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Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Report: Sinaloa Has Two Disappearances for Every Murder

"Morogris" for Borderland Beat

Disclaimer: This is a translated opinion report written by Adrián López Ortiz, a reporter from the Sinaloa-based newspaper Noroeste. The data was provided by the government and the opinions expressed in this text belong solely to the author. 

Homicide rates in red; Disappearances in blue

For several months, authorities, businessmen and journalists in Sinaloa have praised the decreasing homicide rates in the state.

February closed with 55 homicides (a 1.89 daily homicide average). It had been a long time since Sinaloa reached below the 2.0 daily average. So far this year, Sinaloa has a median of 2.02 homicides per day. If these rates continue, Sinaloa could reach a homicide rate of 24.85 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2020.

This would be the lowest rate since 2007, just before the split between the Beltrán Leyva and the Sinaloa Cartel, when 15.22 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants were registered. But these low homicide rates are not good reasons to celebrate yet. Disappearances are on the rise and authorities are doing very little to address them.

Are these numbers to say that we are reaching peace? No. Or rather, not yet. Here's why.

Short answer: Insufficient number of police officers and high impunity rates.

Long answer: We still do not have concrete evidence that the low homicide rates are directly tied to improvements in security and justice. Two indispensable characteristics are needed to create a peaceful society: (1) a sufficient and trained police force; and (2) a strong rule of law that translates into low impunity rates, especially for high-impact crimes such as homicide.

Sinaloa does not have either of these. The state has 6,243 operational police officers and at least 4,000 more police officers are needed to meet the standard required by the United Nations (UN) of 300 police officers per 100,000 inhabitants. While the state police force has grown by 18.8 percent during the governorship of Quirino Ordaz Coppel, he has bet for the easier path: militarization. Ordaz Coppel requested the federal government to bring in more military troops, including the National Guard (GN). The problem with this strategy is that neither the GN nor the military are under state command and at any time they can be re-purposed, which leaves Sinaloa defenseless.

In addition, according to the "Rule of Law Index 2019-2020" of the World Justice Project, Sinaloa occupied the 11th position nationwide with a score of 0.42, above the average of 0.39. The indicators where Sinaloa scored the highest compared to the rest of the 32 states in Mexico were Criminal Justice (3/32), Civil Justice (7/32) and Open Government (7/32). It scored poorly in fundamental rights (21/32) and Order and Security (16/32). The progress from the previous year was poor, too. Sinaloa only improved 0.01 overall.

But the most serious factor in Sinaloa is the high impunity rate. We currently do not have official figures to know the impunity rates in the state. In a 2018 report done by non-profit organization México Evalúa, Sinaloa authorities did not provide them with the total number of criminal cases solved or in process. But there is also no reason to think that Sinaloa's situation is drastically different from the rest of the country, which has a 96.1 percent impunity rate for criminal cases.

There are more numbers that explain Sinaloa's precarious law enforcement situation. Sinaloa has 2.6 public prosecutor agencies per 100,000 inhabitants, below the national average of 2.8. In addition, it has 1.4 investigative police officers, 8.8 prosecutors, 3.4 case agents, and no government officials assigned to care for victims per 100,000 inhabitants. In terms of judges, Sinaloa is not better either: they have 0.6 judges trained in Mexico's New Criminal Justice System (Nuevo Sistema de Justicia Penal, or NSJP) for every 100,000 inhabitants, below the national median of 0.9.

Influence of the Sinaloa Cartel
The Sinaloa Cartel continues to demonstrate that it has an enormous financial, logistical and manpower capacity. Examples abound: the recent shootings in Guamúchil that extended for hours and plunged its residents into fear and anxiety; wide mountain areas that we know are controlled by gangsters without authorities even daring to go in; and the most recent case: the incursion of an armed group to the Regional Clinic No. 1 to finish off (or rescue?) an injured person in another previous shooting.

And of course, the strongest evidence we have of Sinaloa's institutional inability to face the enormous power of the Sinaloa Cartel was on October 17 during the failed arrest of Ovidio Guzmán. That day the cartel managed to gain control of a large sector of the capital, imposed its conditions and achieved its objective by bringing federal and state authorities to their knees. The humiliation of the Culiacanazo is already part of Mexico's collective memory.

