Mexico appears to abandon its ‘hugs, not bullets’ strategy as bloodshed plagues the country

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — For the last six years, Mexico bragged about its oft-questioned policy of “hugs, not bullets,” in which the country’s leaders avoided confrontations with drug cartels that were gradually taking control of large parts of the country. Social programs, not shootouts, they said, would gradually drain the pool of cartel gunmen. Now, a month into the term of new President Claudia Sheinbaum, a string of bloody confrontations suggests the government has quietly abandoned the “no bullets” part of that strategy and is much more willing to use the full force of the military and militarized National Guard. But the challenge the country now faces is different than in Mexico’s 2006-2012 drug war.