In the fourth of a series busting the “myths” around the war on organized crime, Mexico’s government has released a blog entry on why it would be wrong to negotiate with criminal groups.
National security spokesman Alejandro Poire argued via his official blog that tolerance or inaction by the authorities was at fault for letting the country’s criminal groups expand and grow more powerful.
He stated that this course of action has undermined institutions, and allowed criminals to harm society. The government chose to illustrate this point with a cartoon video (see below).
Poire pointed to the case of the city of Tijuana, where violence rates were reduced dramatically after a sharp increase in 2008. He said that this was not achieved by pursuing some criminal groups and not others. This could also be a reference to accusations that the government has chosen put less pressure on the Sinaloa Cartel than on other drug trafficking organizations.
The most recent “myth” previously attacked by the government was the idea that deploying the military, and taking out gang leaders, led to increased levels of violence.