In the first 14 months of this administration, violence is concentrated in five states:Guerrero, State of México, Chihuahua, Jalisco and Michoacán. Osorio Chong declared a decrease in intentional homicides between 60-67%; 2013, is just as bloody as 2012. Acapulco remains the most violent city, and Monte Alejandro Rubido continues to record “preliminary investigations”, not victims
Mexico City, March 17 (SinEmbargo/ZETA) — In the first 14 months of the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto, 23,640 deaths have been reported. The highest incidents have been centered in Guerrero, State of México, Chihuahua, Jalisco, and Michoacán, as reported by the weekly magazine ZETA.
Although the narrative of the Government of the Republic and propaganda announcing a supposed “decline” in intentional homicides related to federal crimes, deaths have accumulated in the thousands during the first 14 months of the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto, similarly to the presidency of Felipe Calderón Hinojosa.
On February 21, 2014, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, head of the Secretary of the Interior (SEGOB), presumed that in January of this year, the federal government recorded 567 intentional homicides linked to organized crime.
The official noted a decline in executions, since in previous months there occurred “between 1,400 and 1,700 deaths that were related to organized crime; in January there were 567, a thousand less. 567 is serious, but a thousand less, that shows why there is a decline in violence.”
But the figures from the Secretary of the Interior were not based on hard data, or reflect the cruel reality of life in the country.
ZETA documented, only in January 2014, there were 1,425 intentional homicides related to organized crime, which include “executions”, “shootouts”, “homicide-attacks”, and those that are a product of vendettas by narcomenudistas (“stew” makers) who belong to different drug cartels or drug cells throughout the country.
The count made by the weekly baja-californian magazine ZETA is one of the latest to be held in the Mexican press. The printed newspapers of the Federal District, some of which had counts of dead and missing during the administration of Felipe Calderón, have already removed them from their covers.
The Imaginary Percentages
Enrique Peña Nieto began his government on December 1, 2012, with the promise that “in a year” we would start to see the results of the strategy against organized crime, that violence and insecurity would diminish.
Fourteen months later, like during the beginning of the peñista government, the Secretary of the Interior again began to presume, on February 21, 2014, a “decline” in violence:
“The first commitment made by the President, on the 1st of December of 2012, was that violence had to decline. And that violence has decreased to a low term”, announced loudly during the meeting “Governance and Rule of Law as a Development Strategy” organized by the National Chamber of Industry (Canacintra).
The truth is that in the first 14 months in office, what abounds in the peñista speech is a disparity in the percentages of the alleged decline in executions that occur daily in the country. Obviously, the percentages of “reduction” vary according to the opinion of the federal official with the microphone in hand, everyone suggests different averages:
On October 13, 2013, Monte Alejandro Rubido García, executive secretary of Mexico’s National Public Security System (SNSP) presumed in an interview with ZETA a conjecture on the decrease of intentional homicides related to federal crimes to 12%. Also in 2013, the President supposed a decrease in apparent intentional homicides related to federal crimes between 18-20%.
The disparity in the percentages that each federal officer presumes without providing hard data is evidence of a manipulation of statistics or at least a lack of coordination in the supposed percentage of “decrease”.
The Most Violent States
Like in recent federal and state terms of office, ZETA documented intentional homicides related to organized crime in the first 14 months of the government of Enrique Peña Nieto.
As previously reported, it was used as a methodology in confronting official state prosecutors, secretaries of Public Security, and the executive secretary of the National Public Security System, with the information collected by civil organizations, institutes of Forensic Sciences, newspaper records in federal entities and government officials.
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| Ángel Aguirre Rivero |
In the 14 months of the peñista government, from December 1, 2012 to January 31, 2014, the state of Guerrero (governed by Ángel Aguirre Rivero, a PRI member who won the governorship in the PAN-PRD alliance), continues in first place with 2,457 executions.
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| Eruviel Ávila Villegas |
In second place is the State of México, with 2,367 executions. The state of México is the home of Enrique Peña Nieto and was governed by him from 2005 to 2011. The PRI also currently governs the State of México by Eruviel Ávila Villegas.
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| César Duarte Jáquez |
In third place is Chihuahua, with 2,005 executions. Chihuahua is also currently governed by the PRI government by César Duarte Jáquez.
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| Jorge Aristóteles Sandoval Díaz (R) |
The state of Jalisco follows, with 1,766 executions. It is also governed by the PRI government by Jorge Aristóteles Sandoval Díaz.
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| Fausto Vallejo Figueroa |
The state of Michoacán is located in fifth place, with 1,738 executions, with the PRI government of Fausto Vallejo Figueroa.
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| Mario López Valdé |
Meanwhile, Sinaloa, with 1,516 executions, with the PAN/PRD government of Mario López Valdés (former PRI), and Baja California, with 986 executions, with the PAN government of Francisco Vega de Lamadrid.
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| Francisco Vega de Lamadrid |
In total, between December 1, 2012 and January 31, 2014, ZETA recorded 23,640 executions during the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto, a product of the war on organized crime that the federal government sticks with and shootouts between drug cartels throughout the country.
More Blood In 2013
The rate of executions in Mexico has not changed between the last year of the presidency of Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and the first year of Enrique Peña Nieto. In the past two years, executions were maintained at the same level: 20, 571 executions were recorded in 2012 and 20,156 in 2013.
The federal government recognized 21,728 preliminary investigations by intentional homicide in 2012, while in the same year, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) documented 26,037 intentional homicides.
However, the government of Enrique Peña Nieto only recognizes 18,147 preliminary investigations for intentional homicides in 2013.
In the coming months, INEGI will release the actual number of deaths from homicide for 2013. It is expected to exceed the “files” of intentional homicide released by the executive secretary of the National Public Security System.
Tijuana, the Third Most Violent
In the government of Enrique Peña Nieto, the port of Acapulco remains the most violent city in the country, with 883 preliminary investigations for intentional homicide in 2013, according to the Attorney General of the State of Guerrero.
Meanwhile, the Federal District was in second place with 753 “preliminary investigations” for intentional homicide, also in 2013.
Tijuana, the so called “model city” in terms of security from both the government of Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto, is in third place with 564 intentional homicides occurring in 2013. Even throughout the state, ZETA documented 865 executions in the same year.
Tijuana is poised to exceed the number of executions in 2013, taking into account that in the first two months ZETA, recorded 105 executions in only 64 days.
Culiacán took fourth place with 479 “preliminary investigations” by intentional homicide in 2013, while Ciudad Juárez took fifth place with 453 during the same period.
They Count Records, Not Victims
The government of Peña Nieto records “preliminary investigations” and not vicitims; the administration recently announced that in 2013 they recorded 18,147 “preliminary investigations” by intentional homicide.
Therefore, the actual number of victims is far from the number of investigations, since a file can have more than one victim.
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| Monte Alejandro Rubido |
ZETA asked Monte Alejandro Rubido, from the National Security System, when would the format be modified to record homicide victims and not just the number of records, he promised:
“We are talking with each of the prosecutors, because what we need is to have a consistent ability to respond; we cannot have the benefit that some entities may be able to respond in a timely manner, because then we create distortion in the database that is in the Secretariat.”
As far as the second week of March 2014, the executive secretary of the National Public Security System continued recording “preliminary investigations” and not victims.
Most violent cities during the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto in 2013
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| Source: State attorney generals |