El Daily Post: Don’t bother. Over at Vice News, Andrea Noel tells a horrifying story about getting mugged in Mexico and then trying to report the crime. Here’s a taste: “Back in Mexico, I went into my nearest prosecutor's office last Monday, hoping to file a new police report and lodge a complaint against the attendant who had pressed me into lying on official documents. When I got to where I needed to be, the official behind the counter told me I would have to go to a different district to try to file a complaint. I was informed that the process would take at least 20 days, and I would likely face charges for signing erroneous documents. I jumped into another cab and made my way to the next prosecutor's office, conveniently located in an area far sketchier than the one I was originally mugged in. "What you are admitting to is a very serious offense," one officer said, nodding for me to follow him toward the curb. "If you file that complaint you'll be in pretty real trouble. It is cause for automatic arrest." He then lowered his voice, adding: "I would go home if I were you."… I decided to call it quits.”
Explaining complexity. Why is it so darn difficult to file a crime report in Mexico? Two reasons:
1. Design: in most countries, to report a crime, you just walk to the nearest police station, fill out a simple form, answer a few questions, and off you go. You won’t be bothered again unless a suspect is caught. Not so in Mexico. First, you don’t go to a police station, but to the Agencia del Ministerio Público, i.e., a branch of the state Attorney General’s Office that corresponds to the location where the crime took place. Second, you have to go through an hours-long grilling, while someone transcribes your every word. Third, a few days later, you have to return to ratify the initial report. Otherwise, the Ministerio Público (MP) will not open an averiguación previa (preliminary investigation) or a carpeta de investigación (investigation folder), i.e., no one will lift a finger. Some states (and the Federal District) have tried to make the process simpler by allowing victims to file the initial report online, but even in those cases, the aggrieved party needs to ratify the report in person at the Agencia.
2. Policy: as Andrea Noel describes very well in her piece, pretty much everyone in the system will try to deter you from filing a crime report. Why? Because politicians and law enforcement officials, abetted by part of the media and some NGOs, use crime reports as a performance metric. From their perspective, fewer crime reports means success, even if the underlying crime rate is going up. And that attitude seeps down the system. Employees at the Agencias del Ministerio Público know they will be judged negatively (and maybe even fired) if they let too many reports in. So they create all sorts of artificial obstacles. Read more.
The MexicoBlog of the Americas Program, a fiscally sponsored program of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), is written by Laura Carlsen. I monitor and analyze international press on Mexico, with a focus on security, immigration, human rights and social movements for peace and justice, from a feminist perspective. And sometimes I simply muse.
Showing posts with label Mexico crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mexico crime. Show all posts
Oct 12, 2015
Dec 11, 2014
Mexico's Security Dilemma: The Rise of Michoacan's Militias
InSightCrime: Volunteer community policing has been a tradition in indigenous communities across Southern Mexico for centuries. Though controversial, advocates argue the practice is supported by international law and has been codified in the 1917 constitution that permits local frameworks for "the regulation and solution of internal conflicts."[1] These volunteer police forces vary in size and function, depending on the communities they serve. Their main job is to keep "internal" order, targeting petty thieves and, in the worse case scenario, rapists. In almost all areas, they are directly under the control of community elders rather than state or federal officials. In Guerrero, the state bordering Michoacan to the east, community police were given official recognition by the governor in the mid 1990s to calm unrest related to a crime wave and police repression in indigenous communities. Read more.
Jun 6, 2014
Tamaulipas: Mexico's black hole gets even more dangerous
The English-language press has given an unusual amount of attention to Tamaulipas lately, soon after the federa government declared it the crisis state in turn and launched a federal offensive against organized crime there.
Tamaulipas is, indeed, on fire again, as is Ciudad Juarez. The specific reasons are different, but one thing is clear: that calling in the Army will not solve the problem. We have only to look back at Operation Chihuahua to see that.
A recent piece in InSight Crime titled "How Federal Security Deployments in Mexico Are Set Up to Fail" also argues that the federal efforts will not succeed. InSight Crime analyses are often not very deep and this one isn't an exception. However, they often gather interesting facts in one place and address current issues.
The main argument is that local corruption will always undermine federal law enforcement efforts. The criticism I have is first, the data offered on the corruption of local and state officials is important and undoubtedly affects the effectiveness of federal intervention, but the implication is that federal troops and forces are not corrupt. This is not true. Yet there is no mention of the collusion with crime and corruption that occur among federal forces.
Secondly, he report starts with teh premise that Tamaulipas was a success story last year with a significantly lower homicide rate. I was suspicious of the low 2013 homicide figure and in any case would not accept these government figures at face value. The government practice last year was to under-report violence, including through suppression of the press.
But actually the problem with the report is even worse. When I checked the citation, the number of homicides reported for Tamaulipas in 2013 is actually 1,043--twice what the author states. I requested an explanation from InSight Crime but have not heard back. Another lesson in being wary of reported data. Not only are government sources vastly under-reported (these are only homicides reported to the Public Ministry in a nation and state where few people choose to report crimes), but reporters and researchers make mistakes or manipulate data.
This year, the SNSP--a system of the Ministry of the Interior (Gobernación)--reports 553 murders in Tamaulipas through April, putting it on track to become a record year for violence there under the Peña Nieto administration that promised that public safety rather than the drug war would be its major priority.
