For the first time since the April reform of the military code of justice, the civilian authorities will be trying soldiers for involvement in a mass killing of civilians. This was announced in late September, almost three months after the event, which was initially portrayed by the defence ministry (Sedena) and the authorities of México state, as the result of an armed clash ensuing from the ambush of an army patrol by criminals. The official version of incident, which took place at a warehouse in Tlatlaya on 30 June, was challenged almost immediately by the media and human rights advocates,…

The federal government’s ‘anti-kidnap coordinator’, Renato Sales Heredia, claims that kidnapping has been ‘contained’, despite the fact that its own figures show that the number of cases in the first half of the year, 979, was 19% higher than in the comparable period of 2013 — and 2013 as a whole, also according to official figures, reached the all-time record of 1,698 cases. Even the government admits that kidnapping is under-reported by the victims, but the non-governmental organisations vary in their estimates of the real figures. Alto al Secuestro reported 3,038 for the period running since December 2012, when President…

A new map of organised crime in Mexico has emerged from a freedom of information request from the newspaper Excélsior to the PGR, the office of the federal procurator-general. Published on 16 September it confirms the government’s most recent assessment that there are currently nine active major drug cartels, namely [Sinaloa/] Pacífico, Los Zetas, Gulf, Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), Beltrán Leyva, Los Caballeros Templarios, Carrillo Fuentes [Tijuana], Arellano Félix [Tijuana] and La Familia Michoacana (LFM). To this it adds the existence of 43 gangs or ‘cells’ associated with seven of the nine cartels, identified by name, affiliation and areas of…