A violent start to the term of Mexico’s new president raises questions about strategy, the army

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum, in just over three weeks in office, has inherited a whirlwind of violence that many say was set up by her predecessor’s policy of not confronting drug cartels and using the army for law-enforcement. Sheinbaum, who took office Oct. 1, would rather be talking about her plan to make all judges stand for election. But instead, she has had to deal with the army’s killing of six migrants on the day she took office and the death of three civilians at the hands of soldiers 10 days later. That was followed by the murder of a crusading Catholic priest, and a lopsided encounter in which soldiers killed 19 suspects.