Matamoros mayor warns about "grave risks"' in her city

Leticia Salazer, foto de Twitter

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

The mayor of the northern Mexican border city of Matamoros is warning residents about extreme risks associated with traveling in the city, according to Mexican news reports.

Leticia Salazar took to Twitter Monday afternoon to warn her constituents about risks from road blocks and presumably shootings in the city.  According to a news account which appeared in the online edition of Milenio news daily, four photographs which were taken Monday afternoon and posted to Twitter, showed two roadblocks and students inside a classroom ducking to the floor, presumably to avoid gun fire.

A check of Twitter showed very little in the way of information about the elevated risk in Matamoros, mosly reactions to Señora Salazar's warnings.  Two events in the last three days may have been a factor in any elevated risk.

Friday a hand grenade was detonated in Ciudad Victoria, state capital of Tamaulipas, which did some damage to a metal overhead door at the residence of father of Alejandro Etienne, mayor of Ciudad Victoria.  Later a painted banner, colloquially known as a narcomanta or narcopinta said to be from a local Los Zetas commander in the city appeared, as a warning to the government.

Another incident took place in Brownsville Texas, directly across the border from Matamoros,  Monday when a young woman identified in a ValleyCentral.com English language report as Dayna Velasquez, 21, was allegedly caught with 12 kilograms of cocaine inside the vehicle she was driving.

A news account which appeared in the online edition of El Diario de Chihuahua news daily said that shootout began at noon in San Carlos colony and the spread to other sectors of the city including on Avenida Pedro Cardenas.  No reports have emerged as to casualties, which is not unusual in shootouts in Tamaulipas border cities.

Starting in 2010 some of the worse intergang fighting between the Los Zetas cartel and their bitterest rivals, the Gulf Cartel took place in Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo and in Reynosa as shooters fought openly against one another, the fighting of which often produced  roadblocks.  Much of the violence at the time went unreported because, reportedly local press were under death threats from local drug gangs not to publish news about the activities.

During those years local Twitter users  as well as local government officials used Twitter to report gunfights and shootings and shootouts.

With the election of president Enrique Pena Nieto almost two years ago, the government got into the news spiking business by stopping the practice of reporting on individual incidents and compiling series of incidents into one, thereby reducing -- and improving -- crime statistics.  According to Tijuana, Baja California based Zetas magazine, only one part of the new anti crime strategy has worked: the statistics have improved, but not the violence, which is as bad as it has ever been.

Señora Salazar has run afoul of Mexico's Secretaria de Gobernacion (SEGOB), or interior minister Miguel Osorio Chong before, last December, when she suggested she may call for a curfew in the city after a series of shootout between rival criminal gangs, which left 13 dead.  At the time Osorio Chong said it would be illegal for her to impose a curfew, which may not be completely true.

Curfews in Mexican localities have been called for or imposed by local government officials because of drug and gang related violence, including, reportedly in Piedras Negras in Coahuila state in 2012 and Jimenez in Chihuahua state in late 2013 because of the extreme violence from local drug gang rivalries.

Lately the federal government's anti crime strategy has undergone a transparent shift as former head of Mexico's Comision Nacional de Seguridad, Manuel Mandrgon y Kalb has left his post, and was replaced by Monte Alejandro Rubido.

According to a news report last week in Milenio, several Mexican senators have noted that the new appointee signals a strategy shift more towards then strategy of former president Felipe Calderon  Hinojosa.

It remains to be seen if Calderon's hands off strategy with regard to the press will be followed as well.

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

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Mondragon y Kalb quits Mexico's security agency

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Manuel Mondragon y Kalb will quit Mexico's top security agency today, according to Mexican press reports and Twitter accounts.

A news account which appeared on the online edition of El Sol de Mexico new daily said that Mondragon y Kalb will end his job with Mexico's Comisionado Nacional de Seguridad (CNS), a job he held since the start of the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto in December of 2012.

Mondragon y Kalb was appointed head of the CNS directly after a major reshuffling of Mexico's interior ministry Secretaria de Gobernacion (SEGOB).  Part of that reorganization changed Mexico's Policia Federal from a cabinet level ministry to a sub agency of SEGOB.

