Thursday 13 June 2013

Colombian troops shoot four FARC guerrillas, Police detain 10

Army planes bombed at an unspecified date positions of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the west-coast department of Chocó, killing four presumed FARC fighters and later confiscating arms and "abundant" quantities of ammunition, the newspapers El Espectador and El Tiempo reported on 12 June, citing the army. The army, navy and air force collaborated in the raid, thought to have destroyed a camp belonging to members of the Libardo García Mobile Column in the district of Docordó or Medio San Juan. Police operatives separately detained 10 suspected members of the FARC and of the ELN, the other communist guerrilla force in the country, in several districts of the northern department of Antioquia, the broadcaster W Radio reported on 12 June. The suspects, identified as belonging to the FARC's Mario Vélez Front and the ELN's Captain Mauricio Company, were held in the districts of Caucasia, Casanare, Amalfi, Valdivia and Puerto Valdivia, W Radio reported.

Slight increase in homicides, kidnappings seen in Mexico City

A report showed a year-on-year increase in homicides, kidnappings and gunfire injuries in Mexico City in the first five months of 2013, although there appeared to be an overall decline in the most frequent crimes in the capital. The Reporte de Índice Delictivo (RINDE) compiled by the Citizens Council for Public Security (Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad Pública y Justicia Penal) using figures from the office of the Mexico City chief prosecutor (Procuración General de la Justicia del Distrito Federal) counted 336 homicides in the capital from 1 January to the end of May 2013, compared to 316 killings for that period in 2012, the newspaper Milenio reported on 12 June. Reported or registered kidnappings increased by 12.5 per cent in that period - rising from 24 to 27 cases - and gunfire injuries rose from 466 to 520 cases. Nevertheless there was an 18-per-cent fall in the 14 most frequently committed crimes in the capital in the first five months of 2013, these declining from 21,421 to 17,550 registered incidents. The report excluded crimes not reported. The Citizens Council president in Mexico City Luis Wertman Zaslav was cited as saying that of the documented homicide figures, 40 per cent were the result of fights or scuffles, 33 per cent for vendettas, 13 per cent were crimes of passion and 15 per cent the consequence of armed robberies, Milenio reported. Wertman urged authorities not to tolerate this increase; "we are not going to allow or tolerate being deprived of the tranquility we have attained...in Mexico City, which is living today a totally different reality from that of 10 or 12 years ago. We are not going to be quiet and give into a minority of delincuents. We are going to defend our" right to walk on streets that "belong to citizens not to crime." The Citizens Council found separately that kidnappings were increasingly violent in Mexico, observing on its website that 2013 was confirming the upward trend in the killing of kidnap victims. A report posted on the Council's website on 11 June found that "at least 144 " of the 2,756 reported kidnap victims were killed in Mexico in 2012, compared to 120 of 2,979 kidnap victims killed in 2011 and 219 killed in 2010. The Council stated these were the highest fatality figures since 1971 when compilations began, adding however that many kidnappings were unreported or figures were often "shaved" downward by authorities. Separately on 12 or 13 June, a spokesman for the national Security Cabinet said state forces had freed 67 kidnap victims over 15 days in actions around the country, and detained 37 suspected kidnappers, Milenio reported. Eduardo Sánchez told a press conference at the interior ministry that the detained were members of 11 gangs thought involved in 50 other kidnapping cases; they were caught in the states of Guerrero, Nuevo León, Baja California, Estado de México, Sonora and Mexico City.