Mexico experienced its most violent month despite the pandemic. The country records 2,585 murders in March amid the Covid-19 contingency
MEXICO CITY (Times Media Mexico) – Neither the escalating contagion, nor the global pandemic alerts, nor the government’s recommendation to stay home. Nothing has prevented the destructive wave that Mexico is suffering from continuing to grow. March closed with 2,585 murder victims and has become the bloodiest month since records began in the country.
At the morning conference, Friday, April 3, AMLO denied the statistics of his secretary of public security and said, “the numbers are going down”.
“It is easier for people to stay home to avoid a shooting or a blockade than to avoid a contagion. People are more afraid of bullets than of the virus,” said journalist Gabriela Montejano who lives in Celaya, Guanajuato to El País newspaper.
Yesterday, Tuesday, April 2, 2020, Celaya and other surrounding municipalities experienced another day of persecutions, attacks, and shootings by criminal groups. There were seven deaths, 14 in total in the entire state. Guanajuato is one of the entities with the most murders in Mexico.
There are dozens of cases every day in most of the country’s states. Only on Saturday, March 28, there were 102, the day the government raised the tone about the gravity of the situation, and emphatically insisted that the population stay home. The next day, which was also Sunday, March 29, the country recorded 98 murders.
On Tuesday, March 31, when Mexico counted another death by Covid-19 to reach a total of 29, at least 80 people were killed, according to the official count.
Determining the causes of the violence in Mexico depends on who you ask. At the micro-level, there are groups of criminals fighting over anything in Mexico’s cities. Large, small, and rural areas: local drug markets, international narcotics routes, poppy and marijuana fields or clandestine laboratories to manufacture other substances, pieces of pipe to steal fuel, extortion, kidnappings, robberies. At the macro level, you have the lack of action from the federal government in the face of a growing problem that threatens to get out of control.
Guanajuato has war-level death figures to such an extent that during the pandemic emergency, it has broken its record. In March, Guanajuato counted 315 murders, more than ever before, more than in February and January, which had already been tough months.
Until a couple of years ago, Guanajuato was a peaceful state with prestigious automobile industry companies. A major player in the agricultural field. The region lived away from the violence of states like Guerrero or Michoacán, always immersed in violence.
But the tranquility changed in war. Or to put it another way, the war in the surrounding states took hold there. The wars in Jalisco, Michoacán, San Luis Potosí. Those who know about the subject say that Guanajuato suffers from the battle between two criminal groups, on the one hand, the New Generation Jalisco Cartel, CJNG, and on the other, the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel.
The New Generation Jalisco Cartel, CJNG is so dangerous to the United States Government that it is considered the main actor in the drug trafficking from Mexico to that country. Just a few weeks ago, on March 11, 2020, the Department of Justice raised to $10 million the reward for information about its leader, Nemesio Oseguera, alias El Mencho while announcing hundreds of arrests of alleged members of the organization in the country.
While the rest of the country prepares for the coronavirus quarantine recommended by the government, the violence emanating from organized crime continues unabated.
Even if the president denies it, Mexico is at war — the bad guys don’t quarantine.
The Yucatan Times
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