A 14-year-old boy was sentenced to three years in Mexican prison for homicide, kidnapping and drug and weapons possession last month.
The U.S.-born Edgar Jimenez Lugo, known as "El Ponchis," confessed to working for a drug cartel, killing four people whose beheaded bodies were found suspended from a bridge.
Jimenez said he was threatened by gang leaders and under the influence of drugs while committing these crimes. Authorities say the boy began killing for a South Pacific drug cartel at age 11. His three-year sentence is the maximum time the state of Morelos allows for minors.
Also, two weeks ago, a 13-year-old girl was taken into custody after a confrontation between police and gunmen. The girl admitted she had been working for the drug cartel, the Zetas, for a month and was paid about $800 during that time. She acted as a "hawk," or look-out keeping track of people who entered and left Luis Moya, a community of about 10,000 residents in central Mexico. When reporters asked the girl how she entered the drug cartel, she replied, "By necessity."
These teenagers are two examples in a country where young people are increasingly becoming both targets and the perpetrators of violent crime in Mexico. Cartels see children as easy prey and expendable recruits as their members fall daily in number, and the youth in turn, aren't presented with many alternatives.
Mexico’s Drug War
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The drug-trafficking business from South America to the U.S. is worth $13 billion a year, |
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According to lobby group Network for the Rights of Childhood in Mexico (REDIM), roughly 30,000 minors have been recruited by drug gangs and 1,300 children have been killed since Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug cartels in December 2006.
These cartels control the trafficking of drugs from South America to the U.S., a business that is worth an estimated $13 billion a year.
They’re responsible for more than 80 percent of the drugs that enter the United States, and according to the Mexican government, they’ve killed over 34,000 people in four-and-a-half years.
A Lost Generation
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Cartels are recruting youth because they are able to pay them a lower salary. |
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The thousands of young people involved in the drug gangs -- some as young as 11 -- are lured into acting as mules, dealers, lookouts and assassins. Some are forcibly recruited or threatened by dangerous gangs, while others -- faced with a poor education system and almost no job prospects -- view drug money as an easy way out.
Rising numbers of children don’t have access to proper schooling or regular work, making them the most vulnerable to the lure of crime. According to a recent report by the National Council for Social Development Evaluation (CONEVAL), almost half of Mexico’s 114 million population lives in poverty with 11.7 million people living in extreme poverty.
The National Autonomous University of Mexico found that about a million young people are considered at risk and easy prey for cartels. These cartels are increasingly recruiting youth because they pay minors about half the salary of those who are five years older.
Many Mexican kids enter into business with the cartels through drug use. The number of addicts in Mexico has doubled, according to a government survey in 2007. Young drug dealers often operate out of unlicensed addiction treatment facilities, which the cartels use as recruitment centers, the Washington Post reported.
Mexican Government Urged to Do More
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President Calderon assumed office on December 1, 2006 and was elected for a single six-year term through 2012. |
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Well over a quarter of Mexico's 114 million population is under 18, and experts warn the country’s future is bleak if President Calderon’s government doesn’t take action to prevent the rising numbers of young people from slipping into drug violence.
Mexico doesn’t have a federal justice system to try minors. Jimenez was tried in a state court, with three years as the maximum amount of jail time.
The United Nations this year urged Mexico's government to do more to investigate crimes against minors and widen its scope for prosecution.
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I think we've been witnessing violence for years, whether in reality through the media or through video games, and I don't think that's a first-hand effect.
