Mexico’s president wants tougher punishments for kidnappers; return of death penalty discussed

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Amid broad outrage over the slaying of a 14-year-old kidnapping victim, Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Thursday urged Congress to toughen punishments for abductors to include life in prison, reports the L.A. Times’ Ken Ellingwood.

The proposal would make kidnapping in some cases subject to the harshest criminal sentence in Mexico, which formally abolished its long-dormant death penalty three years ago. Kidnappers currently face as many as 60 years in prison, or 70 years when they kill the victim. Murderers face a maximum of 60 years.

Calderon, a conservative who has made the fight against organized crime a centerpiece of his administration, proposed toughening sentences for kidnappers more than a year ago. The measure has gone nowhere.

Emilio Gamboa, a congressional leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, the former ruling party, called this week for reinstating the death sentence in kidnapping cases. A poll published Thursday in the Reforma newspaper found that 71% of respondents in liberal Mexico City favored executing kidnappers; 72% said they did not trust the police.

The development coincided with the execution of Jose Medellin in Texas on Tuesday for the rape and murder of two teenage girls in 1993. As we reported Thursday, the execution brought little public outrage in Mexico. In fact, according to this Associated Press report in the Dallas Morning News, some Mexicans felt if their own government applied the same fate for its hard criminals, it would bring down levels of violent crime in the country.

For more on punishment for kidnapping in Mexico, click here.

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-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City