Mayor Célida López of Hermosillo, Sonora, believes that drug traffickers should be shot.

López made the statement Wednesday during her second annual report on the state of the city, in which she offered that those who sell drugs to minors are traitors to their country.

“Drug trafficking should not be confronted with [a show of] weapons,” she said, “drug traffickers should be shot in this country, as happens in other countries of the world.” 

“We do not only need more elements of the National Guard, we need to remove from our city each and every man who rises up with a gun in hand and is capable of murdering a minor,” she added. Prison sentences or freezing financial assets of drug dealers is not punishment enough, she said. 

“These are traitors to the country, and we should shoot all those who give [drugs] to minors. It is not possible that this be allowed to continue,” she continued.

“I am not going to settle for keeping quiet for my safety. I know that I put my life and that of my family at risk, but what good is it being in authority if I do not have the courage to speak up when many men are silent?” she said, thanking her constituents for “not losing faith, for fighting against a strange virus, for maintaining Hermosillo as a place with opportunities, with economic development, with greater security, with greater social harmony, order and coexistence.” 

Her tough talk comes two days after the mayor inaugurated a new rehabilitation center for young addicts which will open September 21 with space for 86 young people in recovery, fulfilling a 2018 campaign promise to combat drug addiction.

Source: Reforma (sp)