Enrique Pena Nieto: No negotiations with organized crime

Enrique Pena Nieto Image Credit: jornada.unam.mx

In Mexico, rampant violence is a by-product of several social malaises that new President Enrique Pena Nieto has to snuff out with immediate results. His predecessor, Felipe Calderon, has alienated the population with his violent crackdown on suspected drug dealers. The death toll from such adventurism had cost President Pena Nieto some buying time to introduce reforms.


Subduing narcotrafficking is one of his campaign’s more ambitious sound bites. The layers on this problem, however, won’t yield to linear measures, especially bilateral diplomacy. Rooted within its virulent reach is the vast influence of organized crime, which controls both legitimate and underworld businesses. Narcotrafficking is just one of the mob’s feeding tubes.

Enrique Pena Nieto Image Credit: m5.paperblog.com

State forces such as the police and military have also been regularly accused of coddling organized crime, while the mingling of politics and business has provided a passage for nurturing a symbiosis with the mob. Enrique Pena Nieto has vowed to put his foot down on this special relationship, issuing a strident statement that there will be neither “a truce” nor “a compromise” with organized crime.


The rise in violence in Mexico and in Central America has sparked comparative discussions on effective solutions. International opinions have been urging Mexico to consider peace talks with organized crime, patterned after a recent incident in El Salvador where a truce has been brokered between young, murderous marauders and a local village bishop. Crime rates were reported by Le Monde to have fallen 50% since.

Enrique Pena Nieto Image Credit: opencanada.org

But with Mexico’s President-elect sternly countenanced against this suggestion, there is an assumption of all-out war among his preferred solutions. Rather, it may be the only option around if visible results are expected.


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