President López Obrador announced a plan Sunday to reinforce security in Cajeme, Sonora, one of Mexico’s most violent municipalities.
The president admitted during a visit to the state that the security situation in Cajeme had deteriorated.
“I am busy, not just worried, due to what’s happening in Cajeme in terms of the insecurity. Together with the state government we have a special plan that is being applied to guarantee peace and tranquility because Cajeme became one of the most dangerous municipalities in Mexico with an increase in homicides,” he said.
López Obrador promised more army and navy personnel and National Guardsmen to help combat the violence.
“We are already acting and results are already being obtained, but more elements from the Defense Ministry, the navy and the National Guard are going to come,” he said.
Cajeme is a stronghold of the indigenous Yaqui people. The municipality and the south of the state have faced a wave violence in the past nine months: Yaqui leader and water rights activist Tomás Rojo Valencia was murdered in May. Earlier that month, Abel Murrieta Gutiérrez, a former Sonora attorney general who was running for mayor of Cajeme, was murdered in broad daylight. In June, Yaqui environmental activist Luis Urbano was shot dead in downtown Ciudad Obregón and the remains of five Yaqui men were discovered in September near to Ciudad Obregón after they disappeared in July.
Cajeme is one of the 50 most dangerous municipalities in Mexico, and was named as a priority by Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez in January.
López Obrador was speaking in Ciudad Obregón where he checked up on the progress of the Tomás Oroz Gaytán baseball stadium, which is being converted into a baseball school. The government provided 1.057 billion pesos (US $54.7 million) to Sonora in 2019 for the Tomás Oroz Gaytán stadium and the Héctor Espino stadium in Hermosillo.
With reports from Milenio
