Mexico's opposition presidential candidate Xochitl Gálvez addresses supporters at a campaign rally.
Mexico City:
Will we attack the roots of violent crime or go to war with powerful drug cartels? Mexican presidential candidates are offering contrasting strategies to deal with the prevailing security situation.
Ending the cycle of bloodshed that has killed around 450,000 people across Latin America since 2006 is a priority for voters ahead of the June 2 election, a survey has found.
Ruling party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum wants to continue outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's strategy of addressing criminal causes.
This controversial approach, which left-wing populists call “hugs, not bullets,” aims to reduce insecurity by fighting poverty and inequality.
“Instead of declaring war (on drug cartels), we build peace. That's the big difference between us and the opposition,” Mr. Sheinbaum, who has a significant lead in opinion polls, said recently.
Her main rival, Xochitl Gálvez, has made insecurity a central part of his campaign, starting in March in Fresnillo, a city considered by residents to be Mexico's most dangerous.
“The embrace of criminals is over,” said the outspoken entrepreneur and senator who is vying with Sheinbaum to become the country's first female president.
“To achieve a Mexico without fear, we will rein in our country's most violent and aggressive criminal organizations,” she added.
Gangs such as the Sinaloa Cartel, led by notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and its arch-rival, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, control much of Mexico.
They are involved not only in drug trafficking, but also in myriad criminal activities such as smuggling, extortion, and fuel theft.
More than 100,000 people are missing across the country, and murders and kidnappings are a daily occurrence.
Mexico's murder rate has remained at more than 23 per 100,000 residents since 2016, higher than the Latin American average, according to crime think tank Insight.
campaign pledge
Mr. Galvez promised to arrest the most wanted criminals, hire more police officers and ensure adequate pay in a country where corruption is believed to be rampant among poorly paid security personnel. .
She has vowed to double the size of the National Guard, pull soldiers from civilian projects to focus on fighting criminal groups and build new maximum-security prisons.
Mr. Sheinbaum also pledged to strengthen Mexico's intelligence services as well as the National Guard and strengthen cooperation with police and prosecutors.
“The difference between the two is that Mr. Xochitl thinks he needs to go after the bad guys more than Mr. Sheinbaum,” Carlos Ramirez, a political risk expert at consulting firm Integraria Consultres, said at a roundtable sponsored by the Wilson Center. It's about being there,” he said.
Experts say whoever wins the election faces the difficult balance of meeting voters' expectations for less crime while respecting rights.
Raul Benitez, a security and organized crime expert at think tank Casede, said people wanted a tough approach to crime, but not “abuse”.
“We don't fight crime by attacking poverty. We fight crime by attacking criminals with the right strategy,” he added.
Benitez said this requires collaboration between judges, police, prosecutors and intelligence agencies, pointing to the success of Sheinbaum, who served as Mexico City's mayor from 2018 to 2023.
Some 41% of Mexicans believe that security is the “most urgent” issue for the next government, according to a poll by El Financiero newspaper.
Cristian Castro, a 47-year-old teacher in Tijuana, a crime-ridden city on the U.S. border, believes that locking up criminals “doesn't attack the cause.”
Enedina Galvez, a 34-year-old Mexican-American, wants candidates to consider decriminalizing drugs, an idea that wasn't part of her campaign.
Mr. Galvez has raised the issue of public safety more than Mr. Sheinbaum, but he is far behind Mr. Sheinbaum in opinion polls.
According to an average poll compiled by Oracle, Mr. Sheinbaum has an approval rating of 59% among voters, while Mr. Galvez is in second place with 35%.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
