Mexico News-Apr.21

Posted by the Generals on April 27, 2011, 3:38 pm
206.116.64.118

LatinNews Daily - 21 April 2011 Mexican admiral claims gangs losing Development: On 20 April, Admiral Francisco Saynez, the navy minister, said that the narco-trafficking gangs were being driven into new areas. Significance: The Mexican navy, especially the marines, have been spearheading the government’s war on organised crime, but Saynez has hitherto kept a low profile. What Saynez said was sobering: he recognised that the gangs retained their command and control structures, despite the government’s huge effort since 2006, and that they were responding to the government offensive with even more violence and moving into new areas as a result of the government’s increased pressure on their traditional stamping grounds. Key points: • Saynez was speaking in Veracruz, one of the areas into which he said that the gangs were moving from their traditional fiefs in the north and especially the northeast of the country. So far this year (to 15 April), 47 people have been killed by gangsters in Veracruz. In the whole of 2010 52 were killed there. • More encouragingly, Alejandro Poiré, the technical secretary of the Consejo Nacional de Seguridad, claimed, during a talk at Harvard University on 20 April, that the murder rate in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, was now 40% of the October 2010 rate. So far this year, 643 people have been killed in Chihuahua, according to Reforma’s Ejecutómetro. As 3,185 were killed in the state in 2010, the statistics suggests that indeed the murder rate is falling, but by 30% rather than the 40% Poiré claims. • Separately, another mass grave, containing at least 26 bodies, was found in Durango on 20 April.

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