Something is happening in Zacatecas that is still attracting attention in terms of security. Since the middle of last year, a series of violent incidents and high levels of homicides in some municipalities of the entity have been knocking on the door of the federal authorities, so much so that it has been decided to launch the “Zacatecas II Support Plan”. crime in the state.
Two months later it must be said that little has been achieved with the support, as despite the fact that the presence has been strengthened with federal forces and the National Guard in the central regions -1 940 elements-, north -804 elements- and south – 1,204 elements-, giving a total active of about 3,848 members of the armed forces, the violence does not stop. Even in the latest Inegi report on the perception of insecurity released this week, the city of Fresnillo, Zacatecas is first, followed by Zacatecas in third place. On the other hand, according to the analysis of the organization Causa en Común, Zacatecas is the third state in the country where most policemen died in the hands of organized crime -36 policemen killed in 2021-, a figure which according to the report is four times higher than reported in 2020, which is not a small thing.
The reality of violence in Zacatecas is therefore worrying, and even more so if you want to analyze it from a more comprehensive perspective. The states suffer from violence due to their structural weaknesses which enable the objectives of some organized crime groups to control strategic operational areas to expand their criminal interests. The relationship to analyze the levels of violence in the states generally begins with the observation of the goals of criminal organizations which is no secret.
What we have been able to learn in the last almost 15 years of criminal violence in the country is that criminal groups establish their operational agendas based on their priority issues of importance, hence their ability to occupy strategic spaces and succeed in their machinery of social , territorial, political and economic control, go hand in hand with an ability to shoot to prevent other criminal groups from entering their areas of operation and an inability of state power to prevent it. Thus, nothing is as improvised as it seems in criminal logic: priority case objectives, selection and control of strategic spaces and co-optation of vital bases – social, political and security – and a governmental structural weakness.
Zacatecas is a strategic state and the surge in violence over the past almost five years is also no coincidence. Its borders with eight states – Coahuila, Durango, San Luis Potosí, Nuevo León, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Nayarit and Aguascalientes – make it an area of essential links for criminal interests, primarily for the control of drug trafficking routes to the United States … In the same sense, 4 traffic routes are central to understanding criminal disputes and their interests for territorial control: Pan-American Highway 45, which runs from the center of the country to the United States, Highway 54, which runs from Colima to Tamaulipas, Highway 23 which runs from Jerez to Fresnillo and Federal Highway 44 which begins in Fresnillo and ends in Ruiz Nayarit, passing through Jalisco, Durango and Nayarit. The criminal business is dynamic and its strength lies in the ability to control the operating spaces.
On the other hand, from 2018, the production, trade and sale of fentanyl sparked confrontations between organized crime groups for control of the transfer, which exacerbated the situation of uncertainty in some municipalities and state communities, as is the case and was. of the parish of Fresnillo. If we think about it, it seems that many roads are of criminal importance and return to this town which, although it is not the only one suffering from violence, is an area of high criminal density that it is a trial for its people .
In Fresnillo, everything happens, as its strategic position is of utmost importance to criminal groups, which as a control tactic destabilizes the population with mechanisms of terror of kidnappings, robberies, disappearances, murders and of course the almost daily confrontations of groups of organized crime.
In this sense: Does the Zacatecas II Support Plan have clear lines of action to confront this reality? Sooner or later, it will be necessary to think that in addition to UN patrols or military checkpoints in regions selected by the high criminal presence, concrete actions are required that contain clear action plans, which involve arrests and recovery of criminal spaces, to begin with. reorganize a criminal geography based on the establishment of clear boundaries, which is not seen today on the horizon of the security strategy.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx