The crime of kidnapping increased this year and exceeded the incidence of previous years, with 50 cases reported in the state of Chihuahua until the end of November, according to data from the State Prosecutor’s Office (FGE) and the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP).
While in the national context it has shown a downward correction since 2018, in the state the crime shows an upward trend, with Ciudad Juárez as the point that concentrates more than 80 percent of the state incidence.
The current report, closing at the penultimate month of 2024, is higher by two cases than that registered in 2023 in Chihuahua, when 48 cases were reported and the corresponding investigation files were opened by the local authority.
Also, it is more than double the kidnapping crimes reported in 2022, when 21 cases were prosecuted; In that year, the upward trend in the state that came from the previous years was stopped, but then it had an upturn in the following years.
In 2021, 33 cases of kidnapping were recorded in Chihuahua; in 2020, there were two dozen; in 2019, 16 and in 2018, 10 cases; thus, in the comparison with the initial year of the period and the current one, the increase is 400 percent.
In the national context, the trend has been downwards steadily since 2018, when 1,330 cases were reported by the prosecutors of all the states of the country; in 2019, the figure remained stable, with 1,333 incidents officially recorded.
However, for 2020, after two years of rebound at the state level, at the national level a substantial drop was recorded to 833 incidents, that is, 37 percent less than the previous period.
The decline continued in 2021, with 628 cases across the country; 2022, with 506 kidnappings; 2023, with 463 incidents duly reported; and until the end of November it maintained a contained level, with 435 cases.
Kidnapping increases in the year in Chihuahua
At the state level, the incidence of kidnappings has had increases during five months of the 11 that have elapsed in the year.
In the month of January, four cases were reported, while in February and March, two in each; however, in April there were six reports and the same number in May, while in June eight cases were reported.
In July, the incidence dropped to a single reported case, but in August there were four reported; two in September, six in October and nine, the highest incidence in a month, were the reports from last November.
The SESNSP data thus show a national decrease of six percent until the end of last month, in relation to the total incidence reported in the country during 2023; meanwhile, at the state level, a four percent increase is recorded.
Regarding the incidence by areas of the state, 84 percent of the cases are registered in Juárez; eight percent in the city of Cuauhtémoc; and two percent of the incidence (one case of kidnapping in each municipality) has been registered in Chihuahua, Ahumada, Ascensión and Jiménez.
Source: eldiariodechihuahua
