Mexico unveils details of new security strategy

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s new administration offered the first details on Tuesday of a long-touted shift in the country’s war on drugs, saying the government will spend $9.2 billion this year on social programs meant to keep young people from joining criminal organizations in the 251 most violent towns and neighborhoods across the country.

The government will flood those areas with spending on programs ranging from road-building to increasing school hours, President Enrique Pena Nieto and Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong told an audience in the central state of Aguascalientes.