Despite the reinforcement of cooperation in border security between the governments of Mexico and the United States, violence continues to hit Ciudad Juárez, an area considered “strategic area” for drug trafficking and where last weekend there were armed clashes and attacks that left at least nine dead.
The episodes of violence occur just two weeks after the meeting between the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and President Claudia Sheinbaum, in which they pledged to redouble the bilateral collaboration to combat organized crime and drug trafficking.
This was indicated by the criminologist Óscar Maynez Grijalva, of the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez and a member of the Council of the Center for Victims of Violence, warning that the problem on the northern border goes beyond diplomatic agreements.
“The northern zone is a strategic area, obviously, because we are, together with the country with greater drug use, and the country where weapons occur indiscriminately, which are filtered south to give more power to the criminal groups,” said Máynez Grijalva.
“It will hardly be able to fix in a short time, it is a problem that has been growing, it has been, metassessing for decades,” said the academic.
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The Rubio Secretary showed a conciliatory tone during his visit to the country after seeing Sheinbaum, ensuring that “there is no government at this time that is cooperating more in the fight against crime than the Government of Mexico.”
“We appreciate it very much and there is much to do together,” said the head of US diplomacy during a press conference at the Mexican Foreign Ministry.
For Máynez Grijalva, however, the problem is that the security crisis is due to structural factors such as corruption, the collusion of authorities with organized crime, arms trafficking from the United States and the weak capacity of states to confront cartels.
“You cannot paint a line between Mexico and the United States, say, do you know what? You are the problem, we do not have to see, they have to work together,” he said, highlighting that Washington’s pressure after Rubio’s visit was reflected in “very important arrests.”
According to data from the National Public Security System, the malicious homicide rate from September 2024 to May 2025 decreased 25.8%, but the levels remain extremely high with months with records above 100.
The specialist stressed that, as long as there are no reliable institutions that attack the money laundering and the access of organized crime to exclusive weapons of the army, it will be difficult to reverse violence.
“Unfortunately, states do not have the ability to confront those who are going to organize, they do not have the capacity or economic or strength to combat them, although they were not colluded that we know there is a lot of collusion, then a federal strategy is required,” he concluded.
Ciudad Juárez, border with the American state of Texas and with more than 1.5 million inhabitants, closed 2024 with more than 1,000 homicides.
With EFE information
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