Mancera administration under investigation for altering crime rates

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A total of 106 public officers , among them the former local Attorney General Edmundo Garrido Osorio , and the former head of the Criminal Statistics Board César Martínez Jaso , are being investigated by the Statistics Commission from the Public Security System and Mexico City’s Attorney General , for the alleged fabrication of numbers of crime incidence , after finding that the information of more than 24,000 high-impact crimes had been altered.

According to the federal and local investigation, the main objective of fabricating numbers – like intentional homicide , kidnap and robbery – was to hide the rise of crime incidence precisely in a year of elections. They do not rule out that this has been done systematically during the six years of the previous administration.

Last Thursday , the report of the audit was delivered to the Attorney’s Office by the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP) and it was agreed that the federal agency will present the corresponding claim to the Mexico Attorney General’s Office (FGR) , while locally another one will be presented to the Attorney General of Public Officers .

The audit revealed that in total more than 24,000 high-impact crimes were modified by the previous administration, out of which stand out: 145 homicides, 28 cases of firearm-related injuries, and more than 20,000 cases of robbery in different modalities. The crime that was modified the most was street robbery , for that period indicates that 19,000 investigation files were opened, but they were actually 22,000 .

According to the result of the audit – in which a representative of the UN also participated and that involved the review of more than 240,000 records –, with the new numbers, an increase of 73.9% in the incidence of high-impact crimes was established, by passing from 32,506 files to 56,532 cases.

In the meanwhile, low-impact crimes had a decrease of 8.7% by passing from 202,168 to 184,498 .

Reporting crimes in Mexico is pointless

The claim before the SESNSP , that will be initiated by the FGR , joins the one started on March 23 by the Attorney General of Public Officers of Mexico City’s Attorney General Office in which “all the chain of command” of the Criminal Statistics Board is under investigation, of which César Martínez was the one in charge, and who would allegedly be the responsible for keeping an “ average standard ” of high-impact crimes, to reflect, hence, a considerable decrease in local crime.

Mexico City’s Attorney Genera

l exposes that in 2018 , 106 employees worked in that board, among them Martínez Jaso , who responded directly to the orders of the then-attorney general Edmundo Garrido Osorio .

Reality exceeds fiction

. Claudia Sheinbaum , Mexico City Mayor , highlighted that the corresponding claims were made in the General Comptroller Office , in the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office , and in the Mexico Attorney General’s Office against those responsible.

Upon being asked if the former secretary of Public Security Hiram Almeida , the former Mexico City attorney general Edmundo Garrido , and the former City Mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera will be under investigation, the local governor said that she will not be devoted to prosecuting anyone and that defining those responsible corresponds to the Attorney General’s Office and the judges .

“The information is available for everyone to know how the crimes were actually, what is happening right now; we do it is an exercise on transparency ; that does not have anything to do with our commitment to reduce crime and provide security in Mexico City ,” pointed out the head of the local Executive.