Mexico President Enrique Peña Nieto Anounces Anti-Crime Plan After Discovery of 11 Bodies Possibly Belonging to Drug Cartel Members
Eleven bodies were found burned and decapitated on the side of the road Thursday in the southern state of Guerrero in Mexico. The same day, President Enrique Pena Nieta announced a nationwide anti-crime plan.
"Mexico cannot go on like this," Pena Nieto told the told The Associated Press. "After Iguala, Mexico must change."
Two months ago, 43 students went missing, sparking weeks of protests from residents forcing the president to take action. The missing students from a teacher's college disappeared in the Guerrero city of Iguala and were later reported to have been incinerated and dumped in a river by a drug gang.
Nieto suggests that the new anti-reform plans have been influenced by the disappearance of the 43 students. The plan would determine which offenses would be dealt with at federal, state and local levels since at the present moment police refuse to prevent drug trafficking.
Mexico's president proposed giving Congress the power to dissolve corrupt municipal governments and to place local police forces under the control of the country's 31 state governments. He said the new force would be more trustworthy and efficient.
The plan would also send more federal police to other states, but first focus on Mexico's most troubled states: Guerrero, Michoacan, Jalisco and Tamaulipa.
The bodies that were found on Thursday in Guerrero were scorched, decapitated and found with a large banner taunting one of the cartels, according to Al Jazeera. Witnesses say the bodies may have been of cartel members who were killed by another cartel group.
Sources said the area where the body was found is located in a place where at least five rival cartels operate.
The Mexican president is seeking to weaken municipal governments who have high levels of autonomy and control over their own police forces.
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