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Marijuana plantations destroyed by military down 70% in five years

By
MND Staff
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A soldier cuts marijuana plants
A soldier cuts marijuana plants as part of military efforts to eradicate the crops.

The area covered by marijuana and opium poppy plantations that were destroyed by the military between January and May was the lowest in five years, government data shows.

Information provided to the newspaper Milenio by the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) shows that the army destroyed 615.5 hectares of marijuana crops between January 1 and May 9, an average monthly eradication of 143.1 hectares.

The monthly average is 70% less than the area of marijuana plantations destroyed in the same period of 2014 and 33% less than that eradicated from January to May of last year.

Information supplied by Sedena also shows that Oaxaca has become a major marijuana-producing state.

In 2014, seven of the 10 municipalities where the largest areas of marijuana plantations were destroyed were located in the so-called Golden Triangle region of Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Durango.

The other three municipalities in the top 10 were Álamos, Sonora; La Yesca, Nayarit; and Tequila, Jalisco.

In 2019, however, six of the 10 municipalities with the largest areas of plantations destroyed by the military were in Oaxaca. They were San Juan Lachigalla, San Carlos Yautepec, San Pedro Quiatoni, San Mateo Yacutindoo, Villa Sola de Vega and Santa Lucía Miahuatlán.

The other four municipalities in the top 10 this year were Badiraguato, Sinaloa; Tamazula, Durango; Guadalupe y Calvo, Chihuahua – which took out the top three spots; and Guachochi, Chihuahua.

In 2018, the military destroyed 774 hectares of marijuana in Sinaloa, 668 hectares in Oaxaca, 432 hectares in Durango and 408 hectares in Chihuahua. Almost 90% of all marijuana crops eradicated last year were located in those four states.

But the bigger crop is the opium poppy.

Sedena data shows that the military destroyed 6,704 hectares of poppy crops between January 1 and May 9, more than 10 times greater than the area in which marijuana plantations were destroyed.

However, the monthly eradication average of 1,559 hectares was the lowest in the past five years.

In the same period of 2014, the military destroyed an average of 1,804 hectares of opium poppies per month, 16% more than this year.

Over the past five years, the military has eradicated large areas of poppy plantations in the mountains of Guerrero and the Golden Triangle region.

In 2018, the army destroyed 7,495 hectares of the plant in Guerrero, 5,740 hectares in Durango and 4,917 hectares in Chihuahua.

Source: Milenio (sp) 

6 gunned down and killed after disagreement over horse race

By
Simon Schatzberg
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The truck in which the victims were traveling from horse races in Empalme.
The truck in which the victims were traveling from horse races in Empalme.

Six people are dead and one wounded after an attack by gunmen in Empalme, Sonora, on Sunday evening over the results of a horse race.

The attack occurred around 7:00pm on Highway 85 as the victims were returning home from a horse race. They were traveling in a pickup truck pulling a horse trailer when they were attacked.

Sources said the shooting was related to a disagreement over secret bets made on the races, which were part of a traditional festival at the Santa María ejido.

Four of the dead were two fathers and their sons, two of whom were found embracing each other at the side of the highway.

Municipal police were the first to arrive to the scene and were later reinforced by state police and marines.

 Source: Opinión Sonora (sp), Net Noticias (sp)

More than 25 million students are back in classes

By
Cody Copeland
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Students returned to classrooms across Mexico today.
Students returned to classrooms across Mexico today.

More than 25.4 million students and 1.2 million teachers returned to school today, starting classes under an educational reform called the “New Mexican School.”

This school year will be the first complete scholastic cycle of President López Obrador’s “Fourth Transformation” plan to eradicate corruption and impunity.

The Secretariat of Public Education (SEP) stated that the country’s students will be at the center of public educational policy.

The department added that with the integration of the new secondary education laws, teachers will have a new professional system that will provide them with job security and justice in the workplace.

Education Secretary Esteban Moctezuma Barragán said the president aims to create a quality, inclusive public education system that gives attention to those who need it most.

“[The education secretary] invites students and teachers to work together with the SEP to begin the construction of the New Mexican School and highlights that the best in education is yet to come,” the secretariat said.

