Michael Lohmuller: Is Tamaulipas Becoming Pena Nieto's Ciudad Juarez? Michael Lohmuller - COHA
go to original May 30, 2014

Tamaulipas in Mexico

Two years into Mexican President Enrique Peña Neito’s term, the security situation in Mexico remains grim, with violence most recently erupting across the northeastern state of Tamaulipas. Since April 5, infighting among competing factions of the Gulf Cartel, as well as sporadic gunfights with the Zetas, a rival drug trafficking organization, has left over 100 people dead.

This spike in violence has raised concerns about a return to the rampant bloodshed Tamaulipas suffered in 2010, when around 1,200 violent drug-related incidents occurred following the split between the Gulf Cartel and its paramilitary enforcers, the Zetas.

In responding to the situation, the administration of Peña Nieto has adopted its own anti-crime strategy of militarization almost identical to that of his predecessor, President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012). After assuming office, Calderón declared a “war on drugs” and dispatched thousands of federal police and soldiers to reclaim designated areas of Mexican territory from the nation’s drug cartels. Yet this policy has done little better than contribute to an intense and brutal wave of violence, which reached its high mark in the border city of Ciudad Juárez.

Upon coming to the presidency, Peña Nieto promised a weary Mexican citizenry he would use a less confrontational strategy, minimizing the use of military forces in law enforcement tasks. Yet the echoes of Calderón’s anti-crime strategy under Peña Nieto raises the question as to whether Tamaulipas will descend into the same catastrophic chaos seen in Ciudad Juárez from 2008 to 2011.

Read the rest at eurasiareview.com

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!