’Restoring Peace Is Country’s Top Priority,’ Promises President Pena Nieto Eric Martin and Nacha Cattan - Bloomberg
go to original September 3, 2017

Pena Nieto defended free trade and young migrants in the United States, claiming that his government would not accept insults against "national dignity" from the Trump administration. (Wochit Politics)

President Enrique Pena Nieto on Saturday called for Mexico to redouble efforts against violence, saying that restoring peace to the nation is the biggest demand of society and top priority of his government.

After falling in the first years of his administration, the rate of killings is on the rise again. That requires improvement in security forces at the local level across the country, Pena Nieto said. He urged Congress to pass an overhaul to turn 1,800 local police forces into 32 state units, an initiative that has been stalled for years, saying that the nation can’t depend on federal forces to permanently provide security in towns and municipalities.

"We still have much to do," Pena Nieto said in a nationally televised speech to his cabinet and hundreds of guests at the National Palace in Mexico City. "Today a great part of homicides aren’t related to organized crime but with common crimes, for which states and municipalities are responsible. It’s imperative that we address this weakness and the historical lags that exist in our local security forces."

Homicides have soared this year, reaching the highest rate this century, as drug cartels spar over trafficking routes. The drug war has also spread to top beach resorts like Cancun and Los Cabos, triggering a U.S. State Department travel advisory for both resorts and endangering a tourism industry that generates $20 billion annually.

The president’s reference to the spiraling violence signals the severity of the problem, and its likely importance in the upcoming presidential election to choose his successor next July.

While the Pena Nieto administration is credited with passing key economic reforms that have ended the state’s oil monopoly and triggered a plunge in prices for mobile-phone service, its record on security has been widely criticized. Successes at taking down drug kingpins like Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman may have only backfired by triggering bloody battles among traffickers fighting to replace them.

Read the rest at Bloomberg

Related: Top 10 Points of President Peña Nieto’s 5th Annual Report (The Yucatan Times)

Related: Interior Secretary Osorio Chong Concedes Increase in Violence (Mexico News Daily)

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