Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Chihuahua attorney general admits "grave" security problem in southern Chihuahua


By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

In what amounts to be the most frank discussion of a state official in Mexico's six year war on the cartels, last week Chihuahua state attorney general told Mexican press that the area in southern Chihuahua has a "grave problem" in security, according to Mexican news accounts.

The report which appeared in an online edition of El Norte Digital, Carlos Manuel Salas, Fiscalia General del Estado (FGE) said that the problem with crime in southern Chihuahua state particularly around Guadalupe y Calvo municipality is compounded by the lack of state and municipal police personnel.

According to the report, Salas said the the dramatic reduction in murders in Chihuahua state has been realized in Ciudad Juarez and in Chihuahua, the state capital, which he said was because of state efforts in those areas to reduce violent crime.

"It is not a pretext," Salas was quoted as saying.  "The territory (in Guadalupe y Calvo) is vast, we continue to work and the help of the army is more intense."  He also said that more police are being appointed and that cooperation with the military is increasing.

But Guadalupe y Calvo municipality is not the only southern and western municipality affected by violent drug related crime.

A column which appeared Saturday in the online edition of El Diario de Juarez news daily by Javier Flores Luis Valero, quoted a count provided by Reforma news daily that 40 people have been executed in the last 60 days in several remote mountain communities in the sierras of Chihuahua, including Guadalupe y Calvo, Madera, Balleza, Bocoyna and Moris in just the past two months.  Those  municipalities compose the Chihuahua state part of La Triangulo Dorada or Golden Triagle.  The communities are also part of the area called La Tarahumara, after an Indian tribe which resides in the area, colloquially known as the Raramuris.

According to the same report, data compiled by staff of El Diario de Juarez indicated that the murder rate statewide is about two per day, which is well above the average in 2007, when then Mexican president Feilipe Calderon Hinojosa began to use his military against the drug cartels.  According to the report murder statistics are on track to rival the 755 murders in 2012, the high water mark for violence in Chihuahua state.

The report dismisses the government's claim that federal and state efforts have been instrumental in the documented reduction of violent, but the report claims the reduction is more likely fighting between criminal gangs have shifted from the cities where the most noticed reductions have taken place to ares such as La Tarahumara.

Another disturbing long term trend has been noted as well.  According to Jose Antonio Ortega, president of the Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad Pública y la Justicia Pena or Citizen's Council for Public Security and Penal Justice, compounding the problem of violence has been impunity, or the lack of criminal convictions for the crime of murder.

A separate news item which appeared in El Diario de Chihuahua news daily last December said that the conviction rates for murder in Mexico nationwide in 2012 are the second lowest since 1997, and has been declining since 2007.  Specifically in Chihuahua state, in 2005, 326 were convicted for murder, while in 2012 145 were convicted and in 2011, 199.

The state government of Chihuahua is under increased pressure from residents in La Tarahumara. According to a news account which appeared in the online edition of Yancuic.com, a letter sent to governor Cesar Duarte Jaquez last July 6th has criticized the state government for "shouting from the rooftops" about the reduction in violent crime, while violence has been increasing in the area.

The letter was signed by 100 residents of the region including a sectional president of Creel in Bocoyna municipality, Salvador Bustillos, and Javier Avila, a Jesuit priest who is part of a human rights group in the area, Comision de Solidaridad y Defensa de los Derechos Humanos, AC.

The letter says that residents of the region have complained repeatedly to authorities about murder, kidnapping and assaults only to be greeted with more murders, kidnappings and assaults.  Another problem in the region, as with Guadalupe y Calvo municipality, is the constant existence of checkpoints operated by criminal groups which rob residents in the area on pain of having their children assault or raped.

What is most astonishing about the charges against the government is that the Mexican Army maintains at least one permanent infantry company base in Creel municipality.

The authors complained in the letter that government officials have little problem in coming to the area to boast projects, but have failed to have a dialogue with constituents about security issues.

Governor Duarte for his part, has dismissed charges of increased violence in La Tarahumara, and has apparently failed to address concerns in the letter.  He said the letter was a " political manipulation of reality".  He said the violence in the region not as bad as in Michocacan state. 

In Michoacan state, by all press reports, the Mexican government has claimed to have 6,000 federal security effectives in the region. However, that number is dwarfed considerably by the number report only a little over a year ago where then Mexican president Felipe Calderon had maintained some 8,000 federal security effectives in the region.

Since the Mexican federal government maintains an effective clamp on drug war news, it is impossible to say if the 6,000 troops are the total in the state after a February, 2013 promise to sent about 1,000 troops to the area or in augmentation to that number.

In his inauguration speech three years ago Governor Duarte pledged a crackdown on crime to include life sentences for kidnapping.

Despite the current claims of additional federal security, violence in the Michoacan has skyrocketed.  Violence in Chihuahua state has also become grave enough that Duarte's Fiscalia had to respond.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com  He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com 

15 comments:

  1. No shit attorney general. Im in America and i can tell you that place is completely fucked. The only force that can stem the tide is the mexican marines

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yup I agree with this guy..I could of told u that too.
      So u mean to tell me more cops and soldiers would reduce the violence and deaths? Whoaaaa that's unheard of. no wonder why he's the General of the state..