In other reports, Washington Post reporter Joshua Partlow has been in Tamaulipas and offers some rare glimpses into daily life there. Most of what he describes has been common for years, although the shoot-outs have stepped up. He interviews residents accustomed to extortion and people who have to go to extraordinary measures to carry out their ordinary activities.
This June 2 piece by the Guardian also tells an interesting story of the death of Tampico over the years. An earlier article signaled the renewed violence. This article quotes a Mexican government agent reaffirming what was already clear--that in fact the Peña nieto government is bent on fighting Calderon and the U.S. government's drug war no matter what the results are for the population:
Tamaulipas has always been the black hole of Mexico--a place where people are unwilling to go into for fear of not coming out, a place where rule of law is practically non-existent and information is scarce.
- Laura Carlsen
Tamaulipas is, indeed, on fire again, as is Ciudad Juarez. The specific reasons are different, but one thing is clear: that calling in the Army will not solve the problem. We have only to look back at Operation Chihuahua to see that.
A recent piece in InSight Crime titled "How Federal Security Deployments in Mexico Are Set Up to Fail" also argues that the federal efforts will not succeed. InSight Crime analyses are often not very deep and this one isn't an exception. However, they often gather interesting facts in one place and address current issues.
The main argument is that local corruption will always undermine federal law enforcement efforts. The criticism I have is first, the data offered on the corruption of local and state officials is important and undoubtedly affects the effectiveness of federal intervention, but the implication is that federal troops and forces are not corrupt. This is not true. Yet there is no mention of the collusion with crime and corruption that occur among federal forces.
Secondly, he report starts with teh premise that Tamaulipas was a success story last year with a significantly lower homicide rate. I was suspicious of the low 2013 homicide figure and in any case would not accept these government figures at face value. The government practice last year was to under-report violence, including through suppression of the press.
But actually the problem with the report is even worse. When I checked the citation, the number of homicides reported for Tamaulipas in 2013 is actually 1,043--twice what the author states. I requested an explanation from InSight Crime but have not heard back. Another lesson in being wary of reported data. Not only are government sources vastly under-reported (these are only homicides reported to the Public Ministry in a nation and state where few people choose to report crimes), but reporters and researchers make mistakes or manipulate data.
This year, the SNSP--a system of the Ministry of the Interior (Gobernación)--reports 553 murders in Tamaulipas through April, putting it on track to become a record year for violence there under the Peña Nieto administration that promised that public safety rather than the drug war would be its major priority.
In other reports, Washington Post reporter Joshua Partlow has been in Tamaulipas and offers some rare glimpses into daily life there. Most of what he describes has been common for years, although the shoot-outs have stepped up. He interviews residents accustomed to extortion and people who have to go to extraordinary measures to carry out their ordinary activities.
This June 2 piece by the Guardian also tells an interesting story of the death of Tampico over the years. An earlier article signaled the renewed violence. This article quotes a Mexican government agent reaffirming what was already clear--that in fact the Peña nieto government is bent on fighting Calderon and the U.S. government's drug war no matter what the results are for the population:
The state government spokesman Guillermo Martínez said this week that the resurgence of violence in Tamaulipas was the result of government successes in "squeezing" the criminal groups. "The important thing is that we are facing the problem head on," he said.I'll be writing more extensively on Tamaulipas within the next couple of months. It is probably among the most difficult places to envision solutions to the fatal combination of governmental corruption and organized crime because the situation is exacerbated by the breakdown and fear among civil society. As the articles note, many have fled across the border an the rest have mostly learned to adapt the an extreme situation.
Tamaulipas has always been the black hole of Mexico--a place where people are unwilling to go into for fear of not coming out, a place where rule of law is practically non-existent and information is scarce.
- Laura Carlsen
May 30, 2014
A Bad Day or a New Bloodbath?
Frontera NorteSur: on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
Ciudad Juarez News
May 28, 2014
In one of the bloodiest days in the last year or more, nine people were murdered Monday, May 26, in the northern Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez. In separate incidents, guns, knives, hammers and possibly bare hands were the instruments of homicide.
A prominent lawyer, Salvador Urbina Quiroz, along with Judge Cesar Cordero, was gunned down by assassins as the two men were meeting in Urbina’s office on Monday afternoon. The state prosecutor’s office (FGE), which is offering a $20,000 reward for the information leading to the arrests of the killers, said two suspects were captured on videotape at the crime scene.
Urbina was well-known in Ciudad Juarez for his leadership in professional associations, as well as his critical, published commentaries on legal affairs and the so-called drug war.
The 52-year-old criminal defense attorney handled controversial cases including the 2011 defenses of teacher Ana Isela Martinez, a young woman popularly known as “Miss Ana” who was imprisoned and falsely accused of trying to transport drugs to the United States, as well as four members of the Jaguars unit of the municipal police accused of killing four men.
May 28, 2014
Public Perceptions Exacerbate Security Problems in Mexico
By Patrick Corcoran
InSight Crime
InSight Crime
Mexico's newest survey of popular perceptions of public security reveals a country of citizens pessimistic about their physical integrity and distrustful of their leaders, as well as a government unable to make meaningful advances.
As Excelsior recently reported, the National Survey on Victimization and Perception of Public Security highlights a series of significant challenges for Mexico's government, both in the realm of public relations and in terms of actually improving the institutions charged with combating crime.
According to INEGI, the statistical agency charged with carrying out the poll, Mexican citizens are highly unlikely to report crimes they see. The national average of reported crimes is just 12.2 percent of the total, but in the state of Guerrero, which registered the lowest such level in the country, the rate of reporting dropped all the way to 6.7 percent. (As a comparison, in a recent study the US Bureau of Justice Statistics said that a little more than half of all violent crimes were not reported in the United States.)