The SEP said it distributed 176 million free textbooks, fulfilling its promise that no student will go without the materials needed to succeed.

One major change in López Obrador’s educational reform was the elimination of the evaluation system put into place during the term of his predecessor, Enrique Peña Nieto.

“The matter of evaluation, which was what worried us most, is clear to us now,” said Arturo Pioquinto, a teacher at Rafael Solana primary school in Iztapalapa. “It is no longer an issue tied to the work environment, and this separation is a big relief.”

Still, much of the reform depends on the passage of the plan’s secondary laws, which will be voted on in September. This has caused many educators to begin the school year with uncertainty.

“There’s lots of uncertainty about many things,” said Édgar Gallego, principal at Rafael Solana. “As teachers, it is our job and responsibility to provide society with the certainty that we know how to do our jobs in the classroom.”

The Chamber of Deputies has until September 12 to vote on the secondary laws.

Sources: Milenio (sp)

Tropical Storm Ivo leaves two dead, widespread flooding

By
Cody Copeland
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Flooding in Comondú, Baja California Sur.
Flooding in Comondú, Baja California Sur.

Tropical Storm Ivo left two dead and communities across the country ravaged by floods, sinkholes, hailstorms and damaged infrastructure over the weekend.

The deaths, a minor in Ahome, Sinaloa, and an adult male in Monterrey, Nuevo León, were both caused by electrocution. The seven-year-old child was electrocuted when lightning struck as he touched a refrigerator.

Sinaloa Governor Quirino Ordaz Coppel urged the federal government to send aid to victims in the affected municipalities of Guasave, Elota, Mocorito, El Rosario and Mazatlán, all in a state of emergency.

In Ahome, which was in the process of declaring an emergency, seven temporary emergency shelters were opened in Los Mochis to attend to 268 people forced to evacuate their homes.

A sinkhole opened up on the Mazatlán-Culiacán highway, forcing the closure of two of the road’s four lanes.

The state Civil Protection agency said that 25 schools had been flooded, but all had been cleaned up before the start of classes on Monday.

The same could not be said of schools in Comondú, Baja California Sur.

The start of the school year was postponed in Ciudad Insurgentes after heavy rains early Saturday morning flooded schools.

Soldiers provide aid to a family in Comondú. One took responsibility for the family dog.
Soldiers provide aid to a family in Comondú. One took responsibility for the family dog.

State Governor Carlos Mendoza said that although the flooding damaged homes and forced evacuations, there were no casualties. He added that damaged homes will be assessed so that the owners can receive aid.

Other affected states include Sonora, Puebla, Michoacán, and Morelos, which saw heavy rains and hailstorms.

Ivo was downgraded yesterday to a tropical depression as it lay 480 kilometers to the west of Cabo San Lucas.

Sources: El Universal (sp), El Universal (sp), Milenio (sp)

Army officer killed, soldiers harassed with shovels and brooms

By
Simon Schatzberg
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Citizens harass soldiers on Sunday in Michoacán.
Citizens harass soldiers on Sunday in Michoacán.

There were two violent incidents directed at the military Saturday in Michoacán, one with firearms and another with shovels and brooms.

The first was fatal for army Lt. Colonel Víctor Manuel Maldonado Celis, who was killed in a shootout with armed civilians in San Ángel Zurumucapio in the municipality of Ziracuaretiro.

National Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval González and Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo confirmed the officer’s death and offered condolences to his family in Twitter messages on Sunday.

Later on Saturday, soldiers were attacked with shovels and brooms on the Zamora-Los Reyes highway in the nearby municipality of Los Reyes.

According to local media, the soldiers had detained a suspected criminal lookout who was informing someone about the military’s movements. But angry citizens showed up to defend the arrested man and threatened the soldiers with their makeshift weapons.

A video uploaded to social media showed about 10 soldiers backing up against a tree, pointing their rifles at the ground as the crowd threatens to beat them. At another point, army vehicles were hit with shovels.

Military sources who spoke with the newspaper Milenio said the soldiers were not hurt in the incident, but two vehicles were left with minor damage.

