Extortion marks the six-year term with more than 50 thousand complaints

After a public policy of attention to the causes with social support and the famous “hugs, not bullets”, the President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador acknowledged that the crime of extortion There was no reduction in his administration and he stated that it is an outstanding issue.

“The only crime we have not been able to reduce is extortion,” he said at his morning press conference.

Incidence

According to Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security SystemThe crime of extortion is prosecuted under common law, and from 2019 to June 2024, there have been 51,345 reported cases.

AMLO received this crime with an incidence of 6,721 complaints in 2018. By 2019, it rose to 8,734 and had a slight decrease in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 7,960 reported cases.
In 2022 and 2023, the number of complaints exceeded 10,000, with 10,343 and 10,337, respectively. As of the last cutoff, in June 2024, 5,143 complaints were registered.

In Interview for EL DEBATERené Gerez López, a researcher for the civil organization Causa Común, highlighted that extortion is the crime with the highest unreported rate in the country, meaning that 97.4 percent of extortion-related crimes go unreported.

Real panorama

“If the numbers of these tiny groups of people who have received complaints are already quite large, imagine if we had 100 percent recognition of the crimes,” he said.

The specialist explained that the phenomenon of extortion occurs from different angles, such as the collection of protection money by organized crime or telephone calls to extort people, businesses, commercial premises, offices, schools, among others.

Despite the above, René Gerez López, a researcher for the civil organization Causa Común, emphasized that it is positive that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador recognizes what is happening with the crime of extortion.

Downward

He pointed out that civil society has always requested that the real security problems the country is experiencing be made visible, not only the image that it is trying to give and the actions of the government. In yesterday’s morning press conference, and with the exception of homicide and extortion, López Obrador boasted that during his administration, which began in December 2018, there was a decrease in all crimes.

He revealed that serious crimes such as kidnapping have been significantly reduced by up to 70 percent. During his speech, he recalled that in previous governments, kidnapping was a serious problem that affected businessmen, merchants and even high-ranking officials, such as the former Secretary of the Interior, Fernando Gutiérrez. “That does not happen now, fortunately,” he said.

According to federal government data, vehicle theft has also decreased significantly, with the crime estimated to have been reduced by 50 percent.

Inheritance

On the road to a change in the presidential government, René Gerez López, a researcher for the civil organization Causa Común, added that López Obrador leaves Claudia Sheinbaum with an enormous debt in terms of security, beyond the crime of extortion.

“The complete collapse of the national public security system is the real debt that Claudia Sheinbaum will suffer, the militarization of public security, the awarding of the National Guard to the Ministry of Defense, the collapse of municipal police forces and state police forces,” he exemplified.

Regardless of the disputes between parties, he considered that the current reality of the country must be recognized and a true national public security strategy must be built, with specialized approaches to address regional violence.

Since 2014, I joined the newspaper EL DEBATE as a reporter. That year, I worked in the Mexico-World news section for the print edition in Culiacán. Later, I worked as a local reporter in Guasave, where I covered the current affairs, social and police sections. I joined the digital section as a web reporter for the Soy Carmín portal at soycarmin.com and later I was editor of the En Pareja portal with the page enpareja.com. On both sites I wrote about topics related to the lifestyle of women, couples and families. Since 2017, I have been a reporter for the Investigative Unit for EL DEBATE, focusing on issues of transparency and the fight against corruption, social networks and public image; the agricultural and fishing sector, health, economy, legislation, indigenous people, poverty and housing. Prior to my foray into the print media, I was part of Radio Sinaloa as a host for the youth program “Poder Joven Radio.” I have attended national workshops on security for journalists, the new criminal justice system, the Mexican electoral system, management and analysis of urban mobility and urban planning, editorial design and social networks. I also have a degree in Graphic and Multimedia Design from the Universidad del Desarrollo Profesional and an academic specialty in Editorial Design.

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