Mexican police free 92 migrants held near U.S. border

Reuters: Mexican police freed 92 migrants from a safe house in the city of Reynosa on Mexico's northeastern border with the United States, the government said on Monday.

Federal police arrested three suspected gang members during the raid on the building where the migrants, hailing from Cuba, Brazil, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, were being held, the National Security Commission said in a statement. Read more. 

Borderland Beat: Mexico questions travel alert issued by U.S.-cites EPN's "impressive results"

Borderland Beat: Mexico's government,  questioned the travel alert issued by the United States in which it cites warnings  of the risk of violence prevailing in 19 states.  Mexico's position is that  the information must be contextualized and detailed to be useful to US countrymen.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) pointed out that the security strategy of President Enrique Peña Nieto has achieved "impressive results", as reflected in the reduction of 22 percent in the number of incidents of kidnapping, compared to last year. Read more. 

'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.

Living in Mexico with Virtual Kidnappings

BorderlandBeat, Saturday, October 6, 2012

The fright caused by the deprivation of liberty without asking for ransom favors telephone extortion

The psychosis that has provoked in the collective unconscious the phenomenon of kidnapping,  the kind that doesn't usually ask for ransom since the goal is homicide, is being used as an instrument of blackmail by the extortionists that have found home and cellular telephones are the best weapon to terrorize the population and obligate their victims to pay for a lie.  Riodoce gathered ten stories that warn of  the method in the performance of this crime in Sinaloa. Read more.

Migrant Kidnappings by Criminal Organizations 'Systematic' in Mexico

InSight Crime: The kidnapping of migrants who travel through Mexico on their way to the United States has become a “systematic and generalized” practice by organized crime groups such as the Zetas, who demand ransom payments from families or recruit them into their ranks, according to a new report.

In the report titled “Notebook on the Kidnapping of Migrants: Dimensions, Context and Testimonies” Central American migrants from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador who escaped or were released from their kidnapping recount the torture, rape and inhumane treatment they received at the hands of the Zetas. read more

Kidnapping Can Be a Family Affair in Mexico's Drug War

PBS News Hour: RAY SUAREZ: For more on all of this, we turn to Alejandro Junco, president and CEO of Grupo Reforma, which is one of the largest print media operations in Latin America, including newspapers in three of Mexico's biggest cities. His office is in the hometown of Monterrey, site of the latest gruesome killings.

And, at this hour, Mr. Junco, do authorities have any more idea who the four dozen victims are and why they were killed?

ALEJANDRO JUNCO, President and CEO, Grupo Reforma: Well, I guess part of the strategy of dismembering the bodies has to do with making it difficult for the identification.

And they probably have succeeded, at least for the short term. So the identity, to this hour, it is not known, but it probably will over time. watch the report here

Mexico Crime: Spike in Mexican Kidnappings in 2011

InSight Crime: "Mexico suffered an average of 49 kidnappings a day during 2011 according to the NGO Consejo para la Ley y los Derechos Humanos (CLDH), an increase of 32 percent over the previous year.

... The CLDH report also highlighted the increasing sophistication of some of the Mexican kidnapping gangs, which conduct negotiations and ransom payments outside the country to hinder detection and tracking by law enforcement. The NGO also insisted that corrupt elements of the security forces are often involved in abductions and that their role is increasing." read more

U.S. - Mexico Relations: Congress Calls for Strengthening of Fight Against Transnational Organized Crime Groups

More of the same--only more so.

Mexico Institute: "To Read House Testimony By Andrew Selee of the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute, click..."  read more 

Kidnapping: Missing In Mexico

Foreign Policy: Missing In Mexico : NPR: "Recently, a research institute here announced that Mexico suffers from the second-highest kidnapping rate of any country in the world — three times higher than Colombia's during its darkest period of drug violence and second only to Venezuela. ... beyond the stark headline of the country's ranking, the study provides some insight into the skyrocketing rates of violence that have accompanied President Felipe Calderon's war on drugs, and the security forces' impotence — or worse, complicity — which has allowed the violence to escalate.

The study, published by the Citizens' Institute for the Study of Insecurity and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, shows that Luis Angel and his six companions are just a tiny percentage of those missing. The report estimates that 50,000 people were kidnapped in 2008, and numbers are up since then (though no more recent statistics are available). The more startling findings, however, may be the numbers on the Mexican government's ability to investigate and solve kidnapping cases. Between 2007 and 2010, according to the report, the Mexican government initiated 1,880 investigations into kidnapping. However, it actively pursued only 23 percent of those."

Collateral Damage: Mexican teens turn to kidnapping in Ciudad Juarez

¡Ya Basta! No more!

Mexican teens turn to kidnapping in drug war city | Top News | Reuters: "School dropout Toby was just 15 when he and his friends started kidnapping businessmen, truck drivers and lawyers for ransom in Mexico's most violent city, Ciudad Juarez. Now serving an eight-year sentence at a juvenile detention center, Toby looks anything but a gangster, with his slim build and neat hair. He has no tattoos or scars. But as a worsening drug war hits the economy of this forlorn desert city, even teenagers from law-abiding families are being drawn into crime by the lure of cash and cool clothes."

Mexico's Gold Medal in Kidnappings

The Dutch NGO IKV Pax Christi has come out with a report that Mexico now leads the world in kidnappings, beating out competition from Colombia, which once topped the list, and even Iraq.

In response to some high profile kidnappings recently (especially that of Fernando Marti) there are marches for "security" being organized in Mexico City. The organizers have called for the dealth penalty for kidnappers, which would require modifiying Mexico's long term stance against capital punishment.

The danger of this reaction to the situation, explained Emilio Alvarez Icaza, at a panel organized by the Fundación Heinrich Boell last week, is that "A crisis is the absolute worst time to legislate. Mexico signed two agreements specifically against the death penalty just last year."

Hopefully this knee jerk reaction to the situation, which clearly needs a more comprehensive solution than just radical legislation, won't prevail.

El Universal article: http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/161690.html