Campaigns Kick Off

The Chihuahua campaign mentioned earlier this week has kicked off officially on Saturday at 12:01 a.m., with the PAN candidate Carlos Marcelino Borruel offering a glimpse at would seem the logical approach to defeating an incumbent party in the country's most violent state: security, security, security. Borruel promised to do away with extortion and kidnapping in Juárez, which is something that will not be in his power to do even if he wins, but is heartening in that it shows a recognition of crime-fighting priorities. Not that the government should be ignoring drug traffickers, but extortion and kidnapping harm regular citizens in a way that smugglers do not. As such, organized crime groups that employ extortion and kidnapping should be a higher priority for security agencies than criminal groups that do not (all other activities being equal), and the government should make it known that they are a higher priority. Such a change of emphasis would result in more extorters and kidnappers behind bars, and would also encourage drug traffickers to respect the (for lack of a better word) neutrality of regular citizens.