Why the Mexican president refuses to restart the drug war despite mayor’s assassination

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has ruled out a new “war on drugs” in response to the assassination of a regional mayor who was shot during Day of the Dead celebrations, a brazen murder that sparked national outrage.

“If we go back to war narco “Mexico has already done this, and the violence has gotten worse,” Sheinbaum told reporters on Monday, referring to the bloody anti-crime offensive launched almost two decades ago.

The president spoke as the nation was reeling from Saturday’s killing of Carlos Manzo, the mayor of Uruapan in the west central state of Michoacán that has become an organized crime battleground. He condemned the assassination as “despicable” and vowed to track down his killers.

While Mexican mayors and other local officials have become frequent cartel targets (there have been numerous assassinations in recent years as gangs fight for control of city halls, budgets and police forces) Manzo’s killing has unnerved nationwide.

Manzo, 40, has gained a reputation as an outspoken advocate of taking a tough stance against the cartels that have infested many parts of Mexico. According to Manzo, police and prosecutors turn a blind eye to criminals who do not deserve legal protection.

Manzo’s dogged stance has earned him considerable popularity in a country where polls show safety remains citizens’ top concern, even as Sheinbaum frequently cites official figures showing murders and other violent crimes are declining.

“The mayor’s murder is a clear sign of something we all know but that President Sheinbaum’s government denies: The country is run by drug traffickers,” said Felipe Rosas Montesinos, 45, a flower seller in Mexico City. “And if anyone challenges narcoThey will kill him like the mayor of Uruapan did.”

Gilberto Santamaría, a 37-year-old mechanic, added: “This makes one feel defeated and lose hope that things will change.”

Manzo, who left Sheinbaum’s ruling center-left Morena party, was among many voices calling for more aggressive tactics in fighting crime in Latin America. According to human rights advocates, some have labeled Manzo a “Mexican Bukele” after Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who imprisoned tens of thousands of alleged gang members.

María Guadalupe Rodríguez, a 51-year-old nurse, said the mayor’s killing “felt like a terror movie where the bad guys won.” “The sad part is that this isn’t a movie: This is what we experience in Mexico.”

A day after Manzo’s murder, protesters filled the streets of Uruapan and Morelia, the capital of Michoacán state. Many people condemned Sheinbaum and the Morena party for what they called a permissive attitude towards crime.

Authorities said the protests were mostly peaceful, but some demonstrators broke into the state government palace in Morelia and trashed offices and other facilities. Police responded with tear gas and arrested at least eight vandalism suspects.

Manzo was shot multiple times at a candlelight Day of the Dead festival he attended with his family in downtown Uruapan on Saturday. Police said one suspect was killed and two accomplices were arrested.

Security Minister Omar García Harfuch told reporters that the murder was a well-planned cartel attack.
García Harfuch said the suspects managed to elude Manzo’s guard. Authorities were investigating which of the gangs in the region was behind the murder.

Uruapan, a city of more than 300,000 people, is located in the lush hills of Michoacán, where most of Mexico’s avocados are grown. The lucrative industry — “green gold” generates $3 billion in annual exports to the United States — has for years been the target of armed groups who extort money from growers, packers, truckers and others.

Almost 20 years ago, then-President Felipe Calderon chose Michoacán as the starting point for a nationwide war on drugs, deploying troops to combat the growing power of the cartels. This strategy is widely believed to have led to unintended consequences, such as increased violence: cartel infighting has accelerated, with police capturing or killing capos while gangs have acquired more powerful weapons that match the firepower of the armed forces.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador promised a different approach when he took office in 2018, saying the military deployment was turning Mexico into a “graveyard.” He instructed troops to avoid direct clashes with the cartels whenever possible and promised to address poverty and other key socio-economic social forces behind violence.

Critics have called López Obrador’s “hugs rather than bullets” strategy disastrous as violent crime rises.

Under López Obrador’s tutelage, Sheinbaum adopted his predecessor’s approach but sought to improve Mexico’s intelligence-gathering and investigative powers and strengthen the rule of law. His government aggressively arrested thousands of cartel suspects, several dozen of whom were sent to the United States for trial.

But to Manzo, Sheinbaum’s strategy was a reincarnation of “hugs, not bullets.”

Experts say the war on drugs has done nothing to stem the flow of cocaine, synthetic opiates such as fentanyl and other substances into the United States, the world’s largest consumer. And Mexico’s cartels have grown stronger in recent years, despite the ouster of several kingpins.

Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed.