Thirteen shot around Mexico, passenger bus robbed

Thirteen at least were reported killed or found dead in presumed criminal incidents around Mexico on 11-13 May. Seven were shot dead on 12-13 May in the states of Guerrero, Sinaloa and Nuevo León in western, north-western and northern Mexico, including a municipal police official shot at home late on 12 May, Proceso reported. Assassins shot dead Raúl Valladares Díaz the deputy-police chief of San Miguel Totolapan in Guerrero, while he was having dinner with his family. The other victims were "four young men" shot early on 13 May by a dam outside the city of Culiacán in Sinaloa, and two men found dead in a car some 40 kilometres east of the city of Monterrey, with hands and feet tied, Proceso reported. The review separately reported six killings on 12 May in the northern state of Coahuila, in incidents in the districts of Saltillo and San Pedro de las Colonias outside Torreón. Three of the victims were aged between 15 and 17 years. In Chihuahua, masked bandits robbed a passenger coach travelling to the northern city of Juárez early on 13 May, stopping the bus near the district of Villa Ahumada. Passengers were relieved of all valuable belongings but nobody was hurt, Proceso reported. On 14 May the firm Marsh Brockman touted a "unique and innovative" insurance product designed to cover losses derived from the actions of organized crime, Mexican media reported. The product - launched in January 2013 and aimed at domestic and foreign firms working in Mexico - compensates policy-holders up to 25 million USD for damages caused by the acts of organized crime or terrorism and sabotage, Milenio reported. The daily cited firm spokesman Julián Abraham González as saying that this was better than similar products in certain other states, which only covered losses from terrorism.

Ten killed around Mexico, locals arm against criminals

Ten people were reported killed in presumed criminal incidents around Mexico on 8-9 January, including three gunned down in the northern district of Saltillo and four in the north-western district of Tijuana. Another victim was an employee of the baking firm Bimbo, shot dead while driving a delivery van in the north-western city of Culiacán, Proceso reported on 9 January. On 8 January, police found 10 tonnes of marijuana in a mechanical workshop in Tijuana in the state of Baja California, although stamps on the sealed packets indicated these had previously been confiscated by police or the army. Nobody was arrested and it was not immediately clear why the load was seemingly abandoned or stolen. A police revision that day apparently indicated the load had been confiscated days before in three parts. The drugs formerly owned by the Sinaloa cartel, were handed over to state prosecutors, Proceso reported. The review separately reported that 200 residents of the western district of Ayutla de los Libres have been armed since 5 January and set up road blocks in response to persistent crime. The locals were controlling circulation in and out of Ayutla and declared they would not disarm until criminals had left the area. The governor of Guerrero where Ayutla is located, Ángel Aguirre Rivero reportedly told local media on 8 January that the measure indicated "the citizenry's desperation before organized crime and the lack of response by authorities," Proceso reported. Residents of Ayutla and two nearby districts mobilized on 5 January when a local policeman was kidnapped; the official was rescued and the kidnappers reportedly fled.

Around 30 reported killed in Mexico

Just under 30 were provisionally reported as gunned down or found dead around Mexico in the period from the evening of 5 to 8 January. Nine including three policemen were reported killed or found dead on 8 December; three of those including a policeman were found in an advanced state of decomposition in the  district of Durango in the northern state of Durango, Proceso reported. The policeman, from the district of Mezquital in that state, was reported disappeared in mid-December 2012. Two policemen were separately shot dead in the northern city of Saltillo and in Mexico City, while two charred bodies were found in a car in the north-western city of Culiacán, all on 8 January. Proceso reported 19 killings on 5-6 January, most of these occurring early on 6 January. One of the victims, found in the western city of Guadalajara, was identified as belonging to the cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación. Two of his brothers were reported arrested in September 2012. Separately on 8 January three teenagers or children and an adult were detained in the western resort of Acapulco with over 14.5 tonnes of "green weed" thought to be marijuana. Interrogations indicated the four were a local gang led by the adult, a 28-year-old dubbed El Chapito, Milenio reported. Police also detained on 8 January a gang of six including a mother and her 22-year-old son in the northern district of Escobedo, all suspected of drug trafficking and the kidnapping and murder of a taxi driver, Milenio reported.

