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Mexico daily news Dec.19

Posted by The Generals on December 20, 2012, 6:10 pm
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Subject: Mexico News DAILY December 19, 2012

Mexico

Deadly prison break in Mexico

Development: On 18 December the Durango state public security ministry reported that 17 people had been killed during a failed jailbreak from the Cereso II penitentiary near Gémez Palacio, Durango.
Significance: The incident, which took place just a day after President Enrique Peña Nieto presented his government’s new security plans aimed at reducing Mexico's high levels of violence, highlights the complexities of the task facing his government. While identifying the need to prevent outbreaks of violence, Peña Nieto’s new security plans make no explicit reference to improving prison security, despite the fact that this has become a major problem in recent years.
Key points:
• According to a statement by the Durango public security ministry, a riot broke out at Cereso II penitentiary which soon turned into a mass prison break attempt. Security guards attempted to control the revolt by firing warning shots into the air. Inmates shot back as they attempted to escape through a back wall and tunnel. Eleven prisoners and six guards died in the ensuing shootout. Order was restored after the arrival of army personnel, whose rapid response frustrated the break attempt. According to the statement, a full investigation into the incident has been launched.
• The same day, a group of civil society organisations led by prominent social activists, María Elena Morera and Isabel Miranda de Wallace, this year’s Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) Mexico City mayoral candidate, who ran on a campaign promising improved security, presented the ‘Citizen’s security & justice agenda’ to the senate. Among other things, the agenda calls for the establishment of a new federal penal code; the complete adoption of oral trials; and a reform of the penitentiary system.
• Meanwhile Humberto Moreira, the former president of the ruling Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) who is close to Peña Nieto, yesterday announced that he was launching a lawsuit against former president, Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), at the International Criminal Court (ICC), accusing him of “militarising” the fight against organised crime, causing the deaths of thousands of Mexicans. Moreira turned to peace activism following his son’s murder.

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Security Update

Peña Nieto fleshes out his security strategy

On 17 December President Enrique Peña Nieto presented to the national public security council (CNSP), which includes all 31 state governors and the head of government of Mexico City, the first official version of his security strategy — much of which had already become public knowledge as a result of leaks from his transition team to the media.
He reiterated that the military will remain deployed against ‘organised crime’ (the term adopted by his predecessor to allude to drug trafficking organisations or ‘cartels’) until civilian law-enforcement agencies are in shape to take over the task.
Spearheading this particular effort is the creation of a Gendarmería, a paramilitary force roughly modelled on France’s Gendarmerie and Spain’s Guardia Civil, which will initially take in 10,000 officers from the military and have a start-up allocation of about US$118m. The aim is to increase its strength in stages to 40,000 by 2015, tacitly the timeframe for the withdrawal of the military.
The Gendarmería will be entrusted with “ensuring the sovereignty of the Mexican State throughout its territory”, starting with deployment in “the municipalities with the greatest institutional weaknesses”. This will dovetail with the withdrawal of the federal police (PF) from the “frontline struggle against organised crime at the most critical points”.
The PF will be retrained and will field 15 units specialised in actions against kidnapping and extortion. This will most likely build upon the Unidades Especiales Antisecuestro created in August 2008. Complementing this, the strategy envisages the establishment of unified commands of each state’s police forces — something the previous Felipe Calderón administration (2006-2012) had sought. The state governors announced their support for this proposal at the 17 December meeting.
Peña Nieto also reiterated his intention to grant top priority to crime prevention; at the CNSP meeting he revealed that in 2013 he would be allocating the equivalent to US$9.1bn for this purpose (a figure which almost matches the losses companies suffered in 2011 as a result of insecurity, according to a new survey by the national statistics institute [Inegi] released as the CNSP meeting was taking place).
For the implementation of the new policy, Peña Nieto said, Mexico would be divided into five regions (to be defined by consensus between the federal and state governments).
Other features of Peña Nieto’s security strategy are:
-Suppression of the public security ministry (SSP) and transfer of its functions to the interior ministry (Segob).
-Overhaul of the federal procurator-general’s office (PGR).
- Launch of a national human rights programme and adoption of a policy to locate disappeared persons.
- Creation of a multi-sector crime-prevention committee.
- Overhaul of the migration institute (INM).
- Passage of legislation on assistance to victims of crime held up by the Calderón administration.
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  • Mexico daily news Dec.19 - The Generals December 20, 2012, 6:10 pm
  • Re: Mexico daily news Dec.19 - Lyn and Randyl December 20, 2012, 10:02 pm
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