Disappearances
Disappearance rates have not stopped increasing since 2010. Most of the cases never reach the press and are sometimes only known through the stories of victims' families. According to figures from the Prosecutor's Office, from September to November 2019, 372 missing person complaints were filed. That is 4.08 disappearances per day. 79 percent of the people reported missing are still missing and only 3 percent are identified as deceased.

Sinaloa has two disappearances for every murder. That is the harsh truth of the state's "pacification." Sinaloa cannot celebrate the reduction of the murders while clandestine mass graves proliferate and missing persons groups continue to multiply.

Sinaloa residents may often lose their perspective of what it once was to live in peace. We can deceive ourselves and believe in the official version that "we are doing well". But the evidence says otherwise. It is time that we begin to see homicides and the disappeared as a whole and not as isolated phenomena.

We can buy the propaganda that drug cartels only "kill each other" and that more "good people" live in Sinaloa when compared to gangsters.

But let's not forget that, until now, the fragile peace of Sinaloa has not been in the hands of citizens and authorities, but in the control of drug cartels that wage war between each other. That war is happening in Sinaloa, where they have historically produced and sold drugs and laundered their money for decades. It is a turf that the Sinaloa Cartel shares with us.

Source: Noroeste

30 comments:

  1. Michoacanos can't control Their state that why zetas infiltrated in your ranks cause you snitches and back stabbers have no loyalty same happen with the auto defensas snitching and killing each other now look at your state it's a mess

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    1. Everything you said is right only the first word was wrong, so instead of michoacan it should be sinaloa

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    2. Snitchaloas stay hating 😆
      It's not even a michoacan article and your barking loud lol
      If there was so much control in sinaloa state there wouldn't be so many disapearences...
      You pendejos say the same thing in every post but are clueless about michoacan history.. I would be 😠 too if sinaloa was ONLY KNOWN for SINALOA CARTEL and music about CDS being number ONE and out of nowhere MICHOACANOS came in and started bullying the loud mouth snitchaloa CAPOS 😆
      Truth is they all snitch to authorities or AGENCIES but SNITCHING IN COURT is the LOWEST a so called BIG BAD CAPOS could stoop and now Sinaloas are known as SNITCHALOAS and lost many PEOPLE and crews world wide.. Nobody respects snitches, not even cops 😆

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    3. Never heard of people from sinaloa hating on anybody is the other way around

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    4. 12:37 estarás sordo, mudo y ciego que no te das cuenta de lo envidiosos, fanfarrones, habladores y pone dedos que son tus paisanos de Sinaloa. El primer comentario lo demuestra con creces lo que acabo de escribir, nada que ver Michoacán en este artículo y tú paisano ahuevo tiene que primero hablar mal de los michoacanos y luego decir que blah, blah, blah@7:57, 7:59 y 8:02

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  2. Sinaloa is the only state control by sinaloas and sonora and durango , julio cesar chavez and Pancho Villa You have the baddest states clip up together thats insane

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    1. It's crazy huh, Sinaloa was a part of Sonora but the people of Sonora didn't and don't like the people of Sinaloa so they gave them territory so they could stay where they from in their rancho. Acuérdate plebito, Sonora siempre estará arriba de Sinaloa, no nomás de maleante se gana el dinero!

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    2. 11:37 like obregon and putarco elias calles, Padres and other governors of Sonora including manlio fabio beltrones "la secre" de fernando Gutierrez barrios at DFS, HAVE BEEN ALL CORRUPT, many of them PRIISTAS, and that shit rolls down hill, even el negro durazo was from Sonora like alfredo rios galeana.