Part of the restructuring included a change in the way federal crimes such a intentional homicide were reported.  SEGOB mostly reported statistics, not individual crimes and ended the practice of presenting detainees before the press.

Since that time SEGOB has been slowly immersing itself into a growing scandal in which violent crime statistics are being deliberately misreported, charges that have been leveled and apparent since the beginning of Pena's term.

According to a newd report which appeared in Latin Times news daily website, Mondragon y Kalb resigned in  the wake of a federal prison escape last week in Ciudad Juarez involving five inmates.

The report also hints that personal reasons may have been involved in his reason to quit.

Mondragon y Kalb is the second top security official to resign in two days.  Friday it was announced that Tamaulipas' Secretaria de Seguridad Publica del Estado (SSPE), Rafael Lomeli Martinez reigned his position leaving a legacy of the worst of 33 states to retrain police officers, a nationwide  effort that has been ongoing since 2011.

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

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PRI prepares to gut Fox era security reforms

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

After a speech given by Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto at a forum hosted by The Economist (UK), Miguel Osorio Chong, Peña's Secretaria de Gobernacion (SEGOB), or interior minister spent time in the press last week clarifying Pena's remarks.

SEGOB Osorio Chong

According to a news report posted on the website of Yancuic.com, president Peña told the forum that a reduction of violence has occurred in Mexico since the end of 2012, but, according to a news account Peña gave no details.

According to the news account, president Peña used the term appreciably with regard to the drop in violent crime in Mexico, and even when asked about what metric could used to show any decline in violence, Peña did not answer.

One criticism from the publisher of The Economist news weekly, unidentified in the article, was that when president Peña spoke of the reduction of crime he failed to make note of events in Michoacan, easily one of the most violent states in Mexico, and one which potentially threatens Pena's security strategy.

Another problem with president Peña's claims is that, according to the news account, if the drop in homicides in Mexico state only are taken into account, then Peña told the truth.  Which means that Peña likely lied to the forum in his claims.

President Peña Nieto

According to the data supplied by The Economist,  officials in Mexico state had changed the methodology of reporting statistics for violent crime, which showed a steep drop the year Peña's term as governor ended in 2011.  Now, two years later, Peña is applying apparently similar methodology by eliminating drug related deaths from statistical compilations.  That statistical trick has indicated a dramatic reduction in violent crime starting in August -- when the new method went into place -- by 20 percent.

Osorio Chong responded to critics the next morning by claiming Peña's anti crime strategy deals with people not statistics.  Osorio Chong before a senate committee last week combatively also denied a conspiracy of silence existed between the federal and state governments in reporting violent crime in Mexico.

That statement by Osorio Chong may well be the epitaph of transparency laws in place since 2005 under the Vicente Fox presidential administration.

Having pushed an across the board income tax increases as well as levies on other items including sugary drinks, Peña is now pushing to eliminate transparency reforms dealing with security policy in place since 2005.

An editorial which appeared earlier in the week in El Siglo de Durango news daily  written by Jorge Perez Arellano said that the new national expenditure law, approved in the Chamber of Deputies and now being considered by the Mexican senate, was passed without Article 9 or Article 15, two 2005 reforms which forced state and municipal governments to report certain classes of spending back to the federal government.

The Presupuesto de Egresos 2014, or Expenditure Act of 2014 is set for a vote November 16th in the Senate when it is expected to pass, then go to the plenary session for final approval.

State and municipal governments in Mexico are severely restricted in how much of their own revenue they can raise and spend.  The Mexican federal government provides the lion's share of money for state and local police corporations.  Under the current law any monies provided by the federal government for security not spent 90 days after the funds are originally transferred, must be reported and any use of those funds by state of municipal entities must be publicly available for anyone to see.

Another reform expected to be removed from 2014 spending program is the requirement that state and municipal public servants must report to the Chamber of Deputies and to the national auditor's office any complaints against those officials.

For the average Mexican citizen, the reform meant that any complaints pressed against an errant officials would be sent to the Chamber of Deputies and to the auditor.  With the new reform, now the average Mexican citizen will be forced to go to Mexico City to press complaints since municipal and state officials will no longer be required to send them on to the federal government.

According to Perez Arellano, the gutting of the reforms will allow public servants to grant themselves and their subordinates  salary increases, presumably without any legislative oversight.

