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.
The MexicoBlog of the CIP Americas Program monitors and analyzes international press on Mexico with a focus on the US-backed War on Drugs in Mexico and the struggle in Mexico to strengthen the rule of law, justice and protection of human rights. Relevant political developments in both countries are also covered.
Apr 11, 2013
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.
Mexico reporter Regina Martinez's murderer sentenced
BBC
April 10, 2013
A judge in Mexico has sentenced a man to 38 years in prison over the 2012 murder of crime reporter Regina Martinez Perez.
Jorge Antonio Hernandez Silva was found guilty of homicide and robbery.
Regina Martinez, a correspondent for news magazine Proceso, was found beaten and strangled to death in her home in Xalapa, in eastern Veracruz state.
The prosecution says Hernandez confessed the crime, but colleagues of Ms Martinez say he was set up.
Ms Martinez had been working for the investigative news magazine Proceso for 10 years when her brothers reported finding her body in her home.
Read more.
April 10, 2013
A judge in Mexico has sentenced a man to 38 years in prison over the 2012 murder of crime reporter Regina Martinez Perez.
Jorge Antonio Hernandez Silva was found guilty of homicide and robbery.
Regina Martinez, a correspondent for news magazine Proceso, was found beaten and strangled to death in her home in Xalapa, in eastern Veracruz state.
The prosecution says Hernandez confessed the crime, but colleagues of Ms Martinez say he was set up.
Ms Martinez had been working for the investigative news magazine Proceso for 10 years when her brothers reported finding her body in her home.
Read more.
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
Apr 6, 2013
Mexico divided over memorial to drug-war victims
USAToday
ByAdriana Gomez Licon
Associated Press / April 5, 2013
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico, a country suffering the turmoil of a drug war, can’t agree on how to honor the victims of a six-year assault on organized crime that has taken as many as 70,000 lives.
The government’s official monument was dedicated Friday, four months after its completion, in a public event where relatives of the missing chased after the dignitaries in tears, pleading for help in finding their loved ones.
Only some victims’ rights groups recognize the monument, while others picked an entirely different monument to place handkerchiefs painted with names and personal messages in protest of the official site, which does not bear a single victim’s name.
‘‘Other organizations asked us for other space because they’re against this one,’’ Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said at the official dedication of the government monument, which consists of steel panels bearing quotes from famous writers and thinkers. ‘‘What took us so long was trying to get agreement among the groups, and we failed.’’ Read more.
ByAdriana Gomez Licon
Associated Press / April 5, 2013
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico, a country suffering the turmoil of a drug war, can’t agree on how to honor the victims of a six-year assault on organized crime that has taken as many as 70,000 lives.
The government’s official monument was dedicated Friday, four months after its completion, in a public event where relatives of the missing chased after the dignitaries in tears, pleading for help in finding their loved ones.
Only some victims’ rights groups recognize the monument, while others picked an entirely different monument to place handkerchiefs painted with names and personal messages in protest of the official site, which does not bear a single victim’s name.
‘‘Other organizations asked us for other space because they’re against this one,’’ Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said at the official dedication of the government monument, which consists of steel panels bearing quotes from famous writers and thinkers. ‘‘What took us so long was trying to get agreement among the groups, and we failed.’’ Read more.
Apr 4, 2013
Illegal Immigration: Cruelty, Xenophobia and U.S. Business (La Jornada, Mexico)
"The criminalization of undocumented migration in the United States and the violations of human rights that accompany it, is a strategy that results in enormous political, economic and corporate profit, the very existence of which contradicts the founding principles of that country."
Editorial
La Jornada
Translated By Halszka Czarnocka
WorldsMeet.us
April 4, 2013
According to official reports divulged by The New York Times, some 300 undocumented migrants a day are subject to solitary confinement in U.S. prisons on orders of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE for short). This happens in spite of the fact that such people have not been jailed for criminal offences, but for civil ones, which under the laws of our neighboring country, don't even merit punishment. Their detentions are a means of ensuring that they appear at administrative hearings. Out of this figure, half, or some 150, are kept in solitary confinement for 75 days or more, which according to psychiatric experts cited by the newspaper, multiplies the risk of severe mental damage for the detainees.
Beyond the intrinsic cruelty of laws currently in force in our neighboring country under which migrants are persecuted - laws that criminalize foreigners for coming to the U.S. in search of work or a better life than what their countries of origin offer - inhumane practices like this one have various contextual elements that must be examined. Read more.
