The cost of eight penalties and crimes of the federal jurisdiction decrease, indicates Rosa Icela Rodríguez

Emir Olivares Alonso

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Newspaper La Jornada
Saturday December 3, 2022, p. 5

Alvarado, Ver., Before the country’s governors, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called yesterday, at the 48th ordinary session of the National Public Security Council (CNSP), to review the work of state prosecutors who do not act fairly, he claimed its security strategy and highlighted the commitment of the federal forces to guarantee peace, while the head of the Secretariat for Citizen Security and Protection (SSPC), Rosa Icela Rodríguez, asserted that the results confirm that the path is correct and that the pacification of Mexico is possible.

Rodríguez outlined the figures that, from his perspective, show that there are results: compared to December 2018, when the López Obrador government began, and until October 2022, federal crimes fell 27.3 percentage points; femicides, 20.8; kidnappings, 68.1; robberies, 18; fuel theft, 92.2, and intentional homicides have a downward trend since the second half of 2021 and it is estimated that by the end of the month there will be 22 percent fewer victims than the all-time high of July 2018.

Earlier, in the morning conference, the official reported that the federal government negotiated a discount of 41 thousand 496 million pesos with the businessmen whom Genaro García Luna, Secretary of Public Security in the six-year term of Felipe Calderón and today accused of accepting bribes from the Sinaloa cartel, granted the construction and operation of eight federal prisons.

Rodríguez explained that when he began his management in the SSPC, 276 thousand 619 million had to be paid for the privatized prisons until the end of the contracts, which contemplate payments until 2032, which implied that the daily maintenance of each inmate cost the State up to 6 A thousand pesos. It was as if they were staying in five-star hotels.commented López Obrador.

The payment dropped to 235 thousand 123 million after negotiating with the businessmen hired by García Luna, regarding some of which President López Obrador said are related to the media.

The official acknowledged that with everything and the agreed discount, the cost of maintaining the prisoners is still onerous in some cases, although she did not explain which ones. During Calderón’s six-year term, it was ensured that keeping each inmate in these prisons – in whose hiring there was an unjustified cost overrun of 41 billion pesos, as estimated in 2018 by the Superior Audit Office of the Federation – would cost only 230 pesos a day.

One of those federal prisons, the one in Papantla, was inaugurated in the time of García Luna, although it had not been completed. It seemed like it had been launched, but that was false, to date it has not been finishedsaid Rodríguez, who added that the responsible company has promised to have it ready in March or April 2023.

In the CNSP session, which was held at the Heroic Naval Military School in this municipality, and with the presence of 30 of 32 state leaders -the PAN members from Guanajuato, Diego Sinhue Rodríguez, and from Chihuahua, María Eugenia Campos, nor Neither did the Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López, who fell ill. López Obrador stressed that those local prosecutors who do not act legally represent an obstacle to move towards peace.

They can reach agreements with crime and it has been proven that when prosecutors do not act fairly, crime rates skyrocket.

He listed four basic points to act against crime and combat the violence that afflicts the country: guarantee the well-being of the people, prevent corruption, perseverance and the coordinated work of all authorities.

He called to consider that even when there are honest state and municipal police officers, it is very risky for them to carry out their duty, because in the municipalities it is known –including organized crime– where the local troops live and who their relatives are.

And unfortunately the maximum of silver or lead is applied, or the Copts, and they put themselves at the service of crime, or they are attackedindicated.

So having the National Guard allows for more professionalism and avoids the capture of municipal police officers, including state police officers.. This, she maintained, It is not militarization, it is joining efforts to protect people.

Secretary Rodríguez reported that 5,488 kilograms of fentanyl have been seized, one thousand percent more than in the last three years of the past six-year term, which has affected organized crime for more than 43,534 million pesos; 96 thousand 933 kilograms of cocaine have been seized, 128 more than in the last administration, with a reduction to criminals of more than 23 thousand 66 million pesos.

33,416 firearms have been confiscated, more than 17 million cartridges and 2,344 grenades, as well as more than 77,000 transport units, and more than 65,000 criminals have been apprehended, 6,385 of whom are related to organized crime, and 2,421 of them are priority targets for all criminal groups.

The host of the act, the governor of Veracruz, Cuitláhuac García, raised the need to review the work of the prosecutors who with their actions do not contribute to justice. And he highlighted two examples: Morelos and Guanajuato.

(With information from Arturo Sánchez Jiménez)