July most violent month ever in Mexico

By Alix Hardy

MEXICO CITY

A record number of people were murdered in Mexico last month, the Ministry of Public Security said Tuesday.

The ministry states 2,599 cases of intentional homicides were opened in July for a total of 3,017 registered victims.

The figure is the highest monthly toll ever recorded since Mexico began keeping stats in 1997. The previous record of 2,894 was set two months ago.

In 2018, there have been 18,994 murders in seven months, a 20 percent increase compared to the same period in 2017.

If the numbers follow the trend, 2018 is set to be the most violent year ever in Mexico.

Currently, 2017 holds the record with 28,702 murders -- the highest witnessed in the 20-year period.

The ministry also separately reported 78 femicides in July, also the highest monthly number observed in 2018.

“The current federal government will be remembered for its incapacity to reduce violence in Mexico," the head of the PRD opposition left-wing party, Omar Ortega Alvarez, tweeted in reaction to the report.

Violence figures have been off the charts for more than a decade. Former President Felipe Calderon initiated a war on drugs in 2006, a plan where he sent the army to fight drug traffickers. The strategy was continued by current and outgoing President Enrique Pena Nieto, under which new records of violence were broken.

President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who will take office Dec. 1, repeatedly promised during his campaign to end the controversial strategy and try new ways of resolving the drug crisis and violence that stems of it.