With Mexico in Turmoil, Government Ferries Reporters to Youth Crime-Prevention Program David Agren - Fox News Latino
go to original December 2, 2014

Students air box during an after-school program in the tough Mexico City neighborhood of Tepito. (David Agren)

MEXICO CITY –  Kids at a junior high for at-risk youth air boxed in the courtyard below their classrooms as part of an after-school program in Mexico City’s tough Tepito neighborhood – famous for championship boxers, but also its informal commerce and crime.

Others at the “telesecundaria,” where classes are taught via video and the students get a second chance at a high school education after being expelled from other schools, participated in workshops teaching cooking, drama and dialogue. Parents also participate, while psychologists and social workers offer assistance.

“All of the children come with a heavy burden of suffering violence,” Roberto Campa, Interior Ministry undersecretary of prevention and citizen participation, told foreign reporters accompanying him to Telesecundaria 91 in Tepito.

...Tepito is one of more than 2,000 neighborhoods taking part in government programs overseen by Campa that are aimed at preventing and cutting crime through intervention in the most insecure parts of the country and fixing what federal officials describe as a fraying social fabric.

Many of these programs have been carried out quietly and with little media attention as the federal government promoted an agenda of structural reforms over its first to years in office and stayed silent on security issues.

But now, with daily protests about the 43 teaching college students who were kidnapped by municipal police in Iguala in Guerrero state and likely killed and President Enrique Peña Nieto taking flak for staying remaining silent for so long on the issue, the federal government has started to publicize its anti-crime initiatives in an effort to show it has been proactive. To the point that it’s offered press tours for foreign media members to see the programs in action.

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