Mexico Toughens Punishment For Kidnappers, Calling For 40 To 80 Years In Prison

El Universal reports that Mexico’s interior ministry has issued a decree modifying punishment for those convicted of kidnapping. As of Wednesday, kidnappers will be sentenced to 40 to 80 years in prison and fines of 1,000 to 4,000 times the daily minimum wage, which hovers around $5 depending on the region. The new punishment is double what it was before: 20-40 years in jail and 500-2,000 minimum wages. And it’s even stiffer for members of the police, army or other government institutions, who will see 50 to 100 years in prison and 8,000-16,000 times the minimum wage in fines if they’re convicted.

Other cases are similarly tough -- if the victim is under 18 or over 60, pregnant, or if the kidnapping is committed by two or more people or with violence. But one exception exists: if the kidnappers release the victim within three days, sentence range between a comparably light 4 to 12 years in prison. Animal Politico reported at the end of May that in the first trimester of 2014, kidnappings were on the rise in Mexico; even as murders fell, the kidnappings are also of a more frequently violent character, according to the civil-society group National Citizen Observatory for Security, Justice and Legality (ONC).

The trend in kidnappings continues from 2013. It’s been especially bad in nine states, where kidnappings were up between 20 and 70 percent. One of the worst cases, the northeastern Gulf state of Tamaulipas (which saw almost a 70 percent increase as well as a 45 percent increase in extortions in 2013), has been targeted as a sort of front line by the Mexican government. Three weeks ago it unveiled a new security plan for the state, including the opening of four local branches of the attorney general’s office.