See also: Mexico News and Profiles
In what are both a cause and a consequence of the poor rates of reporting crimes, Mexican citizens have very pessimistic attitudes about the likelihood of crimes being punished. Across the country, 83 percent believe that crime is rarely or never punished. That figure rises to 94.5 percent in Mexico City and 90.4 percent in the State of Mexico. Nowhere in the country is it lower than in Yucatan, where, despite being one of the nation's safest states, 69 percent perceive crime as being rarely or never punished.
Apr 15, 2014
"Drug Violence in Mexico: Data and Analysis Through 2013" Now Available
Justice in Mexico Project
April 15, 2014
The Justice in Mexico Project (JMP) based at the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of San Diego is pleased to announce the publication of “Drug Violence in Mexico: Data and Analysis Through 2013.” Thanks to the generous funding of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, this is the project’s fifth annual report providing a detailed analysis of the problem of crime and violence in Mexico, which has been a major preoccupation for both policymakers and ordinary people in Mexico, as well as a shared concern for the U.S. government and its citizens. Justice in Mexico’s annual reports have compiled the latest available data and analysis to evaluate problems of crime and violence related to drug trafficking and organized crime in Mexico. These reports are especially intended to inform a U.S. and English language audience, since international news media coverage of Mexico tends to be fleeting and gravitates toward sporadic, sensationalistic incidents rather than the analysis of broader issues and longer-term trends. Read more.
April 15, 2014
The Justice in Mexico Project (JMP) based at the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of San Diego is pleased to announce the publication of “Drug Violence in Mexico: Data and Analysis Through 2013.” Thanks to the generous funding of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, this is the project’s fifth annual report providing a detailed analysis of the problem of crime and violence in Mexico, which has been a major preoccupation for both policymakers and ordinary people in Mexico, as well as a shared concern for the U.S. government and its citizens. Justice in Mexico’s annual reports have compiled the latest available data and analysis to evaluate problems of crime and violence related to drug trafficking and organized crime in Mexico. These reports are especially intended to inform a U.S. and English language audience, since international news media coverage of Mexico tends to be fleeting and gravitates toward sporadic, sensationalistic incidents rather than the analysis of broader issues and longer-term trends. Read more.
Feb 27, 2014
El Chapo's Capture Will Help Restore Mexico's Reputation (Milenio, Mexico)*
*This article, translated by our friends at WorldMeetsUs, views the capture in a positive light as a blow against impunity. Curiously, at the same time the author notes that 'unleashing violence' is a probably outcome of the capture. Again, we have different opinions based on different perspectives--the most positive tend to emphasize the improvement in the image of the Peña Nieto government--breaking the commonly held ideas that the government favored the Sinaloa Cartel and that the PRI would negotiate with cartels. The more negative perspective, like ours, fear for the repercussions in public safety and likely ineffectiveness in terms of eliminating organized crime activity.
Milenio
Translated by WorldMeetsUs
February 25, 2014
It must be said: The capture of El Chapo Guzman is an undeniable achievement of Enrique Peña Nieto's government. It is a success no matter how one looks at it. It was a success for the armed forces, for the way the information is handled, and in terms of the operational effectiveness and perseverance in achieving a single goal: to stop and imprison the most wanted drug trafficker in the world.
Independent of the undeniable and justifiable satisfaction that the government feels, Mexicans, too, must be satisfied with the government's performance in this regard. The capture of the legendary narco is a down payment in the fight against crime and impunity.
The operation to arrest him reflects well on the professionalism of specialized corps of the Marines and Army. No longer need we imagine surgical operations as an element of quirky movies or the capabilities of forces in other countries. In Mexico there are institutions that function properly, and the successes of operations against crime, whether government run or not, should give us all some peace of mind and boost our sense of confidence.
Milenio
Translated by WorldMeetsUs
February 25, 2014
Independent of the undeniable and justifiable satisfaction that the government feels, Mexicans, too, must be satisfied with the government's performance in this regard. The capture of the legendary narco is a down payment in the fight against crime and impunity.
The operation to arrest him reflects well on the professionalism of specialized corps of the Marines and Army. No longer need we imagine surgical operations as an element of quirky movies or the capabilities of forces in other countries. In Mexico there are institutions that function properly, and the successes of operations against crime, whether government run or not, should give us all some peace of mind and boost our sense of confidence.
Jun 24, 2013
Mexico: Where a doctor sleeps with a loaded gun, bulletproof vest
GlobalPost
June 24, 2013
Ecatepec, Mexico — A family doctor in this tattered suburb of Mexico City, Roman Gomez tends to his patients under the constant threat of death from neighborhood thugs.
A squad of state policemen stands round-the-clock guard at the four-story building that serves both as Gomez's clinic and home, vetting all who enter. He wears a bulletproof vest under his medical tunic, keeps a large pistol tucked into his belt, rarely ventures into the street.
Gomez, 53, has lived this way since early February, when he shot and killed two of three armed men who burst into his crowded waiting room to collect $20,000 in protection money. Now members of the dead men's gang are gunning for Gomez. Read more.
June 24, 2013
Ecatepec, Mexico — A family doctor in this tattered suburb of Mexico City, Roman Gomez tends to his patients under the constant threat of death from neighborhood thugs.
