Mexico's monthly murder rate reaches 20-year high

[sandensea]

Mexico marked another murderous milestone in its conflict with organised crime as the monthly homicide rate hit its highest level in 20 years.

Government statistics showed that 2,186 murders were committed in May, surpassing the previous monthly high of 2,131 in May 2011, according to a review of records that date back to 1997.

Mexico recorded 9,916 murders in the first five months of 2017, roughly a 30% increase over the same period last year. The corresponding murder rate - 19.3 per 100,000 persons - is nearly four times that in the United States.

The situation has hit such calamitous levels in states such as Guerrero, to south of Mexico City – where armed groups are fighting for control of the heroin industry – that morgues there have been unable to handle the dead bodies.

Analysts say the surging violence stems from various factors, including the increased cultivation of heroin to meet US demand and the legalisation of marijuana in some US states, which has caused cartel profits to plummet and prompted criminal groups to diversify into crimes such as kidnap and extortion.

Last month, the federal government boasted of neutralizing 107 of its 122 top criminal targets since President Enrique Nieto took office in December 2012, though the efficacy of the strategy of killing and capturing cartel kingpins has raised questions.

At: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/21/mexicos-monthly-rate-reaches-20-year-high

[Judi Lynn]

2. The extreme upsurge in violence started immediately after George W Bush added US military support

to Mexico as he and Felipe Calderón conspired to militarize Mexico's police force, and signed the Mérida Initiative.

The reaction of the drug criminal world was instantaneous. You may recall the flood of stories we started hearing of the phenomenon of human heads being taken, even rolled through the doors of Mexican bars, etc.

That kind of news does get one's attention. Seemed like the opening to the Twilight Zone.

Then the mass graves started being discovered.

It doesn't seem to have ever slowed down, either.

Amazingly resistant to improvement, now.

Occasionally townspeople can't take it any longer, and form their own vigilante groups. I don't know how they can stand to face each new day in some of the towns.



Guerro, Mexico





https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrTcXvCR0xZaVUAL5OLuLkF;_ylc=X1MDOTYwNTc0ODMEX3IDMgRiY2sDZWFlcjdmOWNnbDI5ZyUyNmIlM0Q0JTI2ZCUzRGtyRmJQQ0ZwWUVJanZxa0JhenBsUEYwYURZRC5NaEVpb0RnLjV3LS0lMjZzJTNEcXQlMjZpJTNEZTVHQmFhNVJvVU9VVk5VQnlRbTUEZnIDBGdwcmlkA1o5LkNSbGEzUUFpQUx1YU52eUQxQkEEbXRlc3RpZANudWxsBG5fc3VnZwMxMARvcmlnaW4DaW1hZ2VzLnNlYXJjaC55YWhvby5jb20EcG9zAzAEcHFzdHIDBHBxc3RybAMEcXN0cmwDMTUEcXVlcnkDZ3VlcnJlcm8gbWV4aWNvBHRfc3RtcAMxNDk4MTcxMzQ2BHZ0ZXN0aWQDbnVsbA--?gprid=Z9.CRla3QAiALuaNvyD1BA&pvid=.lbiiTIwNi7lO2d6WQqJMAMdMjYwMgAAAAAx.sjb&fr2=sb-top-images.search.yahoo.com&p=guerrero+mexico&ei=UTF-8&iscqry=&fr=sfp#id=92&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.panoramio.com%2Fphotos%2Flarge%2F22537133.jpg&action=close

What a beautiful state. What a tragedy there's so much suffering.

Thank you, sandensea. We need to know, and our own corporate media usually won't discuss news regarding countries south of the southern border, unless it's to take a kick at a leftist leader, as we know.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Every reason in the world to remember Guerrero State if you recall the 43 teaching students

who were kidnapped and brutally murdered. This article will refresh your memory:

AP November 4, 2014, 10:30 AM
Mexico mayor, wife detained in case of 43 missing students

MEXICO CITY -- Federal police early Tuesday detained the former mayor of the southern Mexican city of Iguala and his wife, who are accused of ordering the Sept. 26 attacks on teachers' college students that left six dead and 43 still missing.

Jose Luis Abarca and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda, were arrested in Mexico City, the Federal Police announced in a Twitter post.

The couple was in the custody of the Attorney General's Office, where they were giving statements. At least 56 other people have been arrested so far in the case, and the Iguala police chief is still a fugitive.

. . .

The students from a rural teachers college had gone to Iguala to canvass for donations and authorities say Abarca ordered the attack on them, believing the students were aiming to disrupt a speech by Pineda. They say the assault was carried out by police working with the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel. Authorities say Pineda was a main operative in the cartel.

More:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mexico-mayor-wife-detained-in-case-of-43-missing-students/