During the opening of the citizen and media congress: Joint Action, the national President of the Integral Development of the Family(DIF), Margarita Zavala, asked citizens to overcome fear, have confidence, and promote participation to face insecurity. The wife of President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa also stated that fear only fuels impunity and it does not let authorities exercise their capacity.
At the congress, Margarita Zavala and Marcos Fastlicht presented the portal for anonymous citizen complaints: notedejes.mx. The First Lady gave the initial click to the webpage that seeks to encourage public participation in combating crime. Other figures made comments on the need for greater public participation in the fight against orgnaized crime.
The U.S. ambassador in Mexico, Carlos Enrique Pascual, also participated stating that the Mexicans should not “isolate” or “leave alone” the Army in combating organized crime. Further he added, “They are not trained to take the role they play now, they would not take it, they are doing it out of necessity,” he said.
Marcos Fastlicht, president of the National Association of Boards of Civic Participation, said that the federal government measures to attack organized crime are insufficient. He considered it necessary to increase efforts to ensure that law enforcement conclusively confront organized crime, drug cartels, kidnappers, and violence.
Also contributing, the CEO and the Board of Directors of El Universal, Juan Francisco Ealy Ortiz, believes the communication media should proceed with a high sense of responsibility before the complex environment of Mexico’s security matters. He stated that it is very harmful to journalistic sensationalism, which distorts and magnifies violence, like the concealment of information.
SOURCE:
Ávila, Édgar. “El miedo a denunciar genera impunidad: Zavala.” El Universal, November 10, 2009.
“Journalistic Sensationalism”
The US press is guilty of this, especially towards Mexico.
Their hysteria over the Swine Flu “epidemic” was the last nail in the ciffin for US tourism.
On a recent flight from Dallas to Guadalajara, many of the Mexican Americans traveling south asked me, the gringa if Mexico was safe.
“Yes!” I said, and I meant it.
And then the constant harping about drug lords and drug violen ce.
to be sure there is a serious problem in Mexico.
But the streets of most US cities are dangerous palces.
The drug violence here is localized, and usually involves one set of low-lifes killing another.
The highway bandits are yet another story, and this must be stopped, or Mexcio and Mexcians and the rest of us that live here cannot recover from the onslaught of bad reproting in the US press machine.