Mexico Brazenly Distorts Stats, Claims Crime is Low

Gulf Cartel Kidnapping (2)
Breitbart Texas / Cartel Chronicles
Ildefonso Ortiz and Brandon Darby

Mexico’s top federal officials brazenly distorted crime statistics this week to claim that kidnappings had drastically decreased in March. That same month, Mexico had two separate cases of mass kidnappings where cartel gunmen forcibly took approximately 90 people in the states of Nuevo Leon and Sinaloa.

During a news conference, Mexico’s top security official, Rosa Isela Rodriguez, claimed that in March, Mexico saw a decrease of 82 percent in kidnappings, with only 29 cases in comparison with the same time period the prior year, which had 161 cases.

Rodriguez went on to claim similar statistics for murders and several other crimes. However, the Mexican official failed to acknowledge that in March, there were two separate cases of mass kidnappings, one in the state of Nuevo Leon by the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas and one in Sinaloa by the Sinaloa Cartel.

What Mexico’s government has done is play with the use of classifying crimes in order not to count the victims from the two mass kidnapping cases; something that, as Breitbart Texas reported, U.S. politicians and law enforcement have also done to make false claims about a city or the border region being safe. In the U.S., officials will use certain definitions to hide the severity of crimes. One of the most recent examples took place in Houston, where the Houston Police Department consistently claimed year after year that the city was seeing a decrease in crime. However, a recent audit revealed that officials had not investigated more than 260,000 crimes, including more than 4,000 sexual assaults, over a lack of personnel and simply filed them away, Breitbart Texas reported.

In Mexico, officials classified the two mass kidnapping cases in March as “not located individuals” in order to not have to use the term kidnapping even though, in both cases, the victims were taken by gunmen for financial reasons. The attempts to claim a decrease in crime come as the country braces for a heavily contested presidential election this summer.

As Breitbart Texas exclusively reported, one of the kidnapping cases took place when the CDN-Los Zetas sent out Los Catrachos cell to forcibly abduct more than 30 people out of their homes in two rural communities in Nuevo Leon. The intended victims in those cases are believed to have been drug users or other individuals who owed money to the cartel. However, once the kidnappings began, the cartel gunmen also took their relatives, including young children. In the following days, the cartel released the innocent relatives. However, several victims remain missing.

In a similar fashion, the Sinaloa Cartel also took 66 individuals in a series of kidnappings in various parts of the state. Just like in Nuevo Leon, the cartel took innocent victims, including children and elderly people, who they later released. In the case of Sinaloa, government officials tried to downplay the incident, claiming that “these things happen,” Breitbart Texas reported.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.     

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