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Mexico & Nafta - July 2010 (ISSN 1741-444X)
Calderón calls for renewed effort
A major upsurge in killings by the country's drug gangs in the first
half of June prompted a reaction from the government. Significantly, the
response was rhetorical rather than active. In a broadcast to the nation on 15
June, President Felipe Calderón restated the arguments for his security policy,
while simultaneously acknowledging that the benefits of this policy have yet to
materialise. Calderón all but admitted that he underestimated the scale of the
gang problem when he launched his war on crime upon taking office on 1 December
2006. Now not only is the death toll accelerating but public confidence in the
government and the law enforcement system, which has never been strong, is
ebbing. The murder of Rodolfo Torre Cantú, the Partido Revolucionario
Institucional (PRI) candidate for governor of Tamaulipas, may yet force the
government into a major change of policy.
