Mexico's angry Chamber of Deputies demands results in Gabriel Gómez kidnapping, murder investigation

"The insecurity that exists in Mexico today is a matter that demands the State's firm attention. We cannot afford to accustom ourselves to crime and violence that remains sheltered with impunity."

*Updated: No clues from security cameras where kidnappings occurred, Secretary of Government tells legislators (below)*

Guadalajara -
Mexico's lower legislative chamber, the Camara de Diputados, lost one of its own this week in an act of almost unimaginable violence, and yesterday the often politically divided chamber was fully united in demanding action from law enforcement officials at all levels.

The Camara observed a minute of silence on the day Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) Deputy Dr. Gabriel Gómez Michel was interred in this city, where he received his medical degree 24 years ago. Gómez, 49, and an assistant were nabbed Monday afternoon while in route to the Guadalajara International Airport, seized by a well organized commando team traveling in at least six separate vehicles. The incinerated bodies of both men were found hours later in a remote area of neighboring, cartel saturated Zacatecas state. Jalisco federal deputy kidnapped in Guadalajara is found murdered. There have been no arrests and no announced suspects in the case.

Camara President Silvano Aureoles told the packed chamber, "We don't want PRI Deputy Gómez Michel's death to become just another statistic like so many others have in this country. The insecurity that exists in Mexico today is a matter that demands the firm attention of the entire Mexican State. We cannot afford to accustom ourselves to crime and violence that remains sheltered with impunity."

"We demand immediately to know what happened in this case, and to see determined action by competent authorities to bring the parties responsible to justice," added Aureoles. "This chamber is waiting attentively the results of an investigation which will lead to the capture of the perpetrators."

Manlio Fabio Beltrones, PRI's respected and politically influential coordinator in the lower house, said that he had personally conferred with Mexican Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam, whose office took on primary responsibility for the case earlier this week. "I have visited with the Procurador of the Republic, and explained to him that the entire chamber will be closely monitoring this investigation. This crime will not go unpunished," Beltrones told his colleagues.

The National Action Party's (PAN) leader in the lower house also urged a prompt resolution of the brazen public kidnappings and executions, noting they had already adversely affected "international opinion" on Mexico. And a leftist Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) deputy acknowledged that the brutal crimes had "unquestionably shaken the nation's seat of legislative power."

The Jalisco State Assembly is likewise demanding an explanation of rising organized crime violence in and around Mexico's second largest metropolis. Beleaguered state's attorney Luís Carlos Nájera has been commanded to appear before a legislative board of inquiry on Tuesday morning. Jalisco's chief prosecutor ordered before state Congress.
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Mexico's Secretary of Government Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong appeared today before the Camara's Public Security Committee, and told members that none of the approximately 1,000 security cameras in metro Guadalajara and adjacent Tlaquepaque where Gabriel Gómez was kidnapped had captured sufficient details of the assailants or their vehicles to give investigators a helpful lead. He blamed it on outdated equipment. "If we at the federal level have been able to capture 84 of the 122 most wanted organized crime kingpins with scarcely a shot fired . . . (relying just on intelligence and technology) . . . we have to get the same resources into the hands of states and counties and cities." Osorio's recap of drug war progress mirrored the one president Enrique Peña Nieto offered in New York earlier this week. The Secretary of Government, sometimes referred to as the "vice president" in a nation which does not have one, is the most important cabinet member of any administration. No where has that proved more true than in Peña Nieto's 22 month old PRI government. Osorio Chong speaks for EPN.

The Camara's meeting place in San Lázaro, Mexico City's "Capitol Hill"

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