Mexico registered 2,186 murders last May, the highest monthly figure since 20 years ago began this type of registration by the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP).
Last May’s record, averaging 70.5 per day, brought the total number of murders to 9,916 in the first five months of 2017, according to the 1997-2017 Crime Report.
In 2016, Mexico recorded a total of 20,549 murders, with an average monthly incidence of 1,712 cases, according to the SESNSP report that is released every month.
During the first five months of 2017, the Secretariat recorded 1,928 cases of felony homicides in January, 1,826 in February, 2,021 in March, and 1,955 in April, in addition to 2,186 in May.
The State of Mexico had the highest number of cases with 225 murders last May, followed by Guerrero with 216 records and Baja California with 197, SESNSP said in its report.
The states of Yucatan, Campeche and Tlaxcala were the states with the lowest incidence of murders last May, with 3, 5 and 9, in that order, the Secretariat said.
In the case of kidnappings, in May, 100 cases were registered, with an annual accumulation of 484; The authorities recorded 522 extortion offenses with 2,416 in the first five months of the year.
In May of this year, the International Strategic Studies Institute (IISS) considered Mexico to be the second most violent in the world after Syria and above Afghanistan and Iraq.
The IISS report estimated a number of 23,000 murders in Mexico during 2016, down from 50,000 in Syria, 17,000 in Afghanistan and 16,000 in Iraq.
The Mexican Government disqualified this report by considering that it had no support in using figures of unknown origin with estimates based on uncertain methodologies and applying legal terms.
