Senator Aguirre Endorses Truce Request

(Chilpancingo, JG 29 August) Several days ago Guerrero’s Attorney General, Alberto López Rosas, proposed a truce among warring drug gangs (including, by implication, the military and police authorities). The idea is to avoid further bloodshed and the loss of innocent lives. The Attorney General’s suggestion was considered controversial, as it seemed to oppose the federal government’s current policy to pursue organized crime uncompromisingly. Yesterday State Senator Julio César Aguirre Méndez publicly approved the proposal of the state’s senior law enforcement official, saying that “it is very alarming that the people of Guerrero, especially those in Acapulco, see people hanged, assassinated, and decapitated – all in public places.” The gangland murders locally referred to as “executions” are on the rise, he said, and the call for a truce is a “desperate cry, not only by him, but also by the whole society.”

Then, taking a posture slightly inconsistent with the idea of a truce, the politician demanded that the authorities whose job it is to ensure public safety and to prosecute criminals “comply with their responsibilities to guarantee a peaceful environment for the population.” The implication was that some law enforcement personnel, from the bottom to the top, are actually in the employ of organized crime, and are receiving money for not doing their sworn duty. This was an explicit accusation made by President Calderón the previous day in his remarks about the narco terrorism at the Casino Royale in Monterrey.