MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mexico City, a kidnappers' paradise

In spite of not experiencing an armed domestic conflict as is the case with Colombia, Mexico is the country with the largest number of kidnaps, according to the Mexican Citizens Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice.

"In the first six months of 2005, Colombia recorded 172 kidnaps and Brazil 169, but in the same period Mexico figured top of the list with 194 reported cases", said Jose Antonio Ortega president of the Citizens Council for Public Safety.

Taking into consideration the population of Mexico City, the kidnap rate reached 0,84 per 100,000 residents in the first half of this year, compared to 0,50 and 0,01 in the Colombian cities of Antioquia and Bogota.

"Mexico City has the highest incidence of abductions both in number and proportionally, which is nothing to feel proud about. Shame on the authorities who presume and argue that the number of crimes committed in the city is decreasing", underlined Mr. Ortega.

Mexico City with 22 million inhabitants is also the megalopolis with the largest number of abducted killed, ten so far this year.

The Citizens Council considers the public safety situation "extremely serious" in Mexico and claims that both the federal and local governments "make up and manipulate" crime statistics with the purpose "of hiding what is really happening".

Public safety has become the main issue for next year's presidential election, and following several killings of police officers, apparently linked to the regional drug wars, and accidentally US citizens, Washington strongly recommends not visiting certain frontier cities.