Editorial
La Jornada
Translated By Halszka Czarnocka
WorldsMeet.us
April 4, 2013
According to official reports divulged by The New York Times, some 300 undocumented migrants a day are subject to solitary confinement in U.S. prisons on orders of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE for short). This happens in spite of the fact that such people have not been jailed for criminal offences, but for civil ones, which under the laws of our neighboring country, don't even merit punishment. Their detentions are a means of ensuring that they appear at administrative hearings. Out of this figure, half, or some 150, are kept in solitary confinement for 75 days or more, which according to psychiatric experts cited by the newspaper, multiplies the risk of severe mental damage for the detainees.
Beyond the intrinsic cruelty of laws currently in force in our neighboring country under which migrants are persecuted - laws that criminalize foreigners for coming to the U.S. in search of work or a better life than what their countries of origin offer - inhumane practices like this one have various contextual elements that must be examined. Read more.
Apr 1, 2013
Border Patrol account of deadly Nogales shooting is disputed
I was in Nogales last November. We had a long, tearful talk with José Antonio's grandmother and aunt and saw the place where the boy was shot. There is a small altar there on the sidewalk where the Border Patrol fired some 13 bullets into his body. To do so, they pretty much had to poke the rifle through chinks in the fence and aim at the boy's body. Now a witness says he wasn't even throwing rocks toward the border (not as if that would justify the crime even if he were). The FBI says it's investigation is "on-going". I wrote about José Antonio's death in "A Killing Spree on the Border" and about a similar case earlier in "Lethal Force on the Border."
It's important to maintain attention on the issue so that the question of the use of excessive force by BP agents is finally dealt with and those responsible for these murders are brought to justice.
Arizona Daily Star
by Perla Trevizo
March 30, 2013
NOGALES, Sonora - A Nogales teenager was simply walking down the street and not throwing rocks at U.S. Border Patrol agents the night he was shot and killed, a new witness says, contradicting the agency's initial statement.
Isidro Alvarado, 36, said he was walking less than 20 feet behind José Antonio Elena Rodríguez when two other young men suddenly ran past him and into a side street. He then heard gunshots come from different directions and he saw José fall to the ground.
Alvarado ran south in the same direction as the two men to take cover and call the police, he said earlier this week as he retraced his steps near the DeConcini Port of Entry.
On Oct. 10, 2012, Nogales, Ariz., police and the Border Patrol responded to a 911 call about 11:30 p.m. Officers reported seeing two people with marijuana bundles wrapped around their body on International Street, according to police reports.
They were trying to climb back into Mexico, the report said, when a group started to throw rocks at the officers over the border fence.
When they refused to stop, a Border Patrol agent who was near it opened fire into Mexico, hitting one of them.
Another witness interviewed by Mexican law enforcement said he saw four people running with rocks but didn't specify if José was one of them. Alvarado said he didn't see anyone else running, besides the two young men who apparently had just jumped the border fence, nor did he see José throwing rocks. Read more.
It's important to maintain attention on the issue so that the question of the use of excessive force by BP agents is finally dealt with and those responsible for these murders are brought to justice.
Arizona Daily Star
by Perla Trevizo
March 30, 2013
NOGALES, Sonora - A Nogales teenager was simply walking down the street and not throwing rocks at U.S. Border Patrol agents the night he was shot and killed, a new witness says, contradicting the agency's initial statement.
Isidro Alvarado, 36, said he was walking less than 20 feet behind José Antonio Elena Rodríguez when two other young men suddenly ran past him and into a side street. He then heard gunshots come from different directions and he saw José fall to the ground.
Alvarado ran south in the same direction as the two men to take cover and call the police, he said earlier this week as he retraced his steps near the DeConcini Port of Entry.
On Oct. 10, 2012, Nogales, Ariz., police and the Border Patrol responded to a 911 call about 11:30 p.m. Officers reported seeing two people with marijuana bundles wrapped around their body on International Street, according to police reports.
They were trying to climb back into Mexico, the report said, when a group started to throw rocks at the officers over the border fence.
When they refused to stop, a Border Patrol agent who was near it opened fire into Mexico, hitting one of them.
Another witness interviewed by Mexican law enforcement said he saw four people running with rocks but didn't specify if José was one of them. Alvarado said he didn't see anyone else running, besides the two young men who apparently had just jumped the border fence, nor did he see José throwing rocks. Read more.
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