Plastic straws, bag production "falling" in Mexico

A spokesman for the plastics sector in Mexico recently said "more than 60 per cent" of manufacturers of plastic straws had disappeared in the country, due to falling demand and anti-plastic campaigns. Aldimir Torres, president of the National Association of Plastic Industries (ANIPAC) told a conference in early April that some 80 initiatives were targeting plastics products in Mexico, but insisted the sector believed recycling remained the best way to curb pollution by plastics, El Financiero reported. He said bag makers in Mexico were now working at between "30 and 70 per cent capacity," and the sector had already shed 8.5 per cent of its workers, for falling demand. Hidalgo and Guerrero became two more Mexican states in late March to legislate against plastic products. State lawmakers in Hidalgo voted to give shops 180 days to implement a plastics ban approved in 2018, the website Xataka México reported. In Guerrero, legislators reformed the state's trash disposal laws to forbid "the use of" plastic bags and "provision" of single-use items like straws, cutlery and styrofoam trays, Xataka reported. It was not immediately clear when this would happen and whether or not the ban covered selling the items.

Mexican drug cartel accuses militia of conniving with crime

The drug cartel Caballeros Templarios, which is active in western Mexico, accused a recently-founded anti-crime militia of collaborating with rival gangs in the western state of Guerrero and advised authorities to stay out of its imminent bid to destroy these groups, the review Proceso reported on 23 June. Self-defence groups have emerged in several parts of Mexico in response to violent crime and official corruption, and more so in smaller and rural districts where residents have accused local police and authorities of cowering before the powerful cartels. In this case the Templarios hung sheets in the districts of Atoyac de Álvarez and Coyuca de Benítez accusing the group led by activist Leopoldo Soberanis Hernández of being a front for the gang dubbed Los Granados and the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel. The gang was described as an offshoot of the dismantled Beltrán Leyva cartel. These, the sheets read, were kidnapping "teachers, tourists, the elderly and making social activists and environmentalists disappear," which the Templars said they would not permit. The cartel told the Mexican state not to "meddle" as it proceeded to eliminate "these stains." According to Proceso the civilian militia's formation was announced during a protest on 20 June by residents of four districts of the Costa Grande sector of Guerrero. "More than 1,000" residents of Coyuca de Benítez, Atoyac de Álvarez, Benito Juárez and Tecpan de Galeana announced they would form the Citizens' Self-Defence Group (Grupo de Autodefensa Ciudadana) as they blocked the motorway linking Guerrero to the neighbouring state of Michoacán. Proceso cited the activist Leopoldo Soberanis as telling a telephone interview that the militia was the fruit of locals' disgust with state "indolence" toward violent crime and to alleged ties between local authorities and troops based in the district of Petatlán with the Caballeros Templarios. He said he wanted his group recognised by the state government and would seek to expand its activities to three more districts in Guerrero including Petatlán. The review observed that the militia's first protest coincided with an incipient tour by the Guerrero governor to promote the state as a tourist destination; Guerrero includes the resort of Acapulco.

Local politician, builder, gangster among recent killed in Mexico

A mayoral candidate in 2012 was found shot dead on 15 June in the western Mexican state of Guerrero; he was one of at least 17 including a constructor, a former civil servant and a presumed gangster reported killed around Mexico in recent days. Guillermo Maceda Cervantes, a former pre-candidate for the district of Tlacoachistlahuaca and member of the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), was found in his car outside the district of Ometepec in Guerrero, Proceso reported, citing Mexico's Notimex agency. A former member of the office of the chief prosecutor of the state of Michoacán in western Mexico was also shot dead on 15 June while driving in the state capital Morelia, Proceso reported. Witnesses reportedly said a gunman waited for the victim's car to reach a crossroads, standing on the dividing line of the two sides of the street. The bodies of three executed men were found on 16 June in the north-western state of Sinaloa, with a message for the local police left beside them, while soldiers shot dead three suspected criminals in a gunfight on 16 June, in the western state of Michoacán, Proceso reported. The shootout occurred on a ranch or a locality between the  districts of Los Reyes and Cotija, near the border of the neighbouring state of Jalisco, the review stated. It counted no less than nine killings on 13-14 June, including of the owner of a construction firm and five of his workers, shot late on 13 June in the district of Totolápam, outside the Pacific-coast resort of Puerto Escondido. Police separately confirmed the killing of a gang leader on 16 June, in the district of San Andrés Cholula in the central state of Puebla. The victim was identified as presumed head of a gang known as Los Rojos, said to be based in the western district of Chilpancingo and to have acted or be acting as enforcers or gunmen for the Beltrán Leyva cartel. It was not immediately clear if the gang was independent now. The state Public Security chief for Puebla Sergio Lara Montellano warned the killing could provoke drug-related violence in the state, Proceso reported on 18 June.

