Public Safety in Mexico – Part Five

The research of this annotated bibliography explains how public safety among citizens has been threatened by the rise of violence in Mexico over the years. First, Hernandez explores how this situation directly affects children by the unsafe conditions families have to overcome. Second, Herrara-Lasso’s article explains how the ongoing situation of violence and crime are consequences of the ineffective measures taken by previous Mexican governments. Third, Hincapié relates both the lack of good State strategies and the rise of organized crime to the increase of violence suffered directly by women and girls in Mexico in public spaces. Through these articles, different types of sources of violence in Mexico can be identified, as well as specific population groups that are most likely to be subjected to this violence.

In “Disrupted by Violence,” Hernandez and Grineski explore the long-term negative impact violence has on children and their families in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The scholars focus mainly on how violence leads to a loss of economic, social, and cultural capital households. Loss of economic capital is defined in the essay as the limited income and employment options among the majority due to the dangerous environment: this makes it a struggle for parents to provide for their children. At times, children have to survive without basic household utilities, such as heat, or warm water. Additionally, loss of social capital is shown as the lack of a support network within the community – crimes in the neighbourhood causes families to isolate and have to raise their children with no additional aid. Furthermore, the absence of cultural capital is evident as the unsafe circumstances make the children unable to learn practical skills from playing outside or interacting with friends. The scholars conclude that the conditions created by drug-related violence are extremely harmful to children and families; a change of policies should be made to improve the safety of similar impoverished countries.

Violence and public safety have been continuous issues in Mexico but in the past decade, they have greatly increased. Luis Herrara-Lasso’s article “Violence and Insecurity in Mexico: Guidelines for a New Strategy on Public safety” outlines the issues with Mexico’s past public safety strategies, factors that lead to violence and crime in Mexico, and provides an insight on what Mexico’s public safety strategy should be focusing on (Herrara-Lasso 286). The author explains that the previous administration, under President Calderón, focused on the war against drug trafficking instead of building a comprehensive plan for public safety. Furthermore, there was limited focus on the structural reasons for the violence in Mexico (286). These flaws in the public safety strategies help to explain why they are ineffective and lead to an increase in violence and insecurity. Herrara-Lasso also lists factors that lead to violence and crime in Mexico, important factors being an uncertain presence of authority, an uncertain justice system, and domestic and family violence (288). In conclusion, public safety has not been dealt with well in the past, making it increasingly important to understand and prevent violence in Mexico.

In “Women’s Human Rights in the Armed Conflict in Mexico,” Sandra Hincapié analyzes the rise of femicides, or the murder of women because of their gender, and sexual and gender violence against women and girls in public spaces. Hincapié highlights the connection of these types of violence to the growth of organized crime and the lack of good State’s actions to protect women and girls (Hincapié 71,74). The rise of criminal organizations engaged in human trafficking for sexual exploitation has increased the number of femicides since 2007 (67-69). However, Hincapié notes that femicides are the final consequences of other human rights

violations such as forced disappearance, torture, and cruel pornography (69-73). Human trafficking is one of the “organized crime’s principal funding source,” thus women and girls are victims of “criminal activity in every state of the country” (72). According to Hincapié, State authorities do not recognize the degree of these problems (64-63). They use sexual violence to torture arrested women and some are even involved with organized crime groups (71,74-81). Even though the State has adopted laws, reforms, and International conventions to solve these problems, femicides and women’s human rights violations continue (81-84). In response,

Mexican women have started organizing themselves (75-80). However, they are also becoming victims of threats and sexual violence by both the government and organized criminal groups (75-78).