海角大神

Mexican President Enrique Pe帽a Nieto vowed Thursday to overhaul local policing and more firmly establish the rule of law across the country, his strongest response yet to the apparent massacre of 43 students.

The president鈥檚 announcement comes two months after a drug gang working with local police allegedly abducted and killed the students in the southwestern city of Iguala. His new anti-crime plan highlights the growing pressure from protesters to end impunity and brutality by law enforcement officials.

Mr. Pe帽a Nieto suggested his plan was influenced by the Iguala tragedy in a wide-ranging televised address, noting its "cruelty and barbarity have shocked Mexico,鈥� The Associated Press reports.

"Mexico cannot go on like this," he said. "After Iguala, Mexico must change."

The plan outlined by Pe帽a Nieto would allow Congress to dissolve local governments infiltrated by drug gangs. It also would effectively disband the more than 1,800 municipal police forces and put them under the control of the 31 state governments. A national 911 system would be installed, and jurisdiction confusion among the nation鈥檚 police, which often gets in the way of investigations, would be clarified, The New York Times reports.

The reforms, some of which would require constitutional changes, will be formally presented next week.

鈥淭hese acts of violence demand that we redouble efforts to achieve the full application of rule of law,鈥� Pe帽a Nieto said.

The plan focuses first on four of Mexico鈥檚 most impoverished, crime-ridden states: Jalisco, Tamaulipas, Michoacan, and Guerrero, where the abduction took place. It calls for more police to be sent to the 鈥渉ot land鈥� region overlapping Michoacan and Guerrero.

But as 海角大神 reported last week, achieving lasting reform is unlikely to happen overnight, especially in Guerrero:

Earlier on Thursday, authorities announced they had found the decapitated, partly burned bodies of 11 men dumped on the side of a road in Guerrero 鈥撀燼 brutal reminder of the challenges ahead.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the president鈥檚 40-minute speech 鈥渞epresented a marked contrast to his usually upbeat picture of Mexico, acknowledging widespread poverty, inequality, violence and corruption.鈥�

Indeed, some of the president鈥檚 predecessors pursued similar reforms, including placing local police under state authority, only to see them fail in Congress. Many Mexicans have since grown skeptical of such sweeping announcements as a result.

鈥淲hat everyone wants the government to do is to make sure that its security and justice systems are fair and safe,鈥� Duncan Wood, director of the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center for International Scholars, told The Monitor. 鈥淣o one expects things to be fixed overnight but [the government] needs to show progress on its justice reform, police reform, and the transparency of its institutions.鈥