Government Says Drug-Related Violence Has Plunged: Is Mexico's Drug War Finally Over? Jan-Albert Hootsen - Vocativ
go to original July 10, 2014

President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico looks on during Flag Day celebrations at Campo Marte in Mexico City. (Reuters/Bernardo Montoya)

MEXICO CITY - It seemed like great news for Mexico and its gringo neighbor to the north, where many fear drug-related violence has spilled over the border. In an interview last week with Charlie Rose, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said the number of homicides so far this year has fallen by a whopping 25 percent since 2012, a sign that the worst has passed in Mexico’s drug war. “There are more cartel bosses in jail,” the president said, “and less murders in the country.”

Both would clearly be good signs in a country where more than 80,000 people are estimated to have been killed since 2006 in drug-related violence. And Peña Nieto’s government certainly has something to brag about when it comes to taking down the nation’s most wanted cartel bosses.

Yet some observers say the Mexican government’s official numbers are a little, well, optimistic - to put it lightly. “It’s probable that the official figures are underestimating the real number of homicides,” says Alejandro Hope, one of the country’s most respected security analysts. “There is some improvement in the security situation, but it’s not very significant.”

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