Verzcruz Crisis Report 2017

Veracruz: Fixing Mexicos State of Terror
Latin America Report N61 | 28 February 2017
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary................................................................................................................... i
Recommendations..................................................................................................................... iii
I. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1
II. Mexicos Flawed Transition.............................................................................................. 4

A. Weak Criminal Justice ............................................................................................... 4
B. War on Drugs ............................................................................................................. 6
C. Viceroyalties ............................................................................................................... 8
III. Private Fortunes and Public Fear: Corruption, Crime and Complicity ........................... 10
A. Looting of Public Funds ............................................................................................. 10
B. New Criminal Entrants .............................................................................................. 11
C. Criminal Security Forces ........................................................................................... 12
D. Killings and Disappearances...................................................................................... 15
E. Systematic Obstruction of Justice ............................................................................. 17
F. War on Transparency ................................................................................................ 19
IV. Change and Reform? ........................................................................................................ 23

A. Financial Plight and Party Politics ............................................................................ 24
B. Truth Commission ..................................................................................................... 25
C. State Attorneys Office ............................................................................................... 26
V. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 29
APPENDICES
A. Map of Mexico .................................................................................................................. 30
B. Map of Veracruz .............................................................................................................. 31
C. About the International Crisis Group .............................................................................. 32
D. Crisis Group Reports and Briefings on Latin America since 2014 .................................. 33
E. Crisis Group Board of Trustees ........................................................................................ 34
Latin America Report N61 28 February 2017
Executive Summary
Once regarded as a minor hub in Mexicos criminal economy, Veracruz is now con-
fronting the harrowing truths from over a decade of violence and grand corruption.
At least 2,750 people are believed to have disappeared in a state whose former gov-
ernor is wanted for embezzlement on numerous counts. The murders of seventeen
journalists from 2010 onwards are the most notorious examples of a whirlwind of
killings that targeted, among others, legal professionals, police officers, potential
witnesses to crimes and any civilians who dared check the ambitions of a multitude
of criminal organisations and their political accomplices. A new governor from the
opposition National Action Party (PAN) has promised to clean out the state and
prosecute wrongdoers, fostering hopes that peace can be restored. But as economic
turbulence threatens the country, and bankruptcy looms over Veracruz, strong in-
ternational support will be crucial to bolster initiatives aimed at finding the bodies of
the disappeared, investigating past crimes, and transforming the states police force
and prosecution service.
Veracruz is emblematic of the challenges facing the country as a whole. Threats by
the new U.S. administration to curb Mexican imports and fortify the border to keep
out undocumented immigrants imperils its southern neighbours economic prospects.
Similarly, President Trumps predilection for armed force to combat cartels ignores
the harm produced by the militarisation of public security as well as its proven in-
effectiveness. But Mexican voices demanding a stronger national response are ham-
strung by the extreme unpopularity of political leaders and public estrangement from
government.
Corruption and perceived criminal complicity have undermined the legitimacy of
the Mexican government at all levels, especially at the tier of the countrys 31 region-
al states. Baptised viceroys as a result of the extraordinary powers granted them
during Mexicos transition from one-party regime to multiparty democracy, state
governors have also become some of the countrys most disreputable public authori-
ties. Since 2010, eleven state governors have come under investigation for corrup-
tion. In Veracruz, an alliance between criminal groups and the highest levels of local
political power paved the way to an unbridled campaign of violence through the cap-
ture of local judicial and security institutions, guaranteeing impunity for both sides.
Strengthening institutional probity and capacity in Veracruz, as in the rest of
Mexico, will require federal and state levels to deliver on vows to work in partnership
to staunch corruption, and on their willingness to abjure short-term political and elec-
toral advantage. With the election of the new governor, Miguel ngel Yunes Linares,
the once hegemonic Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) lost power in the state
for the first time in over 80 years. But the PRI remains in control at the federal level
and has shown wavering commitment to Yunes reformist plans, not least because of
the importance of securing votes from the region, the countrys third most populous,
in the 2018 presidential election. The states budgetary crisis and the new governors
two-year mandate make it highly unlikely that the state government could accom-
plish sweeping reform to Veracruzs institutions without sustained federal backing.
Crisis Group Latin America Report N61, 28 February 2017 Page ii
A flagship initiative that deserves emphatic support is the Veracruz Truth Com-
mission. Created in November 2016, it could establish the causes and responsibilities
behind the states criminal atrocities, as well as create new benchmarks for transpar-
ency and civil society engagement in criminal investigation and prosecution across
the country. To do so, it should be granted additional powers to initiate criminal inves-
tigations and searches for victims of disappearances. The Veracruz state attorneys
office and State Police should be provided with greater federal resources, and trained
and thoroughly vetted seconded personnel from the federal Attorney Generals Office
as well as the Federal Police, to help carry out these tasks. Simultaneously, donors
should be encouraged to support local civil society actors participating in efforts
toward transparency, truth and prosecution.
By admitting that Veracruz has become the site of crimes against humanity, the
new state government forced a radical break with the recent past. Empty state cof-
fers, the governors short mandate, jostling for presidential election and the menace
seemingly posed by an unorthodox U.S. administration together represent a set of
obstacles and distractions that should not be allowed to impede Veracruzs path out
of silence and terror.
Crisis Group Latin America Report N61, 28 February 2017 Page iii
Recommendations
To break the cycle of violence, impunity and state-criminal collusion, and to
restore confidence in the state as a guarantor of basic order and rights
To the Veracruz state government:
1. Admit to and thoroughly investigate state involvement in crimes against human-
ity such as forced disappearances.
2. Strengthen the autonomy of the new Truth Commission, and provide civil society
actors the right to pair with state judicial authorities in initiating investigations
into serious crimes, especially disappearances; and coordinate the Truth Com-
missions efforts with those of the federal governments Commission for Victims
Attention (Comisin de Atencin a Vctimas, CEAV).
3. Honour the independence of and refrain from political interference into the work
of Veracruzs state attorneys office, especially regarding accusations against the
new state government on embezzlement of public funds; and support the estab-
lishment of an effective witness protection program and independent forensic
service.
4. Fairly and transparently initiate the removal of corrupt and criminally complicit
officials from state institutions, particularly the State Police and state attorneys
office, as well as the prosecution of high-level officials accused of collusion with
organised crime groups and of involvement in serious crimes.
5. Lay the bases for police reform by supporting professionalisation, improving
police officers living standards and restoring a sense of dignity to their condi-
tions of service; immediately implement measures to prevent the participation of
state forces in crimes against humanity such as forced disappearances, includ-
ing: installing GPS tracking devices in patrol cars and cameras in police stations;
keeping continuous logs about movements of police and personnel in service;
and storing and honouring freedom-of-information requests relating to such
information.
6. Introduce effective financial oversight mechanisms, beginning with the volun-
tary disclosure of the allocation and use of public funds.
7. Demonstrate commitment to freedom of speech by fully disclosing how public
funds are allocated to media companies; and reform and strengthen existing pro-
tection mechanisms for journalists and human rights activists.
8. Improve coordination with the federal government in areas crucial to delivering
lasting security improvements, including policing, anti-organised crime opera-
tions, crime prevention programs and support for victims.
To the federal government:

9. Support the search for and identification of Veracruzs disappeared persons by
providing personnel, institutional support and financial resources; revoke recent
cuts to the federal budget for the search of disappeared persons; and collaborate
with Veracruz state authorities in the prosecution of high-level officials involved
in crimes against humanity and embezzlement of public funds.
Crisis Group Latin America Report N61, 28 February 2017 Page iv
10. Assist the Veracruzs Truth Commission by obliging armed forces commanders
and personnel to appear before civil authorities to clarify the involvement of the
army and the navy in disappearances and other serious crimes, and refrain from
adopting overly militarised approaches to state-level insecurity.
11. Implement and reinforce oversight mechanisms regarding the use of federal funds
by states, and support the full local implementation of ongoing federal justice
reforms by strengthening the National Anti-Corruption System and new national
Attorney Generals Office while refraining from politically motivated appoint-
ments to local delegate positions; and consolidate the local work of the national
Executive Commission for Victims Attention.
12. Strengthen protection mechanism for journalists and human rights defenders by
introducing administrative sanctions against non-compliant officials.
13. Strive to prevent the bankruptcy of the Veracruz state in order to avoid height-
ened local conflicts in the short term.
To international governments, particularly the U.S.:

14. End complacency toward abuses and increase pressure on Mexican federal and
state governments to respect basic human rights, commit to the rule of law and
prevent obstruction of justice.
15. Evaluate programs of international assistance on the basis of their impact on the
Veracruz security crisis and state crimes committed in the context of the milita-
risation of public security; and steer international assistance, particularly in the
Mrida initiative framework, away from militarisation and toward the strength-
ening of civic institutions and regular police forces.
To international organisations, particularly the Organization

of American States (OAS) and UN, and international civil society:
16. Support the search for and identification of disappeared persons by backing
capacity building of state institutions and civil society, above all victims organi-
sations, through direct technical and financial aid.
Mexico City/Bogot/Brussels, 28 February 2017
Latin America Report N61 28 February 2017
I. Introduction
In December 2016, the soon-to-be Veracruz state attorney, Jorge Winckler Ortiz,
said the Gulf coast region would become known as Mexicos biggest mass grave.1
Two years earlier, Javier Duarte Ochoa, governor of Veracruz from 2010 to 2016 and
currently on the run from multiple charges of embezzlement, insisted the most serious
crime in the state was the theft of sweets from convenience stores.2 The gap between
the former governors efforts to downplay crime levels and the recent assessment by
a legal authority points to the heart of Veracruzs afflictions: Mexicos third most
populous state has not just suffered an unprecedented wave of murders and disap-
pearances, but has been governed with the intent of hiding or denying these crimes,
and assuring their culprits a free rein.
Reflecting a trend across Mexico, organised crime in Veracruz has mutated from
narco-trafficking into a diverse and predatory set of criminal enterprises, including
extortion, kidnapping-for-ransom, human trafficking, and oil siphoning. First under
Governor Fidel Herrera Beltrn, in office from 2004 to 2010 when the influence of
the Zetas cartel was rising, and then under his successor Duarte, Veracruz played
host to increasingly fluid political and criminal interconnections, accelerating its
descent into extreme insecurity.3
Veracruzs state apparatus has been tailored to create, protect and conceal crimi-
nal interests.4 Only 681 cases of unresolved disappearances in the state are currently
recognised by the federal government, whereas 2,750 cases have been denounced
before the state attorneys office (Fiscala General del Estado, FGE). Civil society
organisations estimate the true number to reach up to 20,000, and say none has been
resolved.5 The scale of killing and disappearances puts in some doubt official homi-
1
Veracruz, la fosa clandestina ms grande de Mxico: Jorge Winckler, Literales, 23 December
2016.
2
Veracruz pas de balaceras y homicidios a robo de frutsis y pinginos: Duarte, Animal Poltico,
16 October 2014.
3
Secretos de un jefe de Los Zetas: el gobierno nos abri la puerta y hoy pacta con otro cartel, Vice
News, 2 June 2016. Crisis Group interviews, Alberto Olvera, Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, 18
November 2016; Jorge Rebolledo, Colegio de Veracruz, Xalapa, 20 October 2016.
4
Crisis Group Latin America Report N55, Disappeared: Justice Denied in Mexicos Guerrero
State, 23 October 2015; and Crisis Group Latin America Briefing N29, Justice at the Barrel of a
Gun: Vigilante Militias in Mexico, 28 May 2013.
5
En la ltima dcada, 9 de 10 desaparecidos en Veracruz, con Duarte, El Financiero, 24 July
2016. Victims organisation Solecito de Veracruz has systematised FGE online data. An earlier jour-
nalistic tally identified 2,300 reported cases. Ms de 2 mil 300 desaparecidos en Veracruz registra
pgina de web de Fiscala, Al Calor Poltico, 1 August 2016. Crisis Group email correspondence, Luca
de los Angeles Daz, Colectivo Solecito de Veracruz, 16 January 2017. A report by a Catholic Church-
affiliated human rights organisation found a similar discrepancy. Of the cases of disappearances
covered by the organisation in north-eastern Mexico, only 20 per cent overlapped with those rec-
orded in the Registro Nacional de Datos de Personas Extraviadas o Desaparecidas, the national
registry for missing and disappeared persons. The context of disappearances in north-eastern
Crisis Group Latin America Report N61, 28 February 2017 Page 2
cide statistics, unreliable in Mexico, and curiously were below the national average
for most of Duartes term.6 Mexicos National Institute for Statistics and Geography
estimates unreported crimes in Veracruz make up 94.6 per cent of the total, and the
states impunity rate surpasses the national average of 97.1 per cent. More notori-
ously, the region has witnessed a war on transparency, becoming the most lethal
place for media professionals in the Americas.7
Many cases of disappearance have reinforced the states reputation as a site of
arbitrary and wanton terror. Promising to bring root-and-branch change, Miguel
ngel Yunes Linares of the National Action Party (PAN) was elected governor in June
2016, and assumed office on 1 December following 80 years of Institutional Revolu-
tionary Party (PRI) rule. Duarte, meanwhile, resigned from office and has since gone
into hiding.
However, Veracruz, rich in natural resources and agricultural production but
marked by great inequality, has gone from bad to worse in this transitional period. No
end is in sight for violent disputes over trafficking routes and other criminal markets
between more crime groups than ever. Homicides more than doubled from 2015 to
2016.8 After Duartes administration embezzled billions of dollars in public funds,
Veracruzs coffers are depleted, and private businesses say the state government
owes them $10 billion.9 Demonstrations, walk-outs and street blockades threatened
to paralyse public life in late 2016, and appear set to continue.
Mexico, executive for the visit of the Interamerican Human Rights Commission, Centro Diocesano
para los Derechos Humanos Fray Juan de Larios AC, 30 September 2015.
6
Two thirds of Mexicos states have admitted to inaccuracies in crime data reported in 2014 to the
National System of Public Security (Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Pblica, SNSP). The FGE
admitted that 299 homicides that occurred in Veracruz in 2013 had not been reported. En ao y
medio, dos de cada tres estados reportaron mal sus delitos, Animal Poltico, 1 September 2015.
La inseguridad pblica en Mxico, Centro de Estudios Sociales y de Opinin Pblica, Cmara de
Diputados de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos, 31 March 2016.
7
Encuesta Nacional de Victimizacin y Percepcin sobre Seguridad Pblica (ENVIPE), 2016. Vera-
cruz: 24 periodistas y fotgrafos asesinados en los ltimos 11 aos, Aristegui Noticias, 4 August 2016;
Being a journalist in Mexico is getting even more dangerous, The Washington Post, 18 February
2016.
8
Alberto Olvera Rivera et al., Violencia, Inseguridad y Justicia en Veracruz (Xalapa, 2013). State
of Veracruz, Mexico, OECD Higher Education in Regional and City Development, 2010. According
to local journalists and former state agents, at least five national criminal groups are active in Vera-
cruz today: the Gulf Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel, Los Zetas, the Cartel of the North-East and the Cartel de
Jalisco Nueva Generacin. In addition, more than ten cells have splintered off from Los Zetas since
2o10, while foreign criminal groups from Colombia and Central America are also present. Crisis Group
interviews, Veracruz, October, November, and December 2016. In April 2016, a new group called
Jarochos Unidos appeared. Trasciende aparicin de grupo narco en Veracruz antagnico al CJNG
y a los Zetas; anuncia limpia, Imagen del Golfo, 24 April 2016. Homicidios en Veracruz alcanzan
nivel rcord; 132 casos en julio, la cifra ms alta desde el 97, Animal Poltico, 23 August 2016.
9
Crisis Group interview, Maryjose Gamboa Torales, head of Veracruzs Truth Commission, Xalapa,
20 December 2016. No thorough investigation on the true sum embezzled under Duarte has been
conducted. In 2015 alone, it has reportedly reached $750 million. Contratos por productos que
nunca llegaron: el patrn que repiti Duarte para desviar recursos, Animal Poltico, 11 October
2016. Deuda de Duarte podra superar los 200 mil millones: hoteleros, Sociedadtrespuntocero, 17
October 2016.
The political transition in the state represents an imperfect opportunity to sever

