Presidential absence fuels tensions in Venezuela

Hugo Chávez Frías was to be sworn into a new presidential term in Caracas on 10 January but it was very unlikely he would, as he reportedly remained under close medical care following surgery for cancer in December. Opposition forces in Caracas have increasingly urged Venezuela''s socialist regime to inform Venezuelans of the president's state but also respect constitutional stipulations in case of the president's unexpected incapacity. The opposition's position was that the current parliamentary speaker,  Diosdado Cabello, was to take over provisionally and prepare for general elections. The Democratic Coalition Table (MUD, Mesa de Unidad Democrática) wrote to the Organization of American States (OAS) to state its concern about the "alteration of the constitutional order" if this did not happen on 10 January, posing it stated a threat to the "democratic order," Agence France-Presse reported on 8 January. Officials have said Chávez could be sworn in later as this was merely a formality; the country was currently administered by the Vice-President and Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro. The MUD wrote there is "absolutely no room for the interpretation that would alllow the...act to be postponed to an unspecified time." The governor of the state of Miranda and former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles separately told a press conference on 8 January that the Supreme Court must clarify the correct interpretation of who should be president on 10 January and the matter could not be left to the government. He said "I don't know what the magistrates...are waiting for. A conflict is presently being envisaged in Venezuela that is undoubtedly constitutional; institutional bodies must respond to this conflict," Globovisión reported. It was not immediately clear where he was speaking. "The country is expecting a way out...a clear interpretation of what this constitutional text says," he said, holding out a booklet before his audience. He asked American presidents not to come on 10 January and fuel the "political game" inside Venezuela, meaning attend a ceremony where Chávez was absent. Capriles wondered aloud why officials were not telling Venezuelans about the president's condition 48 hours before his inauguration, and implied they were lying in this respect. He could not understand he said why they found it "so difficult to speak truthfully," however "harsh" that truth was.

Over 25 reported killed around Mexico

More than 25 were reported killed or found dead around Mexico on 3-5 January in incidents presumed linked to drugs and cartels; 12 of the victims died on 4-5 January in the northern state of Chihuahua, the review Proceso reported. Of the 12, six were killed in the districts of Valle de Zaragoza and Delicias on 5 January and six, identified as relatives of the mayor of Balleza in Chihuahua, on 4 January. The latter were initially declared to have died in a car crash as all six were found next to a car by a road in Cabeza de Venado south-west of the district of Parral; after relatives insisted this had been a "multiple execution," investigations began, which revealed the six had been "tortured" and beaten to death. Two of them were apparently kidnapped on 3 January and were sought out by four relatives who were killed with them, Proceso reported. The former district police chief of Balleza was in turn arrested on 4 January and was to be prosecuted on kidnapping and murder charges, Proceso reported. He was dismissed in January 2012 after being accused of kidnapping and killing a shopkeeper, but fled; he was arrested after returning to Balleza. Two men were shot dead in a bar late on 4 January in the northern city of Torreón - a day after three were shot in another bar in that city - while four were shot dead in a house in Zapopan in the western state of Jalisco early on 5 January, Proceso reported. It reported five other killings on 3-4 January in the states of Morelos, Durango, Nuevo León and Guanajuato. Also on 5 January authorities in the north-central state of San Luis Potosí publicly presented 13 detainees identified as members of the Gulf Cartel thought to have been active in criminal activities in various districts of the state, Proceso reported, citing the regional daily Pulso. Arms, ammunition and communication items were reportedly taken from them.

Officials see fall in murders, extortion in El Salvador

The office of the Prosecutor-General of El Salvador issued a report on 27 December observing a dramatic fall in reported murders and extortions in 2012, attributed in the former case to a truce between gangs that began in March and to police action. The head of the Anti-homicide Unit at the prosecutor-general's office Oscar Torres told the press that day that there were 2,517 registered homicides in the country from 1 January to 19 December, 1,728 cases less than in the same period in 2011, El Salvador's El Mundo reported the next day. Torres said that 2,573 arrest warrants against murder suspects had led to 1,703 arrests and ultimately, to 922 convictions. The officer dealing with extortions at prosecutor-general's office, Allan Hernández, separately cited a 10 per cent drop in reported cases of extortion, presumably in the same period, and a 40-per-cent increase in related convictions. He said however there were no figures or any "real documented form" to show a direct link between this and the gangs' ceasefire. Salvadorean authorities have in recent months expressed satisfaction at the apparent fall in violent crime in the country even though certain critics intermittently insist many crimes go unreported. The recent homicide figures were deplorable compared to those of Costa Rica, where the local Red Cross reportedly counted 211 killings in 2012. But they were better than those of the most crime-ridden Latin American states like Venezuela or Honduras where 50 or so were reported killed over Christmas. No killings were apparently reported during the 22-30 December period in El Salvador, with police counting 33 deaths in car crashes or drownings.

