The first semester of 2019 is the most violent ever registered in Mexico. From January to June there were 17,065 victims of intentional homicide and femicide, an average of 94 per day.
Official data show that in the same period of 2018 there were 16,585 murders and a year earlier, 13,918.
According to figures from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP), the number violent deaths during the first five months of the year are as follows:
- January, 2,932
- February, 2,877
- March, 2,933
- April, 2,801
- May, 2,979
The case of June, although the SESNSP has not yet issued its monthly report for that month, the daily count carried out by the Federal Safety Cabinet reports 2,543 murders, but this figure could rise to more than 3,000, which would make June the most lethal month in history.
If we add the 2,879 homicides reported in December 2018, when the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador started, the figure rises to 19,944 violent deaths so far during his administration.
Security expert Ricardo Márquez Blas compares the closure of the last administration with the beginning of this one:
The last year of former President Enrique Peña Nieto was the worst in criminal incidence, but in case to keep with the same trend, 2019 is heading to surpass those figures.
More violent states
The states that register the largest number of intentional homicides are: Guanajuato, State of Mexico, Jalisco, Baja California, Chihuahua, Veracruz, Mexico City and Guerrero, that is why the National Guard will arrive to those states in the coming days.
For the director of the National Citizen Observatory, Francisco Rivas, the problem is that this government does not have a strategy. “Only good intentions, but that’s not enough in this critical situation” he said.
