A forensic expert studies bullet casings at a Jalisco crime scene in 2020.
Homicides declined 3.9% in the first eight months of 2021, Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez said Wednesday.
There were 22,611 homicides between January and August, according to data presented by Rodríguez at President López Obrador’s news conference, a decrease of more than 900 compared to the same period of 2020.
The security minister said that August – with 2,815 homicides – was the least violent eighth month of the year since the current government took office in late 2018.
She said 50.4% of all homicides in the first eight months occurred in just six states: Guanajuato, Baja California, Michoacán, México state, Chihuahua and Jalisco.
The first two both recorded more than 2,000 homicides while the other four states all recorded more than 1,600.
Yucatán was the least violent state in the period with just 32 homicides followed by Baja California Sur (38); Aguascalientes (57); Campeche (74); and Tlaxcala (80).
Rodríguez said 42% of August homicides occurred in 50 municipalities that have been identified as the most violent in the country, where federal authorities bolstered security efforts just over a month ago.
She said murders declined by 0.3% in those municipalities last month. Homicides rose in 25 of the municipalities compared to August last year, declined in 24 and remained the same in one. The security minister also presented data for a range of other crimes.
Among those that decreased in the first eight months of the year compared to the same period of 2020 were carjackings, cattle theft, business robberies, vehicle theft, home burglaries, kidnappings, domestic violence, tax crimes, organized crime offenses, drug trafficking and firearms offenses.
Among those that increased were robberies on public transit, muggings, extortion, rape, femicides. human trafficking and electoral offenses.
Mexico News Daily
