Kidnapping in Mexico Increased by 30% in June

Among the many problems affecting Mexico, kidnapping is one of the main issues — the country holds first place for kidnappings worldwide.

In June 2015 alone, the crime increase by almost 30 percent; nongovernmental organization National Citizen Observatory (ONC) predict this upward trend will continue.

In June, 178 cases of kidnapping were reported in Mexico. Kidnapping is a federal offense, meaning all cases should be investigated, but this is not happening, Isabel Miranda, head of the ONC, denounced Thursday.

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However, as is common with many crimes in Mexico, there are no statistics regarding how many kidnapping cases were solved.

Various nongovernmental organizations have accused security forces of being involved in the kidnapping industry, amid growing suspicions and evidence linking local and national police to crimes at many levels.

In May, Excelsior published an in-depth analysis of crime in Mexico, which reveals experts and citizens believe all levels of security forces are involved in one way or another in crime and drug trafficking.

In 2013, El Universal newspaper cited government statistics that in 2012 just 105,000 cases of kidnapping were reported. This means that about 90 percent of the cases go unreported, which some say is due to a distrust of authorities.

“The vast majority of the population has a profound distrust in police,” Ernesto Lopez Portillo, head of the Mexican Security and Democracy Institute, told Agence France Presse news agency recently.

He explained that this is due to the fact that when gangs of kidnappers are dismantled, military and police officers are among them.

“Kidnapping in the street and during broad daylight and the detention of kidnappers, many of them federal police, are proof that security forces are involved in kidnapping,” El Universal said.

Mexican newspaper Reforma Thursday reported the detention of a military officer who was detained in connection with the kidnapping of woman, while last year, various municipal authorities in the embattled state of Michoacan, including the mayor of the port city Lazaro Cardenas, were arrested and accused of abduction and other crimes.

The case of the 43 Ayotzinapa students is a clear confirmation that police are involved in even high-profile cases of abductions, kidnappings and enforced disappearances. The trainee teachers were shot at and arrested by Guerrero state police in September 2014 and handed over to an organized crime gang. While the remains of one body was forensically identified, the whereabouts of the other 42 is still unknown.

RELATED: The Forced Disappearance of 43 Students in Mexico

Business Insider recently published a list of the “Top 20 countries where people get kidnapped the most,” which Mexico, of course, headlined, followed by India, Nigeria and Pakistan. Many other websites, including International Business Times, Thrillist, and others, also put Mexico in first place when it comes to kidnapping.

The ONC’s Isabel Miranda agrees with many other nongovernmental organizations in Mexico that kidnapping will continue to rise in the country largely thanks to impunity and the negligence of security forces.

WATCH: Suspicion of Military Involvement in Kidnapping of Ayotzinapa Students Grows