Drop in Arrests of Minors Reflects Shift in Mexico's Security Priorities Michael Lohmuller and Luisa Maria Acosta - Insight Crime
go to original September 17, 2015

The number of minors arrested on organized crime charges in Mexico has declined significantly since President Enrique Peña Nieto took office, a reduction that is more likely related to broader shifts in security priorities than changes in criminal recruitment practices.

According to a report from Reporte Indigo, since 2006 Mexico’s Federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR) has detained over 7,000 minors (aged 18 and under) for offenses related to organized crime.

Almost 90 percent of the arrests took place between 2006 and 2012 - the years that correspond with the term of former President Felipe Calderon - for an average of 921 minors detained each year. (See Reporte Indigo's graph above)

Since 2012, the year Peña Nieto became president, only 683 minors have been arrested for links to organized crime, averaging out to 288 arrests per year in 2013 and 2014. This represents a roughly 70 percent drop between presidential administrations.

Juan Martin Perez Garcia, Director of the Network for Infant Rights in Mexico, told Reporte Indigo that organized crime groups forcibly recruit minors by giving them the ultimatum of either earning money or being killed. Perez Garcia also decried the lack of institutional mechanisms in place for minors to report organized crime activity and receive state protection.

Video produced by Report Indigo on child recruitment by criminal groups

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