As many as 400,00 people have died in Mexico since then-President Felipe Calderón declared a war on drug cartels in 2006.
Current president Andrés Manuel López Obrador declared an end to that war in 2019, but experts say little has changed.
Alexander Aviña, associate professor of history at Arizona State University, has researched state violence in Mexico, immigration, and the history of narcotic production and trafficking in the country.
He said López Obrador continued an ongoing pattern of militarization with the creation of the National Guard.
“It’s undeniable … that [López Obrador] has increased the militarization of the country,” he said. “The Mexican military does have more power now — economic and social power — and their approach to the drug issues has continued to be militarization.”
Aviña, author of the book Specters of Revolution: Peasant Guerrillas in the Cold War Mexican Countryside, said despite the high levels of violence, López Obrador continues to maintain a high approval rating.
He also said border security efforts, such as those being played out on the Texas-Mexico border, can lead to tragedy.
“We need to push political parties away from that ‘border security’ framing, because I think that framing kills,” he said. “One of the things we can do … is go to these borderland communities, go to these localities and learn from them.”
Listen to part 1 of our conversation with Aviña here.
