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Entire Country

• April was the deadliest month in the history of the drug war, with more than 1,400 deaths, according to statistics released last Sunday. The previous high of 1,322 was hit in August, 2010. Most of the deaths occurred in northern Mexico and 450 of the dead were uncovered in mass graves found in Tamaulipas and Durango. The majority of those people were migrants on their way to the United States.
• NPR is reporting on the increased number of children caught up in the drug war, either as targets themselves, or as assassins, couriers or lookouts for the cartels.
• The recently named deputy attorney general for the Deputy Attorney General’s Office for Special Investigation into Organized Crime (SIEDO), Patricia Bugarín, has put her support behind a proposal for a united, national police force to fight the drug war. Public Security Secretary Genaro García Luna also supported the plan, noting that many state and municipal police forces are ineffective because they are infiltrated by criminal organizations.
• Mexico’s Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos (CNDH) reported last Monday that 68 journalists have been killed in the country in the past six years. According to the commission, 13 journalists have also disappeared in the same time frame and 21 attacks against communication outlets have occurred.
• Despite the ongoing drug war trade between the United States and Mexico is booming. Mexico conducted almost $400 billion worth of trade with the U.S. in 2010, the highest amount of trade since the Federal Reserve started tracking trade with Mexico in 1980. The manufacturing industry continues to be a large driver of Mexico’s economy with factories that used to all be near the U.S. border now spreading throughout Mexico.

Chihuahua

• The Minister of the Interior, José Francisco Blake, met with the governor of Chihuahua, César Duarte, on Sunday to review public security and development agreements. During the meeting, Blake told the governor that federal security forces would remain in Chihuahua until local authorities could guarantee the safety of the state’s residents.
• CIUDAD JUÁREZ: The second Citizen Perception Survey done in Ciudad Juárez since 2009 reveals that 95% of residents in the beleaguered city feel unsafe, a percentage that remains consistent with that of the first survey, completed in November of 2009. The results of the survey also showed that more than 60% of residents believe that reporting a crime to the police is a waste of time and that 34% of residents have a family member who has been a victim of crime. The survey was conducted by Socorro Velásquez Vargas, a professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez and was completed by 2,100 adult residents throughout different sectors of Ciudad Juárez. The results of the entire survey are available on the university’s website.

Durango

• DURANGO: Officials uncovered 25 more bodies, Proceso reported Thursday, bringing the total number of bodies found in Durango since April 11 to 146.

Guanajuato

• ACÁMBARO: Seventeen policemen were detained for alleged ties to La Familia Michoacana, according to reports Wednesday.

Guererro

• ACAPULCO: Seven people were killed in Acapulco on Sunday, among them Ángel García García, former Undersecretary for Prevention and Social Rehabilitation during the government of Zeferino Torreblanca Galindo. The killings happened during several different shootings throughout the city Sunday morning.
• ACAPULCO: 23 people were murdered last weekend in Acapulco. Two of those killed were women, one of whom was dismembered and the other was mutilated. Two others were injured in the violence over the weekend.

Jalisco

• PIHUAMO: A drug lab was dismantled in Pihuamo last Sunday in a joint operation of the Marines and the office of the Attorney General. No one was arrested during the raid.

Morelos, Mexico, D.F.

• CUERNAVACA, MEXICO CITY: The “March for Peace” began Thursday in Cuernavaca and ended Sunday in Mexico City. Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, whose 24-year-old son was killed by suspected drug traffickers on March 28, led the silent march that began in Cuernavaca with more than 600 people and ended 50 miles later in Mexico City with an estimated 24,000 participants. The march was organized to call for an end to the increasing violence that has plagued the country since the start of the drug war in December of 2006. Participants also called for the removal of the approximately 50,000 troops that have been deployed across the country as part of the government’s crackdown against organized crime in the country. According to the AFP protesters plan “to organize an anti-violence pact to be signed in June in Ciudad Juarez.” You can watch video of Sunday’s rally in Mexico city here President Calderón’s office released a statement Thursday expressing "its respect for the march . . . and each and every person who is participating in it." While the president did not mention the march itself, he said on Wednesday night that “retreating from the fight is not an option. Quite the opposite. We must redouble our efforts, because if we stop fighting, they are going to kidnap, extort and kill all over the country." Sicilia, for his part, said at the beginning of the march: “We cannot understand a war that is badly planned, a war that is badly directed. We cannot understand why he does not understand why the criminals are out there. If they are out there, it is because the institutions and the state are co-opted."

Nuevo León

• APODACA, MONTERREY: Milenio reported today on the killings of nine people in the streets of Apodeca and Monterrey on Thursday. All were shot, and it is presumed that they were all tied to the drug trade.
• APODACA: The police chief of Apodaca, Milton Alvarado Rojas, and nine of his officers, were kidnapped, the state’s governor, Rodrigo Medina, said last Monday
• GUADALUPE: Six men were killed in two separate attacks in Guadalupe on Monday. Gunmen riding in two SUVs shot four men -- three of whom were family members and one of whom was a neighbor -- at a house in the city. Soon after, two other men were gunned down in the Lomas de San Miguel neighborhood.
• LINARES: Three people were killed and six transit officials disappeared during shootings in Linares on Wednesday. At least five shootings were reported throughout the city. City residents warned others of the shootings through Twitter. Proceso is reporting that this is only the most recent case of policemen and transit officials disappearing in the state of Nuevo León. According to the paper, 24 have disappeared so far this year.

Tamaulipas

• Andrea Furlán, spokesperson for Guatemala’s chancellor’s office confirmed Wednesday that 70 Guatemalans had disappeared in Tamaulipas. Mexican authorities, however, have a list of only 34 missing Guatemalans.
• REYNOSA: Sixteen people were freed Wednesday in Reynosa by Federal Police. Thirteen of those freed were of Central American migrants. This most recent success brought the number of people rescued from criminal organizations in Tamaulipas to 135 over the past 15 days.

This post was written by CIP Intern Erin Shea