México "volviéndose" uno de los países más violentos en el mundo

By Jay Root McClatchy Newspapers

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Felipe Calderon's tough new war on drug trafficking, which has sent thousands of Mexican Army troops into the countryside and a record number of drug suspects to the United States for trial, failed to quell violence in the first half of the year.

Federal crimes such as gangland-style murders and kidnappings have reached record levels, according to a new report from Mexico's Congress, making Mexico one of the world's most dangerous countries.

One analyst who worked on the report said Mexico's murder rate now tops all others in the Western Hemisphere.

"In a global context, we suffer from more homicides, that is to say, violent deaths, than any other region in the world except for certain regions on the African continent," said Eduardo Rojas, who helped put together the crime report at the Center for Social and Public Opinion Studies, a research arm of the Mexico's Chamber of Deputies.

The report, made public last week, said that major federal crimes, which include homicides, kidnappings and arms trafficking, rose 25 percent in the first half of 2007 over the same period last year. In 2006, the same crimes had risen 22 percent over the previous year.

Gangland style executions have risen 155 percent since 2001, according to the congressional report.

Kidnapping is a multi-million dollar industry in Mexico. The report from Congress indicates there are about 4,500 kidnappings a year, about a third of which are reported.

Greg Bangs, head of the kidnapping and ransom unit at the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, said Mexico has rocketed past Colombia to become the world's ransom capital.

"Mexico is now very definitely No. 1 in the world in terms of the numbers of kidnappings," Bangs said. "Kidnappers are indicating how serious they are by sending parts of ears and noses and fingers and various bodily parts . . . they didn't used to do that so much, but that seems to be more prevalent."

¿4,500 secuestros al año? ¿Las ejecuciones han aumentado 155%? ¿Más homicidios que en cualquier otra región, a excepción de Africa? ¿México ha rebasado a Colombia en secuestros? ¿Ahora México es el número uno en secuestros? ¿México, número uno en asesinatos en occidente? ¿México, uno de los países más violentos del mundo? Vaya logro, ¡felicidades Fox y Calderón, finalmente somo número uno en algo!