Over 30 killed in crimes, found dead around Mexico

Crime-related violence continued in Mexico as its president was announcing a planned overhaul of the state's response to organized crime. As if in a country at war, over 35 were killed or found dead around Mexico on 16-18 December, including 17 in a collective bid to break out of a jail. Fifteen of the victims were killed or found dead on or around 18 December, Proceso reported. Among these: a child of seven was one of three - perhaps a family - shot dead while driving on a road near Las Peñitas in the eastern state of Veracruz; two were killed and a child of 13 shot and badly injured in an attack on a house in San Martín Cuauatlalpan in Estado de México outside the capital; the child was taken to hospital. The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) representative in Salvador Escalante in the western state of Michoacán was shot dead late on 17 December, at a roadside petrol station. Identified by the state prosecutor's office as Miguel Ángel Farfán Ortega, he became the PRI's mayoral candidate for Salvador Escalante in 2011 after his predecessor was found with guns in his car and presumably dismissed. A "cartel grave" (narcofosa) was found on 17 December outside the northern city of Saltillo; it yielded six bodies described as in advanced state of decomposition, Proceso reported on 18 December. One of the bodies was identified as belonging to an electoral official. The website separately reported a gun and grenade attack in Saltillo late on 17 December, launched on the house of an employee of the state prosecutor's office. Nobody was killed. In Tlalpán south of Mexico City, a man identified as the head of a gang called Los Rojos was killed while confined in a hospital late on 16 December, Proceso reported on 18 December; it added he had fled there from another hospital to which he had been admitted after being injured in an attack. Two gunmen dressed as doctors entered his room and shot him in the chest. A shootout on 18 December between prison guards and inmates - in what appeared to be an attempted mass flight - killed 11 prisoners and six guards in a prison in the northern city of Gómez Palacio. Inmates began shooting at guards in watch-towers in a possible signal to start rioting and allow a subsequent breakout, Proceso and Milenio reported. Proceso observed it was unclear where the inmates' weapons had come from.

Fifty or so killed in crimes around Mexico

Some 50 people, or perhaps more, were reported shot or found dead in presumed criminal incidents around Mexico on 5-7 December, many in the form of bodies buried in clandestine graves. Among the victims: six men were shot dead on 5 December in the northern city of Gómez Palacio in the state of Durango, while police found a ditch in Jiutepec in the south-central state of Morelos, containing the remains of two adults, a child and a baby. The review Proceso numbered at 14 or more those killed or found dead on 5-6 December. It reported at least 35 victims on 6-7 December, including 13 bodies found in two lorries on 6 December in the districts of Soto la Marina and Ciudad Mante in the north-eastern state of Tamaulipas, and four bodies found hanging from a bridge in the northern city of Saltillo early on 7 December, Proceso reported. The lorries likely contained the bodies of members of The Zetas cartel, as messages were found addressed to the cartel signed by its rivals the Gulf Cartel. In the district of Calera in the north-central state of Zacatecas a ditch or grave was found on 6 December, revealing "at least" 11 bodies.

Policemen killed, missing in Mexico

Gunmen fired on a police patrol late on 12 October, killing a policeman and injuring another in the northern city of Torreón, while two suspected criminals and a policeman were killed in a shootout in Los Mochis in the north-western state of Sinaloa, Proceso reported. Six policemen were reported missing on 12 October in Saltillo in the northern state of Coahuila, amid suspicions they may have been kidnapped. Their wives initially reported their absence; local authorities later confirmed they had not gone to work without stating why, Proceso reported. Authorities also arrested on 12 October six members of the gang Caballeros Templarios, suspected of forming an "operational" cell in Celaya and Apaseo el Alto in the central state of Guanajuato, the state's chief prosecutor Carlos Zamarripa Aguirre stated. The detained, including a local police official, were suspected of involvement in extortion, drug trafficking and perhaps murders, Proceso reported. Authorities confiscated 25 cars thought to belong to the group.