Venezuelans pray for ailing leader's recovery

At the close of 2012 many Venezuelans prayed for the recovery of President Hugo Chávez Frías, apparently in a fragile state following a recent operation for a recurring cancer, while officials issued messages to dismiss rumours of his deterioration. Venezuela's Science Minister Jorge Arreaza Monserrat wrote on the website Twitter that the president had spent "a quiet and stable day in the company of his children" on 31 December and Venezuelans should disbelieve "malicious rumours" to the contrary. On 30 or 31 December, an oecumenical mass was held at a church in Caracas for Chávez, while residents gathered in the Plaza Bolívar to sing for the president, the state news agency AVN reported. Chávez followed the service on television from Cuba where he was operated, according to the Venezuelan communications minister Ernesto Villegas; on 30 December he urged unspecified critics not to "play" with the president's health by spreading rumours on websites like Twitter. It seemed improbable that Chávez could return to Venezuela to be officially sworn in for another presidential term on 10 January as scheduled; Vice-President Nicolás Maduro most recently described his physical state as "delicate." The Colombian broadcaster Caracol separately cited a physician José Rafael Marquina as saying that the recent surgery had been an "absolute failure" and that "Cuba does not have enough experience to treat" the president's "unusual cancer;" he said he believed Chávez was "very probably" living his "last days." It was not immediately clear if Marquina's assertions were based on reliable information, but Caracol described him as "known" to have previously revealed "privileged information" on the president's health. He told Caracol on 31 December that he did not believe rumours of Venezuelan officials concealing the president's death while preparing opinion for the news, observing that already "the country and the world are prepared for the death of Chávez."

Over 530 were killed in Caracas in December 2012

The Bello Monte forensic facility in Caracas was reported to have received 15 bodies - of presumed victims of criminal incidents in the capital - in the 12 hours from six in the evening on 30 December to six in the morning the next day, the broadcaster Globovisión reported on 31 December. It qualified the figures given by the morgue as unofficial but the movement of bodies into the morgue is reported in Venezuelan media and apparently considered a daily gauge of the state of violence in Caracas, which has the highest homicide rate in Venezuela. Citing the morgue's figures, Globovisión gave 532 as the number of violent deaths in Caracas in December 2012.

Killings reported across Mexico end of year

The review Proceso reported 15 or more criminal executions across the country on 30-31 December observing that "the last day of the year ended like the preceding 364 days: drenched in blood." Six of the fatalities were in the central Estado de México, with two people shot to death and four found decapitated. Five were found dead on 30 December in the district of Balleza in the northern state of Chihuahua, while two men were shot dead on 30 or 31 December in the district of Gómez Palacio in the state of Durango, Proceso reported. The website reported gun attacks on police and judiciary installations in Durango on 29-30 December, without casualties. Two gunmen were shot dead by police in the Mesa del Seri locality outside the north-western city of Hermosillo, on 30 or 31 December. In the district of Buenaventura in Chihuahua, members of The Zetas drug cartel recently murdered four women they had kidnapped, throwing their bodies into a ditch, Proceso reported on 31 December, citing declarations by the Chihuahua prosecutor's office. The ditch was found after marines arrested on 30 December four purported Zetas in the northern city of Monclova who also revealed a safe house holding three or four more hostages and an arsenal including assault rifles, hand grenades and ammunition. The hostages told police they too were to be murdered.

Army reported bombing guerrillas in northern Colombia

The Colombian armed forces were reported to have struck at the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in rural areas of the northern department of Antioquia on 31 December, with differing figures given for purported casualties. Army and air-force units bombarded positions or a camp belonging to the FARC's Fifth Front in or near the district of Chigorodó; 13 guerrillas were provisionally counted as killed according to the broadcaster Caracol although RCN La Radio reported three fatalities. The armed forces reportedly remained cautious about President Juan Manuel Santos's count of 13 deaths written on the website Twitter, before troops had arrived to verify the scene. RCN cited a senior air-force officer General Hugo Acosta Téllez as saying that searches following bombardments had yielded armaments; he said the raid could prove fatal to the Fifth Front, which he added had few guerrillas left in its ranks.

