2020 was the worst year for police officers in Mexico

-During 2020, at least 524 police officers were killed, surpassing the 446 killed in 2019, and the 452 in 2018.

-Guanajuato remains at the forefront as the state where the most police are murdered, with at least 84 registrations during 2020.

-Between March 22 and December 31, at least 4,828 police officers were infected with COVID-19 throughout the country; the state with the most infections was Nuevo León, with 564.

-At least 702 police officers died from COVID-19 during 2020; the State of Mexico registered the highest number of deceased police officers, with 120.

MEXICO CITY.- Today, Causa en Común, together with a network of journalists interested in security issues, presented the work “Being a policeman in Mexico: murders of policemen, atrocities committed against policemen, and with more registered infections and police deaths from COVID-19 ”.

According to the study, 2020 has been the most violent year for police officers since Causa en Común has kept this record, with at least 524 police officers killed, a figure that exceeds the total of records that occurred in all of 2019, with 446, and 2018, with 452.

The states with the highest number of police officers killed this year are Guanajuato, with 84 records; State of Mexico and Veracruz, with 39; Guerrero, with 37; and Chihuahua, with 35. The case of Guanajuato stands out since 2018 it has ranked first in the murder of police officers.

The entities with the lowest number of cases are Baja California Sur, with two records; Tlaxcala, Nayarit, Aguascalientes, and Yucatán, with a murdered policeman in each one; while Campeche did not report any murdered police.

As for murders by government level, those committed against municipal police stand out. In 2020, there is a record of at least 280 murders, a figure higher than that of 2019 and 2018, when 235 and 223 murders were recorded, respectively. Regarding the state police killed, the count indicates that at least 216 were murdered in 2020, against 188 in 2019, and 198 in 2018. Regarding homicides against federal police officers (which include elements of the National Guard), the record is from 27 in 2020; while in 2019, 23 were registered, and in 2018, 31 cases.

As in the case of any murder in our country, killing a police officer is easy, it very rarely entails a conclusive investigation, and even less, legal consequences. In Mexico, they kill an average of 1.42 police officers every day. Still, most police officers strive to serve and protect the citizenry.

Over the past year, police officers have also been at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of them without the equipment or health care measures necessary to carry out their work. Based on notes from national or local media, which in turn collect official information from states and municipalities, Causa en Común recorded that from March 22 to December 31, at least 4,828 police officers were infected throughout the country. The number of records of infected police officers by government level is: Federal Police and National Guard, with 2,070; state police, with 1,741; and municipal police, with 1,017.

The states with the highest number of infected state and municipal police officers were Nuevo León, with 564 cases; Campeche, with 360; Jalisco, with 319; Puebla, with 272; and Mexico City, with 257. The nine states stand out which, according to journalistic records that take up official information, claim to have less than ten infections in their corporations; These are: Durango, with three; Tamaulipas, with two; and Chiapas, Colima, and Tabasco with no reports.

At least 702 police officers died from COVID-19 during 2020. The number of police officers killed in each area of ​​government is Federal Police and National Guard, with 96 cases; state police, with 370; and municipal police, with 236.

The states with the highest number of deceased police officers were the State of Mexico, with 120 cases; Tabasco, with 98; Mexico City, with 89; Baja California, with 45, and Jalisco, with 26. On the other hand, the 20 states that stand out, according to journalistic records, claim to have ten or fewer deaths in their local corporations; These are Morelos, Zacatecas, Sonora, Michoacán, and Chiapas, with seven; Chihuahua, Coahuila, Hidalgo, and Guanajuato, with six; Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, and Querétaro, with four; Colima, with three; Durango, with two; Baja California Sur, with one; and Aguascalientes and Nayarit with no reported deaths. These low numbers do not indicate that these entities are better, but rather that the authorities do not provide information.

María Elena Morera, president of Causa en Común, stated that “it is extremely serious that the federal government, and also by various local governments, continues to abandon the police corporations of the states and municipalities; Tens of thousands of Mexican men and women work in them under very adverse conditions, many times without access to their labor rights, including social security benefits. It is urgent to rescue our police officers by investing in better salaries and benefits, in adequate training, in better equipment and infrastructure. We are indebted to them. “

For Ricardo Realivazquez, Chief Operating Officer of the State Public Security Commission in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, militarization is not the way for the country. He also regretted the shortcomings experienced by corporations such as “lack of equipment, poor training, no access to credit, or psychological support, as well as the lack of pension insurance for fallen policemen.”

Andrea Félix, the representative of the Association of Fallen Police in Sinaloa, indicated that in that entity there is a record of 850 widows of municipal and state police, the majority murdered in the line of duty: “We live in penance, the government refuses to grant pensions, 60% of widows do not have a pension and our goal is that there are no widows without a pension ”-

For his part, Alfonsina Ávila, a journalist for the Zona Franca newspaper, lamented the level of murders of police officers in Guanajuato in 2020, with Celaya being the main red flag with 23 fallen officers, and indicated that the violence against the guardians of order has motivated that, in said entity, between 2019 and 2020, there is a record of nine protests in municipal corporations such as Acámbaro, San Miguel de Allende, Yuriria, San José Itrubide, Santiago Maravatio, Silao, Pénjamo, Celaya and Apaseo el Alto, where the uniformed officers demand better salaries, insurance policies, equipment and facilities.

Police in Mexico are poorly paid, poorly trained, poorly equipped; they work in conditions of extreme danger and with strenuous hours; they are unprotected by the state and abandoned by society.

Militarization is not the way. Causa en Común and the network of journalists interested in following up on this issue said that they will continue to insist that those who take care of us must be taken care of.

Source: uniradionoticias.com

Mexico Daily Post