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.

Over 50 reported killed, found dead in Mexico over weekend

At least 52 were reported killed or found dead in apparent criminal incidents around Mexico over 12-14 April, media reported. Of these, at least 23 bodies were reported found in the states of Coahuila in northern Mexico, Guerrero on its western coast and Quintana Roo on the Caribbean coast through 13-14 April. These included eight bodies found in Cancún on 14 April and 10 shot in incidents in Torreón in Coahuila, CNN reported. Authorities in Cancún suspected the eight may have been killed in a house gangsters used as a body "dump" where four suspects including a 15-year-old boy were found drinking and taking drugs. They were said detained. The 23 also included the bodies of five men aged 25-35 years, found tied in the district of Atoyac de Álvarez in Guerrero, and apparently totured then executed. A message left by them, signed by one of the cartels the Caballeros Templarios, alleged they were "kidnappers and blackmailers." Atoyac is one of the districts in Guerrero where locals have turned to community policing. The review Proceso separately counted 14 presumed victims of crime for 12 April, and 14 at least appeared to have been shot or found dead on 13 April in the northern states of Durango, Chihuahua and Tamaulipas, Proceso and Milenio reported. The latter group included four dismembered, decapitated bodies found on a road in Tamaulipas on 13 April, Proceso reported, and a woman shot dead and found on 13 April in Ciudad Victoria in Tamaulipas. A note left beside her alleged she was an informant of the Defence Ministry, Proceso reported. Separately, a communiqué issued by Mexican authorities counted 1,101 homicides linked to federal offences in the 31 days of the month of March, which exceeded detentions, Proceso reported on 12 April. Victims included 40 state agents killed during service and 25 civilians thought killed by mistake, a communiqué signed by the interior ministry, the Prosecutor-General's office and the Defence and Navy ministries stated. Its figures were compiled by the National Centre for Planification, Analysis and Information to Combat Crime, CENAP (Centro Nacional de Planeación, Análisis e Información para el Combate a la Delincuencia), a body attached to the office of the Prosecutor-General of Mexico. The authorities stated that over 138,000 kilograms of cocaine were seized that month among other illegal substances, and 957 individuals detained.

More locals join community police in western Mexico

One hundred and six local residents were sworn in as new members of the community police of the district of Tixtla in Guerrero on Mexico's Pacific coast, in another sign that such self-defence groups, which have appeared in several parts of Mexico, were staying for now in spite of authorities' displeasure. The recruits included women and had already engaged in local policing for two months several localities of Tixtla, La Crónica de Hoy reported on 14 April, citing declarations from a regional coordinating body CRAC (Coordinadora Regional de Autoridades Comunitarias). The CRAC general-coordinator Eliseo Villar Castillo said "the project of community security and justice" was consolidating itself in parts of Guerrero, where such groups rose to prominence, namely the Costa Chica and inland and central parts of the state. Their aim he said was not to defy the authorities, but he observed locals were tired of the state's apparent inability to check crime. La Crónica separately reported shooting on 13 April between self-defence groups and suspected criminals, in the district of Buenavista Tomatlán, in the state of Michoacán north-west of Guerrero. The army intervened and was fired on though it was not immediately clear who fired on troops nor whether or not anyone died, La Crónica de Hoy reported. On 10 April, President Enrique Peña Nieto said self-defence groups were illegal and his "democratic" government could not tolerate them, Excelsior reported. Peña Nieto said, speaking in Japan, that "beyond what these groups may call themselves, the possible practices they may resort to intending to take justice into their hands are activities going beyond legality, which my government will have to fight." Authorities in Guerrero announced on 13 April that community policemen found outside their designated localities with arms would be detained; this apparently was in part a response to self-defence groups' support for recent teachers' protests in Guerrero. The decision was taken by the Guerrero Coordination Group including municipal and state authorities, the armed forces and state and local police, Excelsior reported on 14 April.

