Jalisco is safer than ever before, Attorney General Luis Carlos Najera boldly told state lawmakers at a Congressional hearing in which he defended his record as chief of the recently created Fiscalia del Estado during the past 18 months.
Najera was summoned to Congress in the wake of last month’s kidnapping and murder of federal legislator Gabriel Gomez Michel, who was abducted in broad daylight on the city beltway along with his driver. Their charred bodies were discovered 12 hours later in the neighboring state of Zacatecas in the burned out shell of the legislator’s SUV.
Najera blamed Tlaquepaque municipal police officers for the delay in passing on vital information that might have led to the speedy apprehension of the kidnappers. The officers’ initial report suggested nothing had taken place, Najera said. Only when video camera footage was reviewed was the seriousness of the situation fully understood. By that time, Najera testified, the kidnappers were far gone from city limits.
Najera also pointed out that Guadalajara’s video surveillance system, installed during the previous state administration, only serves to gather evidence after a crime has been committed and is of no use during the perpetration of a criminal act. “A camera cannot climb down from its stand and arrest someone,” he joked.
Legislators of the opposition the National Action Party (PAN) were Najera’s fiercest critics at the hearing.
Declared PAN Congressman Jaime Diaz Brambila: “No one feels safe here, because in other states they don’t murder secretaries of state, mayors and federal deputies.” (As well as Gomez Michel, state Tourism Secretary José de Jesús Gallegos Alvarez and Ayutla Mayor Manuel Gómez Torre have also been killed in Jalisco since the start of the Aristoteles Sandoval administration in March 2013.)
Diaz Brambila also highlighted malpractice in the state’s police forces, noting the case of a youth who was wrongly identified and accused of attacking officers in the Jalisco Stadium during a soccer game riot. Najera admitted evidence had been “fabricated” and the guilty officers sanctioned. In his defense, he said it was an “isolated incident” and that he proved his willingness to come out and accept the blame for the corporation in public, something that would probably not have occurred in the past.
Najera took aim at the general public for failing to help the police catch criminals by not denouncing suspicious people or activities and for being apologists for narco culture by painting drug traffickers as cult heroes.
“Many of the dead we see today are young people who have dreams of becoming great drug capos,” Najera told legislators.
Najera also warned of the dangers of “politicizing” public security issues, noting that the 12 municipalities – including Puerto Vallarta – that have not signed on to the state’s new rapid response police force (Fuerza Unica) are all from the opposition.
When quizzed on the increase in the number of missing persons in the state, particularly women, Najera played down the issue.
Most missing persons eventually return home, he said, adding that many flee their homes voluntarily out of fear or for other domestic factors. He noted, however, that the recently introduced Amber Alert system has proven successful in certain cases.
The Fiscalia and Congress seem to be reading from a different page when it comes to crime statistics. According to Najera, Jalisco ranks nine places lower in homicides than in a table published by the National Public Security System. And in contrast to legislators’ statistical sources, Najera said crime levels are actually dropping in most areas, not only homicides but also home robberies and vehicle theft. Kidnappings are bucking the national trend and are falling in number, he said.
One legislator noted that according to the National Statistics Institute (INEGI), 68 percent of Jalisco citizens report feeling “unsafe.” Najera responded by saying the figure is an improvement on last year, when the figure was 72 percent.