President Appears to Be Fudging Numbers About the Biggest Threat to Mexico Christopher Woody - Business Insider
go to original September 28, 2015

Guerrero state in southwest Mexico has some of the highest homicides rates in Mexico this year, while reports indicate that municipalities in Chihuahua state, in northeast Mexico, has also seen a spike in killings. (Leaflet)

During his third state of the union speech earlier this month, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto acknowledged the social and political struggles the country has faced over the past year.

But he touted the performance of his government in its fight against crime, saying, “it is a fact that violence is diminishing in Mexico.”

Yet recent surveys and discoveries, as well as analyses of the president’s claims, reveal that his assertions may be misrepresenting the truth and that Mexicans may not be as safe as their government would have them believe.

In his speech, Peña Nieto argued that 2014 saw the second-lowest crime statistics in 17 years, including for homicide and kidnapping, indicating that his government’s efforts to improve security and restore the rule of law had been successful.

However, as Animal Politico has noted, Peña Nieto’s claim that crime statistics are at the lowest level in 17 years relies on comparing two different categories: high-impact crime such as homicide, kidnapping, and extortion with common crime such as nonviolent robberies and fraud.

More damningly, the statistics that the Mexican government cited for this claim may not even be based on the true rate of crime in the country.

Read the rest at Business Insider

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