The soldiers decided to release the man they had arrested to prevent a confrontation.

In a similar incident last May, citizens now believed to have been led by members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, detained 14 soldiers and disarmed them in La Huacana.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Crisis pending in Guerrero as up to 16,000 farmers still without fertilizer

By
Simon Schatzberg
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Guerrero farmers have been waiting months for their fertilizer.
Guerrero farmers have been waiting months for their fertilizer.

Delays in the delivery of free fertilizer to campesinos in Guerrero could cause famine in the near future, a human rights activist warns.

Thousands of farmers in the Montaña region of Guerrero have still not received the free fertilizer that is delivered annually by the government. The federal government assumed responsibility for the program this year.

Federal officials promised in June that all of the fertilizer would be delivered by July 15. 

According to Abel Barrera Hernández, director of the Montaña Tlachinollan Human Rights Center in Tlapa, Guerrero, the long-awaited fertilizer is used for subsistence corn farming.

The Guerrero Agriculture Secretariat said there are as many as 16,000 campesinos who have not received fertilizer in the Montaña region, one of the poorest in the country.

Protests against the delays began in late May, and continued last week.

On Thursday and Friday, farmers in Tototepec took over the municipal palace in Tlapa, claiming that they could not exchange fertilizer vouchers given to them by the federal food security agency (Segalmex) because government warehouses were closed.

After speaking with the protesters Tlapa Mayor Dionisio Pichardo García spoke to Jorge Gage, the federal coordinator of the fertilizer program, who agreed to send trucks to Guerrero from Querétaro and Michoacán.

Meanwhile, farmers in the Montaña municipality of Acatapec have been blocking the Chilapa-Tlapa highway for more than a month near Tlatlauquitepec, demanding the delivery of 5,000 bags of fertilizer promised by Gage.

“Mr. Gage never came to the Montaña to resolve this problem,” said rights activist Barrera. “He wants to fix everything from Mexico City, and he only meets people there.”

Barrera added that in 2019, many campesinos in the Montaña region decided to plant corn instead of opium poppies because of a decline in the price of opium from 25,000 pesos (US $1,255) per kilogram to 4,000 pesos.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Self-defense forces necessary as long as local police incapable: experts

By
MND Staff
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A file photo of one of Michoacán's first defense forces. In front at left is founder José Manuel Mireles.
A file photo of one of Michoacán's first defense forces. In front at left is founder José Manuel Mireles.

Self-defense forces are still needed in some parts of Mexico because municipal and state police lack the capacity to combat organized crime, according to two security experts.

Raúl Benítez Manaut, a professor at the Center for Research on North America at the National Autonomous University, and Martín Barrón Cruz, a researcher at the National Institute of Criminal Sciences, both acknowledged that some self-defense force members are involved in organized crime but agreed that the groups are a necessary evil because authorities are unable to combat criminal gangs in all areas of the country.

According to a report Saturday in the newspaper El Universal, there are at least 50 self-defense forces in Mexico distributed in six states: Guerrero, Michoacán, Veracruz, Morelos, Tamaulipas and Tabasco.

Data from the Interior Secretariat shows that Tabasco is the only one of those six where police numbers meet national standards of 1.9 state police officers per 1,000 inhabitants.

Michoacán, Veracruz and Morelos only have 0.7 officers per 1,000 residents, Guerrero has 0.9 and Tamaulipas has 1.1.

Self-defense force members in Michoacán in 2014.
Self-defense force members in Michoacán in 2014.

The two experts said that police forces are also weakened because in some cases officers are not subjected to evaluations or they are allowed to continue to serve despite failing confidence tests.

Benítez told El Universal that in the absence of police that are capable of combating crime, some self-defense forces have gained legitimacy in the communities in which they work.

“There are self-defense forces that are quite legitimate and very much supported by the people,” he said.

“This happens in indigenous areas such as Oaxaca, Chiapas and even Michoacán, where they’ve gained a lot of credibility because they dedicated themselves to fighting organized crime when the government didn’t have the capacity to confront these groups,” Benítez added.

