Mexico's Security Strategy Called Into Question After Mormon Killings, Other Violence by Ray Sanchez - CNN News
After three women and six children were slaughtered on a remote dirt road in Mexico, relatives and members of their small religious community stood around the smoldering carnage for hours before local authorities arrived.
The horrific broad-daylight crime stunned even a country long ravaged by drug violence and on pace for a record high number of homicides this year. A convoy carrying women and children -- dual US-Mexican citizens -- ambushed and sprayed with hundreds of rounds of ammunition. A mother gunned down as she begged the children be spared.
"I'm the first person that arrived... They never showed up," said Julian LeBaron, a Mormon community leader related to some of the victims. "We came on the crime scene before any authorities."
Indeed, Mexico's latest tragedy in the long fight against cartel violence is viewed by some as a sign its "hugs, not bullets" security strategy -- focused on combating social problems -- has done little to wrest large chunks of the country from the grip of criminal organizations.
"You do have to go after the inequality, the lack of opportunity that drives criminality but what's the short-term strategy?" asked Christopher Wilson, deputy director of the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC…