By IANS/EFE,
Mexico City : The number of kidnappings in Mexico in the first three years of President Felipe Calderon’s regime have risen by 90 percent, official statistics reveal.
A total of 2,593 kidnapping complaints were filed during former president Vicente Fox’s 2000-2006 term, while 2,455 kidnappings were reported in 2007-2009, the first three years of the Calderon administration, which started on Dec 1, 2006, the statistical report said.
The number of kidnappings reported annually nearly doubled from 595 in 2006 to 1,181 in 2009, reaching an average of over three per day, it said.
Abductions increased by 40 percent from 2008 to 2009, going from 838 to 1,181.
The report stated that crimes are rarely reported in Mexico because citizens view police as corrupt or incompetent, and consider it a waste of time and even dangerous to call authorities.
The number of murders have risen steeply, with 22,750 killings blamed on organised crime groups since Calderon took office.