Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Friday asked the warring factions of the Sinaloa cartel to act "responsibly” so no one else gets killed, after a week of escalating violence nearly paralyzed the Sinaloa state capital, Culiacan.
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The exchange Friday during the president’s morning press briefing is the latest in a series of instances where López Obrador has downplayed the clashes between factions of the Sinaloa cartel.
The president, who leaves office on Sept. 30, has repeatedly refused to confront cartels, laying out various justifications for his “hugs, not bullets” strategy offering opportunities to youths so they won’t join cartels.
For real.
It’s got to be crazy corruption from Lopez Obrador too though. The cartels have killed around 180 000 people since he took office and he’s asking them to ‘act responsibly’ and chiding people for demonizing them.
The problem with peace platforms is that they’re very hard to change. AMLO ran on a ‘hugs, not bullets’ platform towards dealing with the cartels - but the cartels aren’t misbehaving kids or disgruntled impoverished folk. The cartels, at this point, are rational, self-sustaining actors - which means no amount of hugs will induce them to ‘kill themselves’ by dismantling the fundamental roots of their operations.
At the same time, such a peace platform means that any escalation will be called out as hypocrisy and blamed for any rise in cartel activity.
It’s a trap of AMLO’s own making, but it’s hard not to feel for him. Between the realities of the situation on the ground and electoral politics, he’s not exactly overflowing with options. One hopes Sheinbaum will feel more freedom to act when she steps into the presidency.