Activists ask Mexico to recognize an “internal conflict” in the face of an uptick in violence

The violence escalates in Mexico and several civil organizations ask that it be formally recognized that the country is facing an “internal conflict.”

With an eye on the growing phenomenon, various groups of activists sent a letter to the United Nations (UN) on Monday, August 15, asking for its support to take urgent measures.

“If we don’t call things by their name, if we don’t have the correct diagnosis, the strategy will never be a success,” activist Bryan LeBaron, a relative of the group of Mormons, told a press conference, nine women and children who were murdered in northern Mexico by a drug cartel, in a case that shocked the country in 2019.

Although the nation has been the scene of various confrontations due to organized crime in recent years, activists point out that violence has shown an upturn in recent weeks, events that they describe as “terrorism.”

“The illegally armed groups that oppose and confront the Mexican State have diversified, have been increasing their arms, economic and social power over time, and have taken over a large part of the territory that comprises the nation, because according to what was reported in the study carried out by the Congressional Research Service, between 30% and 35% is an ‘ungoverned space’, that is, the absence of the Mexican rule of law,” the activists pointed out in the letter addressed to the UN.

The representatives of various civil organizations, such as the Searching Mothers of Sonora, insisted that if the Mexican State recognizes the existence of an internal conflict, it would be possible for the UN’s objectives to materialize and for it to “accompany, promote, monitor and cooperate so that illicit armed groups are tried (…) to achieve internal stability and avoid greater human losses”.

Mexican government rejects the existence of “terrorism” and asks not to magnify the facts

After the request, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) called for calm and pointed out that there is an interest in “magnifying” the events.

“Tell the people of Mexico to be calm, that there is governability and stability. Our conservative rivals have an interest in magnifying things and doing sensational journalism,” the president said at a press conference.

The president attributed to “criminal propaganda” a series of attacks against civilians and businesses perpetrated in the last week in several states of the country, with a balance of at least eleven people dead.

“As security strategy goes forward with good results, (criminal) organizations look for ways to distract security forces so that they have to intervene in a situation while they can (commit crimes) or when they are weakened, they want to feel that they still they are strong, so they create violent situations,” said López Obrador.

For his part, the Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López, emphasized that these are not terrorist attacks, as the activists denounce. “There is no need to magnify the facts, it should not be seen beyond the propaganda,” he said.

The most recent wave of violence that triggers alarms in Mexico

During the past week, a series of attacks against civilians and businesses have been perpetrated in several states.

The events took place between Tuesday, August 9 and Friday, August 12, in the states of Jalisco (west), Guanajuato (center), Chihuahua, Baja California (north, bordering the United States) and Michoacán (west).

The most serious incidents occurred on Thursday in Ciudad Juárez, in the state of Chihuahua, when two inmates were shot to death and 20 were wounded in a riot involving two rival gangs, according to Deputy Security Minister Ricardo Mejía.

Both groups are allegedly linked to the Sinaloa cartel, whose former leader, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, is serving a life sentence in the United States.

The incident unleashed an escalation of attacks in that city. Added to these clashes was the murder of nine civilians in different attacks.

Subsequently, “innocent civilians were attacked as a kind of retaliation” by one of the gangs, according to the Mexican president.

Two women were killed and another person was injured in an attack on a grocery store, which was set on fire along with two other stores in Ciudad Juárez, located just across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Gunmen also killed four employees of a local radio station, including a presenter, while they were participating in a promotional event outside a pizzeria.

Two days earlier, in Jalisco, an Army operation against alleged bosses of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) left an alleged criminal dead, as well as vehicles and two dozen premises set on fire in that state and neighboring Guanajuato.

“Criminal organizations want to feel strong and generate situations of violence where, by way of advertising, they can be sending their messages that are still strong,” Secretary of Defense Luis Cresencio Sandoval stressed at another press conference.

On Friday, public transport vehicles were also incinerated in the cities of Tijuana, Ensenada and Mexicali, in Baja California, while roadblocks were reported in Michoacán over the weekend after the capture of 164 members of a self-defense group.

After a weekend marked by violent events, the authorities reported the arrest of 3,630 people and insisted on rejecting the existence of terrorism in Mexican territory.

Experts quoted by the local press warn that the intense violence and the latest acts of terror against the population are unleashing fear in the private sector, which has even led to the closure of businesses in states such as Baja California.

With AFP, Reuters and local media