Recommendations

The CNDH has recommended that the army pay an indemnization to the families of the students of the Tec de Monterrey who were killed in a crossfire in March. The Commission's recommendations are not binding, and this would seem likely to be ignored by the army, but we can always hope for the army to change directions and embrace a more apologetic stance toward the civilians harmed by their operations.

Also, at the ongoing security dialogue in Mexico City, outgoing Chihuahua Governor José Reyes proposed a scholarship program for children of those killed in drug-related murders. The source of the money would be seizures of cash and assets from criminal gangs. This may be a financially workable idea, and scholarships for children from vulnerable families are never a bad thing, but it seems exceedingly unlikely that the government will give huge sums of money to a group of kids defined in large part by their parents' links to organized crime. Reyes called that objection simplistic, and it may be, but it will almost certainly sink this proposal nonetheless.