Almost 50 reported killed, dead around Mexico

Twelve at least were reported killed or found dead in presumed criminal incidents in Mexico on 25-26 March, including several teenagers and a political activist linked to the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Gerardo Israel Facio Huerta, a leader of the Citizens' Networks (Redes Ciudadanas) grouping in the northern state of Durango, was said kidnapped at a roadside restaurant on 24 March and found floating in a canal in the city of Gómez Palacio the next day, Proceso reported on 26 March. Investigations indicated he was stabbed in the neck, Proceso reported. A hot-dog seller died in a hospital in the northern city of Monterrey on 27 March, two days after being shot by his food stand for refusing to pay money local gangsters had demanded, Proceso reported. Thirty-four-year old Enrique Ramírez Rosas had opened his stall a week before. Also on 27 March, unidentified individuals dumped seven rubbish bags containing human remains by a military base in the north-eastern city of Victoria in Tamaulipas; authorities were not yet certain how many bodies the bags contained, Proceso reported. The review reported no less than 10 violent deaths around the country for 26-27 March, and 10 through 27-28 March. A gunman separately shot dead seven people in a bar in the northern city of Chihuahua on the night of 28-29 March, Milenio reported. The daily Excelsior reported that the victims were said to have been shot by a masked man "apparently" wearing a police-type uniform. In the western state of Guerrerro, state prosecutors declared on 29 March that a clandestine grave found on 27 March in the district of Acapulco had "so far" yielded eight bodies, Proceso reported.

In days, 50 killed, found dead around Mexico

"At least" 18 were reported killed or found dead in presumed criminal incidents around Mexico on 24-25 March, these including five killed in a shootout between police and criminals in the north-western state of Sinaloa and an official of the state judiciary of Oaxaca, shot dead on 25 March as she emerged from a car. Victims also included three thought executed a month before, whose decomposing bodies were found on 25 March buried south of Chilpancingo in the western state of Guerrero, Proceso reported. On 22 March gunmen shot dead seven people including two Federal policemen in an eatery in Ciudad Altamirano in the western state of Guerrero, Proceso reported. The review observed that the targets of the attack may have been soldiers in civilian clothes eating in the restaurant that day, though reports did not clarify if any were among reported fatalities or the six injured of whom three were Federal policemen. The bodies of seven executed men were found on 23 March in Uruapan in the western of state of Michoacán. They were sitting in a row of plastic chairs placed at a crossroads, blindfolded and with hands tied, and later identified as window cleaners and farm workers, Milenio reported on 25 March. A deputy-governor of Michoacán asked media not to "magnify" what he termed an "isolated" incident related to drug trafficking, Proceso reported. Jesús Reyna García was cited as saying that while the state cannot assure the security of all Mexicans, people would not think ill of Michoacán - one of its more crime-ridden states - if the media did not highlight the incident, Proceso reported. Federal policemen killed five suspected gangsters in a shootout on 23 March in the district of Huatusco in Veracruz, responding to gunfire it was said, Proceso reported. In the south-central district of Xochitepec south of Cuernavaca, gunmen shot dead four men and a 15-year-old girl by a street stand. One of the victims was said to have run into a nearby building, but was followed and shot there, Proceso reported. The mayor of San Juan Mixtepec in Oaxaca and his bodyguard were gunned down while driving near that district early on 24 March, Proceso reported. Authorities' immediate "line of investigations" was not stated but Proceso observed the district had a recent history of land disputes with neighbouring Santo Domingo Yosoñama, which in one case led some 200 gunmen said to be from Santo Domingo, to have launched an assault on San Juan in January 2013. Other, isolated killings were reported around Mexico through 22-25 March, taking crime's presumed death toll to at least 50.

