Homicide on the Rise in Mexico: 47 People Killed Everyday

By teleSUR

23 November 15

Nongovernmental organizations and human rights groups say the figures could be higher due to violence generated by rival drug cartels.

he cases of homicide rose 7 percent in Mexico during the first 10 months of 2015, compared to the same period last year, Mexican officials revealed Monday.

According to official figures, the number of preliminary inquiries and investigations for homicide went from 13,149 to 14,069 this year, which translates to a staggering 47 murders a day.

The states of Guerrero and Veracruz have the highest murder rates in the country, the figures show. Guerrero’s internationally famous resort beach, Acapulco, has the highest homicide rate in the world at 107 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Meanwhile, attorney general’s offices from the 32 states of the country have reported at least 15,433 actual murder victims this year. Last year, 14,571 homicides were reported during the same period.

Nongovernmental organizations and human rights groups say the true figures could be higher and that this rise is caused by the constant violence generated by disputes between rival drug cartels.

Last year, the Mexican media published a document saying that during the first two years of President Enrique Peña Nieto’s government nearly 60,000 violence-related killings were reported. This was greater by 14,000 than those deaths reported during his predecessor Felipe Calderon’s first two years as president.

Peña Nieto is facing the worst crisis of his government with widespread social unrest, which was sparked off by the forced disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students in 2014 in addition to accusations of corruption, high levels of insecurity, impunity and decreasing social freedom in the country.

Prior to the barrage of scandals over the last year, Peña Nieto had been lauded by right-wing observers after passing numerous neoliberal structural reforms during his first 20 months of government. Critics now say the reforms have not yielded tangible social or economic improvements.