Mexico
Many of the current issues Mexico faces are the result of the 71 year rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), from 1929 until 2000. The Federal Security Directorate (DFS) enforced the rule of the PRI, especially during what is known as the Mexican Dirty War in the 1960s and 1970s. Hundreds were killed in the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre, when a student demonstration was attacked. The imprisonment and torture of political opponents and suspected guerillas, along with assassinations and forced disappearances, helped silence opponents of the regime.
The DFS and top PRI officials became heavily involved in organized crime, especially drug trafficking. Arturo Durazo Moreno, a former DFS agent and Chief of Police in Mexico City was the most prominent example of this corruption, participating in political repression and then using the police as a criminal organization to enrich himself. Former DFS agents were among the founders of the Sinaloa and Juarez Cartels, and many agents had ties to the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1970s and 1980s. The high-profile killings of journalist Manuel Buendía and DEA agent Enrique Camarena led to the end of the DFS, but by this point criminal organizations were entrenched in Mexico, with close connections to the state.
In 1994, reformist presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio was assassinated, and the a guerilla group known as the Zapatista Army of National Liberation began a revolt in the southern state of Chiapas. The end of PRI rule was generally peaceful – following the disputed and likely manipulated 1988 election, its grip on political power began to slip, and corruption and economic mismanagement led to increased popular anger. Vicente Fox, from the rightwing National Action Party (PAN), won the 2000 election. Violence between criminal groups grew in the 1990s and early 2000s, generally at a low level despite some high-profile incidents. In 2006, newly elected president Felipe Calderon sent thousands of troops to fight drug gangs in the state of Michoacan, widely seen as the beginning of the Mexican drug war. The militarization of the fight against criminal groups has completely failed to effectively address crime, in fact, violence has spiraled even further.
Despite the arrests or killings of dozens of cartel leaders, criminal groups remain extraordinarily powerful, controlling large parts of the country and sometimes matching security forces in terms of firepower and organization. There are hundreds of organized crime groups within Mexico, some of which have essentially grown into paramilitary forces which challenge government control over large amounts of territory. Many self-defense and vigilante groups have emerged to combat them, further complicating the issue.
Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. Femicide, and violence against women in general is a major issue within Mexico, exacerbated by the violence caused by the drug war. Security forces were implicated in the disappearance of 43 students in 2014 in Iguala. The armed forces continue to be used to combat organized crime, despite the promises of current president Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Coming into office with a promise to end the drug war and end the militarization of security, his administration has failed to significantly reduce violence. The creation of a new National Guard, under the control of the military, has ensured that the fight against organized crime remains heavily militarized, despite the increase in violence since the drug war began in 2006. As long as the drug trade remains profitable, peace will be difficult to achieve.
