President Claudia Sheinbaum announced on Wednesday that she has initiated a strategy to reinforce security in Tabasco, which includes the arrival of 180 members of the Ministry of Defense and the National Guard. “We are working on that in Tabasco, telling the people of Tabasco that the strategy will be reinforced and the results will be noticed,” said the president, a day after authorities found 10 dismembered bodies and attacks on police officers ended with one officer dead.
Tabasco has become one of the areas of concern for the security strategy of the new Mexican government. The entity, with just over two million people, experienced an escalation of violence in 2024 that left the highest homicide figures in the last decade. Violence analysis organizations, such as ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data), identify behind the crimes a struggle between the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) and the local group La Barredora, who are allegedly fighting over the lucrative trafficking of migrants and fuel.
In just the first two weeks of the year, a massacre has been recorded in the State, which left seven dead and five wounded, in a clandestine bar in Villahermosa; the distribution of Roscas de Reyes by the CJNG recorded and broadcast in broad daylight; the murder of a businessman, and the murder of two police officers, one of them the former director of the State Investigation Agency. This week, seven dismembered bodies have been found on the Villahermosa-Teapa highway and another three in a cemetery in Nacajuca, about 30 kilometers from the State capital. In addition, attacks on the police have intensified, causing one death among the agents and several injuries.
Federal reinforcements have arrived in this scenario, an arrival celebrated by the Morena governor Javier May: “180 elements of the Mexican Army are arriving in Tabasco to reinforce the tasks for the security and tranquility of our people. We appreciate the support of President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo and the Secretariat of National Defense. We are going to recover peace.”
The president recalled this Wednesday from the National Palace the general security strategy for the entire country, coordinated by Omar García Harfuch, Secretary of Public Security, which is based on four axes: attention to the causes, consolidation and strengthening of the National Guard, intelligence and investigation, and coordination.
In addition, in some States more specialized plans are being implemented: “This is the case of Tabasco. In fact, reinforcements from the Defense and the National Guard arrived, and work is being done with Governor May to strengthen the strategy, which has to do with serving young people, the people of Tabasco, in order to resolve all their problems, and at the same time to ensure that no young person gets close to a criminal group.” For the moment, Sheinbaum said, it is ruled out that García Harfuch will travel to Tabasco, but the governor has been invited to the National Palace.
Source: elpais