Nine shot dead "at party" outside Medellín

Media reported the assassination of nine people in a country house south of the city of Medellín in northern Colombia on 31 December. Police were investigating the victims' identities but suspected the killings to be related to drug trafficking, RCN La Radio reported. One of the dead was identified as "possibly" a drug trafficker or head of the criminal gang known as the Oficina de Envigado, the broadcaster Caracol reported. The dead were found in a country house in the district of Envigado; neighbours reportedly told police they had heard nothing but the sound of loud music at the house. Several violent crimes were reported around the country in the closing days of 2012. RCN reported the shooting deaths of four people in the south-western city of Cali on 28 December, including of a child or teenager of unspecified age and a boy aged 19. A 16-year-old boy was stabbed to death in the northern city of Bucaramanga on 29 December as he resisted a bid by two thieves to steal his cap, Caracol Radio reported. The same day a man was shot to death in a "public establishment," perhaps a bar, in Cúcuta north-east of Bucaramanga, Caracol reported.

A dozen killed around Mexico

About a dozen people were killed or found dead in recent days in apparent criminal incidents around Mexico. Six of these were found dead in several districts of the central Estado de México on 30 December, Milenio reported. The daily reported a shooting death in Mexico City on 30 December and another late on 29 December in the northern city of Monterrey. That victim was shot dead after armed men burst into a house party; 11 were injured in that attack, Milenio reported. Three were found dead on 28 December in the Sierra Tarahumara, the somewhat lawless countryside of the northern state of Chihuahua, including a 16-year-old apparently shot in the neck. Four others were injured in gun attacks in two different parts of the state that day, Proceso reported. State police separately arrested eight men including a municipal policeman on 28 December in the north-western city of Ciudad Obregón; they were caught while driving with a private arsenal including AK-47 assault rifles, Proceso reported, citing Notimex. Five suspected kidnappers were arrested on 30 December in the north-eastern city of Nuevo Laredo, apparently while planning to kidnap a local businessman who called police to say he had been followed for days. Arms, ammunition and hand-grenades were confiscated from the gang that included a 15-year-old; police said the group confessed to having carried out several kidnappings in the area, Milenio reported.

Body saw violent crimes increase in Venezuela

All manner of crimes increased in Venezuela in 2012 according to the private body Observatorio Venezolano de Violencia, which estimated in its latest report a total of 21,692 killings in 2012 or homicide rate of 73 per 100,000 inhabitants, Colombia's RCN La Radio reported on 27 December. The body's director told RCN radio that the figure represented an eight to 10-per-cent increase compared to 2011. The Observatorio concluded in its 2012 report that Venezuela was now one of the most violent of countries, in spite of "valuable" measures taken by the socialist government to curb crime. Its director Roberto Briceño-León said there had been a "sustained" increase in crimes since 1999 when he said Venezuela had a homicide rate of 19 per 100,000 inhabitants. He said "Venezuela is currently the most violent state in Latin America...a position of dubious honour it shares with Honduras, to some extent with El Salvador, but it has been a process of continuous growth when this has diminished in Colombia." A summary of its report cited the Venezuelan states with the highest homicide rates as the Capital District including Caracas, with 122/100,000 followed by the state of Miranda with 100/100,000 and Aragua south-west of Caracas with 92. The lowest homicide rates were seen in the southern and western states of Amazonas and Mérida, with 42 and 41/100,000. The report observed however that violence had spread to all parts of Venezuela; "killings increased in houses and on the streets. Assassinations have become the means of committing crimes against property, a mechanism for resolving personal disputes or between neighbours and a form of implementing private justice." The body noted a "loss of respect for police authority" manifest in the figure it cited of one policeman or police official killed every day in Venezuela in 2012. Authorities it stated counted 583 kidnappings - as these were reported - but there were "thousands that are not reported. Kidnapping stopped being a crime aimed at the rich and affects middle-class and working families." Kidnappers it added, were now more competent and flexible.

