By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
Manuel Mondragon y Kalb will quit Mexico's top security agency today, according to Mexican press reports and Twitter accounts.
A news account which appeared on the online edition of El Sol de Mexico said that Mondragon y Kalb will end his job with Mexico's Comisionado Nacional de Seguridad (CNS), a job he held since the start of the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto in December of 2012.
Mondragon y Kalb was appointed head of the CNS directly after a major reshuffling of Mexico's interior ministry Secretaria de Gobernacion (SEGOB). Part of that reorganization changed Mexico's Policia Federal from a cabinet level ministry to a sub agency of SEGOB.
Part of the restructuring included a change in the way federal crimes such a intentional homicide were reported. SEGOB mostly reported statistics, not individual crimes and ended the practice of presenting detainees before the press.
Since that time SEGOB has been slowly immersing itself into a growing scandal in which violent crime statistic are being deliberately misreported, charges that have been leveled and apparent since the beginning of Pena's term.
According to a news report which appeared in Latin Times news daily, Mondragon y Kalb resigned in the wake of a federal prison escape last week in Ciudad Juarez involving five inmates.
The report also hints that personal reasons may have been involved in his reason to quit.
Mondragon y Kalb is the second top security official to resign in two days. Friday it was announced that Tamaulipas' Secretaria de Seguridad Publica del Estado (SSPE), Rafael Lomeli Martinez reigned his position leaving a legacy of the worst of 33 states to retrain police officer, an effort that has been ongoing since 2011.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com