RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The number of kidnapping victims in Mexico fell by 32.4% monthly in April to 104 people. Still, more than half were not registered in official figures, the NGO Alto al Secuestro reported Wednesday.
The number of victims dropped from 154 in March to 104 in April (a 32.4% reduction), the organization said in a bulletin.
Meanwhile, the number of kidnappings had a slight decrease of 11.1 % compared to March, with a total of 80 cases registered in April, compared to 90 in the previous month.
DIFFERENT DATA
In April, federal and state authorities report having dealt with 42 kidnappings with 51 victims, while another 38 kidnappings with 53 victims were identified through the media.
In this way, 104 kidnapping victims were identified.
In other words, 51% of the total number of victims was not reported. “This is extremely worrying because official figures show an alleged decrease in this crime, but the reality of thousands of victims is different,” said Alto al Secuestro in a statement.
According to the figures released by this organization, the number of detainees related to the crime of kidnapping in Mexico decreased by 32.4%, with 102 people compared to the 154 alleged perpetrators arrested in March.
The states with the highest kidnapping incidence were the State of Mexico, with 9; Veracruz, with 8; and Sonora, with 7.
On the other hand, the rate of kidnappings per 100,000 inhabitants shows that the states with the highest incidence are Baja California, Colima, Sonora, Zacatecas, and Quintana Roo.
With more favorable data, the states that reported no kidnappings in the third month of the year were Aguascalientes, Campeche, Chiapas, Durango, Michoacán, Nuevo León and Tlaxcala.
In terms of accumulated kidnappings, the organization counted 3,558 cases between December 1, 2018, and April 2021, with Veracruz being the state with the highest number (728), followed by the State of Mexico (605) and Mexico City (305).
According to official figures, so far, during Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s government (2018-2024), kidnappings have decreased by around 37%.
In 2020, 34,514 victims of intentional homicide were registered compared to 34,648 in 2019, a year in which there was a record.