Mexican troops gun down traffickers, bodies found

Mexican soldiers shot dead at an unspecified date five men identified as members of The Zetas drug cartel, in the district of Córdoba in the east-coast state of Veracruz, the daily Milenio reported on 27 December. Three cars, arms and a rocket launcher were confiscated after the shootout. State authorities identified one of the killed as the Zetas' chief in the Córdoba district, a man dubbed El Pokemón. Authorities in the northern state of Nuevo León presented five detainees on 27 December also identified as Zetas and suspected as involved in at least 22 killings as well as drug dealing in northern Nuevo León, El Universal reported. They were detained in the district of Anáhuac; the state security spokesman Jorge Domene Zambrano said the gang's victims were mostly thought to be members of the rival Gulf Cartel whose bodies were burned on local ranches forcibly taken over by the gang. Ten bodies were separately found in graves in the north-central state of Zacatecas on 26 December; three were found in a secret grave in the locality of Sauceda de la Borda north of the city of Zacatecas, after neighbours called the police for the putrid smell, Milenio reported, citing Notimex. Seven were found further north in the district of Miguel Auza, El Universal reported.

Former president deplores mayor's "experiments" in Bogotá

Colombia's former president Ernesto Samper accused Bogotá's Leftist mayor Gustavo Petro on 27 December of "destabilizing" the capital and dividing its residents while experimenting with his socialist "booklet at the city's expense," RCN La Radio reported. Petro, a Leftist politician and briefly a Marxist guerrilla in the 1980s, became mayor in January 2012 and has followed an agenda to recuperate municipal prerogatives. Samper, a president in the 1990s, alleged on RCN radio that Petro was using the city to "set up a national project of a socialist nature." The mayor has been criticized for his plans to have the city retake full control of rubbish collection, previously contracted out. The ill-prepared transition and dearth of vehicles led to the accumulation of trash in the capital's streets for several days as the new system began technically on 18 December. Samper dismissed the scheme as Petro's "whim," adding "it is like returning to the 50s and 60s. That is returning to Soviet Stalinism. The city has gone back 25 or 30 years." On 25 December, the city's new waste-management firm Aguas de Bogotá reduced the number of districts where it would collect waste - having insufficient vehicles - and agreed to re-distribute zones to private firms formerly involved in cleaning, Lime, Atesa, Aseo Capital and Ciudad Limpia, "in principle for a month," the broadcaster Caracol reported. Meanwhile 25 used waste-collection and cleaning vehicles imported from the United States were in the port of Cartagena and might remain there until January 2013 as importation legalities were being checked and vehicles disinfected, El Tiempo reported. Some vehicles were reported to have potentially hazardous plant and trash residues. The Bogotá government signed contracts on 7 and 13 December to import 160 trash-collection vehicles for Aguas de Bogotá, El Tiempo stated. Separately Colombia's director of public prosecutions (Fiscal-General) Eduardo Montealegre Lynett was reported as stating that his office had begun a "preliminary investigation" to discern possible legal violations in the trash-collection plan. Montealegre said "I have designated a very senior official to evaluate the complaint lodged against the mayor and determine whether or not the actions attributed to the mayor of Bogotá have criminal relevance," Caracol radio reported on 27 December. The state prosecution service would also look for contractual irregularities and environmental violations and state its decision in January, he said.

Fewer cited killed in Colombia at Christmas

Police chief José Roberto León Riaño told RCN La Radio on 26 December that Christmas killings in Colombia dropped 30 per cent this year compared to the 47 counted as killed in 2011, apparently confirming the decline in crimes officials commented on earlier in December. In Bogotá, the mayor Gustavo Petro said there were three killings in the capital on Christmas Eve, down from 16 for the same day in 2011, the broadcaster Caracol reported. He said there were 65 reported homicides in Bogotá in December from 1 to midnight on 24 December, compared to 148 for the same period in 2011. Christmas was however marked by numerous people being burned by firecrackers or hurt in street fights; police reportedly intervened in more than 4,500 scuffles or fights on 24 December. In the northern city of Medellín, authorities counted about 1,000 fights on 24 and 25 December, mostly following drinking and street celebrations, Caracol television reported.

Colombian officials wary of weakened FARC, ELN

The Colombian defence ministry found in mid-December that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the guerrilla force that has battled the state for decades, now had fewer than 8,000 members, compared to about 20,000 some 12 years ago, El Espectador reported on 26 December. A ministry report found that the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN) had fewer than 1,500, down from about 4,000 operatives in 2002; it attributed the fall to sustained military action. The report stated that in 2012 Colombia reduced FARC numbers by just under 18 per cent compared to 2011 and just under 22 per cent for the ELN. FARC spokesmen have on occasions insisted the state cannot defeat them and has been forced to initiate negotiations. Colombia's police chief José Roberto León Riaño separately told RCN Radio on 26 December that he feared the FARC were preparing a "terrorist wave" in 2013 and had not respected a unilateral two-month ceasefire purportedly begun on 20 November. Police he said observed that the FARC had in preceding weeks acquired "explosives, war material, most probably to prepare a terrorist wave when the ceasefire," for which he said police were also preparing. The army commander General Sergio Mantilla Sanmiguel concurred, speaking to RCN Radio on 24 December; he said "the FARC are arming...searching and storing" but also making explosives "to attack the population," El Espectador reported. This "is not a serious ceasefire" he said, observing that "they look like they will begin to launch indiscriminate attacks in January." Mantilla put at 1,500 the number of rebels of both armies arrested in 2012.

