Escobar, a chairman of the government-allied Partido Verde Ecologista de México (PVEM), is a neophyte when it comes to law enforcement. His past actions suggest that he favours repression over crime prevention, having fought for the introduction of the death penalty for murderers and kidnappers.
Some 62 civil society groups and opinion leaders signed a statement arguing that “[Escobar’s] profile is clearly incompatible with the job. To reduce violence in our country, it is essential that this position is filled by someone who not only has some knowledge of the issue but who also has a genuine conviction that crime can and should be prevented in other ways than the penal system”.
Fernando Herrera, the leader of the centre-right opposition Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) bloc in the federal senate, described Escobar’s appointment as “highly questionable”. “A person that walks on the edge of illegality and criminality must be meticulously examined,” Herrera added. This was a reference to Escobar’s less-than-squeaky-clean past. When Escobar was running the PVEM electoral campaign in 2009, for instance, he was stopped in the Tuxtla Gutiérrez airport in the southern state of Chiapas carrying a suitcase containing M$1m (US$70,000), allegedly for vote buying purposes; the PVEM was the worst offender for exceeding campaign spending limits during last June’s mid-term elections.
End of preview - This article contains approximately 406 words.
Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article
Not a Subscriber?
Choose from one of the following options
