5 solutions for Mexico's drug violence and security challenges

Drug violence has made an impact in Mexico and threatens to escalate and surpass the US border. This challenge could have far-reaching consequences for Central and North American security. Unless we act now to solve these common issues, we are placing the future competitiveness and prosperity of the entire region at risk. Here are five main points of action to move forward on Mexico's security challenges.

3. Professionalize our police forces

We must professionalize our police forces. We require well trained and equipped police, capable of investigating proficiently and using information and intelligence to perform surgical strikes against the organized mafias, tackling their structures from the top down.

It is very telling that over the past 12 years, the corruption perception index in Mexico has worsened from 3.3 to 3 according to Transparency International. In order to fight corruption, we need to unify the police forces from the municipalities and regional state governments, increase the use of intelligence, and create an inter-agency coordination plan that will guarantee the concerted efforts among various security organizations.

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