11/30/14 (written by cmolzahn) — Mexico ranks 32nd on the 2014 Global Terrorism Index issued by Vision of Humanity, tied with Israel with a score of 4.66 (10 being the worst possible score and 0 representing no impact from terrorism), falling between Indonesia and Bahrain. Mexico had the second worst score in Latin America—Colombia ranked 16th with a score of 6.24. Paraguay followed Mexico, ranked 43rd with a score of 3.63. Mexico’s score of 4.66 represents an increase of 1.53 from 2013. Vision of Humanity defines terrorism as “the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation.” The index scores and ranks 162 countries, representing 99.6% of the world’s population.
While Mexico has not been greatly impacted by terrorism in recent years, the report highlights Mexico as one of 13 countries at risk of a “substantial increase in terrorism” due to “various political, social and violence indicators,” making Mexico the only country from Latin America included in the group. Mexico was one of just six of these countries that were not among the 20 countries with the highest levels of terrorism, also including Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Israel, Mali, and Myanmar. The key causes of terrorism, according to the report, are state sponsored violence including extrajudicial killings, group grievances, and high levels of criminality.
Among countries from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Mexico had the second-most deaths resulting from terrorism with 40 deaths in four attacks, surpassed only by Turkey (57 deaths from 34 attacks). Over the past five years, Turkey and Mexico have accounted for 58% of deaths resulting from terrorism among OECD countries. The report highlights the group Individuals Tending Toward Savagery (Individuales Tendiendo a lo Salvaje), an organization based in Mexico calling themselves an anarchist eco-terrorist group opposed to nanotechnology. The group is attributed with two attacks in the past five years causing 37 fatalities and 102 injuries, including an attack at Pemex state oil company offices in January 2013 that resulted in all of those fatalities. The study does not include deaths resulting from organized crime-related conflicts, as those groups do not hold political or ideological objectives.
Sources:
“Global Terrorism Index 2014.” Vision of Humanity. Accessed November 28, 2014. http://www.visionofhumanity.org/sites/default/files/Global%20Terrorism%20Index%20Report%202014_1.pdf
