López Obrador’s Public Enemy Number One

As Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador ramps up his “war” on oil theft in the wake of the Tlahuelilpan explosion, will he remain loyal to his campaign’s promise to demilitarize the state?

When Andrés Manuel López Obrador was elected president of Mexico last year, many hoped that his presidency would bring a hard shift away from the militarized approach to combating organized crime pursued by previous administrations. Seven weeks into López Obrador’s term, the biggest shift so far has been to emphasize oil theft, or huachicoleo, over narco-trafficking as public enemy number one. After a catastrophic explosion at an illegally tapped oil duct in mid-January, however, this emphasis on huachicoleo might set the president on the path of re-militarization.

One of the central pillars of López Obrador’s election campaign was the need for a more humane security policy. He laced his campaign with slogans such as “abrazos no balazos” (hugs not gunfire, or, hugs not slugs), tapping into broad dissatisfaction with persistently high levels of insecurity in the country. The previous two administrations sustained the so-called war on narco-trafficking, but both administrations left the country with higher levels of violence than they found it. During his campaign, López Obrador floated ideas such as amnesty for low-level recruits in criminal organizations. Since his inauguration, he has maintained the same rhetoric—declaring an end to the war on drugs in late January—while continuing to militarize security through the creation of a National Guard.