Enrique Peña Nieto Boasts about Decline in Homicides......

Even though Zeta Weekly on August 24 provided their Government Report to EPN

ana.langner @ eleconomista.mx 

wrote since President Enrique Penã took office in December 2012, he has stressed his priority eliminating crimes that most affect citizens, but violent crimes such as kidnapping and extortion increased in the first quarter of 2013, said Maureen Meyer, senior coordinator of Central America Program of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). The researcher of this American organization explains that the Mexican government's strategy regarding communication on the problem of organized crime in the country has been silent on strategies to combat and focus the discourse on economic growth. Despite this, he warns, violence remains at levels "unacceptably high."

After reaching a peak of about 68 murders per day in 2011, the homicide rate dropped in 2012 to about 50 murders a day. This trend has continued throughout the first quarter of the administration of Peña Nieto.

Meanwhile, Meyer refers, the Mexican government claims a 17% reduction of murders related to organized crime (intentional homicide) in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the previous quarter and a decrease of 14% compared to the first quarter of 2012.

This would be a very significant reduction, however, the overall death rate dropped to a much slower rate: 8.5% from the previous quarter and 7.8% over the same quarter of 2012. Therefore, the WOLA analyst concludes that it is likely that the government has applied different criteria to determine which murders are classified as "related to organized crime."

He explained also that although violent robberies have declined in recent years, the rate of kidnappings and extortion increased in the first quarter of 2013, "both are in near-record levels."

The public debate on violence in Mexico has changed dramatically in the last year, said Maureen Meyer. The media coverage of Mexico in the United States has focused on the economy and has clearly been more positive.

In Mexico, the coverage of violence and organized crime has dropped dramatically and the terms "organized crime" and "drug trafficking" appear much less frequently in the main media.

But the lack of information on government actions to combat organized crime causes lack media to report official data on crime and as a result, people tend to rely more on social channels to get information about situations violence in their communities.

A week before the state of the Union address, Peña Nieto began warming up public with a little boasting about the  decline in homicides.

In the State of the Union Address, President Enrique Peña Nieto said there had been a 13.7 percent drop in the murder rate between January and August of 2013 compared to the same period the year before. He attributed this to improved coordination between different law enforcement agencies.

Murders linked to organized crime had dropped 20 percent, he said, highlighting even greater drops in some of Mexico's most violent states -- Tamaulipas (36.2 percent), Chihuahua (37.2 percent) and Nuevo Leon (46.5 percent), reported El Diario.

The most recent report from the government's National System of Public Security revealed there had been a total of 12,595 recorded murders since Peña Nieto took office, reported Animal Politico. The report also recorded the seizure of more than 80 tons of drugs, mostly marijuana and cocaine, alongside approximately $4 million in cash and 982 weapons.

InSight Crime Analysis

While undoubtedly a good thing that less Mexicans were murdered in the first half of 2013 than 2012, the unfortunate fact remains that Mexico's murder rate is still extremely high. Even if Peña Nieto's administration succeeds in cutting the murder rate in half, by the time the mid-term elections come around more than 20,000 people will have been killed under his presidency.

Criminal violence has tended to show a gradual downward spiral in recent years, but progress is very slowindeed. Different government figures often contradict each other, making it impossible to know what is accurate, and the categorization of murders according to whether they are related to organized crime or not is problematic, again making the information hard to trust.

Meanwhile, almost all murders go unsolved, which points to the major reforms required in the judicial and security forces if truly tangible improvements in citizen safety are ever to be achieved.


Mexico City, August 24

After eight months in office, Enrique Peña Nieto recieved his First Government Report with a tally of 13,775 executions,  according to research provided by Zeta Weekly in Tijuana.  The report shows the states of Guererro, Chihuahua, and Edomex are the most violent.

The decapitated, dismembered, hung, trunked, unearthed in narco-graves, as well as those persons executed by coup de grace, killed in clashes between the various drug cartels and police elements, have been a topic of everyday life, even despite the federal strategy of not reporting them.

In early March 2013, when Peña Nieto completed 100 days heading up his administration. The government decided as a strategy to try "silence" on security matters related to violence. The "peñista" padlock on information included reports by state police, ministerial, municipal, Army, Navy, Federal Police, Attorney General's Office in all states. the weekly said that "to document the tally of 13,775 executions, they used information as the methodology from all government bodies, including the meager reports of the Executive Secretariat, the Attorney General's Office (PGR) and the Federal Institute for Access of Information and Data Protection (IFAI). Official information was contrasted directly by Forensic Medical Services.   Information was included from Forensic institutes in various cities and states, their officials provided this reliable wording and documentation, subject to anonymity.  Information was gathered from civil associations and even local newspapers in some states, which incidentally and fortunately, more and more people have been given to the task of recording the daily intentional homicides and executions in their localities." 

The 7,128 intentional homicides related to federal crimes committed between December 1, 2012 and June 30, 2013, recorded by the government of Enrique Peña Nieto, are far from the reality in Mexico, according to Zeta, which "conducted a thorough update on the number of homicides related to organized crime and intentional homicide including 'Executions', 'Confrontational Clashes', 'Violent Assault related', those violent deaths that result from a settling of accounts between drug dealers from various cells (narco-menunudistas) within the criminal structures of the drug cartels." The conclusion was that the hard data documented by the Zeta weekly shows that "peñista" government during the  the eight month period, between December 1, 2012 and July 31, 2013, had at least 13,775 organized crime-related executions taking place in the country of Mexico. 