the links between public authorities and crime. The responses at the state and feder-
al levels to Veracruzs woes also provide a pilot case relevant to other crime-affected
regions. Mexico has transformed into a multiparty democracy since the 1990s, but
robust checks and balances have never been implemented. In states such as Veracruz,
authoritarian and corrupt power practices morphed into opportunistic, profit-seeking
enterprises. Controlling these viceroyalties has become one of the most urgent chal-
lenges in efforts to constrain corruption in Mexico and its threat to state legitimacy.
Crisis Group conducted research for this report in Mexico City and the Veracruz
cities of Xalapa, Veracruz and Crdoba between October and December 2016. Among
dozens interviewed were journalists, including from organisations protecting jour-
nalists, human rights activists and lawyers, security and political analysts, family
members of disappeared persons and members of victims organisations as well as
current and former state officials.
II. Mexicos Flawed Transition
Celebrated as a textbook example of gradual and peaceful transition from authoritar-

ian to democratic rule, Mexico began the new millennium with the election of its first
president from an opposition party in 81 years. This shift toward pluralism and away
from the single-party regime, which had seen the PRI dominate all branches of gov-
ernment and control numerous supposedly independent social organisations, was
supposed to underpin the countrys transformation into an economic powerhouse.
As of mid-2016, 43 per cent of Mexicos 2,481 municipalities and seventeen of its 31
regions were governed by parties other than the PRI.10
Yet, as elsewhere in Latin America, formal democratisation has not translated in-
to improved protection of citizens basic rights or higher living standards for all.11
Deeply rooted practices and networks of corruption and impunity allow unprincipled
officeholders to turn public service into an entrepreneurial activity, and degrade
justice to a traded commodity. Although these practices can be found at all levels of
government, the authorities of the countrys states and its capital, Mexico City, have
provided some of the most egregious examples. The effect of this transition on rela-
tions between state and federal levels, and the possibilities for influence trafficking
and illicit activity that arose as a result, are crucial to understanding Veracruzs muta-
tion into a free space for violent crime.
A. Weak Criminal Justice

The first thing I learned [on the job], said a former agent of Veracruzs public
ministry, was to press [suspects] for money in exchange for dropping accusations,
adding that unless forced, no public official will do anything for free.12 A former
federal congressional deputy for the PRI, who oversaw public budgets as a member
of the Finance and Public Credit Commission (Comisin de Hacienda y Crdito
Pblico), called the division of powers a fiction. He added that regardless of party
[affiliation] all are partners of a system in which money comes first [and in which]
those with power protect each and themselves, and those that resist quickly lose
friendships and business opportunities.13
These remarks point to the frequent misuse of both federal and state public office
in Mexico, and to the overall impunity that permits it. Mexicos position as the most
corrupt country among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) member states reflects a failure to punish culprits, due in large part to the
lack of any genuinely independent state attorneys offices.14 With its head appointed
10
Fuerzas Polticas y Municipios a Nivel Nacional, Federacin Nacional de Muncipios de Mxico,
2016.
11
Enrique Desmond Arias and Daniel Goldstein, Violent Democracies in Latin America (Durham,
2010).
12
The public ministry, or Ministerio Pblico, is a sub-division of Mexicos state attorneys offices
responsible, among other things, for the initial processing of new cases and suspects. Crisis Group
interview, Veracruz, December 2016.
13
Crisis Group interview, December 2016. The interviewee said that, according to internal Congress
calculations, only 14 per cent of federal tax contributions are spent effectively, with 86 per cent lost
to administrative costs and corruption. Corruption accounts for 35 per cent.
14
Global Competitiveness Report 2016/2017, World Economic Forum, 26 September 2016.
by the president, the federal Attorney-Generals Office (Procuradura General de la

Repblica, or PGR) has often proved unwilling to probe cases of high-level corrup-
tion.15 In some high-profile cases, such as the alleged participation of federal armed
forces in the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa teaching college in
2014, the PGR has been accused of fabricating false evidence.16 The Organization of
American States (OAS) has recently called the PGR one of the sources of Mexicos
violence.17 A lack of proper training and professional capacity aggravates failures in
due process, as does the reluctance of the understaffed institution to take control of
federal jurisdiction cases.18
The prosecution services political dependence has also undermined fiscal over-
sight mechanisms. Since its creation in 2000, Mexicos chief audit office (Auditora
Superior de la Federacin, or ASF) has presented 270 criminal complaints against
state-level actors for embezzlement of federal funds, including 260 between 2014 and
2016. But the body lacks proper prosecutorial powers and, until now, not a single
complaint has resulted in a conviction.19
Major steps were taken in 2016 to address the political dependence and prosecu-
torial weaknesses of Mexicos state attorneys offices and the ineffectiveness of anti-
corruption mechanisms. A National Anti-Corruption System, which aims to tighten
cooperation between various official bodies and embolden the ASF through a newly
created Anti-Corruption Attorney Generals sub-Office and a Federal Court for
Administrative Justice, has been signed into law.20 Sweeping judicial reforms, eight
15
One case arose when President Enrique Pea Nieto was accused of trading favours with construc-
tion company Grupo Higa in exchange for a multimillion dollar mansion. Mexico digs into ties be-
tween leader, builder, The Wall Street Journal, 3 December 2014. Pea Nieto asked the Mexican
people for forgiveness and instructed a task force to investigate the case, which cleared him of
wrongdoing. Mxico: exculpan a Pea Nieto por el caso Casa Blanca, BBC Mundo, 21 August 2015.
16
Crisis Group Report, Disappeared: Justice Denied, op. cit. Informe Ayotzinapa II, Grupo Inter-
disciplinario de Expertos Independientes, Interamerican Human Rights Commission, Organization
of American States (OAS), 2016.
17
The Human Rights Situation in Mexico, Interamerican Human Rights Commission, OAS, 31
December 2015, pp. 33-34. Other national and supranational bodies have documented the regulari-
ty with which PGR officials obstruct justice and commit human rights abuses such as torture, and
have highlighted political intervention in PGR work. See Informe especial sobre recomendaciones
en trmite, Comisin Nacional de Derechos Humanos, 8 May 2016; Report on Mexico of the United
Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Pun-
ishment, A/HRC/28/68/Add.3, 29 December 2014.
18
El problema no est en el debido proceso, Centro de Investigacin para el Desarrollo A.C., 3 May
2016. A recent study found this issue could be exacerbated in the short to medium terms as judicial
staff are trained for the new adversarial trial system, a core part of Mexicos justice reform and one
that has not been coherently applied nor subject to independent evaluation. Mission unaccom-
plished: Mexicos New Criminal Justice System is Still a Work in Progress, Washington Office on
Latin America, July 2016. Mexican law distinguishes between common crime (fuero comn), which
includes petty crime but also robbery and assault and falls under municipal and/or state jurisdic-
tion, and federal crime (fuero federal), which includes any type of organised crime and falls under
federal jurisdiction. Family members of disappeared persons and an ex-FGE case officer reported
efforts by the PGR not to take control of cases of disappearances in Veracruz by ignoring the proba-
ble involvement of organised crime groups. Crisis Group interviews, Veracruz, October, November
and December 2016.
19
ASF present 270 denuncias; PGR an no sanciona a nadie, Milenio, 22 November 2016.
20
President signs new anti-corruption laws, Mexico News Daily, 19 July 2016.
years in the making, include the creation of independent Attorney Generals Offices
on the federal level as well as in all states by the end of 2018.21 To minimise the risk
that corruption will continue under new institutional faades, reforms will have to
be implemented at the same time at federal, state and municipal levels, while newly
created institutions, particularly the forthcoming federal state attorneys office (Fis-
cala General de la Repblica, FGR), will require well-qualified and independent
leadership.22 Its autonomy would be undercut if President Pea Nieto appointed a
political ally as its head.23
Past reforms have shown that new institutional or legal designs do not automati-
cally translate into changes in practice. The failure of decades-long attempts to cre-
ate law-abiding and effective police forces, whether through improved professional
training or by shielding junior officers against abuse from senior staff, is one exam-
ple.24 Leopoldo Maldonado, a legal officer with Article 19, a non-governmental or-
ganisation that defends freedom of expression, argued that a lack of political will has
undermined Mexicos Mechanism for the Protection of Journalists and Human Rights
Defenders. Its highest body, the Governing Board (Junta de Gobierno), is a coordi-
nation mechanism that brings together a range of state actors. But some of them,
and the PGR in particular, defend the state rather than affected people, leading
to prolonged legal disputes.25
B. War on Drugs
The fragility of Mexicos emerging democratic institutions was underlined during the
countrys war on drugs. Upon embarking on the offensive, former President Felipe
Caldern (2006-2012) defended it as a swift solution to Mexicos organised crime prob-
lem. But violence reached unprecedented levels, peaking in 2011 and again in 2016
and claiming at least 65,000 lives from 2006 to 2015.26 Organised crime groups splin-
tered, colonised new territory and directly turned on civilian populations for income,
not least through extortion and kidnapping-for-ransom.27 Recent studies highlight a
correlation between the militarisation of public security and a spike in human rights
abuses by police and armed forces.28
21
For an overview of Mexicos justice reform see David Shirk, Criminal Justice Reform in Mexico:
An Overview, Mexican Law Review, 2011.
22
CCE demanda implementacin efectiva del sistema anticorrupcin, El Financiero, 16 January
2017.
23
Cuatro retos para la futura Fiscala General de la Repblica, Animal Poltico, 1 October 2014.
24
Daniel Sabet, Police Reform in Mexico: Informal Politics and the Challenge of Institutional Change
(Stanford, 2012).
25
Crisis Group interview, Mexico City, 7 November 2016.
26
Kimberly Heinle, Octavio Rodrguez Ferreira, and David A. Shirk, Drug Violence in Mexico Data
and Analysis Through 2015, Justice in Mexico Special Report, April 2016. Others reckon 150,000
deaths in the same period. Statement of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Raad
Al Hussein, on his visit to Mexico, 7 October 2015.
27
Juan S. Beittel, Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organisations, U.S. Congres-
sional Research Service Report, 22 July 2015; Un pas rehn: todos los estados ocupados por el
crimen organizado, Narcodata/Animal Poltico, 23 October 2015.
28
Country Report Mexico, Human Rights Watch, 2015; Undeniable Atrocities: Confronting
Crimes against Humanity in Mexico, Open Society Justice Initiative, June 2016; Informe Anual
The ineffectiveness of Calderns military-based strategy aimed at cartel kingpins,