Dozens reported killed around Mexico

The webpage Valor por Tamaulipas, run by anonymous users and which monitors violent crime in Mexico's north-eastern Tamaulipas state, claimed that 50 people - most of whom may have been gangsters - were killed in gun battles between "armed civilians" in the city of Reynosa on 10 March and later. With these, some 60 were reported to have died in presumed criminal incidents or were found dead around Mexico on 10-12 March. Valor por Tamaulipas rejected the authorities' count of two deaths in the shootout and observed they omitted to count "dozens" of bodies thrown into one or more ditches in the district, Proceso reported on 12 March. The review reported continuing "movements" by armed groups that day. The shootout was attributed to rivalry between factions of the Gulf Cartel in Reynosa. Authorities separately found on 12 March seven bodies - of possible victims of drug cartels - left in clandestine graves in the northern and north-western states of Chihuahua and Sonora, Proceso reported. A spokesman for the Chihuahua state prosecutor's office said police believe the four found buried outside the district of  Rosales in Chihuahua may have been killed by gunmen linked to the Sinaloa Cartel headed by Joaquín Guzmán Loera. He said more bodies may be found. The grave was located after police questioned 11 suspected drug dealers and gunmen, detained in the state at an unspecified date. On 10 March the army arrested four police officers and a traffic policeman of Rosales, these being suspected of having ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, Proceso reported. Also, the police chief of the district of Tarímbaro in the western state of Michoacán was kidnapped on 10 or 11 March, then beaten and shot to death; his body was found elsewhere in Michoacán, Proceso cited the mayor of Tarímbaro as saying. Four people were in turn shot dead in the western resort of Acapulco on 11 March: three in a parked minibus, and another in an Internet café he owned, Proceso reported.

Seven shot dead around Mexico, gang suspects held

Police in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila shot dead three gunmen on 10 February, reportedly in response to an ambush on a police convoy driving to the frontier city of Acuña. A shootout began after the gunmen fired on the convoy that had stopped on a highway over a puncture, Proceso reported. On 9 February in the northern district of Piedras Negras in Coahuila gunmen fired on a bullet-proof car carrying policemen and bodyguards of the state Public Security or police chief Gerardo Villarreal Ríos. This prompted gunfire and a car chase around the city, with the participation of soldiers and marines, Proceso reported. Four men were separately reported shot dead early on 10 February in and outside the west-coast resort of Acapulco, Milenio reported. In Culiacán in the north-western state of Sinaola, a man identified separately as head of security for one of two prominent drug traffickers was reported arrested alongside four associates. Jonhatan Sales Avilés - El Fantasma - was identified by sources as either the security chief of Mexico's leading trafficker Joaquín Guzmán Loera or of another trafficker Ismael Zambada; he was surprised and detained on the night of 9-10 February at a safe house earlier located by the army, CNNMéxico reported. The broadcaster observed that state authorities had earlier thought and hoped, that the army killed Sales in a shootout near Culiacán on 4 March 2012.

Mexican locals hand crime suspects to police

Authorities of the state of Guerrero in western Mexico were handed on 8 February 11 suspected criminals detained by armed residents who began to police parts of the state in January, in a move suggesting greater coordination between locals and authorities previously blamed as being soft on crime. The detainees, suspected of involvement in drug trafficking, killings and kidnappings, were handed over at the municipality of Ayutla de los Libres, one of four or five districts policed by indigenous militias and a Community Police. The authorities of Guerrero pledged to hand the detained over to state prosecutors, according to Proceso. The review observed these were among 54 people locals detained in January in Ayutla and nearby Tecoanapa and suspected of working for a local drug-trafficking gang whose leader remained at large. The armed residents themselves were initially masked to avoid being identified by criminals. They had good reason to do so, as presumed criminals were reported on 8 February to have threatened one of their leaders with unspecified reprisals, apparently shortly before the 11 detainees were handed over. An unknown caller phoned Bruno Plácido Valerio, leader of the Union of Organized Peoples of the State of Guerrero (UPOEG), to say he would be hit "where it hurts most," Milenio reported. Plácido, who was not wearing a masked, told Milenio that "someone had to be the face" of the self-defence movement, which he pledged not to abandon.