Fifteen or more killed around Mexico

In the northern district of Morelos near the US frontier, troops shot dead three suspected criminals early on 25 December after they were said to have come under gunfire, Proceso reported. They found arms and ammunition including grenades and a launcher from the Dodge estate car whence shots had reportedly been fired. In the north-western state of Sinaloa gunmen dressed in paramilitary-type uniforms searched houses in the district of El Platanar de los Ontineros on 24 December, looking for individuals written on their execution list; they found and shot dead nine, Proceso reported citing the local mayor's comments to the newspaper El Noroeste. According to Proceso the locality is next to what is termed locally a "Fear zone" (Zona de miedo) in the state, which includes the districts of La Cieneguilla, El Tiro, Zaragoza, Aguacaliente del Zapote and El Llano and where presumably criminals do as they please. Five decapitated bodies were found in a locality near the frontier of the western states of Jalisco and Michoacán on 24 December; four were identified as those of policemen of the district of Pihuamo in Jalisco reported as kidnapped on 23 December. The bodies found in the locality of Los Naranjos had been burned, Proceso reported. It also reported that a Federal policeman was found "executed" and burned outside the north-central city of San Luis Potosí on 25 December. He had been reported as last seen at a house party on 22 December. In the west-coast district of Zihuatanejo, people found a man hanging from a bridge early on 25 December, Proceso reported.

Over 50 killed in Honduras over Christmas

Over 50 people were reported killed in violent incidents across Honduras on Christmas Eve, while the capital's Escuela hospital received a steady stream of injuries from guns, knives and machetes, agencies and press reported citing police and hospital sources. A police spokesman told EFE agency that 30 were known to have died in acts of violence on 24 December and 11 in car accidents, while remaining deaths were to be investigated. Forty four people were admitted to the emergencies wing of the Escuela hospital in Tegucicalpa between Christmas Eve and midday on Christmas Day, El Heraldo reported on 26 December, observing that most were effectively drunk. Among them 28 had been injured by handguns and 16 by knives or machetes. La Prensa cited police as counting 52 violent deaths and 73 injuries across the country, though it was not immediately clear if this included part of Christmas Day. Of the victims of crimes, 24 died in San Pedro Sula and its environs, La Prensa reported on 25 December. One of these was the lawyer Juan Antonio Romero Rodríguez, shot in San Pedro on 24 September by two men who stopped his car. The website Proceso Digital observed this was the second killing of a lawyer in recent days, in a country where lawyers are frequently targetted for elimination. It reported the killing on 20 or 21 December of the lawyer José Ramon Logos and a client in the northern city of El Progreso, both shot as they left a courtroom.

Guatemalan prosecutor, six more killed in ambush

Seven people including a public prosecutor were shot dead while driving in north-western Guatemala on 23 December, in an attack suspected to be the work of a drug cartel, the daily Prensa Libre reported. The attack occurred in the San Pedro Necta district in Huehuetenango, the department bordering Mexico; the cars were burned. Of the victims three were identified as the district prosecutor of Chiquimula in eastern Guatemala Irma Yolanda Oliveras, an employee of the social works department of the First Lady's Office (SOSEP) and a businessman named as Luis Antonio Palacios, the Interior Minister was reported as saying. The group was returning in two armoured cars from the inauguration of a hotel belonging to Palacios in the district of La Mesilla in Huehuetenango, or going to La Mesilla as other reports suggested. It appeared the district prosecutor was for some time a target of criminals, possibly of The Zetas cartel whose activities she was tasked with investigating. Prensa Libre cited Guatemala's Prosecutor-General Claudia Paz y Paz as recently commenting on persistent threats to prosecutors in frontier districts like Chiquimula. Police reportedly arrested in August suspected members of the Zetas thought to be planning the assassination of the Chiquimula district prosecutor, though reports did not immediately clarify if she was that prosecutor.

