Mexico's new president quiet on drug violence

Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto waves as he leaves his inauguration ceremony in the congressional chambers, in Mexico City, Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012. Pena Nieto took the oath of office on Saturday, bringing the old ruling party back to power after a 12-year hiatus. / AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini

MEXICO CITY Two months after President Enrique Pena Nieto took office promising to reduce violent crime, the killings linked to Mexico's drug cartels continue unabated.

Only the government's talk about them has dropped.

Eighteen members of a band and its retinue were kidnapped and apparently slain over the weekend in the northern border state of Nuevo Leon by gunmen who asked them to name their cartel affiliation before they were shot and dumped in a well. Fourteen prisoners and nine guards died in an attempted prison escape in Durango state. Nine men were slain Christmas eve in Sinaloa. In the state of Mexico, which borders the capital, more than a dozen bodies were found last week, some dismembered.

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The difference under this administration is that there have been no major press conferences announcing more troops or federal police for drug-plagued hotspots. Gone are the regular parades of newly arrested drug suspects before the media with their weapons, cash or contraband.

Pena Nieto has been mum, instead touting education, fiscal and energy reforms. On Monday, he told a summit of Latin American and Caribbean leaders in Chile that he wants Mexico to focus on being a player in solving world and regional problems.

Some political observers praise him for trying to change the conversation and presenting an alternative face of Mexico. Critics suggest the country's new leaders believe that the best way to solve a security crisis is to create distractions.

"What Pena Nieto is doing is ... sweeping violence under the rug in hopes that no one notices," said security expert Jorge Chabat. "It can be effective in the short term, until the violence becomes so obvious that you can't change the subject."

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The Pena Nieto government didn't immediately respond to requests for interviews. Secretary of Interior Jose Osorio Chong had a closed-door meeting with the governors of Mexico's central states about security on Monday. In a press conference afterward, he promised to increase patrols along a highway system already bristling with military and police roadblocks and checkpoints.

The apparent weekend killing of 18 members of Kombo Kolombia, which had played at a private performance late Thursday, was the largest mass kidnapping and killing since 20 tourists disappeared and were later found dead in 2011 near the resort city of Acapulco. Searchers this week were pulling bodies from a well in northern Mexico that they said likely belonged to the band.

An area known as the Laguna, where Coahuila and Durango states meet, has been the scene of numerous battles between factions of the Sinaloa the Zetas cartels.

The State of Mexico has had 70 slayings so far this year, according to Gov. Eruviel Avila. La Familia has moved in from the neighboring state of Michoacan and is fighting for territory with a smaller gang known as the United Warriors. Meanwhile, masked vigilantes patrol towns in the southern state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast, where citizens have grown tired of organized crime usurping local authority.

Communications expert Ruben Aguilar said the Pena Nieto government is right to change the focus from security, which had been the main topic throughout the six-year administration of President Felipe Calderon, who left office on Dec. 1.

"On the subject of security, President Calderon went against all logic and turned it into the country's only issue," said Aguilar, who was spokesman for previous President Vicente Fox. "The theme itself is addictive for the media, and generates a negative social mood."

It's difficult to say if drug violence has risen because the government no longer provides numbers, something that started under Calderon, who last released drug-war death statistics in September 2011.

The newspaper Reforma, one of several media outlets that count murders linked to organized crime, said that in December, the first month of the new government, there were 755 drug-related killings, compared to 699 in November. In Calderon's six-year term, some 70,000 people lost their lives to drug violence, the newspaper reported, with at least 20,000 believed missing.

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[djseavy]

I think he's wise to scale back the publicity. And he could well be working on plans that, if outed, could thwart his efforts to curb the violence and mayhem. I think many of our shootings in the USA happen because the gunman wants to get the publicity and try to top what the previous shooter did. Media is a wonderful information source, but sometimes the media can actually hurt a cause by giving gangs and other violent groups a heads-up on what law enforcement plans to do. That defeats the whole purpose of trying to get one step ahead of the violence. Don't be too quick to judge. He could be on the right path, but many people wouldn't know that since they think the path should be clearly marked for the bad guys.

[bajajohn1]

It should be understood that each President has the right to exercise executive powers according to his agenda. In the case of publicizing every event, the Mexican economy suffers because foreign media seldom get the narrative correct. There is a lot more to Mexico than drug violence. There is also a thriving Mexico with a growing middle class and modern approaches to governmental management.

[Fliphal890]

@bajajohn1 - Thank you for your comment!! I totally agree with you. I own 2 homes in Mexico and spend as much time as I can down there. Beautiful country - beautiful people. Love it.