Sixteen killed around Mexico, 11 detained

At least 13 were reported killed or found dead in incidents around Mexico on 5-6 February, including nine policemen and a priest, the review Proceso reported. The state policemen of Guerrero were ambushed and killed on 5 February as they patrolled by car the district of Apaxtla de Castrejón, half way between Mexico City and the western coast. A suspected criminal was reportedly killed in a shootout with police before this ambush in nearby Teloloapán, though it was not clear the incidents were related. In the western district of Colima, an elderly priest was severely beaten inside a church on 6 February, later dying in hospital, for motives that were not immediately clear, Proceso reported. The Bishop of Colima urged authorities "not just to investigate" the crime but "punish whoever turns out to be the culprit." In the south-central city of Cuernavaca early on 8 February, police shot dead three bodyguards of the chief prosecutor of the state of Morelos Rodrigo Dorantes Salgado, apparently by mistake, Milenio reported, citing Notimex. Authorities were investigating. In the central state of Guanajuato, authorities presented to the press on 7 February 11 detainees identified as members of the cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, and suspected as involved in crimes including several killings since 2012, Proceso reported.

Mexican community policemen said kidnapped child

Masked individuals identifying themselves as members of a self-styled community police briefly kidnapped a child in the Ayutla district of the western Mexican state of Guerrero on 4 February, prompting community police chiefs to order their policemen to work unmasked. The masks were very likely intended to help community policemen avoid identification by the criminals they have vowed to fight. Residents of at least four districts in Guerrero have formed the militias to police their part of the state, in response to the authorities' inability to curb violent crime. State authorities and civil observers have already expressed concern about the legalit of such armed groups, but locals have in turn denounced the state's failure to assure security. After the kidnapping, three local community police chiefs decided their policemen would only bear masks during "operations" or patrols, La Crónica de Hoy reported on 5 February. Community forces detained dozens of suspected criminals during January at road blocks set up around relevant districts; they recently announced relatives of 54 detainees held in the locality of El Mesón could visit on Sundays. Separately in the resort of Acapulco in Guerrero masked men raped six or seven female tourists lodged in bungalows on the edge of the city on the night of 4-5 February, media reported. Six were Spanish and one Mexican, and seven Spanish men who were with them were tied up; their belongings were robbed. The group later received medical assistance and counselling, Europa Press reported on 5 February.

Mexican villagers put crime suspects on trial

Some 500 residents of various districts of the western state of Guerrero began on 31 January their own trial of over 50 suspects held in preceding weeks for alleged criminal activities in the surrounding Costa Chica sector, the review Proceso reported. The trial, which state authorities have more or less denounced as illegal, was organized by "community authorities" of the ethnic population of the districts of Florencio Villarreal, Ayutla de los Libres, Tecoanapa and San Marcos, and fruit of a self-defence movement that emerged in early January as residents armed themselves to fight rampant crime. About 250 people attending the first session were armed. They listened to the presentation of the purported defendants in a three-hour event held in hills outside the town of Ayutla; a second session was to be held on 22 February in the district of Tecoanapa, Proceso reported. The gathering also heard members of the Community Police explain the recent history of popular mobilization locally; a founder of the Community Police the priest Mario Campos Hernández, explained that the people was restoring order where the state had failed. He alluded to suspected collusion between some authorities and criminals, which was presented as a cause of this virtual uprising. The head of the Union of Peoples and Organizations of the State of Guerrero (UPOEG) Bruno Plácido Valerio separately denied that state authorities had retaken control of the district of Ayutla and insisted locals would not disarm until they had eliminated crime locally. It is by no means exceptional in Mexico to suspect collusion between authorities and criminals. Most recently the former mayoress of Lerdo in the northern state of Durango placed a notice in a daily accusing a local leader of her party - the conservative National Action Party (PAN) - of associating with criminals. Maria del Rosario Castro Lozano published her charges in El Sol de Durango against the PAN coordinator in Lerdo, Raúl Villegas Morales. She declared she informed the party's National Executive Committee of this in October 2012 but was ignored, Proceso reported on 30 January. How she asked can "we demand that the...governor" of Durango to "clean the state of traffickers when the head of...the PAN in Lerdo has links?"

