US envoy irks Mexico by saying 'hugs not bullets' policy failed

Mexico's "hugs not bullets" security strategy of tackling criminal violence at its roots has failed, US ambassador Ken Salazar said Wednesday, in unusually blunt remarks that upset the Mexican government.

The Latin American nation's foreign ministry said it had protested in a diplomatic note sent to the US embassy.

Salazar, who was appointed by outgoing US President Joe Biden in 2021, told a news conference that Mexico faced a "very serious" security problem.

While crime prevention was a valid concept, "the hugs not bullets strategy did not work," Salazar said when asked about the efforts of former president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his successor President Claudia Sheinbaum to address crime through social policy.

"This is a very serious problem for Mexico, and saying there's no problem or blaming others, blaming the United States... is not what's needed to achieve security," he said.

In September, Lopez Obrador said that the United States shared responsibility for cartel infighting that erupted following the dramatic July arrest on US soil of Sinaloa Cartel co-founder Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.

The "hugs not bullets" policy, launched by Lopez Obrador after he became president in 2018, prioritized grants, scholarships and other measures to deter young Mexicans from turning to crime.

The veteran leftist, who was replaced by Sheinbaum on October 1, "closed the door" to collaboration with the United States on security, Salazar said.

Sheinbaum, a former Mexico City mayor and the country's first woman president, has ruled out declaring "war" on drug cartels.

Although she avoids using the "hugs not bullets" slogan, she has pledged to continue her predecessor's strategy of addressing the root causes of crime, while also making better use of intelligence.

Spiraling criminal violence, much of it linked to drug trafficking and gangs, has seen more than 450,000 people murdered across Mexico since 2006.

sem-dr/jgc