According to a separate report in El Diario de Chihuahua news daily, Veracruz Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) deputy Juan Bueno Torio warned that the elimination of the reforms will give state and local officials a "big spoon", and that gutting reform could lead to increased indebtedness in states and municipalities.

Bueno Torio, formerly a senator, had spent some time towards the end of his term warning about the dire condition of Mexican municipalities with indebtedness.  At the time in 2012, he warned that 80 percent of all municipalities in Mexico were having dire economic problems due to increased amounts of debt.

It was a massive increase of public debt from 2005 to 2011 that led the populist former Coahuila governor and former PRI president Humberto Moreira Valdes to resign.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com

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Top Mexican security official dismisses mayor's claims

Miguel Osorio Chong

Mexico's interior minister, Miguel Osorio chong Wednesday dismissed claims made by a Tamaulipas mayor that criminal groups were terrorizing the city.

According to a news account which appeared in the online edition of Milenio news daily, Osorio Chong said that  he regretted Matamoros mayor, Norma Leticia Salazar's call for a curfew, characterizing the call as unneeded.

Osorio Chong hinted that the call for a curfew may have been illegal, however, municipal presidents in northern states have imposed curfews in past years due to extreme violence by local criminal groups.  Because of the federalization of internal security in Mexico, the only other official who can impose curfew is the president of the republic, but only after votes by the council of ministers and the Mexican national legislature.

Last Sunday, a total of 13 armed suspects were killed by Mexican military forces in three separate incidents in Matamoros, during a time when an internal split in criminal groups associated with the Gulf Cartel had gone hot.

The situation was so dire, that even national media had reported street names, and Twitter reported that teens were being recruited at gunpoint to replace losses by the gunfights between rival factions, and security forces.

Normally in the past Mexican national media rarely, if ever reported on specific claims made by criminal groups, but it is clear now that with a nationwide clamp on news released about criminal actions, media organizations are desperate enough for news, they are reporting on claims made in Twitter and other social media means.

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

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15,000 murders in Mexico since December 2012

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

The latest data on murders in Mexico are in and whatever the administration of Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto is doing to deal with its pervasive organized crime problem, the results are mixed.

According to data supplied the the Secretaria de Gobernacion (SEGOB), or interior ministry, the total of murders nationwide reached more 15,000 since December 2012, the first full month of the new administration.  Intentional homicides totaled 1,478 for the month of September, 2013. The total number of murders since December, 2012 was 15,352.  The average for the previous ten months is more than 1,535.  The average for the previous nine months of 2013 is 1,487.

At the current average rate, the total of intentional homicides in Mexico could reach more than 17,000, which would be the lowest number for homicides since 2009, when 16,118 murders took place.

In 2010 through 2012, including the month of December 2012, homicides  were at an all time high of 20,681, 22,856 and 21,768, respectively

President Peña came into office ten months ago with promises of dealing more effectively with organized crime, first by moving all federal law enforcement and military counternarcotics activities under the auspices of its interior ministry.  Since that time every crime, especially violent crime reported through the federal government became a statistic, with no or few details.

Despite Mexico's transparency requirements at the federal level, Peña administration officials have interpreted the transparency requirements to reporting only the statistics of crime, not the details.

Since the start, it has been clear that some Mexican news outlets, most of which rely heavily on the federal and state governments for their crime news, were willing to self-censor crime news.

Some government officials, for example last July in Coahuila, have deliberately distorted crime statistics, only to be called on it by private organizations.

Whatever other efforts have been made to spike crime news in Mexico, the statistics that have been compiled by SEGOB are grim.

According to data supplied by Animal Politico news website,  kidnappings and extortion attempts have soared in Mexico to all time highs.  In September a total of 135 kidnappings were reported, a number exceeded twice since December 2012 -- in March (141) and April, 2013 (136) -- and matched in two other months, June and July.

Going by an annualized rate, the rate of kidnappings will exceed 1,606, an increase of about 10 percent from the previous year and an all time record.

Similarly, the crime of extortion going by its average current rate could reach almost 8,000 by the end of the November, 2013, another all time record.  The year 2013 totals could exceed the last highest year, 2012 (7,272), by more than 700 cases.

