Mexico yesterday was to convene a crisis summit to tackle a spate of drug-related murders and kidnappings that have stoked fear, anger and accusations of police corruption.
Alarmed at the rash of violence — Mexico now surpasses Colombia and Iraq as the world’s kidnapping center, a recent study showed — right-wing President Felipe Calderon convened the security talks in order to devise a new strategy.
Deadly attacks linked to drug gang turf wars have escalated across the country since Calderon, who took office at the end of 2006, launched a military crackdown.
Drug-related violence throughout Mexico has killed 2,682 people since the start of the year — nine more than in all of last year — with nearly half in northern Chihuahua state, local media reported on Saturday.
The recent kidnap-murder of a teenager from one of the country’s wealthiest families, in which police were allegedly involved, unleashed a fresh wave of public anger, with mass protests planned for the end of the month.
At the table for talks would be Calderon’s foes and allies, including representatives of Mexico’s government and opposition, state governors and public prosecutors, and leaders of the country’s hardest-hit sectors.
Governors from Mexico’s 32 states were due to attend, including Marcelo Ebrard, the mayor of Mexico City, which has the country’s worst kidnapping record.
Left-leaning Ebrard has openly disputed with Calderon over how to deal with the crisis and has also refused to meet the president since his disputed election in 2006.
Further complicating the enforcement problem, police or ex-police officers are said to be connected to many kidnapping groups.
“The key is to purge the police. There are some police officers who wouldn’t even pass a drug test,” said Guillermo Velsasco Arzac, president of the Better Society, Better Government rights group.
In the first half of this year, official figures showed 323 reported kidnappings in Mexico City, and 400 according to a rights group, compared with 438 for the whole of last year.
Rights groups say two or three more kidnappings occur for each one reported.
The federal government proposed new measures to tackle the problem, including tougher sentences for kidnappers, but those organizing street demonstrations planned for late this month believe the government could do more, and hope to bring thousands to the streets to force change.
A similar spike in kidnappings in 1997, a year that saw more than 1,000 people snatched, and a high-profile kidnapping in 2004, inspired thousands to demonstrate, forcing the government to carry out police purges and reforms.
Afterward, both times, the official kidnapping rate dropped for a while, but rose again.
Federal authorities have deployed more than 36,000 soldiers across the country since early last year in an effort to combat drug trafficking and related violence, with little impact.
In recent weeks, gunmen killed nine people at mass in a drug rehabilitation center in the volatile border town of Ciudad Juarez, and 14 died in a massacre in the tourist town of Creel, both in northern Mexico’s Chihuahua state.
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