With an average of 83 homicides per day, Mexico recorded a more violent start to the year than in 2022

The number of intentional homicides in Mexico increased by 6.43% per year last January to reach 2,582 murders, an average of more than 83 per dayas the Secretary for Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC) reported on Tuesday.

This data is compared to the 2,426 homicides in the first month of 2022 and they imply a monthly increase of 2.1% compared to the 2,529 murders last December.

Despite the rebound, SSPC chief Rosa Icela Rodríguez argued that this figure is 16% lower than the all-time high of 3,074 homicides in July 2018.

“The trend remains downward. In intentional homicide victims, there is a significant decrease compared to previous years“, affirmed the secretary during the morning conference of the government.

With these numbers, there have been a total of 31,127 homicide victims over the past 12 months.an average of 85 per day and a decrease of 5.5% compared to the same previous period, when there were 32,936, a daily average of 90.

The official said homicides decreased by 10.8% during President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s six-year term (2018-2024) compared to the end of former President Enrique Peña Nieto’s term (2012- 2018).

Rodríguez explained that six states concentrate almost half of the homicides: State of Mexico, Guanajuato, Baja California, Chihuahua, Jalisco and Guerrero, which together account for 1,189 of these crimes.

Data from the Security Secretariat also shows a 13.72% year-on-year increase in federal crimes in January, when there were 6 thousand 042.

Although this is the beginning of the year with the most crimes of the last three, Rodríguez maintained that “in the criminal incidence of crimes in the federal jurisdiction, there is a reduction of 33.3% (compared to the beginning of government). Regarding most crimes, they have been with significant reductions”.

The official announced a 37.5% annual drop in organized crime crimes, over 21% in financial crimes and 11.2% in those committed by officials.

But there were increases of 1.3% in health crimes (drug-related) and 2.2% in tax crimes.

While in January 51,591 robberies of all kinds were reported, 4.59% more than the 49,327 a year earlier.

However, there were 72 feminicides, murders of women for gender reasons, a reduction of 11.11%.

“In the case of femicide, delinquency is also seen down by 28.7% (compared to the start of the sexennium). Remember that it is from 2020 that this crime is typed and begins to count“Assured Rodriguez.

These figures are reported after the 7.1% annual drop in homicides in 2022, while Mexico has recorded 30,968 murders after the most violent two years in its historyunder López Obrador’s tenure, with 34,690 murder victims in 2019 and 34,554 in 2020, followed by 33,308 in 2021.