As with homicides, two other crime categories have been reduced, albeit showing downward trends which began in 2011, in carjackings and auto theft.

In the previous three years, carjackings hit an all time high averaging more than 65,000 with 2011 being the high mark at 71,784.  So far in 2013, total carjackings are down 41,916 for the calendar year. At the current annualized rate total carjackings could reach 55,887, the lowest number since 2009 when 42,673 were reported.

Auto theft is also showing a dramatic drop with a projected number of 132,941 for 2013, the lowest number since 2006, before the start of the previous Calderon administration.

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

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5 die in southern Chihuahua

By Chris Covert
Rantbrug.com

Five members of a family were shot to death Monday night in far southern Chihuahua state, according to Mexican news accounts.

According to a new report posted on the online edition of Milenio news daily,four armed suspects staged an ambush along a dirt road at around 1930 hrs in Guadalupe y Calvo municipality in Baborigame.

The victims were identified as Adelina Carrillo Gutierrez, 61, Jesus Chaparro Loera, 63, Wenceslao Chaparro Carrillo, 36 and two unidentified children ages 11 and 7 were traveling aboard a GMC Sierra pickup truck when the shooting took place.

Several AK-47 and AR-15 spent cartridge casings were found at the scene by investigators.

Guadalupe y Calvo has seen an increase of violent security incidents in recent weeks, the last incident an apparent ambush in a remote part of Guadalupe y Calvo, which claimed the lives of four individuals.  A previous incident of the kidnapping of a political candidate just a week before that shooting preceded a renewed deployment of Mexican federal security deployments including army and naval infantry troops to the region.

Miguel Osorio Chong

Meanwhile Mexico's Secretaria de Gobierno (SEGOB) or interior minister Miguel Osorio Chong, formally announced the training of the first of the news Gendarmaria Nacional, totaling 5,000 effectives, according to Mexican news accounts.

The Gendarmaria Nacional which will operate under the auspices of the Policia Federal, was the centerpiece of the new security strategy by the recently elected President Enrique Pena Nieto.  The emphasis in the  new strategy was to reduce drug and gang related violence which has plagued Mexico for the last several years.

According to a news report posted on the website Animal Politico, Osorio Chong in a radio interview with Joaquin Lopez Doriga, reiterated his government's commitment "in the coming years" to a "news justice model".  The aim, according to several new accounts is to reduce the involvement of Mexico's military in counternarcotics operations, long an objective with Mexico's political left.

The news is a seeming reversal since mention of the Gendarmaria Nacional was omitted from the Plan Nacional de Desarrollo or National Development Plan last May, a move Mexican press claimed was a reneging of a campaign promise Pena made a year ago, despite reepated announcements since Pena's inauguration.

According to a separate news account, in the first stage of the Gendarmaria Nacional plan, a total of 8,500 soldiers and 500 naval infantry troops would be included in the new security force.  It is unclear in Osorio Chong's latest announcement if that part of the plan has been followed.  Osorio Chong has said in the past the the new Gendarmaria Nacional would have both police and military training, which suggests that SEGOB has been or will be moving some elements from the army and navy into the GN.

Currently, Mexico's military and federal police appear to be operating in counternarcotics operations under the command of SEGOB, the Policia Federal under its direct control.  For years during the administration of Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, the Policia Federal had operated as a separate cabinet level agency.  During the legislative honeymoon last December, the Policia Federal were moved as a sub-agency of SEGOB.

When the elements of the Gendarmaria Nacional are ready to be deployed, they will likely go to the worst of Mexico's trouble spots, mainly on the northern border where the most intense of the drug and gang related violence has taken place over the years. 

One likely location will be southern Chihuahua state.  Earlier this year Chihuahua governor Cesar Duarte Jaquez had announced that Gendarmaria Nacional troops would be deployed to the region which can now be seen as a rather premature announcement.

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

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Self-Defense Groups Claim That They Disarmed the Knights Templar Cartel In Michoacán

By: Rubén Mosso

The relatives of the 34 people who were detained by the Mexican army for allegedly being linked to organized crime by acting as community guards for the community Felipe Carrillo Puerto (La Ruana), in Michoacán, requested for the intervention of President Enrique Peña Nieto to release the detainees, because they say that they are innocent. 

