In recent months, crime across the border has been on the decline. Ciudad Juarez, once the poster child of Mexico’s drug war, has been seeing a slow emergence from the shadows of murder.
But officials are warning this lull might be over. As The Dallas Morning News reports, since the inauguration of Peña Nieto on Dec. 1, there have been more than 1,000 murders across the country. This pace exceeds the rate of murders seen under the watch of the criticized former president Felipe Calderón.
The area that’s seeing most of the violence is a region known as La Laguna, a “smuggling corridor” near Juarez. From The Dallas Morning News:
“In 2012, an estimated 1,100 people were killed there, and more than three dozen have been killed already this year, according to media reports. Security experts say the latest bloodbath is a result of fighting between the Zetas and the Sinaola cartel, which in some regions, including La Laguna, appears to be splinter in two rival groups."
Some hoped the arrival of the new president, and a very old party, would calm the drug violence through backroom deals. But the growing violence, might be more old, bad news for Mexico.
If the murders continue, Peña Nieto's desire to shift international dialogue from drug war to business might need to be put on hold.