A squad of state policemen stands round-the-clock guard at the four-story building that serves both as Gomez's clinic and home, vetting all who enter. He wears a bulletproof vest under his medical tunic, keeps a large pistol tucked into his belt, rarely ventures into the street.
Gomez, 53, has lived this way since early February, when he shot and killed two of three armed men who burst into his crowded waiting room to collect $20,000 in protection money. Now members of the dead men's gang are gunning for Gomez. Read more.
Apr 11, 2013
Mexico Violence: Clashes Between Federal Police, Gunmen Leave 14 Dead
Huffington Post
April 11, 2013
Morelia, Mexico - At least 14 people died Wednesday in a series of clashes between gunmen and federal police in Michoacan state, a western area that has seen a surge of violence in recent years attributed to drug cartels, authorities said.
Federal police said in a statement the first gunbattle began when officers aboard a helicopter spotted armed men traveling in four vehicles in the town of Gabriel Zamora.
The gunmen opened fire on the agents, who shot back and killed five assailants, the statement said.
It said one of those killed was high in the leadership structure of a Michoacan-based drug cartel, but didn't identify the group.
Hours later in the town of Apatzingan, federal agents were accompanying a caravan of citizens commemorating the anniversary of the death of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata when gunmen fired shots at some of the participants. Police killed one of the gunmen, authorities said. Read more.
April 11, 2013
Morelia, Mexico - At least 14 people died Wednesday in a series of clashes between gunmen and federal police in Michoacan state, a western area that has seen a surge of violence in recent years attributed to drug cartels, authorities said.
Federal police said in a statement the first gunbattle began when officers aboard a helicopter spotted armed men traveling in four vehicles in the town of Gabriel Zamora.
The gunmen opened fire on the agents, who shot back and killed five assailants, the statement said.
It said one of those killed was high in the leadership structure of a Michoacan-based drug cartel, but didn't identify the group.
Hours later in the town of Apatzingan, federal agents were accompanying a caravan of citizens commemorating the anniversary of the death of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata when gunmen fired shots at some of the participants. Police killed one of the gunmen, authorities said. Read more.
Mexico: Government Says Murders Tied to Organized Crime Have Fallen
The NY Times
By Randal C. Archibold
April 10, 2013
Mexico City - The new government here, which has complained that Mexico’s image has been sullied by persistent reports of violent crime, presented data on Wednesday that it said showed that murders related to organized crime had dropped sharply.
Though analysts raised concerns about how the information was compiled, the government said that since Dec. 1, when President Enrique Peña Nieto took office, there had been 4,249 homicides that bore the markings of organized crime. That was down 685, or about 14 percent, from the 4,934 over the same period a year earlier.
The government said it also had seized more marijuana and cocaine in the more recent period and reported a drop in kidnappings, but it did not release data on extortion, another crime often associated with criminal gangs.
Analysts questioned the criminal data, particularly homicides classified as related to organized crime. Though vetted by the federal government, much of that data originally comes from the 31 states and federal district, with inconsistent or misreporting of cases and subjective criteria on what constitutes a cartel-related crime.
By Randal C. Archibold
April 10, 2013
Mexico City - The new government here, which has complained that Mexico’s image has been sullied by persistent reports of violent crime, presented data on Wednesday that it said showed that murders related to organized crime had dropped sharply.
Though analysts raised concerns about how the information was compiled, the government said that since Dec. 1, when President Enrique Peña Nieto took office, there had been 4,249 homicides that bore the markings of organized crime. That was down 685, or about 14 percent, from the 4,934 over the same period a year earlier.
The government said it also had seized more marijuana and cocaine in the more recent period and reported a drop in kidnappings, but it did not release data on extortion, another crime often associated with criminal gangs.
Analysts questioned the criminal data, particularly homicides classified as related to organized crime. Though vetted by the federal government, much of that data originally comes from the 31 states and federal district, with inconsistent or misreporting of cases and subjective criteria on what constitutes a cartel-related crime.
Apr 8, 2013
Peña Nieto Reveals 2014 Security Budget
InSight Crime
Written by Claire O'Neill McCleskey
Peña Nieto's proposed $4.4 billion security spending plan for 2014 allots over a third of its budget to crime prevention.
Peña Nieto's 2014 budget plan of 54 billion pesos was outlined in a document sent by the Treasury Department (SHCP) to the Senate for consideration, reported Proceso.
A large proportion of the budget, nearly 20 billion pesos (around $1.6 billion) will go to "prevention and deterrence of crime." Meanwhile, $1.4 billion will go to the penal system, $122 million to the new gendarmarie police force, and $231 million to the intelligence services. Some $382 million will be distributed to states, municipalities, and the Federal District for public security.
The growth in the security budget for 2014 represents only a small increase over the projected inflation rate of 3 percent for next year, reported El Economista. Read more
Written by Claire O'Neill McCleskey
Peña Nieto's proposed $4.4 billion security spending plan for 2014 allots over a third of its budget to crime prevention.
Peña Nieto's 2014 budget plan of 54 billion pesos was outlined in a document sent by the Treasury Department (SHCP) to the Senate for consideration, reported Proceso.
A large proportion of the budget, nearly 20 billion pesos (around $1.6 billion) will go to "prevention and deterrence of crime." Meanwhile, $1.4 billion will go to the penal system, $122 million to the new gendarmarie police force, and $231 million to the intelligence services. Some $382 million will be distributed to states, municipalities, and the Federal District for public security.
