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Mexico Takes Tougher Stance Toward Drug Cartels

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – In a significantly more aggressive approach to dealing with Mexican drug cartels, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum recently sent thousands of troops and heavy weaponry to quell an eruption of intra-cartel violence in Sinaloa state, Reuters reports.

While Sheinbaum had said she intended to follow in the footsteps of her predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in adopting the “hugs not bullets” approach of dealing with social root causes rather than targeting cartels, the newly elected first female and Jewish president to lead Mexico appears to be taking a tough stance toward the drug lords instead.

Some experts have suggested the new approach follows US President-elect Donald Trump’s threat of imposing tariffs on Mexican products if illegal immigration and drug trafficking from Mexico to the US are not brought under control, Reuters reports.

Other experts have said the “hugs not bullets” strategy has failed and a new approach was required. The US ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, has publicly asserted the soft approach did not work and that “Mexico is not safe.”

“There is a change without a doubt … we are seeing signs that the strategy of hugs and not bullets is on the way out,” Vicente Sanchez, a security expert and member of Mexico’s National System of Investigators, told Reuters.