On this episode of the MODERN MEXICO PODCAST, host Nathaniel Parish Flannery talks to Stephanie Brewer, a Mexico-focused security expert at the Washington Office on Latin America.

When he was an aspiring presidential candidate, Mexico's current president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador demanded justice in the case of 43 missing students from Guerrero and criticized the rampant impunity that has long protected the politically powerful in Mexico.

Lopez Obrador once promised that if elected he would order the army to return to the barracks. As president, however, he has embraced Mexico’s armed forces to a degree that is unprecedented in Modern Mexican history.

"Whoever comes to office next has a large task before them. But, the necessary route to strengthen security and rule of law in Mexico is to bet on criminal justice, civil institutions, and policing and not continue this distorted and ultimately not effective focus on militarization," Brewer says.

"Lopez Obrador’s presidency has logged over 165,000 murders. With over a year to go in his term, Lopez Obrador’s is already marked as the most violent sexenio in Modern Mexican history. I’m not sure that people around the world really grasp the severity of the violence Mexico is experiencing," Parish Flannery explains.

Brewer recently published a report, "Human Rights and Democratic Controls in a Context of Increasing Militarization in Mexico."