Farmers who demonstrated outside the Assistant Attorney General's Office for Special Investigations on Organized Crime (SIEDO) reported that the firearms that their relatives had were seized from the Knights Templar Cartel, who live within the community and have also committed a series of abuses against the community.

 The wives, mothers, sisters, and other relatives warned that in case they don’t receive support from the president, they will take matters into their own hands by arming themselves in order to defend their community from various criminal groups operating in the area of Michoacán.

“Release the guys that you brought, they’re innocent, they are people like us, lemon harvesters, who left their family, wives to their children.   They seized the weapons in order to defend us from the Knights Templar Cartel, simply because it was too much what they were doing,” said one woman.

--What were they doing?

--“They increased the price of tortillas and meat.  They were charging us for each box of lemons that we packed, they would take a portion.  We would work three days a week, with those three days, do you think that we were going to be able to support our children and apart from that they would take away our money.”

The complaint mentioned that the owners of the trucks that would transport the lemons had to pay “Los Templarios” 200 pesos per car, a situation for those who would harvest lemons, their payments would go down, plus they also had to pay to work.

--Who gave the weapons to the guys?

--“They took them from “Los Caballeros”.  In La Ruana, we caught “Caballeros”, when we started to rise up in arms we were all saying: there lives a guy; he’s a “Caballero”.  We would all go and take their weapons away.”

They commented that the municipal and state police in those zones are “leaders” of the Knight Templar Cartel, so they decided to go and also take their weapons, bullet-proof vests, and trucks away.

--“The weapons that the guys had belong to the Knights Templar Cartel.”

The complainants say that their families do not have a lawyer, or even a public defender.  They were informed that they would be transferred to jails in Matamoros, Veracruz, and the state of Mexico.

Last week at a press conference, both officials from the Secretariat of Governance (SEGOB) and the PGR said that the detainees were armed by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación), a group linked to the drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Family members have not determined whether they will be staying at the outskirts of the SIEDO, but they do ensure that they will insist federal agencies for the release of those detained, as they called it an outrage.

Source:  Milenio - Rubén Mosso

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Death toll in Mexican Drug War rises to 2,243 since December 1st

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A total of 2,243 individuals have been murdered in Mexico since December 1st, 2012, according to Mexican news accounts.

A news report posted on the website of Milenio news daily said that the total include soldiers, civilian government officials including police agents, as well as civilians.  The toll includes all murders linked to organized crime activity, whether involved with organized crime.

The report, which was a compilation of statistics from the Mexican military forces and civilian security agencies, is the first since September, 2011 that those statistics have been released.  In 2011, the government of former president Felipe Calderon ceased to supply those figures because, it was later stated, some of those deaths may have been prejudged by the connection to organized crime activity.

In 2011, cumulatively the total deaths attributable to organized crime stood at 47,515 from December 1st, 2007 to September, 2011.  It wasn't until November, 2012 that it was revealed why the statistic compilation were stopped, by Oscar Vega, head of the Mexican Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Publica.

According to the data supplied by the Milenio article, intentional homicides attributable to organized crime declined by 39 cases to 1,068 deaths.  Included in those deaths are 30 civilian officials killed in the line of duty and six individuals killed which were "beyond the facts", as the article termed it.  That presumably meant those deaths were civilians caught in crossfires.

The statistics claim the number of deaths attributable to armed confrontations between drug gangs declined by 86 percent from December, 2012 to January, 2013.  Part of of newly elected Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's security strategy is to reduce violence.

President Enrique Pena Nieto

According to the report, 1,050 individuals were wounded in armed confrontations with 722 being involved in organized crime, 223 which were termed as innocent and 105 were public servants such as police and military.

The new report has not come without criticism from political opponents.  According to a news account posted on the website of El Arsenal news daily, Partido de Democratica Revolucion (PRD) general secretary Alejandro Sanchez Camacho characterized the new statistics as "scary".  Sanchez Camacho said Pena's strategy was the same as his predecessor President Calderon, adding he could not give President Pena six years to implement his new security strategy.

The report is a stunning change from previous news reports in Mexican press which indicated the the Mexican federal government was not planning to report all deaths in the new security strategy, or was going to slow the reporting of those deaths.  It now appears that part of the new strategy is to present more finely granulated data as to casualties in Mexico's drug war.

