Organized crime-related homicides soared 77% in August

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September 2, 2019

A state police officer mans a checkpoint in Tepacaltepec, Michoacán.

At least 12 people were killed in Michoacán in four different attacks on Sunday.

In the first incident, the bodies of five men were found in the Presa de los Reyes neighborhood of Morelia, where two women were wounded in the same incident, according to Michoacán prosecutors.

That was followed by the killing of four men by armed civilians in Lázaro Cárdenas.

Later in the day, two more men were killed in the municipalities of Tepalcatepec and Coeneo, while last night a group of state police officers were attacked in Sahuayo. One officer was killed and five others were wounded.

Michoacán is one of the states where homicides numbers have increased since 2018, when they were at a record high. The most violent municipalities in the state are Morelia, Uruapan, Zamora, Sahuayo, La Huacana and Los Reyes.

According to police, much of the violence in Michoacán is related to the conflict between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Los Viagras gang for territorial control.

One of the recent flashpoints for that conflict has been the municipality of Tepalcatepec, which borders the state of Jalisco. On Friday, nine people were killed when members of the CJNG began a campaign to try to take control of the municipality from the Los Viagras.

Michoacán Public Security Secretary Israel Patrón Reyes told the newspaper Milenio that the nine people who died were members of the CJNG who had traveled from Jalisco to carry out the attack.

Source: El Financiero (sp), Milenio (sp)

La Paz takes action against property owners for unpaid taxes

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August 31, 2019

'This property is in the process of being seized,' reads a sign posted by La Paz authorities.

The mayor of La Paz, Baja California Sur, says the municipal government will seize properties whose owners have failed to pay their taxes.

Rubén Muñoz told the newspaper BCS Noticias that there are unpaid taxes on 400 properties, including 76 vacant lots, whose owners owe over 12 million pesos (US $597,830).

The municipality started acting against the delinquent properties on August 16, but Muñoz said that only 76 property owners have been notified so far.

“It’s mostly property tax debts going back more than five years,” he said. “There are also environmental violations on many of the properties.”

Muñoz noted that the owners of the properties in question have violated their obligation as citizens to pay property taxes.

“Citizens have rights, but also have obligations, and one of the most important ones, for people who live in cities, is paying property taxes,” he said.

La Paz is not the only municipality where property owners neglect to pay their taxes. In Acapulco, 40% of the 267,000 property taxpayers were in default, the municipality said in May.

Source: BCS Noticias (sp)

Veracruz bar massacre leaves at least 20 orphans

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August 31, 2019

Yurai leaves five children, the youngest of whom is three months old.

The 30 people who have died and the many who were wounded weren’t the only victims of the vicious attack on a bar Tuesday night in Veracruz: 20 children were orphaned, according to municipal authorities in Coatzalcoalcos.

They are the children of waitresses and table dancers at the Caballo Blanco who died after attackers doused the inside of the bar with gasoline before throwing molotov cocktails inside.

One of the dancers, identified only as Yurai, 32, had told her mother just days before that she planned to stop dancing at the club in order to better look after her five children. She had planned to work until she finished building a house and had saved up a little money to start a business.

Yurai was aware of the risks associated with working at a place like the Caballo Blanco, but economic need had driven her to spend six years of her life dancing there.

Her mother said she was tired of having to dance for strangers and that each day it was harder for her to go to work.

“. . . she promised me that she was going to quit that job,” Rosa Villena said. “My daughter told me, ‘I’m going to tell you something, mom: the job I have is dangerous, very dangerous, and if something were to happen to me, I want you to look after my children. Please take care of them.’ I told her I would.”

Villena never imagined that the prophetic conversation would be their last.

Before working as an exotic dancer, Yurai had been a housewife but her husband beat her and she was ultimately forced to leave him.

“She was alone and couldn’t find work. One day out of nowhere, after weeks of searching, she told me that she was going to become a pole dancer, but that she would only dance. She assured me that it was only going to be temporary, but as things were going well for her, she spent six years working at the club. In that time, she was able to build this house,” said Villena.

Now those five children for whom Yurai worked so hard have a house, but no mother to raise them in it. Their grandmother fears she will be unable to provide them with the life they are accustomed to.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Extortion has closed 5,000 businesses in Coatzacoalcos in recent years

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August 31, 2019

Many of the businesses that have closed due to extortion are bars.

