Tourists are pouring back to Mexican beaches after a security image facelift

Global Post: Sunbathers stretch out along white beach after white beach on the sweltering Caribbean coast. Tequila-swigging revelers pack the glittering nightclubs wall to wall. Surfers carve up the Pacific waves.

Yup, that sounds like Mexico all right — but it’s actually been a summer like no other.

As the season draws to an end, officials here are boasting a bumper season in the country’s top resorts, including Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos and Cancun, where hotels have been packed to the highest levels ever.  Read more. 

Boomer Expatriates Demand Security

By fnsnews 
Published June 3, 2014

Foreign-born residents joined Mexican nationals in a recent demonstration demanding security for a storied but troubled town. Dressed in white and carrying candles, about 400 people staged a silent march late last week through San Miguel de Allende in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato.
Ruth Kear,  a former U.S. resident who currently lives in San Miguel de Allende, articulated public safety fears held by a growing number of residents which, in her case, is based on personal experience. Kear told a Mexican reporter that she had been robbed three times in her home, including on two occasions by armed and masked thieves.

“They put a pistol to my head and said, ‘Miss, do you want to taste the bullet?’” Kear was quoted.  “I am afraid. Now I have many bad dreams. When I am in my studio, sometimes I see those men.”
The mounting complaints of insecurity contrast sharply with San Miguel de Allende’s commercialized image as a laid-back cultural and historic destination.

The cradle of Mexican independence, San Miguel de Allende was selected as the best city in the world in Conde Nast Traveler magazine’s 2013 reader’s choice poll.  Classified by the Mexican federal government as among the nation’s “magic towns,” San Miguel de Allende has also been designated as a World Heritage Site  by the United Nations.

Over the decades, the small city of 160,383 inhabitants (2010 Census), has attracted a sizable expatriate community drawn from North America,  Europe, Asia and Latin America. An estimated 14,000 local residents are foreign-born, mainly from the United States, but also from Canada, England, Japan, Colombia, and other nations.

Aging retirees from the baby boom generation who retired to San Miguel Allende stand out in the expatriate population.  Read more. 

Public Perceptions Exacerbate Security Problems in Mexico

By Patrick Corcoran
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.

Pena Nieto's security proposal rankles Mexican left

Borderland Beat by Chris Covert (Rantburg.com)
November 18, 2012

A proposal by the transition team of Mexican president elect Enrique Pena Nieto has the Mexican left up in arms and claiming the proposal is  throwback to the Mexican Dirty War of the 1970s and 1980s, according to numerous Mexican press reports.

According to press reports, president elect Pena is seeking to eliminate the Secretaria de Seguridad Public (SSP) and move its fuctions, primarily the Policia Federal (PF) to the Secretaria de Gobiernacion (SEGOB) or Interior Ministry.

The proposal was formally presented last Thursday by Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) Mexico state federal deputy  José Sergio Quiroga Manzur.  According to a report published on the website of Milenio news daily,  Sergio Manzur said the reform was intended to "ensure strong coordination" with regard to the internal security of Mexico.

The proposal so far has been seen by Mexican security experts as generally positive.  An El Universal news daily report quoted two experts, Samuel Gonzalez, an independent security consultant, and Jorge Chabat, a professor at the Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economica (CIDE).

Gonzalez was quoted by El Universal saying that the SSP was never a federal security agency, but rather a police agency, whose functions belonged in SEGOB because its inclusion into arguably the most powerful federal agency would improve "coordination actions of public security."Read more. 

Drug War: 43% of Mexicans consider strategy against crime a "failure": survey

CNN Mexico: "Four of every 10 Mexicans (43%) consider that the Mexican government's strategy to tackle organized crime is "a failure", according to a survey done by the organization Mexico United Against Crime (MUCD) and pollster Consulta Mitofsky .

Just eight months before the end of the administration of President Felipe Calderon,... 53% of respondents felt that organized crime is winning the battle, and "only 17% give the victory to the government." When the survey was done by MUCD in October 2011, 14% of respondents said the federal government "will win the war against organized crime, while in March 2012, that percentage had dropped to 12.7%.

