The Mexico Crime Bosses Peña Nieto’s Government Toppled

Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto. When Mexico President Enrique Peña Nieto took office in 2012, he put together a list of 122 alleged criminals whose arrests would be “high-priority” in the country’s fight against organized crime.

Now, with just a few months left in his presidency, most of the high-priority suspects have either been apprehended or killed, but few have been convicted, and Mexico’s violence continues unabated.

Peña Nieto presented his final annual government report on September 2, highlighting that the Mexican government succeeded in “neutralizing” 110 of the suspects on his administration’s list since his term began in December 2012. They included 96 arrests and 14 deaths during confrontations with public security forces.

The list of 122 “priority targets” was one of the most important features that Peña Nieto’s security plan hinged on. And it was never made public during his six years in office. The identity of each person on the list was only revealed when each individual was either arrested or killed.

But after Spanish newspaper El País made a formal request for information, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office (Procuraduría General de la República — PGR) was forced to reveal details about the legal status of the people who had been apprehended, including whether they were still in prison.

El País was told of 109 suspects who were either arrested or killed, but Peña Nieto’s report included an additional arrest from February 8, bringing the total to 110.

At the time, the PGR stated that only four of the individuals who were [...]

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