• STRATEGY: A senior State Department official told the US Congress that the López Obrador Administration has not developed & has not shared its strategy on how Mexico plans to deal with organized crime, something particularly urgent after the violent events in Culiacán.
• CONCERN: “What is of greatest importance at this moment is that Mexico developed & shared with us a comprehensive strategy to confront transnational organized crime. Without that strategy […] we wont see progress”, said Richard Glenn, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Narcotics.
• PRECEDENT: Back in August, President Donald Trump himself had warned in a Memorandum that Mexico oughta produce a comprehensive counternarcotics strategy adding that if there was no progress, he would determine in 2020 that MX had “failed demonstrably” potentially affecting bilateral aid.
• HOMICIDES: Even before the Culiacán events, 2019 was on track to become the most violent in Mexico’s recent history with authorities reporting a high number of murders in September accumulating a total at least 25,890 victims through the year, a big challenge for López Obrador.