Dozens of businesses near the Caballo Blanco nightclub in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz — the site of a massacre on Tuesday — have closed in recent years due to extortion.

More than 40 businesses located on a 10-block stretch of Juan Escutia street in the Benito Juárez Norte neighborhood have shut down after being forced to make protection payments to criminal groups in the area over the past few years. Many of those were bars.

Antonia, a 66-year-old small business owner who spoke with the newspaper El Universal, says that extortion has become worse over the past five years. She said she likes to go to casinos with her husband but that after the attack on the Caballo Blanco they have stopped going out because they are afraid of similar attacks.

“Three years ago, we weren’t victims of extortion,” she said. “Coatzacoalcos became a dangerous place to live. People with money go to Puebla or Mérida, but the rest of us stay here, we don’t have anywhere to go.”

Most of the businesses that have been closed are located in commercial neighborhoods like Benito Juárez Norte or along the oceanfront.

According to state police, six business premises have been set on fire in Coatzacoalcos since May 28.

A business group said around 5,000 businesses have closed due to extortion in recent years.

The number of deaths from Tuesday’s attack rose to 30 on Saturday after another victim died in hospital.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Measles was eradicated in 1996, but cases are on the rise

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August 31, 2019

Twelve cases of measles have been identified.

The Secretariat of Health (Salud) has confirmed 12 cases of measles and is investigating over 500 more possible instances of the disease.

The number of confirmed cases could increase as the tests are processed.

The cases have been brought to Mexico by travelers from abroad, but Tourism Secretary Miguel Torruco said his department is not concerned about the disease.

The most recent case occurred in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, in early August when a health worker was infected by an Austrian tourist. It was the state’s fourth this year.

Cases have also been confirmed in Chihuahua, Nuevo León, San Luís Potosí and México state.

All of the confirmed cases have been described as “imported,” primarily by tourists who visit the country unvaccinated. Studies revealed the viruses came from Europe and Africa, although there are six cases in which the source of the virus is still unknown.

Prevention and health promotion undersecretary Dr. Hugo López-Gatell Ramírez said that Mexico is potentially at risk for larger outbreaks of measles as vaccination rates have declined in recent years.

In the previous presidential administration, they fell to a “historically low” 70%, he said. Vaccination rates need to be as high as 95% in order to guarantee the prevention of outbreaks.

Mexico eradicated measles in 1996. There was one native case of the disease in 2006, but the country has not seen numbers like this year’s for decades.

López-Gatell stated that there are currently red-flag areas outside Mexico that could be cause for worry, such as New York City, which declared a public health emergency earlier this year due to an outbreak.

The Health Secretariat issued recommendations for the prevention of measles in April for people traveling to Europe and the United States, in which it listed specific U.S. states that had confirmed cases of the disease.

The office declined requests for an interview.

Despite the cases in Mexico having been brought by foreign visitors, Tourism Secretary Miguel Torruco Marqués told Mexico News Daily that his department is not concerned about the disease and there are currently no vaccination requirements for tourists entering Mexico from countries where measles is a problem.

Mexico News Daily

Peace, tranquility closer despite failure to reduce crime levels: Durazo

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August 31, 2019

Peace is coming to Mexico in spite of continuing crime, the security secretary said.

Public Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo told a press conference Friday that although the administration’s anti-crime strategy has not yet been successful at reducing crime levels, Mexico is getting closer to achieving peace.

“We are confident that the day is near when peace and tranquility will return, and that’s not wishful thinking,” he said. “Even though there are events with a level of brutality like that of Coatzacoalcos, we have the National Guard thanks to support from Congress, which will allow the state to guarantee peace and security.”

Durazo noted that security won’t be achieved overnight, and admitted that the National Guard still doesn’t have the numbers it needs.

“We have the Guard, but our short-term challenge is that it’s still not big enough to guarantee security,” he said.

There are currently 60,000 National Guard troops deployed around the country. Durazo said the government hopes to end 2019 with 80,000, and have 150,000 by 2021.

He added that although crime rates have not declined, the fact that they have not risen can be attributed to the administration’s policies.

