AS MANY AS 50,000 MEXICAN CHILDREN BETWEEN AGES 9-17 ARE INVOLVED IN ORGANIZED CRIME

If you’re under 16 in Mexico, you get a ‘get out of jail free card’ even when you’ve committed several homicides.

RELEASE OF ANOTHER ‘EL PONCHIS’-LIKE BOY ASSASSIN
13 year old juvenile admitted to killing ten, freed in Zacatecas because of his youth; as many as 50,000 between ages 9-17 are involved in organized crime

Borderland Beat
February 12, 2013

The release of a minor, who confessed to participating in at least 10 homicides, divided opinions between the prosecutor and President of the State Commission of Human Rights (ECHR) , regarding the age of children to an attributable felony.

The State Attorney Arturo Nahle Garcia said, "really a boy can be even more dangerous because of his age," so it is necessary to reevaluate the criminal age of a person.

In separate interviews, while the state attorney general, Arturo Nahle Garcia, said that the boy is a dangerous youth, the President of the State Commission of Human Rights (ECHR), argued that children are not aware of their actions.

In this case, the juvenile is 13 years and six months. He was arrested on February 3, along with 15 other individuals, including eight Central Americans, in two operations carried out by the Federal Police in the capital.

The state prosecutor acknowledged that it is "really a boy is truly dangerous and maybe even more because of his age", so it is necessary to reevaluate the criminal age of a person, since there are teenagers and children belonging to criminal groups and involved in very bad crimes.

Recognizing that the Justice for Adolescents in Zacatecas is similar to other states, it applies to the young age of 13, and after verifying that he is a minor, he was released to his home, even though he confessed to the crimes in which he participated.

Nahle García said that the youth confessed to participating in a double murder in the vicinity of Colinas del Padre, a taxi driver at the exit of the community Sauceda de la Borda, and also killed a woman in Lomas de Bracho.

Therefore, the official considers it necessary to reevaluate the criminal age of a person, "since there are children out there who are participating in criminal groups and they are aware that they are committing crimes, so this is something that should be debated in Congress the Union. "

The attorney said that "the child under 14 years can not be held for the committed because crimes are not punished until 16 years."

"Why did you kill them?" a reporter asked, according to a transcript on the website of the respected newspaper El Universal peppers El Ponchis with questions.

"'El Negro' ordered me to. I got high on weed and didn't know what I was doing," Jimenez responded.

"Why did you get into this?"

"I didn't get into it. They pulled me in," the boy responded.

"Are you sorry you did?"

"Yes, I'm sorry I got involved with all this," he responded.

Meanwhile, in Zacatecas, Arnulfo Correa Chacón said that in children there's no real biological and psychological development, there is no awareness of his actions.

In this case, the boy knew what he was doing but he had no idea of the magnitude of the crimes he committed, for which he will be subjected to a study to know the reasons that led him to act that way.
In turn, Ricardo Ramirez, head of the Department of Prevention and Rehabilitation, said the child was released because the judge ruled that the law stipulates that a child under 14 years must be under the tutelage of his parents.