Rosa Icela Rodríguez: official coups take away 35 thousand million dollars from criminals

Enrique Mendez and Georgina Saldierna

Newspaper La Jornada
Thursday December 8, 2022, p. fifteen

The head of the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, said that the acts of violence registered this Wednesday in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, with a balance of eight people dead and seven soldiers wounded, are a reaction of organized crime to the important arrests that took place in that entity.

When appearing before the Citizen Security Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, he stressed that throughout the day there were patrols and the presence of security elements in the area, and the situation was controlled.

To every action by the federal government there is a reaction from organized crime, and then there are confrontationsadded the official, referring to the arrest of the leader of a cell of the Northeast cartel, Heriberto Rodríguez Hernández, a week ago and the clash between the armed forces and suspected criminals registered on Wednesday on a highway five kilometers from the border with the United States .

During the meeting with the legislators, he claimed that there is no reciprocity from the PAN. They demand the presence of the Army and the Navy, but there is no support with votes, for their participation in public security tasks, he indicated.

Rodríguez released a video with statements by former President Felipe Calderón regarding the use of the armed forces against organized crime. He stressed that the former president made a decision by questioning the fact that actions that were previously said to solve the problem of violence were not supported. Where was the consistency?he questioned, addressing the blue and whites.

This approach by the official took place after the PAN told her that she should apologize for the government’s failure in security matters and present her resignation. The PAN also demanded more resources for the state police, since the ones they receive are not enough. The Secretary of Security asked the legislators to classify extortion, the collection of land rights and clandestine logging as serious crimes, since this would imply more severe sanctions to discourage these practices and that those who commit them no longer go free.

In the appearance before the deputies as part of the gloss of the fourth Government Report of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, he rejected that the country is being militarized as the opposition repeatedly accused.

Rosa Icela Rodríguez was accompanied, among others, by Arturo Félix Medina, prosecutor of the Federation; Ricardo Mejía Berdeja, Undersecretary of Public Security, and Luis Rodríguez Bucio, Commander of the National Guard.

He also presented a series of indicators on crime reduction and the seizure of weapons and drugs. From December 2018 to November 2022, the operational and financial structures of all criminal groups have been affected, for more than 35 billion dollars, he pointed out.

We are not saying that Mexico no longer has violence; what we’re saying is that crime rates are down, he explained.

He stressed that Mexicans can be sure that in this administration the members of the security cabinet have no ties to organized crime.