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 Editorials | Opinions | March 2006 
Paradise Lost
 Patrick Maloney - Free Press
Mexico-bound March break tourists who count on sweltering temperatures and low exchange rates may not realize another stunning figure, an expert says.
Only one in five reported Mexican crimes is investigated by its police force, which is underpaid, undertrained and under increasingly harsh criticism since the recent slayings of a Toronto couple.
Even fewer are ever solved.
Though most Canadians enjoy their getaways to Mexico - our third-most- popular holiday destination - the controversial investigations into those deaths and the year-old death of a Chatham man put the spotlight on a serious concern.
"Overall, police (there) are not effective at what they do," said David Shirk, a University of San Diego expert in Mexican policing. "Out of 100 cases, if you report 25 of them, only maybe four or five are actually investigated."
"These guys are not necessarily equipped to do the kind of investigation you might expect (at home). It's primarily a matter of not having enough resources, not enough qualified personnel."
Though that's no excuse, it may be an explanation for the sad saga of Chatham man Shawn Potts, who suffered a deep left-arm gash last March 17 and bled to death, according to a Mexican autopsy obtained by The Free Press.
The three men travelling with Potts, 23, returned to Canada the next day and were never questioned. The death in Quintana Roo - the same state where Nancy and Dominic Ianiero of Toronto were slain at a resort last month - remains as cloudy as ever.
Chatham-Kent police, who can only investigate the crime at the invitation of Mexican officials, have never heard from their foreign counterparts. That's left some officers here shaking their heads.
"I somewhat expected that we would have a request from the Mexican authorities to locate and interview these people. That never came," Chatham-Kent Insp. George Flikweert said recently.
The case smacks of the higher-profile deaths of the Ianieros, whose throats were slit Feb. 20 in their posh hotel room. The deaths and the apparently weak police probe that followed have drawn national criticism.
A pair of veteran RCMP officers have gone to work with Mexican authorities in the Ianiero investigation.
According to the Mexico Police Project, a study by a New York-based human rights group, Mexican officers lack "even the most basic systems of accountability."
The government gets the blame from one Cancun journalist, who says only two per cent of murders there are solved.
"It's terrible," said Cesar Munoz, editor of Novedades Quintana Roo newspaper. "Here it's a big problem. We don't have much (of a) budget to invest in the Mexican police."
No one has blamed Mexicans in the Potts death or the Ianiero slayings. In fact, the Potts family has said someone in Chatham likely knows what happened to their son.
But the high-profile Ianiero case - coupled with the perception that Mexican investigators are dangerously incapable - has some travellers rethinking trips to Mexico, CP reported on the eve of March break.
Amilia Gonzalez, who works at Ottawa's Mexican Embassy, rejected any suggestion the tourism industry trumps justice in Mexico.
Though she could find no information on the Potts case, Gonzalez defended her country's police.
"The fact that they haven't been solved (yet) doesn't mean that they won't be solved," Gonzalez said. "Solving a crime is the best for your image."
"It's not common at all, an attack on tourists. Unfortunately, the press focuses more on Mexico than on other countries."
It's fair, however, for Canadians and Americans to expect a stronger "rule-of-law" from Mexico, a major trading partner, than from poor nations, Shirk said.
Most officers there are poorly paid, even by Mexican standards, and their training, Shirk added, is almost non-existent.
"These issues apply to many developing countries, but I would point out that Mexico is a major tourism destination," he said.
"This is not a place where there are a lot of safety nets."
The answer, however, isn't to avoid Mexico, Shirk said.
The Canadian and American governments have to realize that, as part of North America, Mexican problems are our problems, she said.
"The solution is to encourage Mexico to increase standards for policing."
"We're only as strong as our weakest link. Unfortunately, Mexico's (policing is) the weakest link." |
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