March Sees Mexico's Unrelenting Violence Climbing to Highest Levels Since 2011 Christopher Woody - Business Insider
go to original April 22, 2017

Women with their faces painted march to mark the 29-month anniversary of the disappearance of 43 students of the Ayotzinapa school in Guerrero, in Mexico City (Reuters/Carlos Jasso)

Update: At Least 35 People Were Killed in Drug Violence Over the Weekend Across Mexico (Reuters)

In March, Mexico had more than 2,000 homicide cases in a month for the first time since summer 2011, when the country was mired in the throes of a bloody cartel war.

The country also had more killings in the first quarter of 2017 than in the start of any year in at least two decades, according to government data released Friday.

Unlike in 2011, when a bloody cartel fight in Ciudad Juarez pushed the national body count to new heights, the current violence has been spread over a number of states.



In January, 25 of the country's 32 states saw increases in homicides compared to the same month in 2016.

Throughout Mexico, there were 2,020 homicide cases in March, up roughly 11% from February. For January through March, there were 5,775 killings around the country, up 29% from the same period in 2016.

March also reached a new high in terms of homicide victims. (A single homicide case can contain multiple victims.) March's 2,256 homicide victims were the most so far this year and the highest number reported since the Mexican government started releasing those figures in 2014.

Every month in 2017 has exceeded 2,000 homicide victims, as did each of the last six months of 2016. No month prior to that for which there is data available surpassed that mark.

Read the rest at Business Insider

Related: 9 Dead in Apparent Gang Shootout in Michoacan State (Associated Press)

Related: Six Bodies Found Buried in Ditch Outside Mexico's Acapulco (Reuters)

Related: Mexico Says 2 Top Drug Traffickers Killed Near US Border (Associated Press)

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