Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has argued that the killing of 12 young people at an inn in Guanajuato could be related to high levels of drug use in the area. The president has stated that the phenomenon of violence in Guanajuato "requires special treatment." "There are regions where, if there is more drug consumption, there is more violence and more homicides, and we have to see why consumption increased in Guanajuato, which is not the same as in Jalisco, let alone Oaxaca or Yucatan. There is even more consumption in that area of Guanajuato than in Michoacán or Sinaloa, so it is a phenomenon and it must be analyzed and confronted," López Obrador said Monday in his morning conference.
Over the weekend, a group of young people held a Christmas posada at Hacienda San José del Carmen, in the municipality of Salvatierra, near Guanajuato's border with Michoacán. An armed group showed up in the early hours of the morning and attacked the attendees. 12 youths were killed, while others were injured. President López Obrador has stated that the investigation is being led by the Guanajuato Prosecutor's Office, and that the federal government is providing collaboration. "Of course, our sincere embrace to the families of the young people, of those who lost their lives, because it is a heinous crime. They were in an inn and they came to kill them," the president said. Near the municipality of Salvatierra, in Celaya, five students were killed in early December.
Guanajuato is a stronghold governed by the conservative National Action Party (PAN) and has been on the list of states with the most homicides in Mexico for several years. On Monday, López Obrador gave a sample at his conference and presented the global murder figures for the past week, from December 14 to 17. Guanajuato doubled the numbers of other states characterized by violence, such as Michoacán, Morelos and Sonora. "Guanajuato requires special treatment, we have been saying it, there are already several cases like this and it is a problem – I consider – structural, deep, something that was allowed to grow due to different circumstances, factors. It belongs to the states, and not the entire state of Guanajuato, but that strip, with the most drug consumption in the country," López Obrador said.
The president added some questions that allude to the omission of the authorities and their complicity in the drug phenomenon. Guanajuato is a disputed place between the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). "How did consumption grow? It would have to be analyzed. And how did this drug trade also come about? How were organized crime groups allowed to operate for so long? What is the relationship between criminal organizations and the authorities, their links, the agreements? And, above all, how can we prevent the violence from continuing to grow?" the president asked.
López Obrador has once again pointed out that the phenomenon of drug use mainly affects young people and is due to social abandonment. The president has compared the crisis in some areas of Mexico where consumption is high to the problem of fentanyl in the United States. "100,000 young people lose their lives every year due to fentanyl use. What is it that leads to this unbridled consumption, what is happening? That is a social crisis and it has to be addressed in this way, and there is no sign of changes, they always seek to solve it with coercive measures, when I consider it to be a social problem of the disintegration of families, of abandonment of young people, of lack of attention to young people, of loneliness of young people who choose drugs. So, if there is more consumption, there is more violence," he said.
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