More Soldiers Won’t Curb Mexico’s Rampant Violence
Fully implementing and funding its 2008 constitutional reform of the justice system would reduce impunity, boost public confidence and uphold the basic rule of law.
Mexico’s justice system needs better police, lawyers and judges—and fewer soldiers.
Photographer: Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images
Twenty-five Oxxo convenience stores were burned down in Guanajuato in August, and cars were set ablaze in towns all along the border. At one point the US Embassy in Guadalajara, Mexico’s second largest and most tech-driven city, called for personnel to shelter in place.
Fights between organized crime groups help explain these violent spikes: The extradition of Chapo Guzmán combined with the rise of highly profitable and deadly synthetic drugs such as fentanyl has shaken Mexico’s underworld. But the stubborn persistence of insecurity stems from the limits of justice in Mexico. Now, years after a supposed fundamental transformation of Mexico’s justice system, it still too often fails to uphold the basic rule of law. Without it, the violence won’t end.