A violent start to the term of Mexico's new president raises questions about strategy, the army

MEXICO CITY -- In just over three weeks in office, President Claudia Sheinbaum has inherited a whirlwind of violence that many say was set up by her predecessor’s policy of not confronting drug cartels, and using the army for law-enforcement.

Sheinbaum, who took office Oct. 1, would rather be talking about the government's plan to make all judges stand for election.

But instead, she has had to deal with the army’s killing of six migrants on the day she took office and the death of three bystanders at the hands of soldiers i n the border city of Nuevo Laredo 10 days later. They were killed by army and National Guard troops pursuing drug cartel suspects.

Sheinbaum's third week in office was capped by the murder of a crusading Catholic priest who had been threatened by gangs, and a lopsided encounter in northern Sinaloa state in which soldiers killed 19 drug cartel suspects, but suffered not a scratch themselves. That awakened memories of past human rights abuses, like a 2014 incident in which soldiers killed about a dozen cartel suspects after they had surrendered.

“It is all very disappointing, and it looks dark for the future,” said Santiago Aguirre, the head of Miguel Agustín Pro human rights center. “Everything is breaking down, and instead of taking care of these priority issues, all the government's political capital is being wasted on a judicial reform that will cause more problems than solutions.”

Sheinbaum has said all the incidents are under investigation, but she has dedicated only a few minutes in her first three weeks in office to talking about them, compared to the hours she has spent extolling the virtues of the judicial reform. She says electing judges will remedy corruption.

But critics note the real problem isn't corrupt judges releasing suspects; it's the fact that civilian police and prosecutors have been so under-funded and ill-trained that over 90% of crimes never make it to court in the first place.

It was Sheinbaum's predecessor and political mentor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador — who left office Sept. 30 — who decided to make the armed forces the centerpiece of his security strategy and give up on the slow, steady work of reforming police and the judiciary to root out corruption.

Sheinbaum has vowed to continue all of López Obrador's policies, including the “hugs, not bullets” strategy of not confronting the cartels, but rather seeking to drain the potential pool of recruits through scholarships and job training programs.

López Obrador failed to significantly reduce Mexico's historically high homicide rate, but the charismatic former president had a talent for depicting himself as the victim, brushing off past incidents and accusing media reports on violence as “sensationalism” meant to smear him.

But since Oct. 1, the abuses have come so fast that Sheinbaum has had neither the charisma nor the time to brush off the incidents. On Thursday, a drug cartel set off two near-simultaneous car bombs in the state of Guanajuato, injuring three police officers and strewing burning wreckage across streets.

“It is putting her and the new administration to the test,” acknowledged Juan Ibarrola, a military analyst who is close to the armed forces.

There is no denying that Mexico's drug cartels are heavily armed and intent on regional domination. How to answer that challenge has stumped four successive presidential administrations in Mexico.

“It is unfortunate, but the use of violence by the Mexican government is necessary” to meet the challenge, Ibarrola said.

As if to illustrate that, on Friday Mexico's top civilian security official, Omar García Harfuch, recounted a massive, hours-long attack Thursday by a convoy of cartel gunmen traveling in 16 vehicles — some armored — in the southern state of Guerrero.

Garcia Harfuch said the attackers used fully automatic machine guns, explosive devices and .50-caliber sniper rifles in the running gunbattle with soldiers and police.

Again, the death toll was lopsided: 17 suspects and two police officers were killed. But the army — which is now in charge of the quasi-military National Guard, the country’s main law enforcement agency — appears to be reacting to three weeks of nearly unceasing bad press.

The Defense Department was quick to distribute photos of bullet holes in army vehicles, and stressed that three soldiers were wounded in the fight.

The northern border city of Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas is perhaps the clearest illustration of what happens when a military-led security strategy locks horns with a heavily armed drug cartel. That's where the three civilians — including a nurse and an 8-year-old girl — where killed by troops in separate incidents on Oct. 11 and 12.

Raymundo Ramos, the head of the non-governmental Human Rights Commission of Nuevo Laredo, has been fighting for justice in civilian deaths at the hands of military forces there for years.

Asked about the October incidents in other parts of Mexico, including the violence-wracked northern state of Sinaloa, where rival cartels are battling, Ramos said he fears the military tactics of “shoot first, ask questions later” that have been used in Nuevo Laredo are now spreading across the country.

“It is the same way they operate in Nuevo Laredo,” Ramos said. “They are the same orders across the whole country. ‘don’t leave witnesses, dead men don't talk.'”