Public Security News from Mexico

07/15/11
Claire O'Neill McCleskey
Latin America and the Caribbean
Security, Violence

Chihuahua

  • 3 young people were gunned down in Chihuahua by a gang of unidentified armed men. The city is currently hosting the National Convention on Public Security (CONAGO). The 19 participating governors are ensconced in the Governor's Palace, which has been converted into a "bunker" for the duration of the event.
  • 21 people were killed in Ciudad Juarez on Tuesday, July 12, making it the city's deadliest day on record this year. Juarez is trapped in an ongoing battle between the Jaurez and the Sinaloa cartels for control of the entrypoint into the U.S. market for drugs.
  • Four men were convicted in the January 2010 massacre of 15 young people at a birthday party in Ciudad Juarez. The attack horrified the nation and sparked a national outcry when President Calderon referred to the slain teenagers as cartel members. Prosecutors are seeking sentences of more than 100 years for each convicted man.

Distrito Federal

  • Federal police detained four men in connection with the murder of the son of poet and civil society leader Javier Sicilia. The federal prosecutor's office reported that they are now holding 23 suspects in the abduction and murder of 7 young people at a bar in Cuernavaca.
  • Federal police also captured U.S.-born Armando Villareal Heredia, member of the Tijuana cartel who is wanted on both sides of the border for drug trafficking, kidnapping, murder, racketeering, and other crimes. The U.S. Department of Justice confirmed Villareal's U.S. citizenship, but declined to comment on the possibility of an extradition request.

Entire Country

  • Mexican NGO the Council for Law and Human Rights (CLDH) reported that 45 people are kidnapped every day in Mexico. This rate is up from last year's average of 37 per day. CLDH also reported that even as kidnapping gets worse in Mexico, Mexicans are increasingly unlikely to file an official complaint with the police. In 2008 2 out of every 10 kidnappings were reported to the police, but in 2011 only 1 out of 10 abductions resulted in the filing of an official complaint.

Michoacan

  • Federal police captured the Knights Templar gang's top hitman, Javier Beltran Arco. Beltran, known as "El Chivo," allegedly oversaw murders for the cult-like meth-trafficking cartel.

Nuevo Leon

  • The armed forces arrested a man suspected of participating in the 2010 killing of Edelmiro Cavazo Leal, the Mayor of Santiago.
  • Soldiers freed 20 kidnapping victims in Monterrey. The hostages reported that they had been held for over a week and asked to pay up to $50,000 pesos in ransom.
  • 41 police from the municipalities of Zuazua and Pesqueria are being investigated for ties with organized crime and in connection with various kidnappings and homicides.
  • 11 people were killed in a series of incidents on Tuesday, July 12 in Monterrey. Narcoviolence has claimed the lives of more than 900 people this year alone in Mexico's second richest city. The violence is the result of an ongoing territorial dispute between the Gulf Cartel and their former enforcers the Zetas.

This post was written by CIP Intern Claire O'Neill McCleskey