which Pea Nieto has also relied on, is rooted in the disintegration of the top-down
political control mechanisms characteristic of PRI rule.29 Under the single-party rule,
informal networks allowed for the exchange of financial and political favours and
benefits, lending cohesion to a complex patchwork of national and subnational power-
holders. The result was a state-sponsored protection racket over drug trafficking
organisations, which kept levels of violence and power of criminal organisations in
check at the cost of corrupting key officials.30
When informal systems of command-and-control weakened and fragmented, par-
ticularly after 2000, highly competitive and increasingly violent criminal organisations
emerged. They took advantage of growing revenues, above all from drug trafficking,
and greater firepower to corral parts of the Mexican state into collaboration, or to
transform them into de facto criminal partners, notably via investments in political
campaigns.31 In places like Guerrero and Michoacn, this blurred the lines between
state and organised crime, and led to confrontations between criminally affiliated
factions of the Mexican state and security forces.32 Teresa Torres Aguilar, who over-
saw the interior ministrys (Secretaria de Gobernacin) operations in eight central
states during the Caldern administration, said criminal organisations capacity to
frustrate anti-organised crime operations was rooted in lower-level state actors leak-
ing information.33
The war on drugs had a paradoxical effect on state governors powers. On one
hand, the provision of public security, which fell under municipal jurisdiction until
1994, became increasingly concentrated at the federal level.34 Under the argument
that states and municipalities had lost territories to, or colluded with, organised
crime, Caldern deployed military forces.35 Above all in opposition-governed states,
this happened without coordination with or approval from local or regional authori-
de Actividades 2016, Mecanismo de Prevencin de la Tortura, Comisin Nacional de Derechos Hu-

manos Mxico, 2016.
29
Vanda Felbab-Brown, Changing the game or dropping the ball? Mexicos Security and Anti-
Crime Strategy under Enrique Pea Nieto, Brookings Institution, November 2014.
30
Richard Snyder and Angelica Durn-Martnez, Does illegality breed violence? Drug trafficking
and state-sponsored protection rackets, Crime, Law and Social Change (2009). Luis Astorga, El
siglo de las drogas: El narcotrfico, del Porfiriato al nuevo milenio (Mexico City, 2005).
31
Mnica Serrano, States of Violence: State Crime Relations in Mexico, in Wil Pansters, Violence,
coercion, and state-making in twentiethcentury Mexico: The other half of the centaur (Stanford,
2012), pp. 135159. Leonardo Curzio, Mexico: Organized Crime and Elections, in Kevin Casas-
Zamora, Dangerous Liaisons: Organized Crime and Political Finance in Latin America and Be-
yond (Washington DC, 2013), pp. 136-164. In a 2009 intelligence report, Mexicos military stated
that in 219 municipalities across 22 states, organised crime groups were in a position to finance that
years political campaigns. El narcotrfico podra financiar campaas electorales en al menos 219
municipios, La Jornada, 15 April 2009.
32
For the case of the state of Guerrero, see Crisis Group Report, Disappeared: Justice Denied, op.
cit. For the case of Michoacn, see Salvador Maldonado, Michoacn y las autodefensas: Cmo lle-
gamos aqu?, Blog de Nexos, 14 January 2014.
33
Crisis Group telephone interview, 5 January 2016.
34
Las trampas del centralismo, Nexos, 1 July 2014.
35
Guillermo Pereyra, Mxico: violencia criminal y guerra contra el narcotrfico, Revista Mexi-
cana de Sociologa, July-September 2012.
ties, leaving these vulnerable to criminal influence once federal forces, limited in
numbers and capacity, moved on to other hotspots.36 In a number of cases, state and
municipal authorities were in effect replaced with federal and provisional military-
led administrations.37
This militarisation of public security concentrated resources at the federal level,
and sidelined investments into and reform of local and regional security forces. Lack-
ing equipment and training, many local and state authorities regarded confronting
organised crime groups as impossible and outside their mandate.38 Yet state gover-
nors were afforded a privileged position under this security strategy since the federal
government depended on their support to generate results.39 They could call for more
federal resources, volunteer their partnership to the central state, and blame the fed-
eral government for any setbacks.40
C. Viceroyalties
The breakdown of old informal control mechanisms exercised by the PRI led to in-
creased handovers of political power and greater diversity in municipal, state and
federal offices. But it has in many cases failed to improve governance. Decentralisa-
tion, championed as the way to bring genuine local participation to the federal system,
has afforded governors unprecedented access to federal funds.41 Jorge Rebolledo, a
Veracruz-based political analyst, argues that these flows of funds, when paired with
the absolute ineffectiveness or absence of checks and balances within states, has
allowed governors to transform themselves into feudal lords, creating virreinatos
or viceroyalties, the traditional jurisdictions of colonial Hispanic America.42
Former Veracruz Governor Duartes alleged embezzlement of public funds is no
anomaly in this context. Since 2010, eleven state governors have been investigated
for corruption, amounting to an estimated total of $15 billion of allegedly embezzled
funds.43 In 2016 alone, five governors from other states were accused of similar profit-
making schemes, while from 2000 to 2013, 71 cases were recorded.44 In some states
36
Guillermo Trejo and Sandra Ley, Federalismo, drogas y violencia Por qu el conflicto partidista
intergubernamental estimul la violencia del narcotrfico en Mxico, Poltica y Gobierno, 2016.
Changing the game or dropping the ball?, op. cit.
37
In Michoacn, the federal government temporarily took over state affairs in 2013 after the emer-
gence of self-defence groups put the spotlight on political-criminal collusion. La cada del imperio
templario, Nexos, 1 April 2015. In Tamaulipas, the Mexican army and navy took over public securi-
ty in 2014. Tamaulipas: ejrcito encabeza seguridad, El Universal, 14 May 2014.
38
Crisis Group interview, former police officer at the Secretariat of Public Security in Veracruz,
December 2016.
39
Federalismo, drogas y, op. cit.
40
Las trampas del, op. cit.
41
In 2000, 50 per cent of public spending in Mexico was carried out by the federal government,
compared to up to 90 per cent in the early 1980s. Andrew Selee, Decentralization, Democratiza-
tion, and Informal Power in Mexico (Pennsylvania, 2011), p. 1.
42
Crisis Group interview, Xalapa, 20 October 2016.
43
El Dream Team de los gobernadores corruptos en Mxico, The Huffington Post, 29 November
2016.
44
Ms ex gobernadores son acusados de corrupcin: se suma Herrera, de Durango; slo Padrs
est detenido, Sin Embargo, 11 November 2016. Mara Amparo Casar, Mxico: Anatoma de la Co-
in which governors could count on compliant legislatures, public debt has grown
exponentially. From 2008 to 2014, it increased more than fivefold in Tamaulipas,
more than fourfold in Chihuahua, and more than twofold in Veracruz, all of which
are among the states most affected by criminal violence.45
According to political analyst Alberto Olvera Rivera, decentralisation without
accompanying checks and balances has driven the radicalisation of the old regime
at the state level. A heavily centralised system of patron-client relations used to
underpin negotiations between various levels of state authority and social and rural
workers organisations, or with trade unions. The leaders of these social organisations
traded their power to quell or rouse their members for electoral or other political
purposes in exchange for influence and financial gain.46 In states such as Veracruz,
where the PRI enjoyed uninterrupted control for over eight decades, these traditional
structures and practices largely remained intact.47 During Duartes term in office, a
Veracruz state investigation found that agricultural subsidies worth $20 million
were channelled to the social organisation 400 Pueblos (400 Villages), traditionally
close to the PRI.48
As vertical and centralised structures for conflict mediation broke up in the move
to multiparty democracy, the locus of bargaining power shifted to the state level,
with each demand for finance or support from a social organisation considered on a
case-by-case basis. This raised the costs of containing discontent or potential unrest,
and caused local political authorities to seek out more discretionary resources. You
have to have money to resolve any conflict, said Olvera. But once social groups
understand that, they abuse it. It cant be paid for. We are living the end of a political
regime, not just a momentary crisis.49
rrupcin, Instituto Mexicano para la Competetividad A.C. and Centro de Investigacin y Docencia
Econmicas, 2015, p. 57.
45
Estados, elecciones y deuda, Nexos, 1 May 2016.
46
Crisis Group interview, Xalapa, 18 November 2016.
47
Felipe Hevia de la Jara and Alberto Olvera Rivera, Capital Social en el estado de Veracruz, in
Violencia, Inseguridad y Justicia en Veracruz, op. cit., pp. 165-216.
48
Desvi Duarte 40 mdp para los 400 Pueblos, Reforma, 1 February 2017. The son of the leader
of 400 Villages in Veracruz, arrested 27 January 2017, has denounced a political witch hunt led by
Governor Yunes. Detencin de mi padre es una persecucin poltica de Yunes, Radio Formula 30
January 2017.
49
III. Private Fortunes and Public Fear: Corruption,

Crime and Complicity
Over the past twelve years, Veracruz has embodied the combination of a flawed demo-
cratic transition and the rising power of organised crime. The virtual absence of
effective oversight mechanisms, whether through formal checks and balances or in-
formal control by federal authorities, let corrupt political leaders capture Veracruzs
public institutions for private use and gain. This process reinforced existing authori-
tarian enclaves, in which public, private and criminal interests seamlessly combined
and devoted themselves to looting public resources and preying on civilians. A gen-
eralised climate of fear and the violent suppression of basic rights blocked any form
of criticism or dissent.
A. Looting of Public Funds

