Kidnapping and Stuff

According to some outlets, Mexico now occupies the top spot internationally in kidnapping. Mexican society marked this dubious achievement with collective indignation toward the kidnapping of Fernando Martí, a 14-year-old Mexico City boy who was kidnapped in July and found dead on Friday despite his family having paid the ransom. The group behind it was a kidnapping syndicate called The Flower, which included active members of the capital city police. Three people are in custody for the crime so far. 

In a poll about kidnapping today on Imagen Radio, 92 percent of respondents say that kidnappers should receive the death penalty. 92 percent! Imagen has a slightly more conservative audience than the society in general, but that level of outrage, in a country that has never applied the death penalty for any crime in the modern era, is staggering. 

And the position at the head of the organized crime division at Mexico's Justice Department has been filled by Marisela Morales, who says that her priority will be stamping out kidnapping.