• A law aimed at increasing penalties for crimes related to kidnapping becomes effective today in Mexico, reports El Informador newspaper. The law raises the maximun sentence for kidnappings that result in death from 50 years in prison to 70 years.
• Due to increased persecution from Colombian authors, some members of the now-dismantled Norte del Valle drug cartel, the forebears of the Rastrojos, have moved their business to Bolivia. According to a feature by Argentinean newspaper La Nacion, last year Bolivian police forces arrested 122 Colombians accused of drug trafficking and dismantled 24 cocaine-producing laboratories, installed by Colombian drug traffickers, most of them in the eastern department of Santa Cruz.
• President Porfirio Lobo Sosa will announce several measures today aimed at reducing crime rates, which have become some of the biggest concerns for Hondurans, reports Tribuna. Presidential Minister María Antonieta Guillen did not give details about the proposed measures. The Security Ministry has already requested that the government double the number of police in the cities, currently numbered at about 3,000.
