'Homicides Contained': Security Chief Gives Monthly Report; Guanajuato, Baja California, and Jalisco Lead in Murders

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Rosa Icela Rodriguez (credit: Milton Martínez / Secretaría de Cultura CDMX; editing: HEARST from Borderland Beat)

Homicides decreased 3.5% in the first six months of 2021 compared to the first half of last year, the federal government announced.

There were 16,937 homicide victims between January and June, a reduction of almost 600 compared to the same period of 2020, which was the second most violent year on record after 2019.

“Intentional homicides have been contained, they’re continuing to be contained and from January to June of 2021 they declined 3.5% with respect to the same period of last year,” Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez told President López Obrador’s news conference on Wednesday.

Mexico recorded an average of 2,823 homicides per month in the period with a high of 2,997 victims in May and a low of 2,633 in February. There were 2,660 murders last month, a 7.6% decrease compared to June 2020 and an 11.2% drop with respect to May of this year.

Rodríguez noted that 50.2% of all homicides in the first half of the year occurred in just six states. Guanajuato, where several criminal groups including the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) are fighting for control, recorded the highest number of murders followed by Baja California, Jalisco, México state, Michoacán and Chihuahua. Rodríguez also said that 47.8% of all homicides in the first half of the year occurred in the country’s 50 most violent municipalities.

“Of the more than 2,400 municipalities [in Mexico], it’s in these 50 municipalities where homicides are continuing and an intervention is going to be carried out, [there will be security] reinforcement in these municipalities,” the security minister said.

“… We’re going to meet two objectives: prevention [and] programs. … In other words, prevent criminal activities and attend  to the causes of [criminal] incidence in targeted areas through welfare programs, the prevention of addictions and in general … joint actions that allow the results of investigations into cases to be improved,” Rodríguez said.

“… Everything is directed at the tranquility and peace of residents,” she added. Rodríguez also presented statistics for a range of other crimes. Femicides – the killing of women and girls on account of their gender – increased 3.3% in the first half of the year to 508 from 492 in the first six months of 2020.

The federal government has been accused of not doing enough to make Mexico safer for women, and some of the biggest women’s protests ever have occurred since López Obrador took office in late 2018.

Among the other crimes that increased between January and June were rape, up 32.6% compared to the same period last year with more than 10,400 cases reported; muggings, up 10.5%; robberies on public transit, up 4.9%; and drug trafficking, up 4.6%.

Among the crimes that decreased were kidnappings, down 29%; vehicle theft, down 12.2%; business robberies, down 9.9%; burglaries, down 5.5%; organized crime offenses, down 11.4%; firearms offenses, down 5.1%; and financial crimes, down 15.7%.

Sources: MND