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News > Latin America

25 Murders This Weekend Alone in Mexico

  • A soldier stands guard next to a crime scene, where men were killed inside a home by unknown assailants, in the municipality of San Nicolas de los Garza, Mexico, January 27, 2018.

    A soldier stands guard next to a crime scene, where men were killed inside a home by unknown assailants, in the municipality of San Nicolas de los Garza, Mexico, January 27, 2018. | Photo: Reuters

Published 28 January 2018
Opinion

This year’s homicide statistics are following those of 2017, which ended with 29,168 reported murders - the highest number in two decades.

The official homicide rate in Mexico rose by 25 over the weekend - and Sunday’s not over.

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Among the 25 were nine men assassinated at a suburban house party just outside Monterrey, a major city near the Texas border on Friday night.

According to officials, masked gunmen stormed the house opening fire killing seven immediately. Two more died later at the hospital.

Also along Mexico’s northern border, six people were killed in Ciudad Juarez and four more were found dead in the state of Tamaulipas.

This year’s homicide statistics are following in lock step with those of 2017, which ended with 29,168 reported murders - the highest number in two decades, and 27 percent jump over 2016.

The first ten days of 2018 authorities registered at least 200 homicides, concentrated mainly in the states of Guerrero, Baja California Sur, Colima, and Chihuahua. These same states had the highest murder rates last year.

Authorities attribute part of the rise of violence to fractured organized drug cartels.

After the Zetas split from the powerful Sinaloa cartel - headed by the infamous Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, a new group formed from the Zetas - The Old Guard, which later became The Northeast Cartel (CDN). The CDN is particularly known for not just drug smuggling, but extortion, kidnappings and random killings, Arturo Fontes, a former FBI agent tells the Dallas News.

Also at play in Mexico's exponential rise in murder rates is the state's attempt to squash cartels through militarized force.

Around 90 percent of Mexico’s homicides remain unsolved and unpunished.

The beach resorts of Cancun and Acapulco were also the scenes of murders this weekend.  Armed men opened fire on a bar in Cancun killing three people this weekend. In Acapulco, one person was killed when gunmen began shooting clients in a local restaurant.

Two others were killed by gunfire in a bar in Xalapa late Saturday night. One of the victims was a 28-year-old trombonist, Jose Ignacio "N" who was finishing his last semester studying music education at the University of Veracruz.

This weekend's indices supersede a previous January weekend when 19 people were killed.

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