When does criminal violence in Mexico end?

Hopes of resolving Mexico’s war on drugs were dashed when, after a moderate decline in total homicides in the years between 2011 and 2014, violent homicides then again peaked. Although well into 2016 the Peña Nieto government continued to deny this trend, the disappearance of the 43 students from the Ayotzinapa rural school in Iguala, Guerrero foreshadowed the bleak legacy of his government. Indeed, with a total of 156, 437 homicides, Peña Nieto’s administration surpassed by 34, 824 the 121, 613 homicides that the Instituto Nacional de Geografía y Estadística (INEGI) attributed to Calderón´s war on drugs.

While López Obrador’s landslide win in 2018 registered public disquiet about the rising tide of violence, one year into his administration the situation continues to be grim.

This panel will address some of the core questions about Mexico’s incapacity to exit from the spiral of criminal violence.

Panel:

• Mariclaire Acosta, Justicia Transicional en México
• Luis Astorga, IIS, UNAM
• Luis Alfonso Herrera, Universidad Autónoma de Cd Juárez
• José María Ramos, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte
• Mónica Serrano, El Colegio de México