The tenth study on perception of public insecurity in Mexico, which was released on Tuesday, states in its conclusions that the war on drugs has not reduced drug production, although seizures by the authorities have increased.

"In our country heroin production increased 340% between 2004 and 2008," said the civil organization, which also noted that "to date the drug is cheaper and more accessible," as its price has gone down by 15 to 50%. "Seven in 10 people around the country think it is easy to get drugs," the study said. "These figures show that drugs are available to everyone now more than ever," said Juan Francisco Torres Landa, general secretary of MUCD, according to a statement from the organization.

The percentage of respondents who considered it to be correct that the Mexican army participate in the fight against organized crime dropped to 67%, following a downward trend since 2007, when 84% endorsed the involvement of the military in this kind of work .
... Another section of the report, which recorded responses from 1,000 Mexicans over 18 years from March 8 to 11, 2012, mentions that 79% of Mexicans feel more insecure than last year, and only 18% see an improvement. "In five years in office, the crimes committed in the country increased from 1.5 to 1.8 million, which represents a percentage increase of 15%," said the study." Spanish original

Drug War: Mexican business association calls the security situation of the past six years “Regrettable”

The Mexican business community has been largely absent from policy discussions about the drug war and its consequences for the country. Here, the new president of the Mexican Business Association speaks out. Translation by Mikael Rojas, Americas Program intern

La Jornada: "A leader of the business community criticized the environment of insecurity in Mexico over the last six years as “regrettable” and called for a “better strategy” to combat organized crime that will guarantee Mexican citizens peace and tranquility as soon as possible.

In his first press conference as president of the Mexican Business Confederation (Coparmex), Alberto Espinosa Desigaud said that due to the climbing violence, businesspeople have been exposed to robbery, kidnapping, extortion, and murder. “It is fundamentally a matter of government policy, and not just at the federal level,” he added.

“If we only rely on the actions of the federal government to generate better results, then we are really on the wrong path,” remarked the Coparmex head who was elected on February 29th, replacing Gerardo Gutiérrez Candiani.

Espinosa Desiguad blamed state and municipal governments for not correctly adjusting their budgets to address security issues. He said, “If the cities and towns, where these unfortunate occurrences principally take place, were making better use of their resources, being better prepared, adding more police, and had more trustworthy agencies, the results would be different.”

The businessman insisted on the necessity of rooting corruption out of police forces. “Today, the police in several states and towns are complicit; it’s clear that we have been operating like this for many years. We ask that there be less corruption in the police and a greater sense of responsibility on behalf of the authorities to take action to prevent complicity with criminal activities.”

Espinosa Desiguad acknowledged the pressures that municipal government officials are exposed to when it comes to confronting organized crime, but reaffirmed that they cannot continue to put aside what needs to be done. He also maintained that municipal level politicians need to do a better job of protecting themselves, along with the state and federal governments.

Espinosa Desigaud also stated that the global economic turndown has had an impact on the levels of violence in Mexico. He claimed that if national economic growth were at 6 percent annually, and the required number of jobs were generated, that the bloodshed could decrease.

Regarding the agenda that the business group will pursue following his swearing-in as president, Espinosa said that Coparmex will concentrate on promoting a quality education system for all Mexicans, supporting citizen participation in democratic processes, developing proposals to strengthen public security, and starting an action program to stimulate the economy.

Finally, Espinosa Desiguad announced that all of the partners of the organization will take to the streets all around the country in order to promote informed voting, to help oversee the electoral process, and to demand that politicians comply with their promises.

