Mapping Out Mexico's Kidnapping Hotspots: The High-Risk States InSight Crime
go to original September 12, 2014

Kidnapping is the most troublesome security problem facing Mexico’s government, and a breakdown of kidnapping reports by a watchdog group reinforces the idea that only long-term institutional reform can cure it.

A recently released analysis by Mexico’s National Citizen Observatory (ONC) examining kidnappings since 1997 sets out some important trends that help break down the phenomenon by region.



1. Central Mexico is the region that sees the highest total number of kidnappings. As of 2013, there were nearly 700 reports of kidnapping in central Mexico and fewer than 400 in each of the four other regions defined by the ONC: the northwest, northeast, southwest and southeast. Reported kidnappings under federal jurisdiction - generally those linked to organized crime - have also been concentrated in central Mexico, with Guerrero, Mexico state and Morelos experiencing the highest number.

2. Northeast Mexico has the highest kidnapping rate. The region had slightly over two kidnappings per every 100,000 residents as of 2013, followed by the central region with slightly over 1.5 per 100,000. The northeastern state with the highest rate is Tamaulipas, which in 2013 saw more than 6 kidnappings per 100,000 residents.

3. Kidnappings are becoming more concentrated in a smaller number of states. The seven states with the highest number of reported kidnappings represented about 61 percent of the national total in 2012, but this grew to 73.7 percent in 2013. In these states, the number of municipalities reporting kidnappings increased. The number of municipalities with at least one kidnapping rose 12 percent in the same time period (from 311 to 349, up from 293 in 2011).

4. Mexico State, Michoacan, Veracruz and Guerrero had the highest number of municipalities that reported at least one kidnapping. There were 61 municipalities in Mexico state (out of 125 total) that reported at least one kidnapping in 2013. But Tamaulipas was home to the municipalities that reported the greatest number of kidnappings: Ciudad Victoria, Nuevo Laredo and Tampico collectively registered 139 cases in 2013.

5. Morelia is Mexico's kidnap capital. This municipality in Michoacan reported 94 kidnap cases in 2013, nearly double the number the previous year. It's followed by the port city of Acapulco in Guerrero (66); Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas (where kidnappings also doubled from 2012, with 66 cases); Cuernavaca, Morelos (55); and Tampico, Tamaulipas (53).

Read the rest at InSight Crime

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