Security & Strategic Review - December 2019

Since assuming office in December 2018, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has repeatedly emphasised his government’s aims to address and improve the pressing issue of insecurity in the country. Despite its efforts to pacify Mexico, the government continues to fight criticism over security concerns, one being the wave of criminal activity targeting the nation’s oil and gas industry. Whilst López Obrador initially vowed last year to make oil theft a national security priority in reaction to the theft of oil through illegal taps on pipelines from the state-owned oil company, Pemex, the focus has shifted lately to the attacks being carried out by pirates on maritime vessels and oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.