The channelling of funds from public contracts toward a string of shell corporations,
allegedly set up from the start of Duartes term in 2010 and revealed by media and
judicial investigations, has been the most obvious manifestation of corruption in
Veracruz.50 The fact that these contracts were signed off by an array of high-level
public officials points to the extent of collusion and the weakness of oversight mech-
anisms.51 Neither during Duartes nor his predecessor Herreras term was a single
anomaly detected by the High Audit Body of the State of Veracruz (rgano de Fisca-
lizacin Superior del Estado de Veracruz, ORFIS).52 After Duarte resigned and fled
in October 2016, ORFIS brought criminal charges before the state attorneys office
accusing his administration of embezzling approximately $650 million, including via
public contracts to shell firms ($80 million); unaccounted credits ($300 million);
funds destined for municipalities but illegally retained at the state level ($25 mil-
lion); and resources diverted from pension funds ($15o million).53
Profiting from public contracts via shell c0mpanies is just one of the various forms
of fraud involving public institutions and the contracting of private firms by the state
government alleged by ORFIS. Other alleged acts of wrongdoing aimed at milking
state resources include the following:
50
Interpol has issued an international arrest warrant against Duarte for organised crime and use of
illicit resources. See https://www.interpol.int/es/notice/search/wanted/2016-65641.
51
A number of these firms, which were registered in the names of a small circle of individuals, were
dissolved upon receiving public funds. Las empresas fantasmas de Veracruz, Animal Poltico, 24
May 2016.
52
En 10 aos, Auditora de Veracruz no encontr irregularidades en gobiernos de Herrera y Duar-
te, Animal Poltico, 14 September 2016.
53
Javier Duarte es investigado por el presunto desvo de 504 mdp de 4 municipios veracruzanos,
Animal Poltico, 6 January 2016. Before asking for permission to leave his post as governor early,
Duarte protested his innocence, declaring that he would prove my transparency, my innocence and
my fastidiousness as a public official. Javier Duarte pedir licencia para separarse del cargo,
Excelsior, 12 October 2016. A few days later, he was reported to have gone into hiding.
Contractual obligations to private contractors that were only partly fulfilled or not
at all. In 2015, Mexicos Confederation of Chambers of Industry sued the Veracruz
state government for the equivalent of $150 million on this basis;54
The artificial inflation of construction costs, and the failure to complete public
works such as highways, bridges and hospitals;55
Fictitious invoices to inflate running costs of public institutions;56
The placement of thousands of aviadores, or bogus employees, in public insti-
tutions;57
The triangulation and retention of federal funds earmarked for public employees
wages to illegally generate interest; and
The commodification and illegal inflation of the prices of taxi licenses, the distri-
bution of which depends on the state government.58
B. New Criminal Entrants
At the same time as private interests profited from public financial resources, the
states judiciary and law enforcement agencies were reshaped so as to foster and
shield organised criminal interests both outside and inside public office. What be-
came clear in Duartes term is that organised crime and state were two wings of the
same bird, said Maryjose Gamboa Torales, head of Veracruzs recently created Truth
Commission.59
Organised criminal activity is no new phenomenon in Veracruz. The state covers
a 720km-long stretch of the countrys Gulf coastline where one of its largest ports is
located. Its geographic position connecting Mexicos south with its north has made
it vulnerable to drug and human trafficking, as well as predatory crimes against mi-
grants en route to the U.S., primarily from Central America. The state was known for-
merly as a transhipment corridor, used largely by groups such as the Gulf Cartel.60
The shift toward organised criminal activity with far more pernicious effects on local
54
Industriales del pas demandarn a Veracruz por 3,623 millones de pesos, Sociedadtrespunto-
cero, 24 September 2015.
55
Fidel Herrera y Javier Duarte presumen obra incompleta en Veracruz: Reforma, Sin Embargo,
31 October 2015.
56
A local academic said his state-dependent university received monthly bills of the equivalent of
$13,000 for the cleaning of non-existent carpets, and that such practices were common to all public
institutions. Crisis Group interview, October 2016.
57
Despide Javier Duarte a ms 2 mil 173 aviadores de la Secretara de Educacin, Proceso, 19
October 2015.
58
Local journalists and taxi drivers said the official cost of a taxi license was $750 in the state capi-
tal of Xalapa. But to get a license one has to pay approximately $5,000, a sum which is distributed
among trade unions, politicians and complicit car dealerships, where vehicles have to be purchased.
In Xalapa alone, Duarte handed out 2,500 licenses. They have also been used as a means to gener-
ate and sustain political loyalty. Crisis Group interviews, October 2016.
59
Crisis Group interview, Xalapa, 20 December 2016.
60
See Celio del Palacio Montiel, Violencia en los medios de comunicacin en el estado de Vera-
cruz, in Violencia, Inseguridad y Justicia en Veracruz, op. cit., pp. 328-329; Jos Alfredo Zavaleta
Betancourt, La inseguridad y la seguridad de los veracruzanos, ibid, pp. 291-315.
populations has been traced back to the 2004 electoral success of Fidel Herrera from
the PRI. According to local analysts accounts and the testimony of witnesses in a
U.S. trial against an individual accused of money laundering and of arranging deals
between Los Zetas and parts of Veracruzs political elite, Los Zetas precursor, La Com-
paa, was granted free passage to establish itself in the state in exchange for financ-
ing local political campaigns.61 Herrera has denied all allegations of wrongdoing from
his time as governor.62
Many locals collaborated with Los Zetas for a chunk of wealth and power, ena-
bling it to become the dominant force in a variety of illicit activities such as drug
sales, auto theft, kidnapping and extortion of migrants, counterfeiting, oil siphoning,
human trafficking, kidnapping, and extortion of businesses.63 Simultaneously, it
pushed deep into the licit economy, setting up money laundering structures and for-
cibly taking over businesses and real estate. The diversification of income, and the
violence used to consolidate this empire, is common to a number of Mexican crimi-
nal organisations, and was taken up in Veracruz by competing groups or offshoots
from Los Zetas when it lost its dominance in the state after 2010. But extreme coer-
cion is a particularity of Los Zetas modus operandi.64 A former Veracruz intelligence
officer active when it took root in the region said: Among the cartels, Los Zetas are
the poor ones, they came here without money, and to enter the fight for trafficking
routes they turned to the easy solution of kidnapping and extortion, all with the pro-
tection of the state.65
C. Criminal Security Forces
Like in a number of other Mexican states, the source of much of Veracruzs worst vi-
olence can be found in the de facto merger of regional and local police forces with
organised criminal groups. Media reports have pointed to the alleged presence of
certain individuals in both criminal organisations and local police forces, either sim-
61
Ligan en indagatoria a Fidel Herrera con Los Zetas, Excelsior, 16 December 2011; see court
transcripts of U.S. District Court Western District of Texas Austin Division, Docket no. A 12-CR-210
(6) in Expediente de Pancho Colorado: Zetas pagaron proteccin en Veracruz, Aristegui Noti-
cias, 9 September 2014; Secretos de un jefe, op. cit.
62
President Pea Nieto named Herrera Consul of Mexico in Barcelona, Spain, in 2015. He resigned
in January 2017 after being accused by Veracruz authorities of participation in a scheme which de-
livered counterfeit chemotherapy treatment to cancer patients in the state. No arrest warrant has
yet been issued against him. Herrera renuncia a puesto de Cnsul; dice que es electorera la acusa-
cin sobre quimios falsas, Animal Poltico, 22 January 2017; No hay orden de aprehensin contra
Fidel Herrera: fiscal, Milenio, 19 February 2017.
63
Veracruz, uno de los estados con ms incidencia en trata de personas, Sociedadtrespuntocero,
15 December 2016.
64
Los Zetas original line-up consisted of former elite soldiers of Mexicos armed forces, who were
hired by the Gulf Cartel to act as a specialised enforcement unit. The group, known for its violence,
also vis--vis civilians, experienced a rapid growth, both in terms of members and territorial pres-
ence, and finally cut ties with the Gulf Cartel in 2010. Diego Enrique Osorno, La Guerra de Los Ze-
tas (Mexico City, 2012).
65
Crisis Group interview, November 2016.
ultaneously or in quick succession.66 Upon taking office, Duarte dissolved Veracruzs

Inter-Municipal Police, supposedly due to its collusion with organised crime.67 His
former secretary of public security, Arturo Bermdez Zurita, was quoted as saying
that Veracruzs municipal police respond to another boss.68
Outside of the states main cities, police and criminal groups connived with one
another to carve out semi-autonomous spaces for illicit activity. A local observer said
Jos Cardel, a town strategically situated half-way between the state capital of
Xalapa and the port of Veracruz, and close to flows of drugs and migrants, became a
hub for Los Zetas kidnapping and sex trafficking operations.69 Upon identifying
Jos Cardel as the possible whereabouts of a family member who had been abducted
in 2011, a woman from another Veracruz city reported that she demanded action by
the FGE, but was told by a high-ranking official that there is nothing I can do since
[Jos] Cardel belongs to Los Zetas.70
The reality of criminal power was made apparent to freshly redeployed police
officers. A former agent of the FGEs public ministry said he was abducted and beaten
by members of the local Zetas cell upon arrival in a station in southern Veracruz.
According to the individual, after members of the criminal groups were arrested, he
was subjected to the usual visit by a Zetas commander, who gave additional weight
to his demand for his boys to be released by having the agents superior repeat the
command on the phone. The superior then ordered the prosecutor to destroy any
related paperwork, he said.71
The criminalisation of state security forces reached an extreme in the Secretariat
of Public Security (SSP), of which both of Veracruzs principal police forces, the Civil
Force and the State Police, form part. According to many accounts, including by a for-
mer police officer, the former FGE case officer mentioned in the previous paragraph
and local journalists, from 2011 onwards the SSP became an authoritarian-criminal
enclave that served as a means to curb free speech, as a criminal structure in its own
right and as a key mechanism to facilitate and shield organised criminal activity, in-
cluding by generating judicial impunity.72 Top-down control systems enforced within
the State Police secured lower ranks compliance with commands and criminal groups
demands. Bermdez himself, a former soldier who held under-secretary positions in
66
Cae El Indio, jefe zeta en Veracruz y expolica, Animal Poltico, 24 December 2011; Secretos
de un jefe de Los Zetas, op. cit.
67
Duarte stated the lack of trustworthiness of inter-municipal police forces had been established
through tests carried out by Mexicos SNSP. En la mira, extinccin de policas intermunicipales de
Poza Rica y de Coatzocoalcos: Buganza, Al Calor Poltico, 30 December 2011. Academic observers
and local journalists said the dissolution of the force was intended to concentrate control within the
local Secretariat of Public Security (SSP), and to employ police for other criminal interests. Crisis
Group interviews, Veracruz, October, November and December 2016.
68
El escandaloso archivo del ex secretario de Seguridad de Veracruz, Milenio, 8 August 2016.
69
Crisis Group interview, local political observer, Veracruz, October 2016.
70
Crisis Group interview, Veracruz, October 2016.
71
Crisis Group interview, Veracruz, November 2016.
72
Crisis Group interviews, former FGE case officer, Xalapa, October, November and December
2016; former police officer at the Secretariat of Public Security in Veracruz, December 2016; local
journalists, October, November and December 2016. El escandaloso archivo, op. cit.
finance and public security under Herera and Duarte, is reported to have gone from
a nobody to millionaire in no time after ascending to the post of secretary.73
A former police officer said that, shortly after taking command of operations in
the centre of a major Veracruz city, he was handed envelopes by organised crime
members on several occasions. His determination to make official reports of these
incidents, he said, was met with pressure from superiors, threats against himself and
his wife, and violence from organised crime members. Continuing to refuse bribes,
he said he was stripped of his semi-automatic rifle and bulletproof vest, and told he
would be redeployed to one of the states most violent areas. He resigned, and the
convoy he was supposed to travel in the next day was ambushed, leading to the death
of three of his peers. Out of his police academy cohort of 40, he said, 10 are still alive
today to his knowledge.74 Within the police, a local journalist said, they created a
regime of terror. [Police] told me that, if they didnt do what [superiors] said, [they]
tied them up for days, and they werent fed. Rooms to torture police officers in
were in various locations, he said.75
Through coercion from superiors and organised crime groups, as well as payoffs
offered to officers, the resources of the State Police were refitted to serve criminal
purposes.76 One way was to adopt a passive response to crime. Officers were explicit-
ly instructed to reject citizens requests of help and assistance, to arrive late at crime
scenes, to not report sightings of suspicious vehicles and armed individuals or groups,
and to stay clear of ongoing armed confrontations, according to a former police offi-
cer. Our order was to simulate action and do nothing, he said. Active participation
in criminal operations, including kidnappings-for-ransom and forced disappearances,
formed another part of police operations. An informal elite squad, composed of
former members of the armed forces, was employed for the dirty work, he said.77
73
Crisis Group interviews, local journalists, Veracruz, October, November and December 2016.
Bermdez stepped down in August 2016 after Governor-elect Yunes accused him of having set up
twenty companies to launder embezzled funds. El escandaloso archivo, op. cit. Bermdez, el
inocente, Gobernantes, 19 July 2016. Bermdez was arrested on 3 February 2017 on embezzle-
ment charges, but has protested his innocence. Detienen al exjefe policial de Duarte; es acusado de
enriquecimiento ilcito, Animal Poltico, 3 February 2017.
74
Crisis Group interview, Veracruz, December 2016. According to information released by the Mex-
ican navy about the interrogation of a regional Zetas leader detained in 2011, the latter distributed
the equivalent of $1,5 million per month to police forces across the state. El Lucky, jefe de Los Ze-
tas, destapa red en Veracruz, Terra, 20 May 2012. Sending non-compliant agents to the states
most violent areas was, according to former officials of the Ministerio Pblico and FGE, a common
punishment in other institutions too. A former FGE agent equated this to a death sentence. Crisis
Group interviews, October 2016. There is no reliable data on police fatalities. Local journalists who
have tracked specific cases said deaths of former police officers were common. Crisis Group inter-
views, Veracruz, November, December 2016.
75
Crisis Group interview, November 2016. Abuse of officers human rights by superiors, including
physical violence, is no exception in Mexico. Edith Olivares Ferreto, Condiciones sociolaborales de
los cuerpos policiales y seguridad pblica, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, December 2010.
76
Unless indicated otherwise, the following information and quotes are derived from Crisis Group
interviews with the former police officer.
77
The aforementioned journalist told Crisis Group: People who worked close to [a high-ranking
element] said [there was] a special group to make people disappear and to kidnap . They also
committed crimes for business. Crisis Group interview, Veracruz, November 2016.
This group was provided with cloned patrol cars, distributed throughout the state
and used to lure victims in.
Police also gathered intelligence about federal activities. Officers were instructed
to immediately report sightings of federal forces to the State Police Command Centre
even when they were off-duty, according to the former officer. Each time a sighting
was reported, a patrol car followed federal forces. When called on to take part in
joint operations, we were only sent to see what they were doing. We were halcones,
he said.78
D. Killings and Disappearances