“With the measures we’ve been taking in this government, we’re sure that we’ll be able to deliver good results to the public,” he said. “We can say that we’ve been able to halt the growth of the rates of most crimes.”

Source: El Universal (sp)

Journalist Lydia Cacho flees Mexico due to security concerns

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August 31, 2019

Journalist Lydia Cacho. — Cacho: 'It's equivalent to a sentence or sanction for doing my job.'

Journalist and human rights activist Lydia Cacho Ribeiro has now spent one month in “forced displacement” outside Mexico after attacks on her home in July.

On July 21, thieves broke into Cacho’s home, poisoned her dogs and stole electronic equipment containing her journalistic work.

Press freedom and human rights organization Article 19 denounced Cacho’s exile and the state of human rights and impunity in Mexico in a press release.

“It is unacceptable that in Mexico the survivors of torture and grave violations of human rights cannot count on a minimum guarantee [of safety]. Meanwhile, the perpetrators and their accomplices are guaranteed to be able to continue their criminal actions,” said the organization.

Courts are still processing injunction proceedings for Adolfo Karam, Mario Marín, and Kamel Nacif, the three men allegedly involved in Cacho’s 2005 kidnapping and torture. All three remain fugitives.

“It seems as though the interests that protect the politico-business mafia that makes up the international networks of pedophilia and human trafficking of minors are much bigger than any attempts to legitimize oneself before the law,” said Article 19.

Cacho is the author of The Demons of Eden (2005), which implicated businessmen Jean Succar Kuri, of Quintanaa Roo, and Kamel Nacif, the “denim king” of Puebla, in an international pedophilia ring.

Last year, the United Nations (UN) human rights council rebuked Mexico over the treatment of Cacho and ordered the country to compensate her within 180 days. The UN also condemned the attacks on Cacho’s home in July.

Cacho herself made a statement in exile.

“To be outside of my country is equivalent to a sentence or sanction for doing my job and searching for justice. I find myself in a situation of forced displacement with the subsequent violation of my human rights of integrity, liberty and security because of the incapacity of the Mexican state to protect me as a survivor of torture and to guarantee me justice,” the journalist said.

Article 19 asked the government to guarantee Cacho’s safety and demanded “that the Mexican state execute the orders of the federal Attorney General’s office with all due diligence, as there is no justification for delaying the arrests.”

Source: Sin Embargo (sp)

The battle for Tepalcatepec, Michoacán: 9 dead as cartel war continues

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August 31, 2019

National Guard on patrol at a hospital where wounded hitmen were being treated after yesterday's gun battle.

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) yesterday fulfilled its promise to attack the Michoacán municipality of Tepalcatepec, leaving nine presumed cartel hitmen dead.

Convoys of pickup trucks filled with men and armed with Barrett 50-millimeter rifles began entering communities in the municipality around 7:00am, clashing with municipal police.

In the municipal seat of Tepalcatepec, the shooting ended around 10:00am but in the communities of Loma Blanca, La Estanzuela and Plaza Vieja, fighting continued for another hour and forced schools and businesses to close.

Residents said they called for help when the shooting began but security forces from outside the municipality did not arrive until noon.

Nine people were killed in the gunfire, while 11 others were wounded and 11 vehicles were damaged.

On August 13, a video circulated on social media showing 18 masked men who identified themselves as CJNG members threatening to attack territory held by former ally Juan José “El Abuelo” Farias Álvarez in Tepalcatepec.

Farias came to attention in 2013 as a leader of one of the self-defense groups that were fighting against the Caballeros Templarios cartel in the state. However, he has also been linked to the CJNG and its leader, Nemesio Oseguera.

According to some reports, the Michoacán self-defense campaign was really part of a strategy of the CJNG against the Caballeros Templarios.

“Our conflict isn’t against the people. We’re going to fight against ‘El Abuelo’ and anyone who helps him,’” one of the men in the video says.

Farias, who has been under suspicion for drug trafficking and other criminal activities for several years, has been arrested at least once, the most recent in May last year. But due to inconsistencies in evidence given by navy marines, who made the arrest, he was released. He returned home to Tepalcatepec to a hero’s welcome.

Source: Milenio (sp), Infobae (sp)

9 tonnes of marijuana seized in Tijuana warehouse

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August 31, 2019