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WORLD NEWS Monday 22 January 2018

Mexico posts highest homicide rate in decades

drug gang — was reminis- institutional ones, historical
cent of the mass dumping ones, issues of land rights, it
of bodies in the state in is complex.”
2011. In fact, Hope argues, the
Earlier in the new year, five period from 1997 to 2007 —
severed heads were found when murder rates in Mexi-
arranged on the hood of co plunged to as low as 9.3
a taxi in the tourist town of murders per 100,000 — was
Tlacotalpan, Veracruz and in fact the exception.
four others found in anoth- “What we have seen in the
er city in the same state. last decade is regression to
Experts say drug violence the mean” that prevailed
and other factors, such as throughout much of the
bloody turf battles sparked 20th century, he said. “The
by the expansion of the anomaly is the decade be-
Jalisco New Generation fore this one.”
cartel, played a role in Hope says murder rates
Mexico’s rising murder rate. now are about where they
But Hope says the problem were in the mid-20th cen-
is complex. tury.
“The violence in Mexico “The violence was differ-
has many causes. Drug ent then, no doubt, but
trafficking is one of them, your possibility of being
of course, but it is not the murdered in the 1930s was
only one,” said Hope. considerably higher than it
In this Aug. 29, 2017 file photo, a body wrapped in a bloodstained sheet is removed from
an apartment building where a woman and two men were executed, in the Alta Progreso “There are social triggers, is now.”q
neighborhood of Acapulco, Mexico.
Associated Press
By MARK STEVENSON than one victim. Hope says rate of 69.1; and Guerrero,
Associated Press the real homicide rate is home to the resort town of
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexi- probably around 24 per Acapulco, had a rate of
co posted its highest homi- 100,000. 64.2.
cide rate in decades, with Despite U.S. President Don- While President Enrique
the government reporting ald Trump’s tweet last week Pena Nieto had cam-
Sunday there were 29,168 claiming Mexico is “now paigned on a pledge to
murders in 2017. rated the number one most end the violence that oc-
The number is the highest dangerous country in the curred during his predeces-
since comparable records world,” there are several sors’ 2006-2012 offensive
began being kept in 1997 nations in Latin America against drug cartels, there
and is also higher than the with higher rates. was only a temporary drop
peak year of Mexico’s drug Brazil and Colombia had in killings between 2012
war in 2011, when there about 27 homicides per and 2014.
were 27,213 murders. 100,000 inhabitants, still well By 2015, killings began rising
The Interior Department, below Venezuela’s 57 per again, and 2017 was the
which posted the number, 100,000, according to a bloodiest year, probably
reported the country’s ho- World Bank report. El Salva- since the early 1990s.
micide rate was 20.5 per dor reported a rate of 60.8 This year promises to be
100,000 inhabitants in 2017, for 2017. even bloodier: During the
compared to 19.4 in 2011. Several U.S. cities — includ- first few days of 2018 in just
But Mexico security analyst ing St. Louis, Baltimore, New the Gulf coast state of Ve-
Alejandro Hope said Mexi- Orleans and Detroit — also racruz, nine people were
co’s murder rate is proba- had higher rates. killed, dismembered and
bly higher than the Interior But some parts of Mexico had their body parts stuffed
Department statistics show, were singularly violent: into a van in the state capi-
because the department The Pacific coast state of tal of Xalapa.
does the per 100,000 count Colima had a rate of 93.6 The grisly scene — literally
based on the number of murders per 100,000 inhab- a jumbled pile of human
murder investigations, not itants; Baja California Sur, limbs and torsos topped by
the number of victims, and home to the twin resort a threatening note appar-
a killing may result in more towns of Los Cabos, had a ently signed by the Zetas