Mexico is reportedly starting a new unit made up of elite civilian and special operations forces to investigate and fight against drug cartels.
The government hasn’t yet publicly announced the unit, but it’s meant to set its sights on Mexico’s drug cartels, according to reporting from the Associated Press.
It’s another sign that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is diverging from her predecessor’s “hugs not bullets” strategy, which attempted to address root causes of violence rather than rely on law enforcement to deal with cartels.
But Mexico is under intense pressure from the U.S., as well as its own citizens, to crack down on narcotrafficking. Sheinbaum has deployed additional Mexican National Guard troops to the U.S. border and sent nearly 30 high-profile suspected cartel figures to the U.S. for prosecution.
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As of next week, around 1,500 cattle will cross into Arizona from Mexico each day, even as active cases of New World screwworm top 100 in the Mexican state of Sonora. -
Mexico’s security secretary says the new federal prisons will include high-security infrastructure as the country looks to show a crackdown on cartel violence. -
Nearly 2,000 firearms were seized in the Mexican state south of Arizona last year. Officials say the majority of guns used by criminals in Mexico come from the United States. -
An inspection at a Mexican military checkpoint in San Luis Río Colorado resulted in the arrest of two people and the seizure of more than a ton of white powder. -
The constitutional reform requires presidential and gubernatorial candidates in Mexico to renounce any non-Mexican citizenship.
