In Mexico, violence and disregard for human life are spreading throughout society, and three recent incidents involving children underscore how much of a widespread and worrisome problem this has become. The following reports are provided courtesy of Agencia EFE, the wire news service partner of The Costa Rica Star.

 

Minors who killed boy in Mexico facing confinement

Mexico City, May 19 (EFE).- The five minors who last week murdered a 6-year-old boy in northern Mexico are facing, because of their ages, confinement in shelters or juvenile detention centers, Chihuahua state Attorney General Jorge Enrique Gonzalez said Tuesday.

 

In an interview with Imagen Radio, Gonzalez said that in legal terms criminal penalties can only be assessed against the two minors who are over 15, but the others, ranging in age from 11 to 13, cannot be charged.

 

The youngsters, apparently, were playing at being kidnappers with the 6-year-old except that, when they tied him up, they then hit him with stones and stabbed him with a knife, later burying him and placing a dead dog on top of the grave to hide the corpse.

 

The case has shocked Mexican society.

 

For the three youngsters who can’t be prosecuted, Gonzalez said that he had asked children’s services to return them to their parents’ custody and that they be taken to a shelter, a “little jail.”

 

“It’s where I think they should be,” he said.

 

In the case of the two 15-year-olds, they could receive a maximum sentence of 10 years in a juvenile detention center, regional prosecutor Sergio Almaraz said Monday.

 

As the attorney general said on Tuesday, the boys’ initial explanation was that “it was part of a game.”

 

He also said that several of the kids involved in the killing had been cited in the past for minor acts of vandalism in their town.

 

Chihuahua, which borders Texas, is one of Mexico’s most violent states, mainly as a result of turf battles among rival organized crime groups. EFE

 

2 Boys charged with raping 2-year-old cousin in Mexico

Cancun, Mexico, May 26 (EFE).- Prosecutors in the southeastern Mexican state of Quintana Roo have charged two boys, ages 12 and 13, with raping their 2-year-old cousin, officials said.

 

The boys were placed in the custody of their mother and grandmother because the law prohibits holding children younger than 14 in jail.

 

The boys face trial before a family court judge and have been prohibited from leaving Cancun, the Quintana Roo Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.

 

The victim’s mother, Maria de Jesus Rodriguez Geronimo, has staged a series of protests in the Caribbean resort city to shed light on the case and demand justice for her daughter.

 

“They raped and since they now know that (future victims) are going to talk, now they might even kill. They hurt my daughter and I don’t want them to keep hurting other girls. One of them abused his own sister, two of his cousins, and one of them is pregnant. I don’t know how far along she is, but I know she is (pregnant) because one of my sisters confirmed it from Tabasco,” Rodriguez Geronimo said.

 

The boys arrived in Cancun from Cardenas, a city in Tabasco state, where they lived with their grandmother, who “was no longer able to handle them,” Rodriguez Geronimo said.

 

Relatives of the toddler plan more protests, including a rally at Cancun City Hall on Wednesday, to draw attention to the case. EFE

 

Teens arrested for murdering girl in central Mexico

Mexico City, May 26 (EFE).- A 13-year-old girl was murdered by two boys, ages 17 and 16, in Aguascalientes, a state in central Mexico, state prosecutors said.

 

The 16-year-old boy, who is being identified only as Erick, gave inconsistent accounts of what happened to investigators, the Aguascalientes Attorney General’s Office said.

 

The boy told the victim’s mother that he could not find the girl just minutes after murdering her, the AG’s office said.

 

The suspect confessed to killing Victoria Anahi during a second round of questioning by investigators.

 

The boy told investigators that he killed the girl because he “hated” her and wanted “revenge,” accusing the victim of “offending his family,” the AG’s office said.

 

The boy convinced a 17-year-old friend, identified only as Mario, to help him kill the girl.

 

The suspect said he and his friend went to the girl’s house in the Vistas de las Cumbres district of Aguascalientes city and he strangled her to death.

 

The boys tried to make it look like the house had been burglarized and used bleach to cover their tracks, with the idea coming from a television show.

 

The two minors face murder and burglary charges. EFE