The growth in the security budget for 2014 represents only a small increase over the projected inflation rate of 3 percent for next year, reported El Economista. Read more
Mar 21, 2013
Deportation, Drugs and Delinquency in Tijuana
FNS NEWS. Are U.S. and Mexican deportation and reintegration policies fomenting
delinquency in Tijuana? According to a prominent academic researcher and
immigrant rights activist, the answer is yes. Victor Clark Alfaro,
director of Tijuana’s Binational Center for Human Rights, told the local
press that the deportation of gang-affiliated individuals who are left
on their own in the Mexican border city with no resources or legitimate
employment options is exacerbating a serious problem of drug abuse and
delinquency.
Of an average of 200 deportees who arrive daily to Tijuana, Clark Alfaro estimated that at least 30 percent of them have ties with southern California gangs including Mara Salvatrucha, M-18, M-13, Florence, and the Mexican Mafia. After their arrival in Tijuana, the deportees don’t find job opportunities and confront discrimination from the local society because of their dress, style and tattoos, Clark Alfaro contended.
The border anthropologist said the lack of papers on the U.S. side of the border is likewise a problem on the Mexican side, where it is difficult to obtain the birth certificates and federal voter cards which are routinely used for identification in Mexico. Undocumented individuals are then harassed and detained by Tijuana municipal police officers, Clark Alfaro asserted.
He said the desperate situation of the deportees coupled with the cross-border criminal backgrounds of many make them ideal recruits for organized crime. Employed as look-outs, meth cooks, street dealers and hit men, deportees wind up constituting the lower base of the pyramid of organized crime in Tijuana, Clark Alfaro added.
While the high-profile violence between warring drug gangs that shattered Tijuana a few years back has largely receded into the background, local drug consumption and the violence associated with it have not gone away. Regularly, the press reports on the detentions of street dealers, small-scale drug confiscations and killings said to be connected to the lower rung of the underworld.
This week, for example, the Baja California attorney general’s office told the media it was investigating four homicides committed in recent days. In one case, two men were found beaten and strangled in a home. In another case, Roberto Alejandro Cortes Chorta, 25, was arrested and accused of killing his friend, 26-year-old Veronica Palacios Espinoza, and then stuffing her body in a suitcase with the aid of his mother, after the young couple consumed drugs and argued.
In a third instance, 21-year-old Jessica Michele Munoz was found strangled inside a Ford Explorer with a dose of crystal meth on a breast. Reportedly, Munoz was earlier linked to small-time drug dealing. On Wednesday, March 20, 22-year-old Margarita Martinez Michel became the third woman murdered in Tijuana in a week when she was shot to death in front of her home, in a crime also linked to street dealing.
On March 19, Tijuana municipal Baja California state police authorities reported detaining 18 street dealers and confiscating small amounts of meth, heroin, cocaine and marijuana. Separately, two other men were arrested for allegedly preparing a car with California license plates with a marijuana shipment.
In an analysis published last year, Clark Alfaro, who teaches at San Diego State University, wrote that the presumed end of the Tijuana drug war and the decline in murder statistics, which registered more than 2,300 homicides during the peak years of violence between 2008 and 2010 according to the scholar-activist, has not ended insecurity but largely confined it to the working-class neighborhoods of the city and among the lower classes. A similar pattern is currently playing out in Ciudad Juarez, Acapulco and other places.
Clark Alfaro described two Tijuanas: “the modern city. ” a place where the financial and political elite reside, and the rest of the city where poor zones punctuated with islands of walled-off subdivisions proliferate.
As order has been restored for the upper echelons of society, social disintegration has taken hold on the lower end, characterized by rising drug addiction, especially to meth, and the briskness of an illicit market that easily withstands police and military seizures, according to Clark Alfaro. In this schema, the business of murder is systematic but tucked away from the larger society and done in a non-scandalous way.
Wrote the border analyst:
“The murdered, on average one a day, now are not people murdered in abhorrent ways: decapitated, dismembered or incinerated. Rather, they are shot to death…the daily murder victims are now irrelevant persons in the structure of delinquency, since according to the authorities, 80 percent of them were people linked to the sale of drugs on the streets of the other Tijuana, not the modern part of the city,”.
In his more recent comments to the Tijuana press, Clark Alfaro said not enough attention was being paid to the issue of local drug dealing/consumption. He urged giving alternatives to deportees but feared public policy was headed in the wrong direction. “All indications are that a police solution is desired for a problem that requires a humanitarian one,” Clark Alfaro contended.
Sources: Frontera.info March 19, 20 and 21, 2013. Articles by Luis Gerardo Andrade and editorial staff. El Sol de Tijuana, March 18, 20 and 21, 2013. Articles by Juan Guizar and Manuel Cordero. Proceso, August 22, 2012. Article by Victor Clark Alfaro.
Of an average of 200 deportees who arrive daily to Tijuana, Clark Alfaro estimated that at least 30 percent of them have ties with southern California gangs including Mara Salvatrucha, M-18, M-13, Florence, and the Mexican Mafia. After their arrival in Tijuana, the deportees don’t find job opportunities and confront discrimination from the local society because of their dress, style and tattoos, Clark Alfaro contended.
The border anthropologist said the lack of papers on the U.S. side of the border is likewise a problem on the Mexican side, where it is difficult to obtain the birth certificates and federal voter cards which are routinely used for identification in Mexico. Undocumented individuals are then harassed and detained by Tijuana municipal police officers, Clark Alfaro asserted.
