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By Chris Covert
Mexican president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa said Friday that violent crime declined in Juarez by 57 percent owing to a combination of the presence and availability of Mexican federal security forces and a local municipal program, according to Mexican news accounts.
Calderon spent Friday in the border city of Juarez attending antigun demonstrations and other events in support of Somos Todos Juarez, a Juarez city sponsored program intended to reduce drug crime and violence.
Calderon said that during 2010 violent crime declined 45 percent. In 2011, violent crime has declined 57 percent. He also said the federal government has spent MP $5 billion (USD $391,398,500.00) on a strategy to reduce crime.
Violent crime in Juarez has markedly declined. Between April 2010 and April 2011, Juarez press could expect to report on at least one multiple drug related homicide in either Juarez or in Chihuahua city, the capital of Chihuahua state.
While Calderon can point out federal efforts to reduce crime, two definitive events have defined the anti-crime strategy results.
The first was the hiring of controversial Juarez police chief Julian Leyzaola Perez in March, 2011. Leyzaola Perez came from Baja California, where he had managed to reduce crime in Tijuana, allegedly by favoring one criminal group over the other. Leyzaola Perez was later kicked upstairs to a position in Baja California state government before his hiring as Juarez police chief.
Leyzaola Perez also had garnered special attention from human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch for his intensive efforts to deal with organized crime.
The second, and possibly more important event was the arrest of Jose Antonio Acosta Hernandez, AKA El Diego, last summer. The leader of La Linea, the enforcement wing of the Juarez cartel admitted responsibility for 1,500 murders over his four year reign of terror, including a hit on a deputy attorney general in June, 2010.
Acosta Hernandez's signature hit was the July 16, 2010 car bomb which killed a Mexican federal agent and three other civilians.
In the months before his arrest, his photo appeared on numerous billboards throughout Chihuahua city offering reward money for his capture.
Acosta Hernandez was arrested by a Policia Federal special unit in Chihuahua city following a brief firefight and pursuit.
To read the Rantburg.com story on the arrest of Acosta Hernandez as well as links to background material, click here.
More recently, Acosta Hernandez's successor, Arturo Bautista, AKA El Mil Amores, was arrested in December, 2011, along with three others.
To read the Rantburg report on the arrest of Arturo Bautista click here.
The current federal security strategy has paid dividends in other border cities as well. For example, Segura Laguna, the joint security operation overseen by the Mexican Army in the La Laguna region between Durango and Coahuila states, has seen a reduction in crime since its start in October 2011, as evident by the reduction in the number of stories in local press.
An invigorated federal effort in Tamaulipas starting in January entailing the deployment of 8,000 Mexican Army troops has yielded benefits as well. Some crime activity has declined in the north, and has been forced father south into states such as Veracruz and Zacatecas. Local Tamaulipas press are beginning to report on counternarcotics activities, where before such reports would not have been published due to drug gang threats.
Calderon lauded Somos Todos Juarez for its comprehensive focus on the social, not just the policing aspect of reducing violent crime in the city.
Calderon also blamed the inflow of weapons illegally smuggled from the United States as a factor in the weakening of the social fabric.
"That translated into a situation of abandonment and vulnerability," he said. Much remains to be done, he added.
Calderon said that the employment record in Juarez city has improved with 92,000 jobs created since the first of the year, according to Mexican federal government statistics.