However, he emphasized that Coparmex is a non-partisan organization and will not endorse any single candidate or party, adding “we will be very quick to question all of the candidates about their concrete proposals for achieving the great changes that our country requires.” Spanish original

Drug War Politics: Mexicans want security, but candidates to succeed Calderon vague on drug war policy

The Washington Post: "Ever-expanding violence and insecurity have left many Mexicans desperate for a new leader who can stem the killings and pacify the gangsters. But public frustrationhas not translated into a substantive policy debate about how to change course, and political analysts say whoever succeeds Calderon will probably continue fighting the cartels in similar fashion — by working closely with the United States and relying heavily on the Mexican military." read more

Drug War: Mexico travel warning mapped

Travel Weekly: "To help our readers better understand where dangers really exist in Mexico and to demonstrate that most parts of the country -- including all destinations popular with U.S. tourists -- remain safe, we have created a map that presents the warning visually. Each named location contains a number key that refers to exact language about that location in the State Department's warning." read more

Movement for Peace with Justice: Javier Sicilia demands a victims law from Mexico's Chamber of Deputies

Translated by MexicoBlog

CNN Mexico: Given the situation of a "national emergency" caused by the violence stemming from organized crime in Mexico, activist and poet Javier Sicilia asked on Wednesday that the Chamber of Deputies pass a law for victims and ensure compliance to it, EFE, the Spanish news agency, reported.

"The country cannot wait, the victims can not wait, the pain and injustice pursue them," said Sicilia, who was participating in a security forum organized by the Public Safety Committee of the Chamber of Deputies and academic institutions. "It is necessary to legislate, given the number of victims in the country who have not had justice, because 98% of all crimes go unpunished," he said.

The proposals for a law for victims, according to Sicilia, could be an international example, but are not sufficient, because their application has to be assured, the activist added. "The laws we had were sufficient to provide order in this country and maintain peace, but they are not being implemented. This Chamber makes and undoes the laws. It returns to undo laws and they are not applied. It seems that they don't exist. that's the gravity of the problem" he assured. Spanish original

Drug War: Mexico Loses Faith in Drug War, as Bodies Pile up

InSight Crime: "According to the ninth annual survey on the Perception of Security in Mexico, only 14 per cent of the public believes that the administration of President Felipe Calderon will win the war against organized crime. This represents a considerable decline in public confidence from March 2010, when 23 per cent of respondents in a similar survey believed the government would succeed.

The survey, carried out jointly by Mitofsky Consulting and the NGO Mexico United against Crime (MUCD), found that 44 per cent of those surveyed believe the security situation in Mexico will remain the same in 2012, while some 30 per cent believe that security will deteriorate further. Eight in 10 Mexicans believe that insecurity has increased compared to the same period a year ago.

... However, in spite of criticism of President Calderon’s use of the military in the fight against organized crime, 86 per cent of those surveyed were in favor of increasing the number of troops in cities across the country." read more

Drug War and Social Media: 'Twitter Manifesto' Confronts Gang Threats to Mexico Bloggers

InSight Crime: "A team of social media users in Mexico have written a "Twitter Manifesto" in reaction to the latest killing of an alleged online chat forum administrator. Some of their demands are untenable, raising questions about what actions bloggers can really take to protect themselves. Speaking in the name of bloggers and Twitter users in violence-ridden states like Tamaulipas, the manifesto gives voice to the apprehension and anger circulating through some online media networks in Mexico.

... Within the buzzing community of social media users along the Mexico-U.S. border, comes the "Twitter Manifesto." But when the document asks the government to better garantee "cybersecurity" and "freedom of speech" online, it only highlights the difficulty of enforcing these requests. ... Recognizing the futility of asking Mexican authorities for more protection from the threat, some have turned to issuing best practices. On another forum -- the Frontera listserve -- security consultant Gordon Housworth shared suggestions on how social media users can better protect themselves from the threat of criminal gangs." read more

Movement for Peace with Justice: Citizen Security and Human Rights in Mexico Hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

Statement of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity presented today to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington , D.C.

Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity: Oct. 27, "Outrage at the situation of generalized violence in Mexico has coalesced in the MPJD - a national movement of victims and citizens determined to promote peace with justice and dignity. Adherents of the MPJD believe the situation of systematic human rights violations and widespread impunity among the perpetrators of violence has created a true national emergency.

This document aims to (1) summarize the actions of the MPJD; (2) present the context of citizen security in Mexico; (3) discuss the rights of victims and obligations of the Mexican state under the Inter-American system; (4) recount the demands of the MPJD on the Mexican State; and (5) present the paradigmatic cases of human rights violations the movement has documented and continues to pursue." read more