This should/but won't open some eyes
January 19, 2006
Tijuana and Baja California News
Murder, Crime Rates Leap
Two recent studies by private organizations show murder
and other serious crimes have been on the rise in Tijuana
and Baja California. The first study, conducted by the
Citizens Council for Transparency and Combating
Corruption, reported that the number of murders in Baja
California jumped from 429 in 2004 to 502 in 2005. In
local terms, murders increased 17 percent in Tijuana, 18
percent in Mexicali and a whopping 475 percent in
Rosarito. According to the Council's numbers, the total
number of murders in Tijuana alone leaped from 277 in 2004
to 325 in 2005.
Agreeing that violent crime has been on the upswing for
the last 10 years, Alberto Capella Ibarra, the Council's
president, said 2005 was nevertheless an especially
deadly, landmark year. "Because we have been an
indifferent and contemptuous society, I think we are now
reaping what we have sown," Capella said. Some reports
attribute last year's jump in homicides to the activities
of the so-called "Black Commando," a group of state
policemen who work in the hire of narco-traffickers.
Using official numbers, the Council reported a drop in the
number of kidnappings in Baja California state from 9 in
2004 to 8 in 2005. Many, however, doubt the government's
numbers. Rafael Romo Munoz, the Roman Catholic bishop of
Tijuana, said relatives of kidnap victims are often afraid
to contact authorities because of mistrust. Romo said he
was recently approached by family members of three kidnap
victims, none of whom have been reported to the police.
"They are saying the number of kidnappings is few, when in
reality there are many," Bishop Romo said. Last Friday,
January 13, Baja California businessman Alfredo Cuentas
Ochoa was killed during a kidnap attempt, while his son,
Alfonso Cuentas Leyva, was critically wounded.
Baja California also stood out in another recently
published crime study that covered the year 2004.
Conducted by the ICESI, a private, Mexico City-based
research organization, the study questioned 66,000 people
in 13 of Mexico's largest metropolitan areas about their
experiences with robberies, sex crimes and assaults.
First on the list as the nation's most dangerous metro
area was Culiacan, Sinaloa, a place considered to be the
stronghold of drug cartels. Culiacan was followed by
Tijuana and Mexicali as the second and third most insecure
cities, respectively. Baja California suffered almost
double the national average of serious crime, according to
the report.
Since Baja California and its border cities are more
developed than many other regions of Mexico, the ICESI
study raised eyebrows in some circles. In a recent column,
political analyst and commentator Jorge Zepeda Patterson
said the ICESI's figures challenge the assumption of the
link between poverty and crime.
Contending organized crime usually doesn't commit street
crime but is responsible for corrupting police and
prosecutors, Zepeda wrote that the degree of corruption
and inefficiency found in law enforcement agencies, in
this case in Baja California, has wide-ranging effects.
"Once law enforcement apparatuses are undermined," Zepeda
wrote, "impunity is converted into the greatest incentive
for the common criminal."
Sources: Frontera, January 17, 2006. Article by Lorena
Arellano. Lacronica (Mexicali), January 17, 2006. Article
by Luis Adolfo San. El Sur, January 14, 15, 16, 2006.
Articles by David Espino and Jorge Zepeda Patterson.
Proceso, December 25, 2005. Article by Ricardo Ravelo,
Gabriela Hernandez and Arturo Salinas.
My smidgen of a claim to fame is that I have had so many really good friends. By Bernie Swaim December 2007
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