Under fire from drug traffickers in Mexico

The bloody chaos generated last week by organized crime in several Mexican cities, including Ciudad Juárez, is not just the umpteenth display of the horror of a violence that still acts out of control in some territories.

The display of drug power, with the murder of a dozen people, roadblocks, burning of shops and vehicles, is in itself a message to the authorities.

In other words, the cartels, even in a dispute among themselves for control of the main squares, have the ability to put the State in check.

They just did it like this for days.

The Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador described what happened as "criminal propaganda" and has defended that "the federal security strategy is giving results."

Such a categorical statement collides, however, with the most virulent wave of violence against civilians of this mandate.

The seriousness of the situation has a translation in official figures: in Mexico about 100 murders are perpetrated every day and more than 100,000 people have disappeared since there are records, 33,000 during the current Administration.

The president wanted to turn around the crime-fighting scheme of his predecessors.

Especially with Felipe Calderón, between 2006 and 2012, it became a war with the deployment of the Armed Forces and a harsh impact on the population.

López Obrador adopted, instead, a policy of “hugs, not bullets”, as he himself baptized it and often repeats.

Beyond the catchy tagline, the plan had a purpose:

The strategy has cost the Executive fierce criticism from the opposition, which accuses the president of abandoning responsibilities in the face of the uncontrolled aggressiveness of the drug trafficker.

The United States has also shown its concern on several occasions, since some of the hardest hit areas are close to the border.

Both those who were incapable of putting a stop to the violence during the last Administrations and the United States, where criminal groups feed on weapons, have responsibility for the moment that Mexico is going through today.

The challenge transcends López Obrador.

From the outside, it is convenient that the challenge be tackled from a regional perspective, with greater coordination of the affected countries and greater involvement and investment from Washington.

The affinity that Joe Biden and López Obrador have shown on other issues would be a good starting point to try.

At the internal level, despite the objections that may be made to the path taken by the Mexican president, security policy should be a matter of State and challenge the majority of political forces to try to define a minimum agreement.

Otherwise, terror will continue its relentless advance.