During the presidency of Felipe Calderon, Chihuahua was the most violent entity; whereas so far during the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto, the State of Guerrero stands as the federal entity with more executions recorded in the first eight months of federal administration, with a 1,441 deaths linked to organized crime. The state of Guerrero is governed by Ángel Aguirre Rivero, former "PRIsta" who won the governorship in the PAN-PRD alliance. And when it seemed that executions decreased in Chihuahua, during the early "peñista" administration,  this northern entity also governed by PRIsta, César Duarte,  and ranked second place, with 1,277 intentional homicides linked to organized crime. 

Among the top five most violent states, Zeta weekly found that the State of Mexico,  with 1, 217 murders is in third place, also ruled by the PRI, Eruviel Avila.  

The fourth slot is occupied by Jalisco, ruled once again by the PRI, Aristoteles Sandoval Díaz, and had 1,094 executions. 

And the fifth place is taken by Sinaloa, governed by a PRIsta, Mario Lopez Valdez, who contended for the PAN, with 924 executions. 

Evidently, Guerrero is the most violent state in the first eight months of government of Enrique Peña Nieto, with 1,441 executions. 

The entity Guerrero ranked third place in terms of executions, with 7, 313, during the six year administration of Felipe Calderon. 

The State of Chihuahua, ranked first in executions, with 16,456 during the Calderon administration, and the executions decreased only when Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman controlled the Chihuahuan plaza. 
Today the state of Guerrero is on that peak formerly occupied Chihuahua, where various cartels are fighting for the plaza.

According to the PGR, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is fighting for the Guerrero plaza, where numerous criminal organizations are also present as La Barredora, El Comando del Diablo, Guerrero Unido aka La Nueva Empresa; “El Indio”, La Oficina, Cártel Independiente de Acapulco, “El Güero Guetamo,” Los Pelones, Los Marquina, “El Rey”, Santa Ríos Bahena, Iguana; “El Pelos”, “El Mudo”, Irving Eduardo Solano Vera, Los Granados, Los Rojos, Nuevo Cártel de la Sierra, Los Zafiros, “El Tigre”, Los Ardillos, Cártel del Golfo, Los Zetas, Beltrán Leyva y La Familia.

THE MOST VIOLENT CITIES

The Calderón government  turned Juarez into the bloodiest city, meanwhile, during the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto's  administration the port of Acapulco is already the bloodiest city.

And although Acapulco closed 2012 with1,700 intentional homicides, according to SEGOB-in the first eight months of government of Enrique Peña Nieto, the port (with its 818,853 inhabitants) is the city of the most voluntary manslaughter, with 625 occurring between the December 1, 2012 and July 31, 2013, according to the Mexico's Secretary of the Interior, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong.

In second place is Mexico City, (with 8,851, 080 inhabitants) and in the first eight months of the year, Federal Government registered  521 executions. 

In third place is Tijuana, (with only 1,619, 282 inhabitants), recorded between December 1, 2012 and July 31, 2013, 389 executions.

Meanwhile, Culiacan (with 884, 601 inhabitants) came in fourth place, with 334 executions. And Ciudad Juarez ( with one million 1,339, 648 inhabitants) remained among the most violent cities, with 295 executions, between last December and July. 

MICHOACÅN, STATE OF "ACCIDENTS"

Despite the shootings, taking entire villages, clashes between drug traffickers, fights between them and federal police, who every day are in Michoacan, according to national statistics, Michoacán ranks # 10 on the chart of violence, with 560 executions during the first eight months of Enrique Peña Nieto term as president. The reason: Michoacan is the state with the most "accidents in the country."

According to the Interior Ministry, the state leads the homicide statistics, with 6,470  between 1 of January and the 31 of 2013, of which 1,610 thousand remain classified as "manslaughter" and 486 as "voluntary manslaughter."

A wrongful death "are those for which a person is killed in an accident," said Eduardo Sanchez, spokesman for the Government of the Republic. 

Amidst the cartel war, there is no federal entity that exceeds Michoacán in "accidents". Moreover, in Mexico City, with  8,851 080 inhabitants according to the National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics (INEGI), the Interior Ministry reported 390 "wrongful death". 

In fact, the State of Mexico, which has 15,175, 862 inhabitants according to the INEGI 2010, the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System reports 1,005 cases of manslaughter in the first seven months of 2013. 

And in Michoacan, with fewer inhabitants (4, 351,037, according to the INEGI 2010), there are an abundance of "accidents": 1,161 surpassing all states of the country. 

These "accidents" in Michoacan come amid the plaza war Purepecha,  between criminal organizations where precisely according to the PGR, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, through the so-called Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, pelea la plaza contra the self-appointed“Caballeros Templarios”, La Familia, Cártel del Golfo, Los Zetas y Cártel del Milenio.

International el pais,economista, International el pais, Universal, InSight Crime, SDPnoticias, SinEmbargo,proceso,