Thread: Mexico targets bad cops

Mexico targets bad cops
By DUDLEY ALTHAUS Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Mexico City Bureau
Aug. 21, 2008, 11:32PM
46Comments MEXICO CITY — Facing public outrage over runaway crime, Mexico's federal and state leaders on Thursday unveiled a coordinated plan to purge police forces nationwide and rebuild the country's justice system.

"The truth is we are all responsible," President Felipe Calderon told the National Conference on Security, Justice and Legality. "The proliferation of crime could not have happened without years of protection and impunity."

The objective, Calderon said, was to create police forces "that protect citizens — not the criminals."

Calderon and his senior public security officials, in a 75-point agreement with the country's governors, congressional members and judicial leaders, committed themselves to investigate all local, state and federal police forces within a year, purging officers found to be corrupt.

They agreed to create state anti-kidnapping units, impose harsher sentences for kidnappers and draw up a national strategy to reduce abductions.

They pledged to set up a national system of standards for police and create federally assisted agencies in each state to continually vet police forces.

They called for programs to better select and train judges and the prosecutors who direct criminal investigations.

"We must stop criminality," Calderon told the meeting held at the ornate National Palace in the heart of the Mexican capital. "And the first step is getting it out of our own house."

Crime, he said, "has advanced bit by bit through fear, intimidation, corruption, and authorities who have decided to protect criminals.

"The proliferation of crime can't be understood without the cover of impunity," Calderon said.


Meeting of top leaders
The agreement was negotiated by senior federal officials in the past week with the governors, the mayor of Mexico City and leaders of Congress.

Calderon has made a crackdown on crime — primarily the country's powerful narcotics trafficking gangs — a cornerstone of his 20-month presidency.

The crackdown, which has employed 30,000 soldiers and federal police, has recorded mixed results and, according to government officials, has set off waves of drug-gang violence in many parts of the country.

More than 5,000 people have been slain since Calderon took office. Kidnappings — which plagued the country's wealthy and middle classes — have spiked.

Public outrage and pressure boiled over this month when police in Mexico City found the body of the 14-year old son of a wealthy family. Fernando Marti was kidnapped by men wearing badges at a phony checkpoint in early June and was killed later that month by his abductors, even though his family paid a ransom. One of the suspects arrested was a police detective.

Alejandro Marti, the father of the slain youth, addressed the assembled officials and politicians."If you think the bar is very high and impossible, if you can't do it, resign," he said. "Because not doing anything is corruption as well."

Drug-gang violence, meanwhile, seemed to have intensified in August as cartels of gangs from Chihuahua, Sinaloa and other states battled one another for control of trafficking routes into the United States.

Thirteen people — all males including a 4-year old and a 16-month-old baby — were shot to death by gunmen at a family party in a small tourist town in Chihuahua state, a battleground of drug gangs. A few days earlier, in Ciudad Juarez, the state's largest city, gunmen stormed a drug rehabilitation center at night and killed eight men holding a religious service.

The month before in Guamuchil in Sinaloa state, a 12-year-old girl, four teenagers and three men were killed by gunmen while sitting in their vehicles waiting for a red light to change. The gunmen, firing automatic weapons, were enraged, police said, because the victims' cars did not move out of their way while they were chasing another vehicle.

Kidnapping in most cases is a state crime in Mexico. Last year, 785 kidnappings were recorded across Mexico by the federal government, public security officials said Thursday.

The actual toll is believed to be higher. Many kidnappings are not reported by the families because they don't trust the police.


Citizen oversight planned
Thursday's accord called for the creation of a system of citizen oversight of police forces and justice systems. And Calderon outlined plans for a national system for citizens to inform on suspected criminals anonymously.

Mexican organized crime has turned much of the country into a major production and transit sites for illegal narcotics. Successive presidents in the past two decades have ordered a number of police purges and justice system overhauls, with little lasting effect.

Many analysts are anticipating a similar impact. "We are hoping for a lot of improvement," said Arturo Arango, a public security expert at a Mexico City think tank. "But they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

dudley.althaus@chron.com


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/5959176.html

I think the only way they can get non-corrupt Policemen is to hire non-Mexicans.