A report on bribery practices in Mexico released by the non-profit association TRACE International has found that authorities account for 85 percent of the country’s reported bribery demands – with Mexican police officers the most frequent offenders.
Official corruption is suspected behind a major jailbreak near the northeastern border city of Matamoros. The 41 inmates simply walked through the front doors of the high-security prison to waiting vehicles. Most were in prison for federal crimes. Two guards disappeared along with the inmates. The prison’s director has been fired and all 200 staffers are under investigation.
Most of the escaped inmates allegedly have ties to organized crime. Their jailbreak comes at a time when the Gulf Cartel is said to be battling its former enforcement wing, The Zetas, for control of valuable drug trafficking territory in northeastern Mexico. The warfare has included heavy intimidation of the press in the region, resulting in very little on-the-ground coverage outside of posts on social networking sites.
North of the border, the Department of Justice says that Mexican cartel activity has expanded to every region of the US and the tonnage of drugs trafficked has increased despite a 1.4 billion dollar military aid package aimed at reducing supply.
Tags: corruption, narco, press freedom
Headlines from Tuesday’s high-level security summit emphasize the announcement of a more social approach to the issues at the root of Mexico’s Drug violence.
That may sound like good news to a public that has grown weary of the military strategy that has claimed 18,000 Mexican lives in the past 3 years, but the announcement was short on specifics on just how this new social strategy will be carried out. Also without concrete details was the US promise to try to curb demand at home – the world’s most lucrative drug market.
Other new bi-national initiatives will include the sharing of information on convicted criminals deported to Mexico, tougher penalties for people traveling with forged documents, and a joint security program for the violent border metropolis of Ciudad Juárez. Both countries also agreed to tackle the flow of arms and laundered money from the US into Mexico.
Financing for the plan comes from the 1.4 billion dollar Mérida Initiative – a military spending program similar to Plan Colombia.
Tags: Drug War, Mexico
Six Mexican farmers opposed to the construction of a dam were gunned down over the weekend on their way home from a protest.
The victims belonged to a movement of small farmers displaced by the Picachos Dam project in the state of Sinaloa. They had marched to the state capital, erected a protest encampment inside the state legislature and were on their way home when their pickup truck was riddled with bullets. All six passengers were killed.
According to police, the farmers’ pickup got caught in the crossfire of a shootout between two convoys of criminals. Three other bodies were also found along the highway murder scene.
The farmers’ movement has been carrying out a series of protests for more than a year now, demanding the government pay a fair price for their expropriated land. They have faced evictions, beatings, tear gassings, and arrests by state and federal police.
Some of those displaced by the Picachos Dam marched through the state capital of Culiacán yesterday, accusing the state government of having a hand in the murders.
Tags: Dam, Mexico, Picachos, Sinaloa
Two political opposition figures were targeted in separate attacks this week as election season here shifts into full gear. In the first incident, Sotico López Quiroz, a municipal-level leader of the center-left PRD party, was shot dead during an ambush as he traveled home from a late night meeting in the Oaxacan coastal town of San Andrés Huaxpaltepec.
Four parties from the political left and right have formed an alliance in Oaxaca to challenge the PRI, a party that has dominated state politics for 8 consecutive decades. This hegemony was a frequent complaint among protesters in the social uprising that gripped the state for much of 2006.
In the neighboring state of Veracruz, a mayoral pre-candidate from the opposition PRD party is in critical condition. Unidentified gunmen opened fire against him and a local PRD organizer Tuesday night. Martín Aburto López reportedly received an anonymous death threat last week warning him to step out of the race.
Voters in both states head to the polls on July 4th.
Tags: Elections, electoral violence, Oaxaca, Veracruz
Drug violence swept through Mexico’s Pacific Coast state of Guerrero this weekend, killing at least 45 people – more than 30 in the beach resort town of Acapulco. Among the dead are policemen killed in drive-by shootings, suspected members of the drug trade targeted by assassins or killed in a gun battle with soldiers, and at least one civilian hit by a stray bullet.
While there’s no official explanation for the surge in violence in Guerrero, widely circulated rumors tell of a new alliance among 3 powerful cartels to eliminate another.
Weekends with double digit death tolls are usually only seen in Ciudad Juarez. The northern border city located across from El Paso, Texas was also the site of violence this weekend. Among the dead are 3 people connected to the US consulate in Juarez.
They were shot in front of their children in two separate attacks after leaving a child’s birthday party. Two of the children were injured. The State Department has since authorized consular employees in 6 border cities to move their families to the US.
Tags: Drug War, Mexico