He said the desperate situation of the deportees coupled with the cross-border criminal backgrounds of many make them ideal recruits for organized crime. Employed as look-outs, meth cooks, street dealers and hit men, deportees wind up constituting the lower base of the pyramid of organized crime in Tijuana, Clark Alfaro added.
While the high-profile violence between warring drug gangs that shattered Tijuana a few years back has largely receded into the background, local drug consumption and the violence associated with it have not gone away. Regularly, the press reports on the detentions of street dealers, small-scale drug confiscations and killings said to be connected to the lower rung of the underworld.
This week, for example, the Baja California attorney general’s office told the media it was investigating four homicides committed in recent days. In one case, two men were found beaten and strangled in a home. In another case, Roberto Alejandro Cortes Chorta, 25, was arrested and accused of killing his friend, 26-year-old Veronica Palacios Espinoza, and then stuffing her body in a suitcase with the aid of his mother, after the young couple consumed drugs and argued.
In a third instance, 21-year-old Jessica Michele Munoz was found strangled inside a Ford Explorer with a dose of crystal meth on a breast. Reportedly, Munoz was earlier linked to small-time drug dealing. On Wednesday, March 20, 22-year-old Margarita Martinez Michel became the third woman murdered in Tijuana in a week when she was shot to death in front of her home, in a crime also linked to street dealing.
On March 19, Tijuana municipal Baja California state police authorities reported detaining 18 street dealers and confiscating small amounts of meth, heroin, cocaine and marijuana. Separately, two other men were arrested for allegedly preparing a car with California license plates with a marijuana shipment.
In an analysis published last year, Clark Alfaro, who teaches at San Diego State University, wrote that the presumed end of the Tijuana drug war and the decline in murder statistics, which registered more than 2,300 homicides during the peak years of violence between 2008 and 2010 according to the scholar-activist, has not ended insecurity but largely confined it to the working-class neighborhoods of the city and among the lower classes. A similar pattern is currently playing out in Ciudad Juarez, Acapulco and other places.
Clark Alfaro described two Tijuanas: “the modern city. ” a place where the financial and political elite reside, and the rest of the city where poor zones punctuated with islands of walled-off subdivisions proliferate.
As order has been restored for the upper echelons of society, social disintegration has taken hold on the lower end, characterized by rising drug addiction, especially to meth, and the briskness of an illicit market that easily withstands police and military seizures, according to Clark Alfaro. In this schema, the business of murder is systematic but tucked away from the larger society and done in a non-scandalous way.
Wrote the border analyst:
“The murdered, on average one a day, now are not people murdered in abhorrent ways: decapitated, dismembered or incinerated. Rather, they are shot to death…the daily murder victims are now irrelevant persons in the structure of delinquency, since according to the authorities, 80 percent of them were people linked to the sale of drugs on the streets of the other Tijuana, not the modern part of the city,”.
In his more recent comments to the Tijuana press, Clark Alfaro said not enough attention was being paid to the issue of local drug dealing/consumption. He urged giving alternatives to deportees but feared public policy was headed in the wrong direction. “All indications are that a police solution is desired for a problem that requires a humanitarian one,” Clark Alfaro contended.
Sources: Frontera.info March 19, 20 and 21, 2013. Articles by Luis Gerardo Andrade and editorial staff. El Sol de Tijuana, March 18, 20 and 21, 2013. Articles by Juan Guizar and Manuel Cordero. Proceso, August 22, 2012. Article by Victor Clark Alfaro.
Feb 26, 2013
Mexico Goes After the Narcos—Before They Join the Gangs
Time
By Ioan Grillo and Dolly Mascareñas / Nezahualcóyotl
Feb. 25, 2013
The gunshots at dawn woke residents of the cinder block homes in Nezahualcóyotl, a working-class city on the edge of the Mexican capital, making a few people duck for cover behind their beds. When they finally peered out their windows, they saw the corpses of two young men, one stacked over the other, besides a threatening note written on cardboard and signed by the drug cartel called La Familia. The double murder, which took place on Feb. 16, was the latest in a series of killings that have brought the drug war to the edges of Mexico City – the mountain capital that has long been viewed as a safe haven from cartel violence ravaging other parts of Mexico.
Recently installed President Enrique Peña Nieto hopes to reverse this trend with a new anti crime strategy – transforming poor neighborhoods like Nezahualcóyotl where cartels make their bastions and preventing young people from joining their criminal armies. On Feb. 12, Peña Nieto announced there would be more than $9 billion for crime prevention aimed at 57 hotspots. “We must put special emphasis on prevention, because we can’t only keep employing more sophisticated weapons, better equipment, more police, a higher presence of the armed forces in the country as the only form of combating organized crime,” Peña Nieto said. Rather than just shooting or incarcerating the seemingly endless ranks of cartel gunmen, the president hopes to stop young people from becoming assassins in the first place. Read more.
By Ioan Grillo and Dolly Mascareñas / Nezahualcóyotl
Feb. 25, 2013
The gunshots at dawn woke residents of the cinder block homes in Nezahualcóyotl, a working-class city on the edge of the Mexican capital, making a few people duck for cover behind their beds. When they finally peered out their windows, they saw the corpses of two young men, one stacked over the other, besides a threatening note written on cardboard and signed by the drug cartel called La Familia. The double murder, which took place on Feb. 16, was the latest in a series of killings that have brought the drug war to the edges of Mexico City – the mountain capital that has long been viewed as a safe haven from cartel violence ravaging other parts of Mexico.
