AMLO’s ‘Hugs Not Bullets’ Is Failing Mexico
The president's softer approach to criminal gangs just suffered a serious setback in Sinaloa.
Beyond business as usual.
Photographer: Alfredo Estrella/AFP via Getty Images
Last week, the streets of Culiacan, the capital of Mexico’s Sinaloa state, became a battlefield, with the Sinaloa cartel directly confronting the government and winning. The week before, 13 police officers were killed in an ambush in Michoacan, likely by the Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartel. Overall, murders and kidnappings are at record levels and spreading through Mexico’s once-safer industrial heartland and capital city.
Talk of Mexico becoming a failed state is again on the rise. Two decades ago, the last time experts were so worried, the U.S. and Mexico formed a historic security partnership. That’s unlikely to happen again. Both nations will suffer as a result.