Murder rate rocks Mexico

MEXICO posted its highest homicide rate in decades, with the government reporting 29,168 murders in 2017, a 27 per cent increase over 2016.

The number is the highest since comparable records began in 1997 and is also higher than the peak year of Mexico’s drug war in 2011, when there were 27,213 killings.

The Interior Department reported the country’s homicide rate was 20.5 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2017, compared to 19.4 in 2011.

But Mexico security analyst Alejandro Hope said Mexico’s murder rate is probably higher than the Interior Department statistics show.