Homicides Are on the Rise Again in Mexico After Four Years of Decline Christopher Woody - Business Insider
go to original July 27, 2016

In the once touristic heaven of Acapulco, bodies are now piling up in its morgue, as authorities struggle to contain the violence in the Mexican Pacific beach resort. (Agence France-Presse)

After several years of declines, Mexico's homicide rate has started to rise, with the total body count for the first half of 2016 the highest since 2012.

The total number of homicides in the first half of this year — 10,301, or about 57 a day — is about 15% more than the 8,979 in the same period in 2015, though it is fewer homicides than in the first halves of 2011 and 2012, when the drug war's violence was considered to be at its peak.

The high rates of killings recorded in those two years are thought to be related to the bloody fight over Ciudad Juarez, contested by "El Chapo" Guzmán's Sinaloa cartel and the Juarez cartel, which resulted in about eight homicides a day on average.



The fight for Juarez started around 2008 and ended during 2011-2012, tapering off before current President Enrique Peña Nieto took office in late 2012.

The slowdown in killing in Juarez is thought to be the reason for the decline in homicides during the first years of the Peña Nieto administration. The rise in homicides in recent years — a 19% jump in 2015 to 18,650, the most since 2012, and a roughly 15% jump in the first half of this year — seems to give lie to the Peña Nieto government's claims that it has halted the bloodshed.



Read the rest at Business Insider

Related: Mexico Violence Increasing, Peña Nieto Government Not Changing Course (Mexico Voices)

Related: Who's Killing Whom in Mexico and Central America? (The Lawfare Institute)

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