Mexico City.- Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Wednesday denied that the death of one soldier and 14 “aggressors” in a clash in Guerrero state of armed civilians with members of the Army was an act in retaliation for the murder of 13 state troopers in Michoacán.” No, I completely download it,” the representative replied when asked by a reporter about whether the massacre recorded on Tuesday in the municipality of Tepochica in Guerrero was a “rematch.”
At his morning conference at the National Palace, the president said that the two facts “are different things” and that his government will not allow “eye for eye” to be applied in combating crime.
I’ve said it before, we’d be chimuelos (without teeth) all, you can’t face violence with violence,” he said.
On Monday, 13 state police officers were killed in an attack in the municipality of Aguililla, in western Mexico’s Michoacán, perpetrated by the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel.
State police were ambushed by suspected members of the New Generation Jalisco Cartel in Aguililla, Michoacán. Photo: Special
The representative called Tuesday’s event “very regrettable” and noted that his government does not want “more clashes” or “more violence.” On his strategy to pacify the country, he commented that it is far from that exercised by previous administrations, who did bet on a head-on combat against drug trafficking, as is the case with former conservative President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012). On the other hand, López Obrador said, his government is opting for “a new paradigm” in which the use of force and “lethality” is not a priority.
What is lethality? When there are always more the dead than the wounded and the detainees, it is when there is an eagerness for extermination where the wounded are finished, that hurts to say it but it was practiced in Mexico,” he said.
López Obrador commented that his strategy is to address the causes that cause people to engage in crime. That said, he criticized the previous administrations, which, in their view, allowed corruption for 36 years and, therefore, “the Government neglected the people”, which reacted by turning to crime to survive. The state of Guerrero is one of the most affected by the violence in Mexico, with thousands killed since the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa school for teachers in September 2014 in Iguala at the hands of corrupt policemen and members of the criminal group Guerreros Unidos.This attack on the military took place a day after 14 officers of the Michoacán State Police died during an armed attack in the municipality of Aguililla, in the western state of Michoacán.Mexico suffers a wave of violence and an increase in most high- and low-impact crimes. According to the most recent data of the Executive Secretariat of Public Security, from January to August 2019 the country has recorded 23,063 murders.