The worst phase of Veracruzs violence and disappearances occurred under Duarte,
who became governor after Herrera, his political mentor, left office in November 2010.
According to a local political analyst, Herrera positioned Duarte as his successor,
thinking that he could keep on governing through him.79 But relations soon soured
between the two as Duarte strove for independence.
Among other things, Duarte deviated from Herreras line of not collaborating
with the federal government on matters of security, largely because the president at
the time was from a different political party. Duarte worked in conjunction with
President Felipe Caldern from the National Action Party (PAN), who was himself
desperate to produce results in a militarised anti-organised crime campaign widely
considered a failure, and to undertake joint state-federal operations against Los
Zetas, which had become one of his primary targets.80 This increased coordination
led to the arrest of a number of high-ranking Zetas members. As a result, the group
splintered into smaller cells, which not only competed with one another, but also
acted even more aggressively against civilians within their tightly circumscribed areas
of territorial influence.81
In this context, more criminal groups pushed into Veracruz. During training at
Veracruzs police academy early in Duartes term, recruits were told that seven organ-
ised criminal groups were active in the state.82 The resulting competition for markets
and territories generated a spike in reported homicide rates and forced disappear-
78
Halcones, or falcons, in Mexican parlance, designates lookouts. They are fundamental elements
of cartels systems of territorial control.
79
Crisis Group interview, Jorge Rebolledo, Xalapa, 20 October 2016.
80
Op. cit. and Vanda Felbab-Brown, Calderns Caldron Lessons from Mexicos Battle Against
Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking in Tijuana, Ciudad Jurez, and Michoacn, Brookings, Sep-
tember 2011, p. 40. Mexico Seems To Favor Sinaloa Cartel In Drug War, National Public Radio, 19
May 2010.
81
According to human rights lawyer Volga de Pina, who has compiled local intelligence as part of
her support of the search of Veracruzs disappeared, in the area around the northern Veracruz city
of Poza Rica alone, eight different such cells are active today. Crisis Group interview, Mexico City, 11
November 2016. The fragmentation and predatory turn against civilians has been an outstanding
trend among Mexicos organised crime groups. See eg, Viridiana Ros, Why Did Mexico Become so
Violent? A Self-Reinforcing Violent Equilibrium Caused by Competition and Enforcement, Trends
in Organized Crime, 2013; Crisis Group Report, Disappeared: Justice Denied, op. cit.; and Crisis
Group Briefing, Justice at the Barrel of a Gun, op. cit.
82
Crisis Group interview, December 2016.
ances from 2010 onwards.83 The state government either sought to deny the magni-
tude of the problem, or resorted to explanations based on the perceived competition
and fighting between rival criminal groups, as well as the assertion that victims must
have had some involvement in illicit activities.84 These official versions of events ob-
scured both the complexity of the violence, in which multiple groups of perpetrators
were acting according to various logics, and the evidence that the victims of many
murders and disappearances were innocent civilians.
The disappearance of over 50 people, predominantly young women, within three
days in Veracruz in 2011 stands out as one of the states worst atrocities. All had been
hired to be present at parties attended, they had told family members and friends, by
high-ranking politicians and members of Los Zetas cartel.85 According to the afore-
mentioned former case officer in Veracruzs state attorneys office, the FGE, this per-
ceived indiscretion earned them a kill order from the criminal groups.86 Victoria
Delgadillo and Carlos Aldaa, whose son and two daughters were among the victims,
have presented the FGE with leads on witnesses, possible perpetrators and their
childrens whereabouts. None of the latter has been acted upon, with witnesses exist-
ence denied; the former FGE case officer, who was sympathetic to the parents, was
fired and threatened.87
This case is symptomatic of various strategic uses of murder in Veracruz. These
include:88
Inter-cartel violence such as cleansing operations against alleged members and
affiliates of enemy groups, including complicit state officials. State involvement,
eg, of Veracruzs State Police, Civil Force and inter-municipal police, has been
alleged and/or documented in numerous cases.89
Violence in the context of kidnappings-for-ransom, prominently against migrants
from Central America, and against non-compliant individuals and their family
members in the context of extortion schemes.
Criminal groups violence against civilians to create a general climate of fear and
thereby compliance, to break civil society and community resistance to large-
scale private sector developments such as hydraulic dams.
Violence against accidental witnesses and collaborators to destroy evidence.
83
Whereas, during the first four years of Herreras term, Mexicos National System of Public Securi-
ty registered 1,848 homicides, this number rose to 3,208 during Duartes first four years in office.
Con Duarte, en Veracuz crecen delitos de alto impacto, El Financiero, 19 August 2015.
84 Victims and Counter-Victims in Contemporary Mexico, Poltica Comn, 2015.
85
Crisis Group interviews, Victoria Delgadillo, Xalapa, 22 October 2016; Carlos Aldaa, Mexico
City, 10 November 2016.
86
Crisis Group interviews, former FGE case officer, Xalapa, October, November and December 2016.
He showed Crisis Group official FGE case files, which detail these claims.
87
Crisis Group interviews, Victoria Delgadillo, Carlos Aldaa, former FGE case officer, Veracruz,
Mexico City, October, November 2016.
88
This list is based on open-source data as well as information provided by family members of dis-
appeared persons, victims and human rights organisations, former Veracruz state officials, political
analysts and local journalists. For each item, more than one case has been documented.
89
See, eg, Impunidad. Policas de Veracruz, detrs de desapariciones, El Universal, 28 October
2016.
Violence against journalists to impede free speech, criticism and to veil criminal
operations.
Organised crime groups as well as federal armed forces violence against small-
scale criminals to enforce organised crime groups monopoly over activities such
as hydrocarbon theft from pipelines.
Veracruz and federal forces cleansing operations against alleged members of
criminal groups in the context of joint anti-organised crime operations from 2010
onwards.90
Internal state violence, eg, against non-compliant and former officials.
E. Systematic Obstruction of Justice

Official statistics on homicides and disappearances have tended to underestimate
the real totals. A low-level official in Veracruzs Security Council, who was in charge
of compiling crime statistics, said he was given explicit instructions not to incor-
porate any kidnapping-for-ransom cases.91 It was made clear that his refusal to do so
would lead to his dismissal.92 The aforementioned FGE case officer stated that he
alone received 1,000 criminal complaints from 2011 to 2013 concerning disappear-
ances. In the same city, which is not one of the states most violent hotspots, two
other officers each had a comparable caseload.93 But the true dimension of killing
and disappearances in Veracruz is slowly coming to light through the persistence of
civil society.
Victims organisations, formed by family members of disappeared people who
have taken the search for clandestine graves into their own hands, also say the true
numbers far surpass official figures. In an area of wasteland in the Colinas de Santa
Fe on the outskirts of the port of Veracruz, which Crisis Group visited on 15 Novem-
ber 2016, members of the victims organisation Solecito de Veracruz have so far
identified more than 100 clandestine graves. While most of them have yet to be ex-
cavated, an activist estimated that in the 10 per cent of the 70-hectare site explored
until now, they expect to find a total of 500 to 570 bodies. The identification process
has been slow because most of the corpses were cut into pieces.94
Human rights lawyer Volga de Pina, who has been involved in the search for clan-
destine graves in the Crdoba-Orizaba area, which is believed to be among the most
affected in Veracruz, said two major sites were discovered within days. In one, 17,000
human fragments were found; in the other, 11,000.95 Gamboa Torales of the Vera-
cruz Truth Commission estimated the total number of disappeared in the state under
90
When the PGR, in late 2015 and based on a small sample, published its first official map of forced
disappearances in Mexico, it stated that Veracruz accounted for one in four. Primer mapa oficial de
desapariciones en Mxico; en Veracruz 1 de cada 4 casos del pas, Animal Poltico, 21 December 2015.
91
The Security Council is a Veracruz state government body supposed to act as a coordinating body
for all actors and questions relating to the provision of public security.
92
93
Crisis Group interview, October 2016.
94
95
Herrera and Duarte to be at least 5,000.96 Overall, estimates by victims organisations

oscillate between 4,000 and 20,000. The latter figure rivals the official nationwide
number of 27,659 disappearances provided in February 2016.97
Denial of these crimes, and of justice for victims, was part and parcel of the self-
protection the Veracruz state and its criminal associates guaranteed themselves be-
tween 2004 and 2016. Together with capacity constraints due to the lack of qualified
staff, limited training and poor working conditions, as well as a shortfall in financial
resources, a variety of methods were used to produce conditions of almost total im-
punity. The FGE, as the states main investigative body, played a particularly important
role in this regard. According to the case officer cited above, the FGE was criminally
infiltrated to a degree comparable to that of the SSP, while similar control mecha-
nisms were applied. In total, this source added, an estimated 50 former FGE officials
have disappeared and/or been killed.98
Techniques to cover up crimes during the Duarte administration included:

State officials contravening legally binding protocols for the search of disappeared
persons by refusing or trying to dissuade family members to file reports.99 They
commonly asserted that the missing person probably just ran off with her lover,
that these things happen and that there was nothing to worry about.100
The refusal and/or incapacity of FGE officials to conduct investigations caused

by a backlog in cases, a lack of resources or financial incentives, political interfer-
ence or the risk the officials faced due to the political sensitivity of the case.101
The shifting around of cases between multiple officers, undercutting familiarity

