Mexico turns to army, drones for security
Source: Associated Press
Mexico turns to army, drones for security
Monday, September 1, 2014
By: Associated Press
MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government says it is increasingly turning to the use of the army and drones in security patrols, reducing the role of the once-successful Marine forces.
In an annual report on the state of the nation submitted to Congress Monday, the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto said army patrols had increased 52.2 percent between September and July as compared to the same period of the previous year. The number of marine patrols decreased 28.3 percent in the same period. The marines have carried out some of the biggest take-downs of major drug lords.
The government also gave one of its first detailed accountings of the use of drones, saying it had flown 149 security drone missions with over 581 hours of flying time. The report said homicides, especially those relating to organized crime, had dropped over the last year. It said Mexico's homicide rate for all of 2013 was about 19 per 100,000 inhabitants, down from 22 just a year earlier.
However, the number of calls to a national security crime hotline rose 52 percent between September and July, to about 470,000, a rise the government attributed to increased confidence among the public in law enforcement agencies.
Many crimes in Mexico go unreported because victims fear police are corrupt or inefficient.
Read more: http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/international/americas/2014/09/mexico_turns_to_army_drones_for_security
