enforcement tactics to relief to the poor.  But there has been an extreme expansion of the military and the creation of other law enforcement groups.
• What has been lacking is addressing impunity.  9 out of 10 crimes go uninvestigated.  The system is incapable of holding people accountable. 
• It became “hugs and bullets and impunity.”

Carlos Bravo Regidor

• People have other grievances and this high level of crime has become normalized. 
• Campaigns to uphold democracy failed and didn’t appeal to the populace.  People didn’t understand or didn’t care.
• Democracy is under threat. 

Maureen Meyer

• Citizens can’t vote for the candidate of their choice, but candidates imposed upon them by criminal groups.  Their candidates may have been killed, or they stay at home out of fear.
• What does it mean when criminal organizations control local politics.
• You cannot denounce a crime if the people committing the crime are in charge.  To whom do you report. 

Falko Ernst

• Within communities controlled by organized crime, Michoacan, cradle of organized crime.
• You can tell people who to vote for. 

CNN

• The foreign agent’s bill has been passed.  The president vetoed the bill, but it is now law.