![](https://i.imgur.com/CLvY2jA.png")
22-09-2023, 09:31 AM
Thomas Graham in Mexico City
Thu 21 Sep 2023 19.21 BST
Organised crime groups in Mexico have about 175,000 members – making them the fifth-biggest employer in the country, according to new research published in the journal Science
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The authors argue that the best way to reduce the bloodshed would be to cut cartel recruitment – whereas locking up more members would actually increase the murder rate.
......
The number of homicides in Mexico more than tripled between 2007 and 2021 – when the government reported 34,000 victims, or nearly 27 victims for every 100,000 inhabitants – making it one of the deadliest countries in Latin America.
......
But it is one thing to say recruitment should be reduced, and another to come up with policies to make that happen.
Not every member of an organised crime group is involved in violent activities, which means specific subgroups must be targeted separately.
......
Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador’s “hugs, not bullets” policy makes a similar case to that of the new paper: that by offering economic alternatives to young people, they would be less tempted to join cartels, and violence would fall.
As implemented, however, the strategy has failed to reduce overall violence, which has increased during this administration.
In El Salvador, meanwhile, President Nayib Bukele has drastically reduced violence by doing precisely the opposite of what the paper prescribes: around 2% of the country’s population has been jailed in a mass incarceration spree that has prompted accusations of systematic human rights violations.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/s...CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium#Echobox=1695338503
Thu 21 Sep 2023 19.21 BST
Organised crime groups in Mexico have about 175,000 members – making them the fifth-biggest employer in the country, according to new research published in the journal Science
......
The authors argue that the best way to reduce the bloodshed would be to cut cartel recruitment – whereas locking up more members would actually increase the murder rate.
......
The number of homicides in Mexico more than tripled between 2007 and 2021 – when the government reported 34,000 victims, or nearly 27 victims for every 100,000 inhabitants – making it one of the deadliest countries in Latin America.
......
But it is one thing to say recruitment should be reduced, and another to come up with policies to make that happen.
Not every member of an organised crime group is involved in violent activities, which means specific subgroups must be targeted separately.
......
Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador’s “hugs, not bullets” policy makes a similar case to that of the new paper: that by offering economic alternatives to young people, they would be less tempted to join cartels, and violence would fall.
As implemented, however, the strategy has failed to reduce overall violence, which has increased during this administration.
In El Salvador, meanwhile, President Nayib Bukele has drastically reduced violence by doing precisely the opposite of what the paper prescribes: around 2% of the country’s population has been jailed in a mass incarceration spree that has prompted accusations of systematic human rights violations.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/s...CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium#Echobox=1695338503