      Delete
  2. July 28, 2013 at 11:09 PM

    You're wrong. The soldiers move in kill some of La Linea people for chapo, because the sinaloa pussies cant do it (& Never will). Then La Linea will withdraw a bit & patiently wait & wait & wait out the soldiers, they have that ability, La Linea are mostly Chihuahuenses & big surprise, they live in Chihuahua. When sinaloas papi leaves, La Linea will come out of the shadows & fuck the sinaloa pussies yet again.

    They wont take Chiwas. Que chingen a toda su puta madre los de sinaloa y gn traidores. Puro Chihuahua!!

    Ciudadano Chihuahuense.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Eres tejano y vives agusto en tejas no te hagas el ciudadano consternado no tienes ni idea lo que esta pasando por esos rumbos solo la gente que vive por alla es la que realmente vive por esas situaciones

      Delete
  3. Credit has to be given where credit is due. The appointment of Julian Leyzaola as Ciudad Juarez, where most of the violence came from in Chihuahua in recent years, police chief has done a lot to reduce the violence. It's no coincidence that violence has decreased. Municipal police are armed with automatic rifles giving them a fighting chance to fend off criminals. If they can just allow the citizens of Juarez to own arms, Juarez would become the safest city in Mexico.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Really julian lezeoya, you obviously dont know anything about juarez. Julian was brought in by chapo to help fight juarez cartel because chapos people couldnt do it. And mind you chapo started the war in juarez. Things were really good before he got there. Aztecas still are in control of cd juarez and la linea is taking care of chapo down south.

    ReplyDelete
  5. @July 28, 2013 at 11:09 PM

    Who are you trying to fool with your bullshit... I'm from Madera Chihuahua and I can tell you that La Linea are a bunch of hoodlum pieces of crap that extort, kidnap, and steal to survive. Most of the ppl working for Chapo here in Chihuas are from Chihuahua, it has to be this way, how else can you take over a turf if you send a bunch of outsiders that don't know the terrain, you dumbass. La Linea is over and done with, who are you kidding? Just quit hating on Chapo for helping us (the uninvolved citizens of Chihuahua) clean up our state from these lacras.. I'm not a cheerleader for anyone but at least el Chapo doesnt' harm innocent ppl regardless of what you try to preach...
    Y PURO CHIHUAHUA!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lolol actually you are a cheerleader u piece of shit!!! U just cheered for Chapo !!!! Fuck him have u forgot he was the reason there was a war in the first place!??!?! Shut the fuck up

      Delete
    2. Wow how much did u charge Chapo to be a bb troll and comment all this propaganda for him haahaha i bet it was cheap u really are an idiot

      Delete
    3. 10:34 IF YOU LIVE IN A GLASS HOUSE YOU SHOULDN'T THROW STONES.... yoy don't cheer for no one yet you're cheering for Chapo.. You my friend are ESTUPIT...

      Delete
  6. Linea pussies are done look at the way they run their business extorting kidnapping preying the weak. Hell yeah I'll chear for Sinaloa to take over. Lesser of to evils fuck the z-blo-aztecas they're basically all piece of shit zetas anyway. Keep hoping ur homo JL is coming back he got off way to easy. He the cause cds decided to take over Chihuahua.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Para toda la bola de putos ke. Creen ke. El chaputo controla chiuas estan pero. Bien pendejos por ke ese enano naranjero no controla ni su estado mucho menos el estado grande donde rifa la linea.
    Atte... la linea

    ReplyDelete
  8. Please someone remove this guy who does nt even live in chihuahua. All u r is a newspaper and internet reader cheer leading on the sidelines. Chapos people do kill innocents. Look at the people in the valley of juarez. They were throwing people out of there own homes and killing innocent people. Chapo started this shit all over mexico.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Pues aunque se enojen por lo ke dijo el compa...
    Pero aqui en Guachochi la gente del CDS siempre a trabajado y nunca hubo nada de problemas con la gente del pueblo hasta ke los cholillos mugrosos de los linieros se metieron a cagar el palo con sus narco-retenes. Yo no apoyo a nadie pero la verdad es que el chapo es el que menos caga el palo aqui en chihuahua, le pese a quien le pese es la verdad... Desde que se empeso a mentar esa Linea del bikini empeso todo el desmadre en Juarez y en la sierra... para que nos hacemos pendejos, gente de sinaloa siempre a venido a chihuahua a trabajar derecho y chueco por decadas y hasta ahora se hace el desmadre!!
    Son una bola de ardidos que no aceptan que el chapo ya gano el estado grande, y ke la linea nomas existe pa chingar al pueblo porke a la gente nueva no le hacen ni cosquillas.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I would rather hear peoples opinions who actually live in these areas Chihuahua etc,this shit between Mexicans not us shouting shit from a keyboard,but it is hard to believe who is right and who is wrong?All cartels are bad and do shady shit,but which one is the lesser of evils?Which one would basically leave people alone who were not involved?Would any of them?

    ReplyDelete

Comments are moderated, refer to policy for more information.
Envía fotos, vídeos, notas, enlaces o información
Todo 100% Anónimo;

borderlandbeat@gmail.com