December 1st, 2012 was the first day of the term of President Pena.  President Pena ran on a platform to transform how the Mexican government deals with its massive organized crime problem.

SEGOB Miguel Osorio Chong

President Pena has placed his Secretaria de Gobernacion (SEGOB) or interior  ministry -- in the form of Miguel Osorio Chong, who now appears to function now as Pena's plenipotentiary on security matters -- front and center on the Mexican federal government response to it organized crime problem.  SEGOB has compiled the statistics on murders and injuries attributable to organized crime.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com

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Mexican government reduces violence by not reporting it

Foto: Wikipedia

Thanks to Jennifer Sawiki of Rantburg.com for translation help
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Unreported until last Saturday is the unwritten agreement between the newly elected Mexican federal government and the states that part of President Enrique Pena Nieto's new security strategy will be to reduce the number of reports on violent incidents, according to Mexican press accounts.

According to a news account posted Saturday on the website of Diario de Colima news daily, agreements have been made between the federal government and some state attorneys general that violent incidents will only be reported when "necessary".

Colima governor Mario Anguiano Moreno

Colima governor Mario Anguiano Moreno told the press that studies conducted by the federal government showed that reporting on violence in Mexico's drug war had a "prejudicial effect" on the impact of such events.

According to the translation, Governor Anguiano Moreno said: "I was shown studies showing that at the federal level, to the extent that we as a government are putting the issue of security, we report every time you stop a criminal, rather than contributing to the achievement tranquility, were on the contrary encouraging unrest."

Governor Anguiano Moreno goes on:  "There was an agreement (between the Federation and the states) which will only be reporting of detainees when strictly necessary," he added.

It is unclear how the agreements are affected by federal transparency laws.

To abide by the new federal guidelines Colima Governor Anguiano Moreno will suspend weekly meetings of the Gabinete de Seguridad del Estado, and will report on detentions "only when necessary".

The governor added that while security is important and reports of detentions and deaths will still will be reported, the information may not be as readily available.

Five days ago in a Washington Post opinion piece, director of Human Rights Watch's Americas division,  José Miguel Vivanco, amidst the hysterical language of the human right industry revealed that part of President Pena's security strategy included changing the subject to the economy and away from security matters.

President Pena's government functions under transparency rules passed in the previous 12 years under Partido Accion National (PAN) government, and new rules imposed since the start of his administration.

When the proposed reorganization of the cabinet level Secretaria de Seguridad Publica, moving the agency to under the Secretaria de Gobierno (SEGOB), or interior ministry as a sub agency was put into effect, national legislators put SEGOB on a short leash requiring monthly reports on its activities.

Its first report, however, was a summary detailing detentions and drugs and contraband seized during the previous month,including summaries by the Mexican Army and Navy.  Its second report is likely to like the first and so on.

And while the federal government is under those transparency rules, it does rely on states for its data, and so President Pena's security strategy may be aiming at getting around those rules by ordering state attorneys general to slow walk or obscure information on crimes, or in the case of states which do not have as constrictive transparency laws, not releasing any information at all.

What the new focus on information could do is to create a situation where states that do have transparency laws will be reporting crime and appear to have a crime problem, while those that do not will appear to have less crime.

It is worth noting that this writer has noticed that reported detentions and shootings have declined since the start of President Pena's administration.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com

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Mexican Army deploys troops to 13 troubled Mexican states

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

The Mexican Army is deploying 14,000 effectives to 13 Mexican states it considers hot spots in the drug war, according to Mexican news accounts.

A brief item posted on the website of Reforma news daily Saturday morning said that that 13 states receiving deployments include Mexico state, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Morelos, Aguascalientes and Zacatecas.

It is worth noting that most of the states are entities used by Los Zetas to bring product, migrants and shooters from central America to the northern border.  Notably missing from the list are three of the six northern tier Mexican state, Baja California, Chihuahua and Sonora, all states of which have experienced some decline in drug related violence in the passed year.

However, of those three, one, Chihuahua, has experience a spike in drug and gang related violence since the start of the year.