with cases and the possibility of progress in investigations.
The shutting down of investigations when advances had been made to control the
risks faced by alleged perpetrators, including political power-holders, and the
isolation, firing and threatening of judicial officials (as in the aforementioned
case of Delgadillo and Aldaa).
The refusal by state and federal officials to act on concrete leads and intelligence
about sites of clandestine graves, which later proved factually accurate.102
96
97
Hay 27 mil 659 desaparecidos; reporte oficial del gobierno, Excelsior, 11 February 2016.
98
99
Protocolo Homologado para la Bsqueda de Personas Desaparecidas y la Investigacin del Delito
de Desaparicin Forzada, PGR, 2015.
100
Crisis Group interviews, family members of disappeared persons, Veracruz, October, November
and December 2016.
101
Every step in investigations costs the FGE money. To send us out there, to a given place, costs
and the FGE simply didnt want to spend that. Crisis Group interview, former FGE case officer,
Veracruz, November 2016. Typically, an agent will tell you that, in order to advance, he will ask
you for a contribution, for instance for gasoline. If not, there will be no justice. Crisis Group inter-
view, Narciso Pea Corts, Xalapa, 17 November 2016. The cases of disappearances simply didnt
suppose a source of income, so most of them were shut down right away. In the [FGE], nobody
wants to take on cases of disappearances, because everybody knows whats coming to them. Crisis
Group interview, former FGE case officer, November 2016.
Threats against victims organisations and family members carrying out their own
investigations, as well as against witnesses, both by organised crime groups and
political officials.
Destruction of evidence, including the illegal burial of unregistered corpses by state
forces, both in clandestine sites and in state cemeteries.103
The criminalisation of civil society-led search for clandestine graves under the ar-
gument of undue interference with state privileges and alteration of crime scenes.104
Malicious slander of disappeared and murdered people.105
F. War on Transparency
The suppression of free speech and media scrutiny of government action reached its
heights during former Governor Duartes mandate. Shortly after Los Zetas were
granted entry into Veracruz, attacks on journalists became more intense, said Mi-
guel Angel Daz Gonzlez, a Xalapa-based journalist who temporarily went into exile
after threats against his life.106 Under Duarte, seventeen journalists working in Vera-
cruz were killed and five disappeared, compared to six and two, respectively, under
his predecessor.107 Local journalists and representatives of the NGO Article 19 see
overt violence as the most visible side of a two-tier system of governmental control
over the media, which combined co-option and bribery with coercion and violence.108
A journalist from Xalapa, referring to the approximately $430 million the Duarte
administration spent on publicity contracts with national and local media, said that
102
Following pressure by victims organisations on state actors to act on intelligence identifying
Colinas de Santa Fe as a clandestine burial site, in the weeks prior to the discovery of the first graves,
agents of FGE and SEIDO, the PGRs specialised organised crime unit, inspected the site but stated
in their report that they had found nothing. Los olores ftidos de la Fiscala, Notiver, 17 Septem-
ber 2016.
103
Crisis Group interviews, current FGE case officer, local journalists, Veracruz, October, Decem-
ber 2016. According to members of victims organisations, undertakers said a number of more than
400 unregistered bodies were buried in one citys cemetery alone. Crisis Group interview, Veracruz,
November 2016.
104
Both members of the Solecito de Veracruz victims organisation, in their search for clandestine
graves in the Colinas de Santa Fe site, and human rights lawyer Volga de Pina said they were threat-
ened by authorities with legal consequences were they to conduct searches on their own. Crisis Group
interviews, members of Solecito de Veracruz, November 2016; Volga de Pina, Mexico City, 11 No-
vember 2016.
105
Many parents of disappeared people told Crisis Group that authorities, and the FGE in particu-
lar, reacted in a hostile way to requests for assistance, and said there were told that they should
have taken better care [of their children] before they got on the wrong track, implying criminal
activities that disqualified them from state support. The defamation of crime victims in Mexico is
common and has been documented, among others, by No Zavaleta, El infierno de Javier Duarte,
Crnicas de un gobierno fatdico (Mexico City, 2016).
106
107
Veracruz: 24 periodistas, op. cit.
108
This system has deep historical roots in Mexicos authoritarian regime, and is by no means lim-
ited to Veracruz. Jacinto Rodrguez Mungua, La otra guerra secreta: Los archivos prohibidos de
la prensa y el poder (Mexico City, 2007).
we were all sucking on the states teat.109 These classified contracts, access to which
has been denied to the public, are, in Mexico in general, handed to media firms in ex-
change for favourable reporting.110 According to Leopoldo Maldonado of Article 19,
discretionary funds are the political control instrument over the media, allowing
governments to reward and punish media professionals, whose working conditions
are generally precarious.111 In Veracruz, it was successful insofar as there were hardly
any independent media, said Diz Gonzlez. But if you nevertheless opened your
mouth, they harassed, threatened or simply killed you.112
Daz Gonzlez said he received threatening phone calls after releasing a docu-
mentary film aiming to clear the name of Rubn Espinosa, a critical photojournalist
who was killed in Mexico City and subsequently portrayed as a drug addict through
information allegedly leaked to the media by Mexico Citys state attorneys office
(Procuradura General de Justicia del Distrito Federal). The online media platform
he ran was cyber-attacked, and State Police patrol cars were stationed in front of his
home.113 Espinosa himself had reportedly been subjected to a string of threats from
and physical violence by state security officers.114 He had covered government re-
pression against social movements and, weeks prior to fleeing to Mexico City in search
of a safe refuge, headed a commemorative event for Regina Martnez, the Veracruz
correspondent for national news magazine Proceso who was killed there in 2012.
Authorities characterised Martnezs death as a robbery attempt before alluding to a
crime of passion, ascribing to Martnez a victimogenic character.115
Moises Snchez Cerezo, a journalist from Medelln del Bravo, a locality close to
the city of Veracruz, reported receiving threats from local politicians before being
abducted from his home by armed men, who also took his computer, mobile phone
and camera, and murdered on 2 January 2015.116 According to his son Jorge, Snchez
had dedicated himself to denouncing government inaction toward the wave of vio-
lence and crime around his hometown, as well as raising public awareness about the
embezzlement of public funds intended for infrastructure. He refused pay-offs from
municipal authorities, his son said. He added that local authorities failed to reach
the scene of his fathers abduction, federal forces carried out official searches only
three hours after it happened, and that witnesses observed criminals vehicles block-
109
See Javier Duarte gast 4 mdp diarios en publicidad y todava dej adeudos, Proceso, 3 De-
cember 2016. This number does not include informal pay-offs, which local journalists said were
common. Crisis Group interviews, Xalapa, October 2016. Crisis Group interview, October 2016.
110
Javier Duarte compraba prensa pero no pagaba, Proceso, 29 December 2016. La otra gue-
rra secreta, op. cit.
111
112
113
This information was released, eg, through: Peritaje de PGJDF revela consumo de cocana y
mariguana en ejecutados de Narvarte, SDP Noticias, 13 August 2015. Crisis Group interview, Xala-
pa, 19 October 2016.
114
Asesinan al fotoperiodista Rubn Espinosa en DF; Haba salido de Veracruz por amenazas,
Artculo 19 press release, 1 August 2015.
115
El infierno de, op. cit., pp. 171-182.
116
En asesinato de Moiss Snchez, un ao de impunidad: Artculo 19, Aristegui Noticias, 4 Jan-
uary 2016.
ing off the roads surrounding Snchezs home prior to his abduction while nearby
police patrol cars did not intervene.117
On 3 January, Duarte publicly said Snchez worked as a taxi driver.118 Most
cases of assassinations and/or disappearances of journalists in the state have been
preceded or followed by efforts to link the crimes to matters unrelated to their pro-
fession, or to individuals collusion with organised crime groups.119 In conjunction
with an estimated 99.75 per cent impunity rate for violence against media profes-
sionals in Mexico in Veracruz, a recent report found no case has been fully resolved
this has fostered a climate of terror and fear that prevents critical reporting and
encourages self-censorship.120 A number of local journalists said direct threats had
been conveyed to them by state officials, and in some cases by colleagues or superi-
ors in media companies.121 Sandra Segura, a city of Veracruz-based journalist who
reported on human rights abuses suffered by a colleague incarcerated for eight months
on manslaughter charges, said she was told by a colleague that if I didnt back down,
Id be next.122 Mutual trust and unity within the journalism community are com-
monly undermined as many receive bribes or have been turned into state inform-
ants while others receive money by the narcos for [publishing] only authorised
content.123
Following national and international pressure, protection measures have been
implemented both at the state and federal levels. Jorge Morales, a delegate of the
Veracruz State Commission for Attention to and Protection of Journalists (Comisin
Estatal de Atencin y Proteccin a Periodistas, CEAPP), said the institution was little
more than a window-dressing exercise as members, appointed by Duarte, refused to
fulfil their obligations or even show up.124 Maryjose Gamboa of Veracruzs Truth
Commission, also a former journalist, said it remains unclear what happened to the
[CEAPPs] 70 million [Mexican peso] budget, of which an estimated 85 per cent was
spent on salaries and running costs. Due to the lack of transparency, its claims to have
supported 1,200 journalists is impossible to verify.125 At least one journalist was killed
while under CEAPP protection.126
The federal Mechanism for the Protection of Journalists and Human Rights
Defenders works only inasmuch as such measures raise the costs of attempts on jour-
117
Crisis Group interview, Jorge Snchez, Boca del Ro (Veracruz), 15 November 2016.
118
Subestima Duarte labor de reportero levantado: Es conductor de taxi y activista vecinal, dice,
Proceso, 3 January 2015.
119
Veracruz: el estado mexicano que es un infierno para los periodistas, BBC Mundo, 9 February
2015; Pristas difaman a reporteros antes de su muerte; ya inician con No Zavaleta, La Jornada
Veracruz, 10 August 2016.
120
Exigen proteger a periodistas, El Economista, 27 December 2016. Veracruz: journalists and
the state of fear, Reporters without Borders, 30 January 2017.
121
Crisis Group interviews, Veracruz, October, November 2016.
122
Crisis Group interview, Sandra Segura, Port of Veracruz, 17 November 2016.
123
Crisis Group interview, Miguel Angel Daz Gonzlez, Xalapa, 19 October 2016.
124
125
126
La Comisin de Proteccin a Periodistas en Veracruz no sirve; es un rgano del gobierno esta-
tal: Artculo 19, Emeequis, 10 November 2016.
nalists lives.127 A total of 500 journalists have been provided with protection measures
ranging from panic buttons to personal bodyguards and resettling in safe locations
inside and outside Mexico since the mechanisms creation in 2012.128 But according
to Leopoldo Maldonado of Article 19, its reach and operations are still unable to
match the number of journalists in need given that 1,142 attacks were recorded by
the organisation from the beginning of Pea Nietos term, on 1 December 2012, to
March 2016. Apart from bureaucratic hurdles that delay rapid response measures, a
major problem lies in the provision of personal protection by state-level actors, who
are often the main perpetrator of attacks. The fundamental concern, said Maldona-
do, is that four years after its creation, [the mechanism] remains purely reactive.
They are focusing on the consequences, and not the causes. So ultimately, those who
want journalists to shut up are winning.129
127
Crisis Group interview, No Zavaleta, Xalapa, 21 October 2016. Zaveleta, the Veracruz corre-
spondent for the national news magazine Proceso, was given a bodyguard following threats against
him and stated this made attempts on his life less likely.
128
Mxico: hay 500 periodistas protegidos por Derechos Humanos, Primera Plana Noticias, 13
July 2016.
129
Segundo Informe Trimestral, Artculo19, August 2016. Crisis Group interview, Mexico City,
7 November 2016.
IV. Change and Reform?
Miguel ngel Yunes Linares is faced with the difficult task of reestablishing lawful
governance within a two-year term.130 Deep structural reforms cannot be expected
nor accomplished in this short timeframe, and without federal government collabo-
ration. But efforts can be made to reestablish public trust in the state government and
hold it, as well as political officeholders elsewhere in Mexico, to higher standards. Giv-
en the horrific recent history of Veracruz, transparency and institutional effective-
ness in the provision of justice, the removal of corrupt officials, and the handling
of public finances should be at the heart of any reform process.
During his campaign, Yunes announced wide-ranging measures to address inse-
curity in Veracruz, including close cooperation with federal forces to reduce com-
mon jurisdiction crimes by 50 per cent, breaking ties between police commanders
and organised crime groups, expelling 2,273 untrustworthy police officers and
raising the dignity of police officers [through] fair wages, housing, life insurance
and scholarships for their children.131 Upon taking office, he maintained that signif-
icant changes would be felt before the end of his term, while also admitting that the
cleansing [of police forces] has to be balanced so as not to undermine our oper-
ational capacity.132 The new under-secretary for operations in Veracruzs public
security ministry, Narciso Pea Corts, concurred that a purge of State Police was
inevitable. Speaking of his recent role as a navy captain in charge of public security
in the port of Veracruz, he also warned against attempts to militarise the provision of
security: the armed forces do not have the necessary sensitivity to deal with citizens.
We are made to destroy the enemy.133
Yunes has already repealed plans to unite local police forces under the national
Sole Command (Mando nico), on the basis that a single police force is more easily
corrupted, and initiated the reestablishment of municipal police in a locality.134 To
date, no further concrete steps, such as constant surveillance of police stations and
geo-referencing of patrol car movements, have been announced nor taken to achieve
substantial reform of the police forces and prevent their involvement in future dis-
appearances. Early on in Yunes term, the provision of public security in Veracruz
remains both reactive and militarised. A total of 40 organised crime-related deaths
were recorded in the first ten days of December alone, half of which were alleged
organised crime members killed by state forces in the south of the state.135 In four
130
Veracruzs congress, in December 2014, approved an initiative by Duarte to limit his successors
term to two instead of six years in order for federal and state elections to be held simultaneously in
2018. Corte aprueba Gubernatura de dos aos en Veracruz, Milenio, 11 June 2015.
131
Acciones para rescatar la seguridad en Veracruz, Yunes online campaign platform Yo con Yu-
nes. No information accounting for the precise number of unstrustworthy police officers has
been shared with the public.
132
Una disyuntiva, depurar a policas en Veracruz: Yunes, Radio Formula, 22 December 2016.
133
134
Buscar Yunes Linares reactivar policas municipales; desaparecerlas fue un error, Al Calor
Poltico, 29 January 2017.
135
En 10 das del Gobierno de Yunes en Veracruz la violencia deja 40 muertos, uno cada seis ho-
ras, Sin Embargo, 10 December 2016.
different areas of Veracruz, joint operations with federal armed forces have been
undertaken, one of which followed a spike in crime rates in December.136
A. Financial Plight and Party Politics

