Government Criticizes Report Which Says It’s Second Most Deadly Country in the World Sputnik News
go to original May 12, 2017

The Mexican government has said the figures used in a report which portrayed Mexico as the second most deadly conflict zone in the world are "incorrect." But their criticism comes as a businesswoman who had been campaigning on behalf of victims in Tamaulipas state is herself murdered.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies' (IISS) Armed Conflict Survey 2017, which was published May, claimed Mexico had the highest number of deaths in "conflict" of any country, barring Syria.

The IISS report said there were 23,000 intentional homicide killings in Mexico in 2016, ahead of the 16,000 in Iraq and 17,000 in Afghanistan and topped only by 50,000 in Syria, which is involved in a full-blown civil war.

But the Mexican government has hit back and said the survey "used statistics from unknown sources, includes evaluations based on uncertain metholodogies and applies legal terms incorrectly."

The IISS placed Mexico as the world's second deadliest country in 2016 (Daniele Palumbo)

The Mexican Interior Ministry put out a statement which said the IISS's conclusions about Mexico were "unfounded."

But only hours after they hit back it was reported that Miriam Rodriguez Martinez, who had been campaigning on behalf of the families of around 30,000 people who have disappeared in Mexico, had herself been gunned down.

"Mexico has become a very dangerous place for those who are bravely dedicating their lives to the search for the disappeared.

Read the rest at Sputnik

Related: Is Mexico Really the Second-Deadliest Country in the World? (The Guardian)

Related: Mexico Says It’s Far from Being One of World’s Most Violent Countries (Latin American Herald Tribune)

Top photo: AP/Rebecca Blackwell

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