With Mexico all set to vote in the upcoming presidential elections on June 2, the candidates have vowed to tackle organized crime in the country.
The presidential candidates include Claudia Sheinbaum, representing a coalition led by the ruling party Morena; Xóchitl Gálvez, leading the Force and Heart for Mexico coalition (Fuerza y Corazón por México) and Jorge Álvarez Máynez of Center-left party, Citizen Movement (Movimiento Ciudadano).
Based on manifestos, public statements, and appearances in the last of three presidential debates held on May 19, here is how each candidate has vowed to deal with organized criminal gangs, who still have a lot of power over territories and communities in the country.
Some of these groups have become more involved in their drug trafficking and money laundering activities, while the others are embroiled in more predatory practices, such as kidnapping and extortion.
Sheinbaum, who is leading in the polls, vowed to address the root cause of organized crime with the help of social programs created by the current President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, noting that these programs aim to give young people better chances of employment and prevent them from joining criminal groups.
"We are going to rescue young people from the clutches of criminal gangs, and we're going to give them support," Sheinbaum said on May 19, Insight Crime reported.
Whereas, Máynez said he wants to set up a national system that focuses on human rights and helps people for social reinsertion, which includes supporting young people to leave criminal gangs. However, he didn't mention the plan of action to do so.
Gálvez, on the other hand, said the National Guard should be led by civilians, not the military. She explained that this would help increase the size of the National Guard unit, and suggested making a new security system, where different parts of the government and regular people work together better.
"[The armed forces] will defend Mexico from the main threat to our sovereignty: the territorial control of organized crime," Gálvez said during one of her speeches in Zacatecas state in early March.
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