The incentives to improve governance are many. Local political analysts contend that
Yunes goal is to hand over power to one of his sons up in 2018, and that doing so
will depend on having achieved a clear improvement in Veracruzs public life and
security conditions. State elections will coincide with Mexicos presidential election,
and if the PAN is to retake power at the federal level, securing a majority in Veracruz,
a region with the third highest number of votes after the state of Mexico and Mexico
City, will be crucial.
But the same is true for the PRI. Allowing the PAN to outshine the PRI in terms
of the provision of governance and security in Veracruz would further undermine the
current ruling partys already slim prospects of clinging on to the presidency. Mexi-
can states dependence on federal resources means that the PRI has considerable
leverage over the fate of the Yunes administration, although a certain degree of col-
laboration between the PAN and the PRI could be propelled by their shared interest
in impeding a successful presidential bid by Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador, out-
spoken leader of the left-wing MORENA party who is currently rising in opinion
polls as tensions with the new U.S. administration escalate.137
Until now, the federal government has sent mixed signals with regards to its will-
ingness to assist the Veracruz government. On one hand, the transfer of approximately
$20 million allegedly embezzled by Duarte from the PGR to the Veracruz state gov-
ernment signals a modest change to the federal governments inertia toward the
state.138 Multiple judicial proceedings were also started against Duarte shortly before
his flight to an unknown location, and he has been officially expelled from the PRI.139
Similar steps against other high-level officials tied to Duarte and accused of various
crimes have been initiated.140 Action against others, some of whom occupy seats in
Mexicos federal legislature, has yet to be taken.
On the other hand, the federal finance ministry discarded a bailout for the state,
and denied any responsibility for its financial plight. It also threatened to bypass the
state government by providing resources directly to municipalities, and called upon
it to reduce spending and turn to other sources of income.141 This intransigence
could force Yunes to recur to unpopular measures such as raising taxes, thereby un-
136
No habr complacencia para la delincuencia en Veracruz: Yunes Linares, Al Calor Poltico, 15
January 2017. Desarticulan banda de 37 plagiarios en Veracruz, Milenio, 3 January 2017.
137
AMLO, favorito para ganar en el 2018; el PAN rebasa al PRI en preferencia: Encuesta, Proce-
so, 23 September 2016.
138
PGR entrega a Veracruz recursos desviados por Duarte, Milenio, 10 January 2017.
139
Los delitos por los que la PGR investiga a Duarte, Milenio, 12 October 2016. PRI expulsa a
Javier Duarte de sus filas, La Jornada Veracruz, 25 October 2016.
140
Jueces han solicitado ms rdenes de aprehensin contra ex funcionarios: TSJE, XEU, 24
January 2017.
141
No habr rescate financiero para Veracruz, dice Hacienda aunque da opciones para pagar adeu-
dos, Animal Poltico, 1 November 2016.
dermining the PANs pro-business profile.142 While credits worth $350 million were
contracted to cover payments for December 2016 alone, it remains unclear how sala-
ry and benefit obligations to state employees will be met in 2017 and 2018 and how
the provision of services, including public security and health, can be maintained.143
Political analyst Alberto Olvera said the administration will have to make cuts and
renegotiate contracts with unions and other social organisations, thus guaranteeing
a permanent state of political conflict until 2018.144
B. Truth Commission
If party politics prevail over attempts to restore responsible governance, Veracruzs
budget crisis risks not only undermining Yunes incipient reform process but also
overshadowing issues at the heart of the states malaise. Yunes electoral promise to
bring Duarte to justice, even if successful, would by no means end the practices of
corruption, collusion and illegality that have given rise to the criminal capture of
Veracruzs institutions. Authentic progress requires that accusations against Yunes
himself are pursued impartially, transparently, and without political interference.
Yunes, who for decades served the PRI in various capacities before leaving the party
in 2005 and switching to the PAN in 2008, is being investigated by the PGR for
allegedly having embezzled $11.5 million in public funds to acquire 26 properties for
himself and family members during his time at the helm of the federal Institute for
Social Security and Services for State Workers (Instituto de Seguridad y Servicios
Sociales de los Trabajadores del Estado). Yunes has dismissed the accusations as a
smear campaign by Duarte and Herrera.145
Changing these conditions in the medium and long terms will depend on a deeper
knowledge of state officials participation in crimes against humanity, as well as on
measures to steer security and judicial institutions toward respect for legality and
victims demands. Representatives of the victims organisation Solecito de Veracruz
said during his electoral campaign, Yunes distinguished himself from his prede-
cessors by actively seeking dialogue with them. According to one of them, Yunes
supports our cause he sits down with us to talk, and we felt greater sensitivity and
levels of attention.146 Two days after entering office, he also invited a number of
victims organisations representatives to the local Congress, where he publicly rec-
ognised their struggle, handed them medals and reiterated his commitment that
this would not happen again, that those responsible will be sanctioned and that the
disappeared will be found.147
142
Crisis Group interview, Alberto Olvera, Xalapa, 18 November 2016.
143
Tres crditos para rescate; gobierno estatal los adquirir con bancos, Diario Xalapa, 20 De-
cember 2016. On 26 December 2016, Yunes asked the Veracruz Congress for 90 days to present an
adjusted 2017 budget, which would cut the one passed under Duarte by $930 million to about $3
billion. Gobernador Yunes buscar ajustar el presupuesto a la realidad de Veracruz, El Financie-
ro, 26 December 2016.
144
145
Los Yunes: una cola tan larga como la de Duarte, Proceso, 10 November 2016.
146
Crisis Group interview, Veracruz, October 2016.
147
Reciben 12 Ong medalla Adolfo Ruiz Cortines en Veracruz, La Jornada, 3 December 2016.
The creation on 25 November 2016 of Veracruzs Truth Commission, which is

composed of a delegate of each party represented in the local Congress, marks a first
step to transform these promises into action. The commissions head Gamboa To-
rales said that we will try to reveal all those cases that have been happening for
years and that the state has hidden. Given that it does not have proper funding
and staff, but depends on contributions from its members, Gamboa described its
role as a nagging voice toward the executive and state attorneys office. Victims, she
said, will be given copies of all requests made to the state attorneys office, and of its
responses, and be part of all decisions made. This right, she added, would be for-
malised through legislation to be passed soon.148
Human rights organisations and a representative of the Catholic Church involved
in the search for Veracruzs disappeared have argued that the creation of the Truth
Commission was approved by Congress without prior consultation of civil society.
Volga de Pina said victims organisations might embrace the idea of a Truth Com-
mission without fully realising that, in its current shape, it might not produce the
desired results. She said that if it is not combined with concerted action by the exec-
utive as well as the judiciary, the body might be used merely as a publicity tool,
which would exacerbate frustration, radicalise civil society actors and worsen public
distrust of state institutions.149 Academic observers in Veracruz underlined the bodys
potential, but added that, if not equipped with the proper powers, it risks degenerat-
ing into an excuse for the state not to do its job.150
C. State Attorneys Office
As it stands, victims or other civil society organisations do not have chartered rights
to steer the actions of the Truth Commission. Nor does the commission itself have
rights to initiate criminal proceedings via the state attorneys office. Its success in
prosecuting those responsible for serious crimes in Veracruz hinges on the latter.
While some family members of the disappeared have voiced complaints that the cur-
rent state attorney, Jorge Winckler Ortiz, has only received members of victims or-
ganisations, he insists that he has shown an openness and willingness for dialogue
comparable to Yunes.151 However, an official close to Winckler said the governors
absolute priority to arrest Duarte would be reflected in the state attorneys offices
priorities, and that victims pressure to make prosecutions are being received with
incomprehension since the vast majority of [the disappeared] were involved [in
organised crime].152 The statement serves as a reminder that the state attorneys
office could remain a tool of political reprisal.
The prospect of the state attorneys office becoming the principal investigator
of the fate of Veracruzs disappeared and strengthen the rule of law in general will
148
149
150
151
Se quejan familiares de desaparecidos de que Jorge Winckler no los recibe, Formato Siete, 19
December 2016. Only a fragment of disappeared persons family members have joined victims
organisations. Crisis Group interviews, Veracruz, October, November 2016.
152
Crisis Group interview, December 2016.
depend in large part on the extent to which the institution can be purged of its corrupt
and criminally complicit officials. Romero Abrego, Wincklers personal secretary,
said that thousands of case files would be reviewed to detect wrongdoings by judi-
cial officials. He added that suspected perpetrators would be dismissed, but he could
not specify whether and to what degree proceedings would also be brought against
suspected criminal collaborators.153
The degree and persistence of the state attorneys offices infiltration presents
Winckler with a dilemma. To guide it toward legality and to prevent in the short term
the leakage of privileged information and destruction of evidence through continued
access to case files, an in-depth institutional clean-up and investment in profession-
alisation appear indispensable. But an ad hoc purge would send a dangerous mes-
sage by seeking to combat illegality with arbitrary decision-making.
Tracing the fate of the disappeared and cleaning up the prosecution service entail
years of efforts, and risks bringing the state attorneys office close to paralysis, at
least in the short term. That the latter can, under these circumstances, tackle its back-
log of thousands of cases and simultaneously investigate and prosecute corruption in
other institutions such as the SSP, is highly questionable. To make the search for
Veracruzs disappeared a priority, it will have to bridge institutional boundaries and
find ways to make up for its lack of expertise and resources. Thoroughly vetted and
well-trained officials could be teamed with civil society organisations, which have
built up expertise in the search for disappeared persons and gathered intelligence on
alleged perpetrators, to form a joint task force. This body would work in cooperation
with and give teeth to a Truth Commission that should be equipped with decision-
making and oversight powers at a par with the state attorney. In turn, the commission
should grant an equally strong role to civil society actors in its internal deliberations.
Such an exercise can succeed only if it counts on federal political, financial and
technical support and through the secondment of qualified officials, particularly from
the ranks of the PGR as well as the Federal Police. These efforts should also be har-
monised with those of the federal governments Executive Commission for Victims
Attention (Comisin de Atencin a Vctimas, CEAV), which has created an emergen-
cy fund to provide material support for victims in Veracruz. Revoking the recent cuts
to the budget of the Specialised State Attorneys Office for the Search of Disappeared
Persons, a sub-division of the PGR, is essential, as is cooperation in identifying the
part played by federal officials in disappearances and in collaborating with efforts to
trace the misuse of federal funds.154 Recent federal and state judicial innovations, in-
cluding the National Anti-Corruption System, should prove their autonomy and new
national structures do not only exist on paper, and actively exercise their jurisdiction
over organised crime-related cases.
Given Veracruzs plight, Governor Yunes Linares should ask for support from
international institutions. Requests should be directed, among others, to the Inter-
American Commission on Human Rights, whose Interdisciplinary Group of Inde-
pendent Experts could expand its activities to Veracruz; the OAS, whose Mission to
153
154
Con 15,647 nuevos desaparecidos en 4 aos, la PGR recorta casi 2 millones a la bsqueda en
2017, Sin Embargo, 23 December 2016.
Support the Fight against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH) has
produced positive results in similarly challenging circumstances; and the UN, which
collaborated with the Guatemalan government in setting up the International Com-
mission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). Prosecutorial as well as forensic
support, both for state and civil society actors, are direly needed.
Failure of either the federal executive or the PGR to lend support to Veracruz
should be met with pressure by the international community, and direct cooperation
with Veracruzs government and civil society. The international community should
emphasise, through diplomatic and business relations, the need to foster the rule of
law in Mexico for the sake of long-term stability. International bodies and NGOs
should consider channelling technical and financial assistance directly to local civil
society actors to lower bureaucratic barriers and costs, and reduce the risk of funds
being diverted and aid politicised. In parallel, they should invest in capacity building
of key Mexican institutions, particularly the PGR, to support the search, excavation,
and identification of bodies from clandestine burial sites.
V. Conclusion
As efforts to prosecute the emblematic figureheads of Veracruzs criminalised state

apparatus forge ahead, it is crucial to remember that the states atrocities are no
anomaly in Mexico. The recent history of Veracruz, the gruesome details of which are
starting to emerge, underlines the crisis not of one state administration but of the
Mexican political system as a whole, where a well-intended democratic transition has
fallen short of expectations and become corroded by organised crime. The ease with
which political power-holders have been able to pursue criminal ambitions points to
structural weaknesses in the democratic system. Shielding Veracruzs institutions
against future illicit infiltration requires sustained and coordinated efforts by state and
federal authorities, as well as nationwide reforms addressing impunity, corruption,
and judicial failings. Quick progress cannot be expected, let alone by a single state
government. But the Yunes administration enjoys a formidable opportunity to set a
precedent for tackling the blight of political corruption and impunity across Mexico.
The creation of a Truth Commission marks an important albeit imperfect first step
to address state involvement in crimes against humanity such as forced disappear-
ances, and to begin reconstructing citizens shattered trust in public authorities. In-
volving victims organisations in this effort as equal partners, and not just a sporadic
nuisance, could turn incipient civil society organisations into a counterweight to un-
checked state-level political power. The full and impartial investigation of state-
criminal networks by Veracruzs state attorneys office could establish the bases
on which to protect institutions and political forces from recidivist illicit networks.
Commitment to transparent state administration should be extended to collaboration
with and protection of media professionals, whose vulnerability to targeted violence
is notorious.
Proactive support by the federal government should prioritise public well-being
over political and electoral expediency. Steps toward judicial independence, effective
financial oversight and the resolution of crimes against humanity hinge on support
and commitment from the federal level. The international community should exer-
cise pressure on political leaders to address democratic and judicial deficits, and col-
laborate with civil society. A new approach driven by the pursuit of more open, effec-
tive and collaborative governance is more crucial than ever as the country seeks to
navigate the quandaries posed by an America First U.S. administration and the
intimidating presence of criminal groups on its soil.
Mexico City/Bogot/Brussels, 28 February 2017
Appendix A: Map of Mexico

Appendix B: Map of Veracruz

Appendix C: About the International Crisis Group
The International Crisis Group (Crisis Group) is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisa-
tion, with some 120 staff members on five continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level
advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict.
Crisis Groups approach is grounded in field research. Teams of political analysts are located within or
close by countries or regions at risk of outbreak, escalation or recurrence of violent conflict. Based on in-
formation and assessments from the field, it produces analytical reports containing practical recommen-
dations targeted at key international, regional and national decision-takers. Crisis Group also publishes
CrisisWatch, a monthly early warning bulletin, providing a succinct regular update on the state of play in
up to 70 situations of conflict or potential conflict around the world.
Crisis Groups reports are distributed widely by email and made available simultaneously on its website,
www.crisisgroup.org. Crisis Group works closely with governments and those who influence them, includ-
ing the media, to highlight its crisis analyses and to generate support for its policy prescriptions.
The Crisis Group Board of Trustees which includes prominent figures from the fields of politics, diploma-
cy, business and the media is directly involved in helping to bring the reports and recommendations to
the attention of senior policymakers around the world. Crisis Group is chaired by former UN Deputy Secre-
tary-General and Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Lord Mark Mal-
loch-Brown. Its Vice Chair is Ayo Obe, a Legal Practitioner, Columnist and TV Presenter in Nigeria.
Crisis Groups President & CEO, Jean-Marie Guhenno, served as the UN Under-Secretary-General for
Peacekeeping Operations from 2000-2008, and in 2012, as Deputy Joint Special Envoy of the United Na-
tions and the League of Arab States on Syria. He left his post as Deputy Joint Special Envoy to chair the
commission that prepared the white paper on French defence and national security in 2013. Crisis Groups
international headquarters is in Brussels, and the organisation has offices in nine other locations: Bish-
kek, Bogota, Dakar, Islamabad, Istanbul, Nairobi, London, New York, and Washington DC. It also has
staff representation in the following locations: Bangkok, Beijing, Beirut, Caracas, Delhi, Dubai, Gaza City,
Guatemala City, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, Kabul, Kiev, Mexico City, Rabat, Sydney, Tunis, and Yangon.
Crisis Group receives financial support from a wide range of governments, foundations, and private
sources. Currently Crisis Group holds relationships with the following governmental departments and
agencies: Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Austrian Development Agency, Canadian
Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finnish Ministry
for Foreign Affairs, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, German Federal Foreign Office, Irish Aid, Principali-
ty of Liechtenstein, Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign Affairs, New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
Trade, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Swiss Federal Depart-
ment of Foreign Affairs, and U.S. Agency for International Development.
Crisis Group also holds relationships with the following foundations: Carnegie Corporation of New York,
Henry Luce Foundation, Humanity United, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Koerber
Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Open Society Initiative for West Africa, Ploughshares Fund, Rocke-
feller Brothers Fund, and Tinker Foundation.
February 2017
Appendix D: Reports and Briefings on Latin America since 2014
Special Reports Venezuela: Tough Talking, Latin America Report

