Publication

This report analyzes Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto's security strategy. After years of intense, cartel-related bloodshed that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, President Peña Nieto is promising to reduce the murder rate. The security plan he introduced with the backing of the three biggest parties gives Mexico a window of opportunity to build institutions that can produce long-term peace and cut the rate of impunity. But he faces many challenges. The cartels have thousands of gunmen and have morphed into diversified crime groups that not only traffic drugs, but also conduct mass kidnappings, oversee extortion rackets and steal from the state oil industry.