Notably absent from the list are states which have also experienced an increase in violence, namely Sinaloa, Jalisco and Michoacan states.  Those states have received security reinforcements since the start of the year in the form of Policia Federal units, which now operating under the auspices of the Mexican Secretaria de Gobierno (SEGOB) or interior ministry.

The Mexican national government has shifted the focus of its counternarcotics strategy away from one of confrontation with the several drug gangs currently operating in Mexico using Mexican military forces and by using Policia Federal more to quell violence from drug gangs.

Enrique Pena Nieto

One of the stated goals in Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto in the new strategy is to eventually return military forces to the barracks.  The strategy is already in motion, according to a statement released by the Mexican Secretaria de Marina (SEMAR), or Mexican Navy.  Last week  Admiral Vidal Francisco Soberon Sanz noted in an Organizacion Editorial Mexicano news report that slowly military troops are being removed from the streets to allow Mexico's police to handle counternarcotics operations.

Another element of the new strategy is to divide Mexican into five geographical regions overseen by representatives of local Mexican Army,  Naval infantry, interior ministry and Procuraduria General de la Republica (PGR) or national attorney general.  The idea is to make states more responsible for their security, to combined state resources and general knowledge of their regions and to allow close monitoring of police forces by the federal government  With the representatives of those institutions, several states within those zone are to appoint representatives within 30 days of the law's publication.  The law that instituted the five zones was passed December 17th, 2012.  Implicit in the law are required routines meetings of the five security zones.

Among the purposes is to provide a means of training and testing local municipal police, and to have that training standardized.  Another purpose is to provide a career track for local police for as long as 20 years.

Some of the  meetings have already taken place.  For example the latest meeting of the some of governors of the northwest zone held at an aircraft hangar at the airport in Chihuahua Friday afternoon demonstrated Pena's strategy as well as his attitude towards politicians of Mexican state governments.

PGR Jesus Murillo Karam

Procuraduria General la Republica (PGR) or attorney general, Jesus Murillo Karam, Secretaria de Defensa Nacional (SEDENA) General Cepeda Salvador Cienfuegos, SEMAR Admiral Vidal Francisco Soberon Sanz, undersecretary of the interior for Security Manuel Mondragon y Kalb were in attendance from the federal government.

Sinaloa Governor Mario Lopez Valdez, Baja California Governor Jose Osuna Millan,  Baja California Sur Governor Marcos Covarrubias and Sonora governor Guillermo Padres also attended, as well as Chihuahua governor Javier Durate and his Fiscalia General del Estado (FGE) or state attorney general, Carlos Manuel Salas.

According to an opinion piece posted in El Heraldo de Chihuahua news daily Saturday morning, among the first acts at the meeting of the federal government was for cellular telephones batteries of the participating governors and their staffs to be seized by federal government staff before the meeting, much to their apparent surprise and dismay. 

Perhaps more stark was the statement of SEGOB Miguel Angel Osorio Chong that the days of political flexibility of state governors allowed by the previous two PAN presidents Vicente Fox and Feipe Calderon were gone and that security in the states were now the responsibility of the SEGOB and the president.

SEGOB Migurl Osorio Chong

One possible interpretation to SEGOB's statement is that in previous federal governments state government were allowed flexibility in their security spending, within the parameters set by the Chamber of Deputies.  A good example would be two years ago when the Mexican Army was expanded by 18 battalions.  State governments were allowed to donate land in the construction of new bases to house the new units, and provide smaller amounts of their budgets for construction.

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Policia Federal to reinforce Zacatecas

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Mexican Policia Federal units will continue to patrol the roads and highways of Zacatecas and more reinforcements are coming, according to Mexican news reports.

Miguel Alonzo Reyes

In a news account published in the website of El Sol de Zacatecas news daily, Zacatecas governor Miguel Alonso Reyes was quoted saying that Mexico interior minister, Miguel Osorio Chong has promised to keep Mexican federal security forces patrolling the state.

Govenor Alonso Reyes recounted a meeting with Osorio Chong last Thursday in which the Secretaria de Gobernacion (SEGOB), the official name for the interior minister, iterated federal support for security operations in the state.

SEGOB Miguel Osorio Chong

Two weeks ago in a required report, SEGOB said that Policia Federal units would be dispatched to the border area between Jalisco and Michoacan states in the wake of a spike in violence in that area.

