In the US there is violence and Mexico does not send travel alerts: AMLO

With information from Arturo Sánchez

Correspondent

Newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, August 20, 2022, p. 8

Tijuana, BC., This Friday morning, where the head of the Secretariat for Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), Rosa Icela Rodríguez, reported that so far this six-year term, federal crimes have dropped 29.3 percent and intentional homicides 10.4 percent as of July, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador accused his opponents of pretending create the perception that the country is on fire.

In passing, he replied to the US ambassador, Ken Salazar, that his administration does not send warnings to Mexicans not to travel to the United Statesalthough in that country there unfortunate acts of violencesuch as shootings or assaults.

Washington’s envoy said Thursday that it is time for results in terms of security in Mexico and that the Mexican population deserves to live without fear.

Without explicitly referring to Salazar, López Obrador commented at the Morelos Barracks, in the second Military Zone of this city, that he understands and respects very much to the American authorities, and of course I love the American people very muchbut we are different, they are different conceptions, that is why we are independent countries and that is why we must respect our sovereignties.

To those who bet that their government could not reduce crime rates I’m going to re-prescribe the results because that’s what countsand highlighted that the SSCP breakdown confirmed that July was the month with the fewest kidnappings since there were official records, with 35 victims.

Secretary Rodríguez presented the monthly security report at the national level, in which she pointed out that the incidence of crime in the country continues to decline until last month.

Regarding intentional homicides, it reported that between January and July 2022, 18,093 cases were registered, which represents a decrease of 8.7 percent compared to the same period last year, 12 percent compared to the period January-July 2020 and 10.4 percent compared to the same period in 2019.

Based on data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi), he stated that during the administration of Carlos Salinas de Gortari there was an increase of 9.2 percent in the number of murders; with Ernesto Zedillo the figure decreased 31 percent; with Vicente Fox it grew 1.6 percent; with Felipe Calderón it rose 192.8 percent; with Enrique Peña Nieto it increased 59 percent; while so far in the López Obrador government there is a drop of 10.4 percent.

He explained that six entities concentrate almost half of the murders (49 percent): Guanajuato, Michoacán, Baja California, the state of Mexico, Jalisco and Chihuahua.

In common law crimes, he explained, there has been a drop compared to last year. Total theft is down 23.4 percent compared to December 2018.

With 54 cases registered last month, femicide had a drop of 51.7 percent compared to the historical maximum of August 2021.

He attributed the reduction in kidnappings to the work of the anti-kidnapping units and the National Anti-kidnapping Coordination, which made 4,474 arrests from July 16, 2019 to July 31, 2022, dismantled 510 gangs and freed 2,033 victims.