At a conference on Wednesday, President Calderón asked prosecutors and judges turned the tables on those used to asking the questions. Why were so few of those arrested for violent crimes in Mexico being punished? Documents obtained by the Associated Press indicate that only about 15 percent of those arrested between December 2006 and September 2009 were either convicted or acquitted. Guillermo Ortiz, the chief justice of Mexico’s Supreme Court, gives a conflicting account. He says while some cases have been dismissed for lack of evidence, 85% of those “formally” held over for crimes were convicted of charges.
Calderón has called for a series of panels and conferences in Mexico to come up with crime fighting strategies. In recent weeks two inklings point to a reassessment of the Mexican government’s strategy against drug trafficking. High-profile killings of members of the Sinaloa gang in fire fights with law enforcement points toward the relative lack of progress made against Mexico’s most powerful drug syndicate. A second problem has been the paltry rate of judicial prosecutions in Mexico. To me, this new willingness to reassess and re-target the government’s efforts to combat drug-related crime in Mexico holds promise. Time will tell how much.
A few months ago, I wrote about the early stages of the conflict in Ukraine through the lens of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. While it appears likely that the war will carry on into the foreseeable future, enough time has passed for us to make an honest assessment of each side’s relative […]
The Ukrainian Army has made dramatic strides in the last few weeks. Ukraine’s tactical commanders have outfoxed their Russian counterparts, and by issuing a feint towards the south the UA has been able to earn substantial gains in the north of their country. The impact of these efforts have been compounded by the steady stream […]
In mid-May the Irish political party, Sinn Féin, won the plurality of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Many American readers might not fully understand the significance of Sinn Féin’s political victory- but rest assured that subjects of the United Kingdom and a wide range of political movements the world over have heard the message […]
The first wave of the Russian offensive in Ukraine has fallen short of Russian autocrat Vladmir Putin’s ambitions. Most analysts deduced that Putin had hoped to achieve a decapitation strike of the Ukrainian government- taking Kiev and replacing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zolinski with a pro-Kremlin voice. Kiev has been threatened repeatedly through the course of […]
On the weekend of March 26th, the notorious MS-13 gang went on a massive killing spree in El Salvador which left more than 70 people dead by Sunday. Even for a country where powerful gangs hold massive sway, this recent tragedy stands out considering that it was the bloodiest day on record since the civil […]
