Church leaders recently persuaded the candidates in the July 2 presidential election to sign a “National Commitment for Peace” that includes a lengthy list of proposed reforms, such as strengthening local police forces and making the justice system more professional and transparent.
While he has continued to rely on the army to fight drug traffickers, he has also promoted social programs aimed at deterring young people from joining criminal groups.
Criminal organizations that once focused on trafficking marijuana, cocaine and heroin have diversified into synthetic drugs such as fentanyl, as well as other illicit businesses, including gasoline theft and migrant smuggling.
In hyperviolent states such as Guerrero in the south, heavily armed criminal groups control wide swaths of countryside and extort city dwellers ranging from bus drivers to taco vendors.
The Mexican bishops, the Jesuit order and other Catholic leaders subsequently launched a “National Dialogue for Peace,” bringing together more than 20,000 people in forums to fashion a new security strategy.
Felipe Gaytán, a sociologist at La Salle University in Mexico City who has written extensively about religion, says the document reflects a new, proactive stance by church leaders, who have remained influential even as the number of faithful in the pews has fallen off.
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