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  3. Arriva sinaloa dónde creció el mas grande de mexico dónde se forjo con su sangre sinaloese y sonorense se ve que esta gente es brava por algo el mejor boxeador de mexico es de esas tierras del norte arriva julio cesar chavez el gran campeón mexicano y arriva durango otra tierra de hombre pancho Villa gran general del norte no se le olvida

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    1. Tanto presumes lo ajeno y hablas mal de los demás, acual gran hombre de bien a nivel nacional y internacional a dado Sinaloa? @8:02

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    2. Andale asi como su hijo julio cesar chaves jr que nunca se le a rajado a nada! "Es sarcasmo" son bien putos en sinaloa! Antes si se respetaban porque savian respetar pero ahora son puro traidor nomas fijate como los ninis y los rusos se estan dando entre ellos! Maaaaaas putttts!!!!!!

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    3. Un boxeador no es el mas Grande de Mexico PENDEJO..
      Si ablas de hombres chingones aqui esta un nombre que ningun sinaloa cagado le yega ni a Los talones "lazaro CARDENAS"
      Los SNITCHALOAS NO saven otra cosa fuera de am narco... Mejor agarren un libro

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    4. Se les nota la envidia que le tiene a los de sinaloa

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    5. Se les nota que no pueden superar su odio. Yo soy de sinaloa I nunka me an dicho jente el odio que le tiene a los de sinaloa nomas aquí lo disen

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    6. Los Sinaloas presumen PENDEJADAS, les dan en la Madre y luego se asen Las victimas.. 😆

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  4. Nothing can stop the everyday killings there. Furthermore the police themselves are embedded with the cartel.

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  5. This is what Sinaloa nutthuggers want to be kept secret. The way Sinaloa dissapears people not accepting of their lifestyle, those that do not accept bribes, those that do not agree about 50 year old narcos marrying their 20 year old daughters or simply those people they don't trust because they make an honest living.
    Sinaloans also silence the press for releasing info like this. They are an like and invisible cancer that poison the inside while the outside looks all well.

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    1. 1000% FACTS. These assholes like to present themselves like theyre better than everyone else, meanwhile they're just as bad as the next crew.

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    2. You're right. Freedom of the press is virtually non-existent in Sinaloa. The only newspapers that cover crime extensively are Noroeste and Riodoce. There could be smaller ones but these are the main ones.

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    3. What about Cafe Negro? & Linea Directa? They seem to be on par with the others. Debate as well

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  6. I'm surprised their murder rate is that high. Figured with one group controlling things you would have a lower rate.

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    1. 8:50 1.8 and 2.1 are about the same rates, shaving .8 from one does not make it exactly true, also 79% of the disappeared do not return, but 20% do, that makes the rates about the same, but this slanted article points to a situation in a way to make it look worse, governor Coppel is no saint either, trying to conquer power by any means necessary after stealing the governorship os backfiring on the performance statistics like other mexican states' governors bent on corruption.
      The fiasco on the arrest of Ovidio is not to be blamed on the mexican government but on the bounty hunters from the US that jumped the gun irresponsibly, if AMLO.chose not to sacrifice the lives of soldiers and their families and of many sinaloenses, he should be commended, at least he is not hiding 43 disappeared on his orders or covering up for anybody else's crimes.

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  7. "the enormous power of the Sinaloa Cartel"

    FACTS!!!!!!!

    Animo Sicarios

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  8. The native residents of Sinaloa have always lived an uneasy existence because the DTO's have more power than the government and they have no morals, contrary to what CDS cheerleaders have to say.

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  9. Dead men tell no tales...the one murdered and the two disappeared who either witnessed or were involved.

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  10. Correction, they have 3 murders for every reporter murder.

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    1. 4:01 yes dear, whatever you say.

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  11. CARTELS are a cancer killing thousands in 🇲🇽 sinaloa, jalisco, michoacan, tamaulipas ext.. It's all the same just different crews

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    1. 8:51 facts uncovered have shown that state police, attorney generals and governors are behind more crimes than all the cartels put together.
      Examples like Arturo Bermudez and rafael Herrera Beltran (z1#2) and Javier duarte de ochoa(la marrana duarte), graco ramirez and Alberto capella ibarra, edgar veytia and roberto sandoval illustrate the business of being governor in mexico, all have become like governor alfaro Uribe velez in Colombia who became governor from murdering, among his victims, pablo escobar and his falsos Positivos and the secret murdered disappeared in clandestine graves like la Macarena...

      Delete

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