Doesn't common sense say this is what our government is importing into the US? Of course, if you live in a fortified, big white house, surrounded with steel bars, secret service agents and military guards ... you may not feel threatened.

Murders and kidnappings hit record levels in Mexico

McClatchy Newspapers
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.23.2007

MEXICO CITY — Gangland-style murders and kidnappings reached record levels in Mexico during the first half of the year, a new report from Mexico's congress has found, 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 … 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, was a setback for Mexican President Felipe Calderón, whose tough new war on drug trafficking has sent thousands of troops into the countryside and a record number of drug suspects to the United States for trial.

According to the report, 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 2005.

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

Crime has been on the rise in Mexico for a decade as drug cartels battle for control of lucrative smuggling routes.

But the new findings come at a politically charged time for the Calderón administration, which is also confronting a new threat from an old foe — the shadowy Popular Revolutionary Army or EPR, its Spanish acronym.
EPR's coordinated bombings of natural-gas pipelines in July and September have exposed government intelligence failures and the vulnerability of the petroleum infrastructure in Mexico, the second-largest oil exporter to the United States.

"The reality is the government has been pursuing the top EPR leaders for at least five years, and they haven't been able to catch them," said Mexican political commentator Raymundo Riva Palacio.

Experts believe the EPR, a Marxist group that traces its origins to the guerrilla movements of the 1970s, finances its activities with ransom from kidnapped businessmen.

The guerrillas say the attacks will continue until authorities release two comrades who disappeared in Oaxaca in May; state and federal officials say they're not in government custody.

The group's reach appears to be countrywide. The first blasts struck multiple locations in central Mexico. The second set hit coastal Veracruz.
On Wednesday, security was beefed up around pipelines in northern Chihuahua state after EPR graffiti appeared on installations there.
Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora recently told reporters that the guerrilla bombings "distract" authorities from their battle against organized crime.

Gangland-style executions have surged, with the report counting 1,588 in the first half of 2007. For the full year of 2001, there were 1,080 such crimes, the report said.

Kidnapping is a multimillion-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.

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/news/202639.php