Recently installed President Enrique Peña Nieto hopes to reverse this trend with a new anti crime strategy – transforming poor neighborhoods like Nezahualcóyotl where cartels make their bastions and preventing young people from joining their criminal armies. On Feb. 12, Peña Nieto announced there would be more than $9 billion for crime prevention aimed at 57 hotspots. “We must put special emphasis on prevention, because we can’t only keep employing more sophisticated weapons, better equipment, more police, a higher presence of the armed forces in the country as the only form of combating organized crime,” Peña Nieto said. Rather than just shooting or incarcerating the seemingly endless ranks of cartel gunmen, the president hopes to stop young people from becoming assassins in the first place. Read more.
Feb 16, 2013
Is Mexico's war on drugs close to a real end?
Aljazeera
February 15, 2013
The election of Enrique Pena Nieto last year marked the return to power of the Industrial Revolutionary Party (PRI) that had ruled the country for 71 years prior to the year 2000.
Pena Nieto promised the PRI was no longer a party of patronage and corruption, but a modern force focused on economic growth, poverty reduction and tackling the drug-related violence unleashed during the presidency of Felipe Calderon.
This week the president unveiled his plan to tackle crime and take on the cartels.
He appeared to reject Calderon's policy of force, instead promising to approach the problem through a $9.2bn investment in social programmes to address the root causes of crime.
The government says the programme will help keep young people from joining gangs. It is not clear though how much of that money is funding that is already been announced as part of other programmes.
The initiatives include road building, improved health and social services, help for single mothers to find jobs, better park grounds and lighting and increasing school hours.
The money is targeted at 251 towns and neighbourhoods considered the most violent in Mexico.
President Pena Nieto says the new strategy focuses on prevention - instead of deploying troops and sophisticated weapons to tackle drug violence. Read more.
February 15, 2013
The election of Enrique Pena Nieto last year marked the return to power of the Industrial Revolutionary Party (PRI) that had ruled the country for 71 years prior to the year 2000.
Pena Nieto promised the PRI was no longer a party of patronage and corruption, but a modern force focused on economic growth, poverty reduction and tackling the drug-related violence unleashed during the presidency of Felipe Calderon.
This week the president unveiled his plan to tackle crime and take on the cartels.
He appeared to reject Calderon's policy of force, instead promising to approach the problem through a $9.2bn investment in social programmes to address the root causes of crime.
The government says the programme will help keep young people from joining gangs. It is not clear though how much of that money is funding that is already been announced as part of other programmes.
The initiatives include road building, improved health and social services, help for single mothers to find jobs, better park grounds and lighting and increasing school hours.
The money is targeted at 251 towns and neighbourhoods considered the most violent in Mexico.
President Pena Nieto says the new strategy focuses on prevention - instead of deploying troops and sophisticated weapons to tackle drug violence. Read more.
Jan 28, 2013
'Sick And Tired,' Residents In Southern Mexico Defend Themselves
NPR by CARRIE KAHN
January 27, 2013
On the main road into the Mexican town of Ayutla, about 75 miles southeast of Acapulco, about a dozen men cradling shotguns and rusted machetes stand guard on a street corner. Their faces are covered in black ski masks.
The men are part of a network of self-defense brigades, formed in the southern state of Guerrero to combat the drug traffickers and organized crime gangs that terrorize residents.
The brigades have set up roadblocks, arrested suspects and are set on running the criminals out of town.
Taking Control
They go over patrol shifts schedules, handwritten on wrinkled papers, and communicate with other checkpoints in town via walkie-talkies. One man, who wouldn't give his name but identified himself as a "lower commander," said the townspeople had no choice but to take up arms. Read more.
January 27, 2013
On the main road into the Mexican town of Ayutla, about 75 miles southeast of Acapulco, about a dozen men cradling shotguns and rusted machetes stand guard on a street corner. Their faces are covered in black ski masks.
The men are part of a network of self-defense brigades, formed in the southern state of Guerrero to combat the drug traffickers and organized crime gangs that terrorize residents.
The brigades have set up roadblocks, arrested suspects and are set on running the criminals out of town.
Taking Control
They go over patrol shifts schedules, handwritten on wrinkled papers, and communicate with other checkpoints in town via walkie-talkies. One man, who wouldn't give his name but identified himself as a "lower commander," said the townspeople had no choice but to take up arms. Read more.
Nov 29, 2012
Mexico murders at over 101,000 in past 6 years, report says
Fox News Latino
A total of 101,199 murders were registered in Mexico during President Felipe Calderon's six-year administration, with about 50 percent of the killings drug-related, a report released Tuesday by the Mexico Evalua think tank says.
Homicides rose 37 percent from December 2006, when Calderon took office, to October 2012.
A total of 74,586 homicides were registered during the 2000-2006 administration of President Vicente Fox, the public policy research center said.
Mexico Evalua used National Institute of Statistics and Geography, or INEGI, and National Public Safety System Executive Secretariat, or SESNSP, data in preparing the report.
The increase in homicides, according to the report, is related to organized crime, with the proportion of murders linked to "criminal rivalries" at just 30 percent before 2008.
Today, that figure is around 50 percent, with some states, especially in northern Mexico, seeing 80 percent of murders linked to drug trafficking. Read more.
