Mexico: Peña Nieto's Last Year In Power Marked By Violence

The first 10 months of 2018 has been marked by 24,022 killings investigated in Mexico, this being the last year of government for President Enrique Peña Nieto, who on December 1st will hand over the government to left-wing leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO).

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These numbers, during the first 10 months of 2018 are in line to make this the most violent year in Mexico's history. In every single one of these ten months, there have been at least 2,000 opened investigations for murders, according to data by the Executive Secretariat of the Public Security System (SESNSP).

Different data indicates that during the administration of Peña Nieto kidnappings in Mexico increased by 56,4 percent compared to the previous government, this roughly translates to 6 kidnappings every day. According to the head of the organization Alto al Secuestro (Stop Kidnapping), Isabel Miranda de Wallace, between 2012 and 2018, there were 11,769 cases of abduction in the country.

"From 2012 to October 2018 in this administration, we had 11,769 kidnappings, 166 monthly, 39 weekly abductions and six daily," said Isabel Miranda de Wallace. Before highlighting that during the Peña Nieto's administration the States were "abandoned", and the matters of security "were ignored."

Wallace said that the next president Andrés Manuel López Obrador faces a great challenge regarding the kidnapping issue, but she values that the elected president will make changes in security matters. In July Mexico’s future minister of the interior and former supreme court justice Olga Sanchez stressed the importance of recovering social and economic spaces, as well as guaranteeing respect for human rights to wage an effective battle against violence and impunity. 

AMLO and his party, the National Renewal Movement (Morena), already presented their own National Peace and Security Plan Wednesday and are planning to propose a set of constitutional reforms the following Tuesday in order to prevent a similar outcome to that of the Internal Security Law, proposed by the government of Peña Nieto.

"The issue of prevention will be fundamental, technological issues are fundamental, the issue of training and the issue of improving the economic conditions of the police," future Minister of Public Security (SSP) Alfonso Durazo, highlighted.