Intentional homicides in Colima have been on the rise since 2015, according to data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP).
While in the first quarter of 2015 there were 37 victims, in 2016 there were 123, an increase of 232 percent.
Between January and March 2017, 183 intentional homicides were registered; 191 in the same period of 2018. For 2019 there was a slight increase to 173 victims; they added 163 in the first three months of 2020; 156 in 2021, while from January to March 2022 there were already 217 homicide victims.
Only last weekend, five people were killed in different events in Colima.
On Monday, a criminal died and three more were arrested, after shooting at agents of the State Attorney General’s Office, in an incident that occurred very close to the facilities of that agency on Los Limones Avenue, in the Valle de the Orchards in Coquimatlan.
The violence in the entity would be driven by disputes between the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel and Los Mezcales; The latter would be a branch of the same Jalisco Cartel that decided to become independent and dispute the position with the group led by Nemesio Oseguera, alias el Mencho.
“There are things we cannot control”
Manuel Llerandi Ruiz, Secretary of Public Security of Colima, said that despite the escalation of violence and homicides in the entity, he will not resign unless Governor Indira Vizcaíno requests it.
He also denied that the local security strategy is failing.
“We have to be in agreement (…) just as we plan, obviously every day we have to mutate our security, we have to strengthen it, I cannot say that it is failing, because it is like saying that all the decision that is made in a way is failing. joint every day at the security table,” he said.
He argued that in the state all property crimes, except business robbery, are going down.
“We would all love it if there were not a single homicide in the state, but there are things that we cannot control, and what we are going to do is help, help the municipalities,” he said.
Deployment of federal forces
In Colima there are 5,567 elements of the federal forces since last February when President Andrés Manuel López Obrador went to support the new government of his party in the entity, Indira Vizcaíno.
The Colima Support Plan increased the number of elements, mainly in the municipalities of Colima and Villa de Álvarez.
According to the head of National Defense, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, the 5,567 operational elements of the Army, Air Force and National Guard are distributed to strengthen public security in coordination with the municipal and state police.
Colima is divided into three regional coordinations and has five National Guard facilities in Armería, Coquimatlán, Manzanillo, Tecomán and Cuauhtémoc. By 2022, it is planned to install five more headquarters of the corporation in Manzanillo and Tecomán, in addition, the Army will provide one of its facilities to the National Guard.