Daily meetings without results
“Every day, starting next Monday, at 6 in the morning, I will lead the Security Cabinet meeting at the National Palace to guarantee peace and tranquility for Mexicans,” he announced on the afternoon of December 1 after taking office as president.
And he did. For around 1,400 days he held a meeting with the heads of the National Security, National Defense, Navy and Government in the National Palace or in some state headquarters to receive the daily report of homicides, arrests and confrontations to decide whether to send elements of the Armed Forces or what other measures should be taken.
(Photo: Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro.)
Although the president emphasizes that he personally addressed the country’s insecurity, experts consulted maintain that the daily cabinet meetings did not have a great impact on reducing violence, especially because in those meetings more reactive decisions were made than preventive ones, including sending more security elements to states facing waves of violence.
“The security cabinet meetings were primarily intended to order the deployment of military personnel and federal forces, but not to comply with the legal framework that already existed, which provided that within six years the necessary institutionality would be created so that the states and municipalities would have the capacity and so that the federation would be an effective auxiliary,” says Sánchez, recalling that during this Government the strengthening of local police forces was forgotten.
The violence spread
The government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will go down in history as the most insecure, but also the one in which violence intensified and spread. States that were not affected by the spiral of violence today suffer from disputes between organizations and an increase in crimes such as extortion, displacement, robbery, and homicide.
Guanajuato, Baja California, the State of Mexico, Chihuahua and Jalisco were the states where the most homicides occurred during this six-year period. According to official figures, almost 4 out of 10 crimes occurred in these states.
Meanwhile, entities that had remained free of violence under this government registered increases in homicides, disputes between criminal organizations, forced displacements, and an increase in extortion, including Tabasco, Zacatecas, and Chiapas.
For Lisa Sánchez, the increase in violence and the fact that new entities have been affected by insecurity is proof that this government has abandoned some states and that in others, the situation has gotten out of hand.
“Chiapas has always had conditions of structural violence, but it got out of hand. Zacatecas was another state, and Sonora was another state where violence grew a lot during this administration while it was reduced in the state of Sinaloa. Veracruz is a state that has seen a significant deterioration in its security. Guanajuato continued to allow it to consolidate itself as the most violent entity,” he says.
The violence did not begin with the López Obrador government, but it was during his administration that Mexico set a new record in intentional homicides. Now expectations are placed on the next president, Claudia Sheinbaum, who has promised a significant decrease in the incidence, although she has not wanted to talk about figures.
