MEXICO CITY – Public Safety Secretary Alfonso Durazo said Tuesday that the government expects its anti-crime strategy to make Mexico a safer place in the next three years.

Speaking during President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s daily morning press conference, Durazo said that the plan will be implemented in stages.

“Corruption, we are going to attack it immediately in the entire public apparatus, but with an emphasis on the security forces,” he said.

Once corruption has been eradicated in the higher ranks of the police and working conditions improved for the rank-and-file, “we will quickly begin to feel this improvement, and the aim is that we are living in conditions of peace and tranquility in three years,” the secretary said.

Lopez Obrador has touted an approach based on “addressing the causes” of crime, which involves creating a National Guard with the support of the armed forces, providing young people with educational and employment opportunities and combating corruption in public administration.