Mexico confirms new ambassador to Brazil

The Mexican Senate confirmed on 20 December the nomination of the former president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) Beatriz Paredes Rangel as Mexico's new ambassador to Brazil, CNNMéxico reported. Paredes, one of Mexico's more familiar politicians and usually depicted in colourful ethnic attire, ran as the PRI's candidate to become mayor of Mexico City in the July 2012 general elections; she was soundly beaten by the Leftist candidate and current mayor. She was governor of the state of Tlaxcala east of the capital in 1987-92, Mexico's ambassador to Cuba in 1993-4, president of the PRI in 2007-11 and a member of parliament from 2009 to 2012 among other positions. Brazil has welcomed her nomination. The PRI also changed its president in December after Pedro Joaquín Coldwell stepped down to become the Energy minister. César Camacho Quiroz was on 11 December voted in as the new party president as the PRI changed its presiding board or National Political Council, El Economista reported. Camacho later told CNN in Mexico that the party must "efficiently" back President Enrique Peña Nieto's promised reforms and "find a better way of connecting with" civil bodies, the party's website reported on 22 December. He said nevertheless that close ties should not lead to a merging of or confusion between the government and the party whence the president emerged. Camacho was a former senator and former governor of the State of Mexico, of which Peña Nieto was also governor. He was to be the PRI's president until March 2015. Yvonne Ortega Pacheco, a pregnant single mother and former governor of the state of Yucatán, became the party Secretary-General for the same period. This was the second most important post in the party; both positions were uncontested, CNN observed.

Dozens killed around Mexico, head left at mayor's house

Twenty six or more people were reported killed or found dead in the states of Jalisco, Michoacán, Zacatecas and Sinaloa on 23-24 December in criminal executions and gun battles, these including a dozen policemen shot dead by gangsters, Proceso and El Universal reported. In one incident, three policemen were shot dead in Ayotlán in Jalisco, in a gun fight with 40 armed men who drove into town in a caravan of 10 cars; the gang had earlier fired on police in nearby Degollado, with no fatalities. Nine policemen from the district of Briseñas in Michoacán were killed in that state on the night of 23-24 December, as their patrol came under fire from criminals, El Universal reported. It counted 11 victims of crime in Michoacán that night. It separately reported that six people were shot or found dead on 23 December in the districts Cósala and Culiacán in the north-western state of Sinaloa. A man was shot dead on 23 December in the north-central city of Zacatecas, El Universal reported the police as saying. In the northern city of Torreón, five dismembered bodies were found at the back of a car late on 21 December, Proceso reported on 22 December, citing the local daily Vanguardia. An unspecified message was found by the bodies. A 25-year-old woman was killed in the north-western city of Chihuahua as she sought to protect her four-year-old child from shooting between a suspect and police, Proceso reported. She was driving by the spot where a man began shooting from his car at a Federal police car. On 22 December, a severed head was left at the entrance of a house belonging to the mayor of El Arenal in the western state of Jalisco, with a message from a criminal gang, Proceso reported, citing the weblog narco.com. The mayor, Alejandro Ocampo Aldana, is a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party and began working in October; the head belonged to a man reported kidnapped on 20 December in the village of Huaxtla. The message was signed by the Alianza de sangre empresa NX (Blood Alliance Enterprise NX) and directed at drug cartels competing in this area The Zetas, the Jalisco Nueva Generación and a gang called Los Sandoval, Proceso reported.

Mexican policemen held for "torture," mayor beats neighbours

Three Mexican policemen from the northern frontier city of Juárez were detained at an unspecified date, accused of beating two detainees and sodomizing one of them with a baseball bat or similar item so he would confess to selling drugs, Proceso reported on 23 December, citing the Juárez daily El Diario. Five policemen were facing charges relating to the incident, which occurred last May, although two had fled, the dailies reported. The plaintiffs had been stopped by police while riding one or two motorbikes; after initial questioning they were taken to a building for more vigorous interrogation: this included beatings and for one detainee, being forced to swallow bullets covered in urine and sodomized with a bat. The two apparently had their heads doused in liquor and were later taken to a local judge and reported for drinking in public. The policemen were ordered detained on 17 November and presented before a judge on 23 December. In the state of Morelos south of Mexico City, the mayor of Tlaltizapán had police beat two of his neighbours after they complained about police cars parked outside their house, Proceso reported on 22 December, citing Mexico's Notimex. When a female neighbour complained to the mayor he ordered policemen to arrest her, while another neighbour who intervened was beaten by police in front of relatives including children. The family later complained to the National Human Rights Commission, which publicized the incident in a communiqué and wrote to the municipality. It was not immediately clear if the mayor faced prosecution.