Mexico is living through a security “emergency” unseen since the Mexican Revolution, the secretary of public security said yesterday.

Speaking at the launch of a regional security plan in Apatzingán, Michoacán, Alfonso Durazo said that a large part of the wave of insecurity plaguing Mexico is the result of the corruption of security forces.

“For many years, violence and crime have been supported by the deviance of officials, who shelter and protect criminal groups and their conduct, and the result has been the most serious crisis of violence that our country has experienced, perhaps since the Mexican Revolution,” he said.

Last year was the most violent year on record, with more than 33,000 homicides, and the murder rate in the first quarter of 2019 was up almost 10% compared to the same period of 2018.

“Insecurity isn’t an issue [that arose] today or yesterday, it’s the result of an accumulation of years that will take time to correct but we’re 100% determined to [find] the solution, without losing a minute,” Durazo said.

The secretary described the situation as an “emergency” and declared that “unity is fundamental” to combat the high levels of violent crime.

No political or ideological pretext can take precedence over the responsibility to guarantee public security and to put an end to impunity, Durazo added.

“The fight against crime is a matter of the state and as such it requires the . . . political will of all,” he said.

The official explained that a gradual deployment of 4,050 members of the National Guard to Michoacán will begin in July to complement the state security strategy and “guarantee as soon as possible reasonable standards of security and stability.”

There has been a spike in violence in the state in recent days including a clash between police and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) in Zamora on Sunday in which four officers were killed, and a confrontation between the CJNG and the Viagras gang in Uruapan last Wednesday that left 10 people dead.

The recent violence “reminds us that criminal groups don’t stop in their attempt to distort the security [situation] and commit criminal acts,” Durazo said.

“For those reasons, we must close ranks with complete determination to combat them, with intelligence and with a capacity for force.”

Source: El Financiero (sp)