Mexican officials said there have been 17,065 homicides in the first six months of 2019.
The number averages to 94 violent killings per day and is a 3% increase from the first six months of 2018, which was previously the record-holder, according to the National Public Security System. Data compiled by the Secretariat of Security and Citizens Protection show that June alone saw more than 3,000 deaths.
The increase in violent deaths is attributed largely to ongoing power struggles between cartels in Guanajuato, Jalisco, Baja California, Chihuahua, Veracruz, Mexico City, and Guerrero. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel have been battling over turf in Guanajuato.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has held office since December 2018, campaigned with proclamations of reducing violent crime. In a recent interview he suggested that data had shown that security in the country had increased since he was elected, but he was not able to account for the spike in homicides.
Security experts have suggested the rise in violence is at least partially due to cartels choosing to splinter into smaller factions that give them a wider range of influence and are able to control more ground. President López Obrador sent the National Guard to many of the most violent Mexican states in an effort to curb the problem. However, some question the potential efficacy of this use of resources. Franciso Rivas, director of crime watchdog group National Citizens’ Observatory, said, “The problem is that this government doesn’t have a strategy, they’ve [tried to] explain … that there is a strategy but the truth is that it cannot be confirmed that one exists.”