A total of 101,199 murders were registered in Mexico during President Felipe Calderon's six-year administration, with about 50 percent of the killings drug-related, a report released Tuesday by the Mexico Evalua think tank says.
Homicides rose 37 percent from December 2006, when Calderon took office, to October 2012.
A total of 74,586 homicides were registered during the 2000-2006 administration of President Vicente Fox, the public policy research center said.
Mexico Evalua used National Institute of Statistics and Geography, or INEGI, and National Public Safety System Executive Secretariat, or SESNSP, data in preparing the report.
The increase in homicides, according to the report, is related to organized crime, with the proportion of murders linked to "criminal rivalries" at just 30 percent before 2008.
Today, that figure is around 50 percent, with some states, especially in northern Mexico, seeing 80 percent of murders linked to drug trafficking. Read more.
Nov 15, 2012
End police abuse in Juarez
El Diario de Juarez November 11, 2012
Translated by Borderland Beat
[Translator's note: There have been numerous news reports of police abuse in Juarez this past year, to the point that Police Chief Leyzaola recently pulled some surprise inspections in several police districts and ordered the release of dozens of detainees who had been arrested because of their physical appearance or because they did not have official identification on them when stopped by a cop. Although the number of homicides has declined measurably in Juarez, extortion, robbery and kidnapping appear to have increased. A big problem is that the police agencies have not earned the public's trust. --un vato] .
Trust in police agencies, an essential element if one wants to talk about consolidating advances in the area of public safety, will never be possible so long as its agents -- especially municipal police in their current phase-- abuse the citizen they were supposed to protect and become the criminals they are supposed to fight.
Any statistical gain from a decrease in criminal matters will be of little use if in the collective imagination an intervention by police generates fear instead of security.
It's no longer a matter of isolated cases. The complaints, the stories that have developed with police officers as antagonists of law-abiding citizens are a constant that does not allow any minimizing or dissimulation. Read more.
Translated by Borderland Beat
[Translator's note: There have been numerous news reports of police abuse in Juarez this past year, to the point that Police Chief Leyzaola recently pulled some surprise inspections in several police districts and ordered the release of dozens of detainees who had been arrested because of their physical appearance or because they did not have official identification on them when stopped by a cop. Although the number of homicides has declined measurably in Juarez, extortion, robbery and kidnapping appear to have increased. A big problem is that the police agencies have not earned the public's trust. --un vato] .
Trust in police agencies, an essential element if one wants to talk about consolidating advances in the area of public safety, will never be possible so long as its agents -- especially municipal police in their current phase-- abuse the citizen they were supposed to protect and become the criminals they are supposed to fight.
Any statistical gain from a decrease in criminal matters will be of little use if in the collective imagination an intervention by police generates fear instead of security.
It's no longer a matter of isolated cases. The complaints, the stories that have developed with police officers as antagonists of law-abiding citizens are a constant that does not allow any minimizing or dissimulation. Read more.
Aug 21, 2012
Mexico court backs civil trials for military rights abuses
Reuters: By Gabriel Stargardter. Mexico's top court ruled on Tuesday that military officials who committed crimes against civilians should be tried in civil courts, possibly clearing the way for sterner prosecutions against military misconduct in the country's drug war.
In an 8-2 decision, the Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional a section of the military code of justice the armed forces have relied on to argue that cases should be tried in their own courts.
The justices ruled that an article of the code failed to offer victims of military human rights abuses recourse to federal justice.
However, other similar rulings will be needed to set a precedent that would change the law. Read more.
In an 8-2 decision, the Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional a section of the military code of justice the armed forces have relied on to argue that cases should be tried in their own courts.
The justices ruled that an article of the code failed to offer victims of military human rights abuses recourse to federal justice.
However, other similar rulings will be needed to set a precedent that would change the law. Read more.
Jul 21, 2012
Graphic interview of alleged rapists angers Mexico
AP: Adriana Gomez Licon. The families of women and girls sexually assaulted on a church camp-out near Mexico City expressed anger Thursday after television stations broadcast a video of police posing highly graphic questions to suspects arrested in the crime.
Christian Youth Movement spokeswoman Aletia Santoscoy asked the media to stop playing the interrogation because it was affecting the girls' emotional recovery. Read more.
Christian Youth Movement spokeswoman Aletia Santoscoy asked the media to stop playing the interrogation because it was affecting the girls' emotional recovery. Read more.
Jul 20, 2012
17 held in attack, rapes on church camp in Mexico
AP: TOLUCA, Mexico — Police arrested 17 men Wednesday on suspicion of attacking youths and raping five women and girls who were on a church camping trip outside Mexico City, a brutal assault that shocked much of the country.
The attorney general for the State of Mexico, Alfredo Castillo, said 11 of the gang members were identified by some of the victims. In interrogation videos played for reporters, three of the suspects confessed that they sexually abused the women and girls because fellow attackers told them to.
Two of the suspects were local police officers and another had served in the military, Castillo said, speaking two days after authorities announced the arrest of a man who was described as not directly involved in the assault on the camp-out but who allegedly provided information to the assailants. Read more.
The attorney general for the State of Mexico, Alfredo Castillo, said 11 of the gang members were identified by some of the victims. In interrogation videos played for reporters, three of the suspects confessed that they sexually abused the women and girls because fellow attackers told them to.
Two of the suspects were local police officers and another had served in the military, Castillo said, speaking two days after authorities announced the arrest of a man who was described as not directly involved in the assault on the camp-out but who allegedly provided information to the assailants. Read more.
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