Violence Remains a Problem in Mexico

  By Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottetown, PEI] Guardian

Mexico’s homicide rate has tripled since 2006, when an intensification of the government’s war on drug cartels triggered a spiral of violence. It went from 9.6 murders per 100,000 inhabitants to 28 in 2021.

The number of people going missing has also increased sharply, and now totals 108,000 since record keeping began in 1964.

The United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances estimates that, under current conditions, it would take 120 years to process the 52,000 unidentified bodies documented by the Movement for Our Disappeared (MND), a non-governmental organization.

'PAIN AND CRUELTY'

An average of 17 “atrocities” were reported each day in news outlets in Mexico during the first six months of 2022, up 18 per cent from the same period last year, according to a report released in September by Common Causes (Causa en Comun), another non-governmental organization.

It defined atrocities as the intentional use of force to severely abuse, maim, kill or provoke terror, and counted 5,463 victims from 3,123 events reported in 2,657 news articles in newspapers that sensationalize violent criminal behaviour.

Media reports of “highimpact” violence by criminal groups against authorities or large crowds rose 756 per cent, from 25 to 214. Although the problem of organized crime dominates public debate, the study noted that a large part of the violence was perpetrated by individuals, families and communities.

“This work points to an accumulation of stories that present a mosaic of pain and cruelty, hidden behind crime statistics,” the organization said in a statement. The study underlined the severity and number of atrocities recorded every day.

WOMEN AND GIRLS

In the first half of 2022, the study found the number of reports of torture doubled to 856, while those of murdering women using “extreme cruelty” rose 87 per cent to 410.

Another survey reported that violence against women and girls has increased over the last five years, with seven in 10 of them reported experiencing some form of violence.

“Violence against women continues to be a challenge in the country and constitutes a public health problem,” the president of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), Graciela Marquez, told a news conference Aug. 30.

Mexico’s soaring rate of femicide — the killing of women and girls because of their gender — has sparked waves of protests. On average, some 10 women are killed every day and tens of thousands are missing.

INEGI estimated that more than 70 per cent of 50.5 million women and girls aged over 15 have experienced violence, up four percentage points from the last time it ran the survey in 2016.

Reports of sexual violence increased the most, up eight percentage points to reach half of all women surveyed, 23 per cent of whom said they had experienced this in the last 12 months.

Nearly 35 per cent reported being a victim of physical aggression during their lives, up from 34 per cent in 2016, while 52 per cent said they had experienced psychological abuse, up from 49 per cent. Younger, single women living in cities and with higher levels of education were more likely to report being victims of violence.

The vast majority of women who experienced physical or sexual violence did not formally report their attacker or seek help from a public institution, according to INEGI.

Only in terms of “economic” violence, which includes workplace discrimination and withholding of personal property, did the study see improvement, down from 29 per cent to 27 per cent in the latest study.

Only in the southern state of Chiapas did less than half of the women surveyed report experiencing violence, at 49 per cent, while Mexico City and the surrounding State of Mexico had the highest number, averaging 77 per cent of women there.

All told, overall reports of violence increased in every state in Mexico, but were concentrated in the Pacific coastal state Baja California, where they nearly tripled, as well as in the central states of Guanajuato and Michoacan.

Not even journalists are spared. At least 36 have been murdered since Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador was sworn in as president in December 2019. Mexico is experiencing the deadliest year for the media in its history this year.

So far, eleven journalists have been killed this year, four more than in 2021. In most cases, the deaths are linked to investigations into drug trafficking, political corruption, and organized crime, according to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders.

All of this has led to efforts to restructure the country’s security forces. In early September Mexico’s Congress passed a bill to bring the civilian-led National Guard under army control — though critics claimed it would militarize law and order.