Armed vigilantes in southern Mexico report killing 1 in clash with band of suspected criminals

The Washington Post, 2/20/2013

Armed vigilantes in southern Mexico engaged in a shootout Wednesday with a group of men they described as criminals, killing one in what appeared to be the first death related to the month-and-a-half-old “self-defense” movement.

The confrontation near the town of Ayutla raised the stakes in a growing movement that has seen residents of several towns arm themselves with a motley assortment of old hunting rifles, shotguns and pistols while conducting patrols and manning checkpoints to fight crime spawned by drug cartels.

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New Security Website Launched: MéxicoSeguridad.mx

2/7/2013

CASEDE (Colectivo de Análisis de la Seguridad con Democracia) has launched a new website, MéxicoSeguridad.mx, which will feature stories, interviews and special reports on Mexican security and rule of law.

Visit their site to learn more…

 

Mexican Court Orders Release of Frenchwoman

The Wall Street Journal, 1/23/2013

Mexico’s Supreme Court on Wednesday freed a Frenchwoman who had been found guilty of kidnapping and jailed since 2005, arguing that her case was plagued by police abuse, including the staging of her arrest for broadcast on live television.

“The good news is that there is a reform process on the way,” said Eric Olson, Associate Director of the Latin American Program at Washington’s Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars “The Supreme Court is a much more independent actor, and is willing to stand up for basic procedures and guarantees. But there is much more to be done.”

Mr. Olson said the Cassez case highlights the dilemma that all countries face, including the U.S., when they face a violent threat, be it kidnapping or terrorism. “There is an enormous temptation when have such a threat to throw out the rule of law,” he said. “Mexico and any country are better off in the long run strengthening the rule of law.”

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Northcom Pursues Closer Engagement With Mexico

American Forces Press Service, 1/22/2013

With a U.S. defense strategy focused heavily on the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East, officials at U.S. Northern Command here are enthusiastically advancing engagement to the United States’ immediate southern border.

Mexico, which has long focused its military internally, is increasingly receptive to building a closer bilateral relationship with the U.S. military, Army Maj. Gen. Francis G. Mahon, Northcom’s director for strategy, plans and policy, told American Forces Press Service.

“During the past two to three years, as the Mexican army and Mexican navy have taken on a larger role beyond internal security issues, our relationship with them has really grown and expanded through security cooperation,” Mahon said. “They have opened up to us and said, ‘Let’s start working closer and closer together.’”

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In Mexico, Rehearsing to Inject Drama Into the Courtroom

The New York Times, 8/27/12

Four years ago, Mexico’s Congress adopted a legal overhaulthat will enable prosecutors and defense lawyers to present evidence and question witnesses in open court, a practice that already exists in a few states but whose rollout is scheduled to be completed nationwide by 2016.

More open trials, the theory goes, will increase due process and accountability in a country where the much-publicized arrests of cartel bosses are common, but the actual convictions of criminals are not. Fewer than a quarter of crimes in Mexico are reported and over all, just 2 percent result in sentences, according to a 2010 report by the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego.

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Judicial and Police Reforms in Mexico: Essential Building Blocks for a Lawful Society

United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations,  7/12/12

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) today released a staff report entitled, “Judicial and Police Reforms in Mexico:  Essential Building Blocks for a Lawful Society.” The report calls on the incoming Mexican and U.S. Administrations to expand their support for Mexico’s reform of its judicial sector and police as the best means to reduce the high levels of violent crime in Mexico.

The report was compiled by Senate Foreign Relations Committee majority staff at the request of Chairman Kerry and was based on visits to Mexico, an examination of ongoing reforms and U.S. Government policy supporting these reforms.

Download the report: Senate Foreign Relations Mexico 7.12

In Mexico, Indiscriminate Violence Shatters Lives

NPR, 12/29/2010

Jaime Aragon met his wife, Maria Luisa, at a restaurant he used to own. She walked in with wavy, jet black hair, pretty eyes and a radiant smile. Aragon was smitten. They shared a passion for cooking and loved Mexican country star Vicente Fernandez. A few months after they met, the couple married on Valentine’s Day.

“She had a unique smile that brought warmth to everybody, made everyone feel happy and welcome,” Aragon says.

Maria Luisa also was very charitable, and once a month she would visit a struggling family in a poor barrio in Juarez.

“So my wife would get together clothes for them, medicines, food, and we would take them a little bit of money,” he says.

Last year, on Dec. 9, Maria Luisa was picking up medical supplies for that family. She and her pastor drove to a local hospital.

“And so she left him at the door. And when she went and parked, a car drove up and opened fire, and they killed her,” her husband recalls.

She is one of the more than 30,000 people killed in the past four years in Mexico’s war with drug cartels; in 2010 alone, more than 3,000 died. Many of those killed are involved in criminal gangs. But many others, such as Maria Luisa, were not.

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Mexican Pres. Defends Reaction to Jet Ski Slay

CBS News, 11/8/2010

As a memorial service was held in his home state of Colorado for an American said to have been shot and killed by Mexican pirates on a lake on the Mexico-Texas border, Mexico’s president was responding to criticism of his government’s reaction to the slaying.

At the service on Sunday, a Texas lawmaker said the death will be remembered as he fights to secure the border. Texas state Rep. Dan Flynn’s letter to Tiffany Hartley was read during a memorial service for her husband, David Hartley, 30.

His body has never been found. The search by Mexican authorities was suspended after the lead investigator was beheaded in an apparent warning by cartel enforcers.

Hartley’s family criticized the Mexican government in the days after the shooting, claiming they weren’t doing enough to find his killers, or his body, points out CBS News Correspondent Don Teague.

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Federal deputies approve anti-kidnapping law (in Spanish)

El Financiero, 10/7/2010

The Chamber of Deputies approved a law to fight kidnappings, establishing up to 70 years of prison for those convicted of the crime, by a vote of 353 in favor, four against, and eight abstentions.

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With armor, microchips, Mexicans gird for `days of terror’

Miami Herald, 2/6/2009

Mexico’s widespread drug-related crimes and soaring kidnapping rate have severely eroded citizens’ trust in the government’s capacity to deal with the country’s growing violence.

The country is currently classified by international groups as the riskiest Latin American country for kidnappings. Things have gotten so bad that some are asking Mexican lawmakers to consider reinstating the death penalty.

In an effort to keep safe, many citizens who can afford it have invested an estimated $18 billion in private security measures, according to a 2008 report from the Center for Economic Studies.

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