HomeNewsBriefMexican Govt to Stop Media Parade of Drug Suspects
BRIEF

Mexican Govt to Stop Media Parade of Drug Suspects

HUMAN RIGHTS / 24 JAN 2013 BY MIRIAM WELLS EN

The Mexican government has announced a new low-key press strategy regarding detained drug trafficking suspects, breaking away from the former administration's tactic of parading them in front of the media.

President Enrique Peña Nieto's communications team announced that suspects will now be identified using their real names rather than aliases, and the authorities will no longer arrange press photographs of detainees before trials. They will also end the practice of publishing the name of the criminal organization that a suspect allegedly belongs to.

Officials added that media must not broadcast the detention or presentation of suspected criminals, as to do so violates Article 63 of the Federal Radio and Television Law, which prohibits "apology for violence or crime."

The government's list of the 37 most-wanted criminals, which gives their aliases and cartel affiliations, will also be changed.

Government representative Eduardo Sanchez Hernandez told news agency Notimex, "We will report in a neutral tone and refer to the suspects by their first and last names, like any other citizen."

InSight Crime Analysis

The Mexican government's new strategy marks a departure from the controversial approach of the former administration, in line with Peña Nieto's stated intention to break away from his predessor's "reactionary" security strategy to focus on violence prevention.

Former President Felipe Calderon's policy of parading suspected criminals before the press had been criticized by both Mexican politicians and international observers for glorifying crime and failing to meet human rights standards on the treatment of detainees.

As one congressman commented last year, setting up press conferences in which alleged drug bosses posed for cameras in front of weapons, cash and drugs, can give suspects kudos and create false heroes for young people.

In a 2011 report, US-based campaign group Human Rights Watch warned that Mexico's justice system "often presumes suspects are guilty until proven innocent, rather than requiring the prosecution to present solid evidence" -- a violation of international human rights law.

The report documented the torture, extrajudicial killing and disappearance of crime suspects by security forces, who were found to be abusing civilians under the cover of the Calderon administration's "war" on drugs. The new government's change of policy is thus welcome news, albeit a small step.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

FENTANYL / 21 JAN 2022

Chinese companies are turning to online sales to supply the fentanyl precursor market in Mexico. As a result, more criminal…

HUMAN RIGHTS / 30 AUG 2023

In Tijuana, local pimps often form part of small, family-based human trafficking networks, which can also work with organized crime…

DISPLACEMENT / 11 MAY 2022

Mexico's produce industry has taken another hit from cartel violence, as tens of millions of dollars worth of peaches are…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…