Mexico’s Michoacan Crisis Deepens Despite Troop Surge and Billions in Spending

The tragic assassination of Uruapan Mayor Carlos Alberto Manzo by a teenage gunman during Day of the Dead festivities has thrust Mexico’s ongoing security crisis in Michoacan back into the spotlight. President Claudia Sheinbaum’s recent pledge to send nearly 1,000 additional troops and allocate more than $3 billion in federal funds to the western state is yet another chapter in a long saga of failed attempts to control cartel violence that directly affects American interests. Is More Force Alone Enough to Contain Cartels? With over 10,000 federal troops now stationed in Michoacan—half tasked solely with containing criminals crossing state lines—the...