What Mexico's Elections Mean for Crime Policy: Part I

InSight Crime: With Mexico's July 1 presidential elections promising a shift in the country's security strategy, InSight Crime looks at the policies of likely winner Enrique Peña Nieto, and the inheritance he will have to deal with, in the first of a two-part series.

The Front-Runner and his Inheritance
Barring a major upset, the winner of Mexico’s presidential election on July 1 will be Enrique Peña Nieto, a former governor of Mexico State and the candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). (The candidate of President Felipe Calderon’s National Action Party (PAN) stands in either a distant second or third place, according to polls.) Peña Nieto’s record on crime is mixed. During his time as governor, from 2005 to 2011, Peña Nieto’s state managed to avoid the massive increase in murders suffered by much of the rest of the country. His government also dealt a series of crippling blows to the Mano con Ojos, a gang that had taken to leaving decapitated heads around the region, arresting its leader in 2011. Furthermore, unlike in many parts of the country, it was not the federal government that led the charge against the Mano con Ojos, but Peña Nieto’s administration, under the leadership of state Attorney General Alfredo Castillo. Read more.