“In some towns, self-defense forces are still seen as necessary because of the voids left by the state. In Oaxaca, for example, there is a kind of community social service in which young people, without weapons, are guarding the entrance to a town . . . and people live in peace. However, if they don’t do that, organized crime could infiltrate because the police don’t have the resources or officers to be looking after the towns.”

Barrón said that “in some regions, the self-defense forces continue to be necessary,” explaining that “the problem is that there are no police, nobody wants to be a police officer anymore because of the risks that implies.”

“The government must study each region and determine what their needs are,” he added. “Only in that way will it manage to establish a legal framework and provide security to everyone.”

Interior Secretary Olga Sánchez revealed last week that officials from her department had engaged in dialogue with self-defense groups but on Friday President López Obrador ordered the talks to cease.

Source: El Universal (sp) 

Former Canadian consul found murdered in Cancún

By
Simon Schatzberg
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Daniel Lavoie had lived in Cancún for 33 years.

The former honorary consul of Canada in Cancún, Daniel Lavoie, was found dead in his apartment in Cancún on Sunday.

The body was found wrapped in a sheet, covered with pillows and the feet bound. A message left with the body read: “This happened to you for raping children.”

The murder was discovered when a friend went to look for Lavoie around noon on Sunday after he had been unable to contact him.

Lavoie, 62, had lived in Cancún for 33 years where he had served as honorary consul until eight years ago. Since retiring from the diplomatic service, Lavoie taught private French and English classes.

Many commenters on Facebook expressed grief for the killing, describing the victim as “a good friend” and “an honorable person.”

According to his Facebook page, he was a nature lover who had studied at the University of Quebec.

Source: NotiCaribe (sp), CBC (en)

Entire police forces are still being arrested in Mexico

By
Juan Camilo Jaramillo
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The police officers Madera, Chihuahua, were arrested for protecting drug traffickers.
The police officers of Madera, Chihuahua, were arrested for protecting drug traffickers.

Republished from InSight Crime

The arrest of a town’s entire police department in Mexico’s state of Chihuahua reflects just how insidious police corruption continues to be in the country, with governments at all levels seemingly unable to make any real difference.

Fifteen police officers from the municipality of Madera, Chihuahua, in northern Mexico, were arrested on August 15 during a joint operation by state and federal agencies, the Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office reported.

Madera’s police commander was among those arrested. Identified only as José Luis M. M., he had apparently provided protection services to drug traffickers in the area and obstructed the work of local authorities.

The arrest occurred after the police chief stopped operatives from state security agencies and threatened them at gunpoint to abandon an investigation in the region.

InSight Crime analysis

Entire police forces being rounded up for corruption and collusion with organized crime is nothing new in Mexico. In August 2018, 205 police officers were disarmed and suspended in the municipality of Tehuacán in central Puebla state, while 113 more were believed to have fled.

The ease with which corruption spreads inside the police forces and the vast impunity for participating officers means that successive government reforms have shown no concrete results.

An average of 1,688 corruption cases were registered for every 1,000 active-duty police officers in Mexico in 2017, according to a survey conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi). That translates to 1.6 acts of corruption for every police officer at the national level.

The state of Chihuahua reported that for every 1,000 police officers registered in the state, 133 had been participating in criminal activities. The state’s corruption rate is only surpassed by Mexico City, with a rate of 179 for every 1,000 police officers.

Mexican police forces are particularly vulnerable to corruption and infiltration by drug cartels, due to low salaries and a lack of government support. This makes the bribes paid by criminal mafias extremely attractive.

“It is far easier to develop training programs and improve selection criteria than to reverse a long history of extortion and bribery,” investigator Daniel Sabet was quoted as saying in a report published by the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).

Each new government in Mexico has proposed a new way to address the issue of police corruption, and it seems that none has been effective.

In fact, there have been repeated protests by police forces that have been invited to be part of the new National Guard force enacted by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. According to federal police, the new law enforcement entity would not respect severance, hierarchy or seniority.

The writer is an investigator with InSight Crime, a foundation dedicated to the study of organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

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