State fails to probe 99.5% of Mexico murders

OF THE more than 70 000 homicides registered by Mexican authorities since 2014, only 415 – or 0.5% – are being investigated, La Jornada reported.

Figures by the Attorney-General’s Office, or PGR, and statistics of the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System showed there have been 70 122 murders in the country in the period between 2014 and the first five months of 2017.

The national records of victims of intentional homicide registered 17 244 deaths in 2014, 18 673 for 2015 and 22 967 last year. Between January and May of 2017, 12 238 homicides were recorded. During this period, the PGR has undertaken to investigate 415 of these cases, including just six from 2017.

The annual Armed Conflict Survey by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, IISS, showed the number killed in 2016 due to the expanding drug war in Mexico makes the country among the most dangerous in the world.

In comparison, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan claimed 17 000 and 16 000 lives respectively in 2016.

The drug war began in late 2006 when former president Felipe Calderon unleashed the military on the country’s drug cartels – a move immediately backed by a US$1.8 billion (23.7bn) military aid package by former US president George W Bush. Washington subsequently provided further annual drug war aid to Mexico through the Merida Initiative.

President Peña Nieto has continued a drug war that has claimed a staggering 125 000 victims. The war has also seen ongoing disappearances, torture, rape and systematic impunity. teleSUR