Pena Nieto's opposing coalition threatened with his security policy

Borderland Beat: By Chris Covert


Throughout last spring's campaign Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto, as with his rivals travelled in Mexico with the message of a frontrunner, that of unity and national pride.  Pena Nieto could afford to act as above the fray because from the start he had maintained a solid 20 plus percentage point lead.

One of the issues that Pena Nieto spoke about with caution was security policy.  His rival Partido Accion National (PAN) candidate also tread lightly on the issue after having suffered years of attacks from the Mexican mainstream left over president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa's war on the cartels.

But once the election was over, Pena Nieto rolled out his newest advisor of security policy, heralding that he would deal with Mexico's powerful cartels with a new strategy.

Retired Colombian police chief General Oscar Adolfo Naranjo Trujillo was presented as having ideas on how to shift the current strategy to one which is supposed to reduce the violence which has marked much of Calderon's presidency.

General Naranjo Trujillo has been credited with reducing the violence in Colombia during the 1980s and 1990s.  His tenure was marked with an emphasis on security for the legal and security structure in Colombia, plus an active record of drug arrests.  Other Spanish language sources suggested General Naranjo Trujillo gained the upper hand in Colombia through the use of targeted killings. Read more.