Grim body counts

04/18/11

Mexico’s El Universal reports today that 398 Mexican military and police have been killed in combat with organized crime groups since December 2006. That is when President Felipe Calderón took office and intensified a military-police offensive against violent “cartels” and other criminal groups with roots in the drug trade.

An unacceptably, tragically high figure, but surprisingly low compared to Colombia, even during Colombia’s current period of “improved” public security.

Between January 2007 and March 2011, the comparable figure for Colombia is 1,901 police and military personnel killed by illegal armed groups. (See page 63 of this PDF document from Colombia’s Defense Ministry.)