The area to be reinforced is well south of Zacatecas state.  Another trouble spot for Zacatecas state has been the border area with Jalisco state to its south.  Already Mexican Army troops patrol the area and maintain a large base.

SEGOB last December folded the old Secretaria de Seguridad Publica (SSP) -- the controlling agency for the Policia Federal -- into a separate sub agency of SEGOB, while discussions in Mexico City among legislators continue with President Enrique Pena's newly proposed Gendarmaria Nacional continue.  What form and what mission the new police force will take remains a mystery.  Despite its new role in SEGOB, Policia Federal units are constantly being shifted to trouble spots in Mexico, much as they was used during the term of former president Felipe Calderon.

Alonso Reyes also said that SEGOB has committed to keeping Mexican Army and Naval Infantry troops in the state.  Zacatecas currently houses three Mexican Army rifle battalions in the state in the form of several rifle company sized installations.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com

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Pena's Security Plan starts to take form

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

President Pena

Barely in its fourth week, the security strategy of newly inaugurated Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto is slowly becoming apparent. 

Going by Mexican press accounts now and in the past it is possible to detail at least some elements of Pena's new security strategy in dealing with organized crime.

One of the first acts of the incoming president Pena was to make a proposal which would disband and fold the federal cabinet level Secretaria de Seguridad Publica (SSP) into the Secretaria de Gobierno (SEGOB), or interior ministry.  Originally that proposal was met with a great deal of resistance especially with the Mexican left including the Partido de la Revolucion Democratica (PRD), with many top leaders of which calling the move a throwback to the old days when Mexico's SEGOB was one of the most powerful security agencies in Mexico, especially during the Dirty War of the 1970s and 1980s.

Miguel Osorio Chong

As that change moved through the legislature, the new SEGOB, Miguel Osorio Chong, met with several governors, the latest of which included Coahuila governor Ruben Moreira Valdes, as well as the governors of Durango, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.

In a news story posted Saturday on the website of El Diario de Coahuila, Governor Moreira told reporters that a new federal security strategy was about to be implemented to including the "cleaning" of police and help with the proposed Gendarmeria Nacional, which is a campaign promise President Pena made throughout the campaign season last spring and summer.  Then as now, how this new police force would be used is shrouded in mystery.  Little indications exist that the current national police, the Policia Federal (PF), has had their mission  diminished so far.  PF units still patrol many of Mexico crime trouble spots in the north including in Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Zacatecas.

But there is little mistake that the violence level already has been reduced since December 1st, by virtue of the sheer drop in reported incidents.  Such a drop may not mean anything, however.  Confrontations between Mexico's military units and organized crime, at least in the last three years, have historically had their ups and downs.  The Mexican Army changes zone and regional commands in June, and promotions for colonels and higher ranks, a precursor to command shuffling, usually takes place in November.  Commanders in both instances usually need some time to get up to speed.  The new Secretaria de Defensa Nacional (SEDENA), both the controlling agency for the Mexican Army and the cabinet level job now held by General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, will also likely need some time to get up to speed as well.

However, some regional commanders have already attended regional security conferences since November, in Mexico where governors and representative from regional gather to discuss their plans for new security arrangements.

One example was a regional conference, the second of it s kind, which took place two weeks ago including commander of the Mexican V Military Region,  General de Division Genaro Fausto Lozano Espinoza, and the governors of Jalisco, Michoacan, Nayarit, Colima, Zacatecas and Aguascalientes, according to a news item posted on the website of EL Sol de Centro news daily.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss implementing the Mando Unico Policial or Single Police Command, a federal security scheme which has been partially implemented since 2010.  The idea behind the Mando Unico Policial is for the states to use individuals which have been trained and are usually better paid than municipal or even state police commands to deal more effectively with organized crime.

The news article reported that agreements between the federal government and Aguascalientes and Mexico state have already been signed, which indicates that changes are going to take place which will likely shift resources from supporting the current police agencies in support of a more federal response to organized crime.

Miguel Alonso Reyes

The end game for the new security arrangement has been revealed by Zacatecas governor, Miguel Alonso Reyes, who said the main objective was to return Mexico's military "to the barracks" and allow  police forces to take over security work against organized crime.

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