Locals form own police in western Mexico

Disgusted with crime and the apparent impotence of authorities, communities in Mexico's crime-ridden western coast are increasingly arming themselves and turning to "community policing," with the implicit approval of local mayors but prompting concern among state officials. The daily Crónica reported on 31 January on 150 members of a "community police" force being "sworn in" before municipal representatives in Florencio Villarreal in the state of Guerrero; these were to patrol 20 nearby localities or districts considered crime hot spots. The local force consisted of local residents and affiliates of the Union of Peoples and Organisations of the State of Guerrero (Unión de Pueblos y Organizaciones del Estado de Guerrero, UPOEG), elected in village assemblies. Organizers said such militias were legal pursuant to Article 39 of the Constitution; they were in any case a measure of public fear and anger at how extortion or kidnapping seemed to continue unchecked in Guerrero and especially in this area, called the Costa Chica. A municipal official attending the ceremony said the mayor of Florencio Villarreal was in favour of such self-defence initiatives, Crónica reported. In another village in Guerrero, Ayutla de los Libres, the community was reportedly to "put on trial" on 31 January 30 individuals held in preceding weeks for suspected ties to organized crime. The Governor of Guerrero Ángel Aguirre Rivero urged the local groups on 29 January to respect the law while appreciating their desire "to help" with security; the head of UPOEG Bruno Plácido Valerio declared in response that crime had "overwhelmed" authorities in Guerrero and society was now "replacing" them for it, "assuming that sovereignty resides in the people not the representatives of institutions," Proceso reported on 30 January. Plácido said self-defence was not illegal, while authorities had failed to assure citizens' security; "it is they who should be judged and sanctioned for being indolent and negligent in the face of crime," he said.

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.

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 35 shot dead around Mexico

Over 35 were killed in criminal "executions" and shootouts between gunmen and state forces around Mexico in the 19-21 December period. Of these 14 were reported dead on 19-20 December, including a 22-year-old who died in a shootout with the army on 20 December in the northern state of Chihuahua. Five bodies were found that day by a road in the north-central state of San Luis Potosí, with unspecified messages left beside them from one of the drug cartels, Proceso reported. Authorities in the east-coast state of Veracruz declared that troops and police shot dead on 20 December a man identified as Jesús Daniel Vargas Ramírez - El Popeye - head of The Zetas cartel in the district of Cardel or José Cardel in Veracruz, Proceso reported. The website counted at least 22 victims of criminal and related incidents from late 20 to 21 December. These included: 10 people including five teenagers killed in the northern district of Monterrey late on 20 December, and seven or nine shot dead in and around the western resort of Acapulco, including a journalist and a court official. On 21 December, authorities of the northern state of Nuevo León presented eight detainees identified as members of the Zetas cartel thought involved in the murder of 11 policemen including a police chief in 2011, Proceso reported. The state security spokesman Jorge Domene Zambrano declared that the eight were thought to have kidnapped then executed the police chief of Apodaca and 10 colleagues, in the district of Benito Juárez in April 2011, and were suspects in several murders in 2012. They were detained at an unspecified time in December.

Fifteen reported killed around Mexico

Some 15 people were reported shot or found dead in incidents around Mexico on 11-13 December, including a pregnant woman shot with four others in a restaurant in northern Mexico. Gunmen were said to have entered a restaurant in Nuevo Laredo on the US frontier, and shot dead five employees including the woman, Proceso reported on 13 December. Four gunmen were shot dead by the army in the western state of Guerrero, reportedly after they began shooting at troops who ordered them stop on a motorway early on 13 December, the commander of the Ninth Military Region Guillermo Moreno Serrano was reported as saying. Police separately shot dead a suspect and arrested two after a shootout on 13 December in the district of Calera in the north-central state of Zacatecas, Milenio reported. The suspects began shooting at one or more police cars driving toward Fresnillo, a city north of Calera, the Zacatecas Public Security chief declared. Soldiers freed a kidnapped woman in Fresnillo on 12 December and arrested four presumed kidnappers, after another woman they held held escaped and informed the police, Milenio reported on 14 December. On 13 December police freed a 20-year-old man held by a gang of three in the western district of Tequila, Milenio and Notimex reported. Also on 13 December, the governor of the state of Chihuahua César Duarte Jáquez ruled out that troops could help police patrol the streets of Ciudad Juárez in his state as announced earlier by a local army commander. Duarte said troops in the city "only provoke tensions in society" and the last time soldiers patrolled Juárez the city lived a "war siege," Proceso reported. It was up to state and municipal authorities to fight crime, he said, using intelligence work and the "clear" pursuit of crimes.