Saturday, July 4, 2009

MEXICAN CITIZENS ASKED TO FIGHT DRUG CARTEL - Just let the cartel live here on welfare!

Mexican citizens asked to fight crime
As kidnapping rates soar, Mexico City's mayor is recruiting 300,000 residents to monitor – and turn in – corrupt cops.
By Sara Miller Llana | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the August 14, 2008 edition
Mexico City - Shopkeeper Mayra Bermejo would have a hard time turning in a corrupt police officer even though she – like so many other Mexicans – is exasperated by the growing number of killings and kidnappings that authorities are unable to prevent.
"Once he knows I've denounced him, I'm an open target," says Ms. Bermejo. "He may even send street thugs to harass me."
Seventy-two percent of city residents say they don't trust the police, according to a recent survey in the daily newspaper Reforma. And if Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard has his way, a new corps of 300,000 residents will become watchdogs of sorts – monitoring and turning in police officials who operate outside the law.
With 438 reported kidnappings last year – and probably many more unreported – one more abduction typically would have fallen on ears deafened by the grim state of security in Mexico. But the case of Fernando Martí, the teenage son of a wealthy Mexican family, has resonated nationwide. His body was found Aug. 1, after he had been abducted at a fake police checkpoint two months earlier and after his family reportedly paid a ransom in full.
It comes as news of abductions along the US-Mexican border, including cases involving US citizens, has increasingly made headlines. Kidnapping increased from 278 victims in 2005 to 325 victims in 2006, according to government figures. In 2007, the number jumped by 35 percent. Fifty-nine kidnap victims, including Fernando, have been killed since Mexico President Felipe Calderón took office in December 2006.
Most citizens have little faith in the police, says Arturo Alvarado, a sociologist at the College of Mexico. By some estimates, 1 in 4 crimes goes unreported, he says. Instead, residents find their own solutions, employing security guards or gating themselves in their neighborhoods.
That is why many residents say they would be unwilling to take on the role of citizen watchdog.
"The fear of reprisal is enough to keep anyone from denouncing police corruption. Even police chiefs are afraid to act, for fear that they will be killed," says Carlo Cuenca, a shopkeeper in Mexico City.
It is this fear that Ortega says must be defeated if the country is to move forward. "The answer is not with the police. They have demonstrated collusion with organized crime and kidnappings. For this reason we must break with the fear. Thousands of us must march to show that we are not afraid," he says.
Frustration comes as Mr. Calderón has sent tens of thousands of federal police and military personnel across the country to tamp down drug violence that has, nevertheless, persisted. Some 2,000 people have been killed this year in connection to the illegal drug trade, according to local media tallies.
Yet kidnapping terrorizes citizens more than drug-related violence, because victims are more often targeted randomly. And since several cops have been arrested in connection with the Martí case, a new sense of anger not seen in at least four years – the last time civil organizations staged a massive antikidnapping protest – has surfaced.
A Mexican federal police commander whose top deputies were gunned down last weekend was charged Friday with possessing more than $500,000 from drug trafficking.
Carlos Cepano Filippini, 34, was one of four people charged with one felony count each of possession of money as part of narcotics trafficking, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said in a statement.
Less than a week ago two of his high ranking officers were shot in Mexico.

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