Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon addressed the National Public Safety Council meeting, which he also heads, where he said: “Every one of those who have lost their lives must be seen as a human being and not as a statistic.”
The President’s message focused on the victims of the violence unleashed by criminal organizations, speaking in particular about the meeting held in Chapultepec with representatives of the Movement for Peace, which he described as victims three-fold: victims of crime, victims of impunity and, in many cases, also victims of the indifference of the institutions.
In attendance were state governors and senior officials of institutions of justice. The President urged them to respond to the demands of the victims rather than providing a politically motivated response. “We have an obligation to respond to victims, beyond self-interest or political calculations, we have to respond on our part to each.”
Speaking about his encounter in Chapultepec with representatives of civil society, the President mentioned that there were two highly repeated demands: to identify the victims of the violence unleashed by the criminals, stressing that they must end the anonymity of these victims, regardless of whether they are young people recruited by cartels or missing persons, and break the cycle of impunity.
On the issue of impunity, the President stated that they must all reflect, including himself, on whether everything is being done to combat ordinary crimes, which most affect the public and which are the 90% of the crimes committed in the country.