Exploiting Disorder: al-Qaeda and the Islamic N59, 16 December 2016 (also available in
State, Special Report N1, 14 March 2016 Spanish).
(also available in Arabic). In the Shadow of No: Peace after Colombias
Seizing the Moment: From Early Warning to Plebiscite, Latin America Report N60, 31
Early Action, Special Report N2, 22 June January 2017 (also available in Spanish).
2016.
Watch List 2017, Special Report N3, 24
February 2017.
Left in the Cold? The ELN and Colombias

Peace Talks, Latin America Report N51, 26
February 2014 (also available in Spanish).
Venezuela: Tipping Point, Latin America Briefing
N30, 21 May 2014 (also available in Span-
ish).
Corridor of Violence: The Guatemala-Honduras
Border, Latin America Report N52, 4 June
2014 (also available in Spanish).
Venezuela: Dangerous Inertia, Latin America
Briefing N31, 23 September 2014 (also avail-
able in Spanish).
The Day after Tomorrow: Colombias FARC and
the End of the Conflict, Latin America Report
N53, 11 December 2014 (also available in
Spanish).
Back from the Brink: Saving Ciudad Jurez, Lat-
in America Report N54, 25 February 2015
(also available in Spanish).
On Thinner Ice: The Final Phase of Colombias
Peace Talks, Latin America Briefing N32, 2
July 2015 (also available in Spanish).
Venezuela: Unnatural Disaster, Latin America
Briefing N33, 30 July 2015 (also available in
Spanish).
Disappeared: Justice Denied in Mexicos Guer-
rero State, Latin America Report N55, 23 Oc-
tober 2015 (also available in Spanish).
The End of Hegemony: What Next for Venezue-
la?, Latin America Briefing N34, 21 Decem-
ber 2015 (also available in Spanish).
Crutch to Catalyst? The International Commis-
sion Against Impunity in Guatemala, Latin
America Report N56, 29 January 2016 (also
available in Spanish).
Venezuela: Edge of the Precipice, Latin America
Briefing N35, 23 June 2016 (also available in
Spanish).
Easy Prey: Criminal Violence and Central Amer-
ican Migration, Latin America Report N57, 28
July 2016 (also available in Spanish).
Colombias Final Steps to the End of War, Latin
America Report N58, 7 September 2016 (also
available in Spanish).
Appendix E: International Crisis Group Board of Trustees
CO-CHAIR Sheila Coronel Roza Otunbayeva

Lord (Mark) Malloch-Brown Toni Stabile Professor of Practice in Former President of the Kyrgyz
Investigative Journalism; Director, Republic; Founder of the International
Former UN Deputy Secretary-General
Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Public Foundation Roza Otunbayeva
and Administrator of the United
Journalism, Columbia University Initiative
Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) Frank Giustra Thomas R. Pickering
President & CEO, Fiore Financial Former U.S. Under Secretary of State
PRESIDENT & CEO Corporation and Ambassador to the UN, Russia,
India, Israel, Jordan, El Salvador and
Jean-Marie Guhenno Mo Ibrahim Nigeria
Former UN Under-Secretary-General Founder and Chair, Mo Ibrahim
for Peacekeeping Operations Foundation; Founder, Celtel Olympia Snowe
International Former U.S. Senator and member of
VICE-CHAIR the House of Representatives
Wolfgang Ischinger
Ayo Obe Chairman, Munich Security Javier Solana
Chair of the Board of the Gore Conference; Former German Deputy President, ESADE Center for
Institute (Senegal); Legal Practitioner Foreign Minister and Ambassador to Global Economy and Geopolitics;
(Nigeria) the UK and U.S. Distinguished Fellow, The Brookings
Institution
Asma Jahangir
OTHER TRUSTEES Former President of the Supreme Alexander Soros
Court Bar Association of Pakistan; Global Board Member, Open Society
Fola Adeola
Former UN Special Rapporteur on Foundations
Founder and Chairman, FATE
Foundation the Freedom of Religion or Belief
George Soros
Yoriko Kawaguchi Founder, Open Society Foundations
Ali al Shihabi
Former Foreign Minister of Japan; and Chair, Soros Fund Management
Author; Founder and former Chairman
of Rasmala Investment bank Former Environment Minister
Pr Stenbck
Wadah Khanfar Former Minister of Foreign Affairs and
Celso Amorim
Co-Founder, Al Sharq Forum; Former of Education, Finland; Chairman of the
Former Minister of External Relations
Director General, Al Jazeera Network European Cultural Parliament
of Brazil; Former Defence Minister
Wim Kok Jonas Gahr Stre
Hushang Ansary
Former Prime Minister of the Leader of the Labour Party and Labour
Chairman, Parman Capital Group LLC;
Netherlands Party Parliamentary Group; Former
Former Iranian Ambassador to the
Foreign Minister of Norway
U.S. and Minister of Finance and Andrey Kortunov
Economic Affairs Lawrence H. Summers
Director General of the Russian
International Affairs Council Former Director of the U.S. National
Nahum Barnea
Economic Council and Secretary of
Political Columnist, Israel Ivan Krastev the U.S. Treasury; President Emeritus
Kim Beazley Chairman of the Centre for Liberal of Harvard University
Former Deputy Prime Minister of Strategies (Sofia); Founding Board
Member of European Council on Helle Thorning-Schmidt
Australia and Ambassador to the U.S.;
Foreign Relations CEO of Save the Children International;
Former Defence Minister
Former Prime Minister of Denmark
Carl Bildt Ricardo Lagos
Former President of Chile Wang Jisi
Former Prime Minister and Foreign
Member, Foreign Policy Advisory
Minister of Sweden Joanne Leedom-Ackerman Committee of the Chinese Foreign
Emma Bonino Former International Secretary of Ministry; President, Institute of
Former Foreign Minister of Italy and PEN International; Novelist and International and Strategic Studies,
European Commissioner journalist, U.S. Peking University
for Humanitarian Aid Helge Lund
Lakhdar Brahimi Former Chief Executive BG Group
Member, The Elders; UN Diplomat; (UK) and Statoil (Norway)
Former Minister of Algeria Shivshankar Menon
Cheryl Carolus Former Foreign Secretary of India;
Former South African High Former National Security Advisor
Commissioner to the UK and Naz Modirzadeh
Secretary General of the African
Director of the Harvard Law School
National Congress (ANC)
Program on International Law and
Maria Livanos Cattaui Armed Conflict
Former Secretary General of the Saad Mohseni
International Chamber of Commerce
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Wesley Clark of MOBY Group
Former NATO Supreme Allied Marty Natalegawa
Commander
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Indonesia, Permanent Representative
to the UN, and Ambassador to the UK
PRESIDENTS COUNCIL
A distinguished group of individual and corporate donors providing essential support and expertise to Crisis Group.
CORPORATE INDIVIDUAL
BP (5) Anonymous Herman De Bode
Shearman & Sterling LLP Scott Bessent Reynold Levy
Statoil (U.K.) Ltd. David Brown & Erika Franke Alexander Soros
White & Case LLP Stephen & Jennifer Dattels
INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL

Individual and corporate supporters who play a key role in Crisis Groups efforts to prevent deadly conflict.
CORPORATE INDIVIDUAL Rita E. Hauser

APCO Worldwide Inc. (2) Anonymous Geoffrey R. Hoguet & Ana
Atlas Copco AB Mark Bergman Luisa Ponti
BG Group plc Stanley Bergman & Edward Geoffrey Hsu
Chevron Bergman Faisel Khan
Edelman UK Elizabeth Bohart Cleopatra Kitti
HSBC Holdings plc Neil & Sandra DeFeo Family Virginie Maisonneuve
MetLife Foundation Dennis Miller
Shell Sam Englebardt Kerry Propper
Yap Merkezi Construction and Neemat Frem Nina K. Solarz
Industry Inc. Seth & Jane Ginns
Ronald Glickman
AMBASSADOR COUNCIL
Rising stars from diverse fields who contribute their talents and expertise to support Crisis Groups mission.
Luke Alexander Beatriz Garcia Rahul Sen Sharma

Gillea Allison Lynda Hammes Leeanne Su
Amy Benziger Matthew Magenheim AJ Twombly
Tripp Callan Madison Malloch-Brown Dillon Twombly
Victoria Ergolavou Peter Martin Grant Webster
Christina Bache Fidan Megan McGill
SENIOR ADVISERS
Former Board Members who maintain an association with Crisis Group, and whose advice and support are called
on (to the extent consistent with any other office they may be holding at the time).
Martti Ahtisaari Eugene Chien Mikls Nmeth

Chairman Emeritus Joaquim Alberto Chissano Christine Ockrent
George Mitchell Victor Chu Timothy Ong
Chairman Emeritus Mong Joon Chung Olara Otunnu
Gareth Evans Pat Cox Lord (Christopher) Patten
President Emeritus Gianfranco DellAlba Victor Pinchuk
Jacques Delors Surin Pitsuwan
Kenneth Adelman Alain Destexhe Fidel V. Ramos
Adnan Abu-Odeh Mou-Shih Ding
HRH Prince Turki al-Faisal Uffe Ellemann-Jensen
scar Arias Gernot Erler
Ersin Arolu Marika Fahln
Richard Armitage Stanley Fischer
Diego Arria Carla Hills
Zainab Bangura Swanee Hunt
Shlomo Ben-Ami James V. Kimsey
Christoph Bertram Aleksander Kwasniewski
Alan Blinken Todung Mulya Lubis
Lakhdar Brahimi Allan J. MacEachen
Zbigniew Brzezinski Graa Machel
Kim Campbell Jessica T. Mathews
Jorge Castaeda Barbara McDougall
Naresh Chandra Matthew McHugh

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Veracruz: Fixing Mexicos State of Terror

Latin America Report N61 | 28 February 2017

II. Mexicos Flawed Transition.............................................................................................. 4

IV. Change and Reform? ........................................................................................................ 23

To the federal government:

To international governments, particularly the U.S.:

To international organisations, particularly the Organization

Veracruz: Fixing Mexicos State of Terror

The political transition in the state represents an imperfect opportunity to sever

II. Mexicos Flawed Transition

Celebrated as a textbook example of gradual and peaceful transition from authoritar-

A. Weak Criminal Justice

by the president, the federal Attorney-Generals Office (Procuradura General de la

The ineffectiveness of Calderns military-based strategy aimed at cartel kingpins,

de Actividades 2016, Mecanismo de Prevencin de la Tortura, Comisin Nacional de Derechos Hu-

III. Private Fortunes and Public Fear: Corruption,

A. Looting of Public Funds

B. New Criminal Entrants

C. Criminal Security Forces

ultaneously or in quick succession.66 Upon taking office, Duarte dissolved Veracruzs

D. Killings and Disappearances

E. Systematic Obstruction of Justice

Herrera and Duarte to be at least 5,000.96 Overall, estimates by victims organisations

Techniques to cover up crimes during the Duarte administration included:

The refusal and/or incapacity of FGE officials to conduct investigations caused

The shifting around of cases between multiple officers, undercutting familiarity

IV. Change and Reform?

A. Financial Plight and Party Politics

The creation on 25 November 2016 of Veracruzs Truth Commission, which is

C. State Attorneys Office

As efforts to prosecute the emblematic figureheads of Veracruzs criminalised state

Appendix A: Map of Mexico

Appendix B: Map of Veracruz

Appendix C: About the International Crisis Group

Appendix D: Reports and Briefings on Latin America since 2014

Special Reports Venezuela: Tough Talking, Latin America Report

Left in the Cold? The ELN and Colombias

Appendix E: International Crisis Group Board of Trustees

CO-CHAIR Sheila Coronel Roza Otunbayeva

INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL

CORPORATE INDIVIDUAL Rita E. Hauser

Luke Alexander Beatriz Garcia Rahul Sen Sharma

Martti Ahtisaari Eugene Chien Mikls Nmeth

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