To tame drug violence, Mexican general takes control of chaotic Michoacan

As part of President Enrique Pena Nieto's strategy against drug violence, Alberto Reyes, a Mexican general was given control over all police and military operations in the western state of Michoacan.

By Lizabeth Diaz,?Reuters / May 16, 2013

Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto speaks during a joint news conference with President Barack Obama, in Mexico City May 2.

Dario Lopez-Mills/AP

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A Mexican general took over all police and military operations in a chaotic western state on Thursday in a test run of President?Enrique Pena Nieto's new security strategy to tame raging drug violence.

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Alberto Reyes?assumed control of all federal, state and city police forces, as well as military units in Michoacan, one of the most violent states in the country, after he was named the state's new security minister.

Big swaths of Michoacan have fallen under the sway of criminal gangs who are fighting among themselves and against authorities. Former President?Felipe Calderon?launched his military-led crackdown on drug cartels there in 2006.

Pena Nieto, who took office in December, has vowed to reduce the violence that has exploded in?Mexico?in the last decade by battling crime rather than hunting down drug lords.

He wants to create a new national police force and move away from Calderon's strategy of relying on the military, and he is clearly seeking to focus public attention away from violence and on to the economy.

More than 70,000 people have died in drug-related violence since Calderon began his offensive against the drug gangs. The government says the pace of killing has slowed since Pena Nieto took office in December, but thousands of people still died in his first months in office.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/ryxZt-PWDzM/To-tame-drug-violence-Mexican-general-takes-control-of-chaotic-Michoacan

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