Drug-related murders in Mexico surpass 2008 numbers

10/06/09
Abigail Poe
Latin America and the Caribbean
Security, Drug Trade

In early September, the number of people killed by drug-related violence in Mexico surpassed 5,000, prompting us to write on this blog that "it looks like 2009 is assured to be more violent than 2008 - which ended with 5,600 narcoviolence-related murders." Unfortunately, it took less than one month for the number of such murders in Mexico to surpass 2008 levels, reaching 5,874 murders by the end of September. The image below was posted on the Security in Latin America blog today and is from the Mexican newspaper Milenio. It breaks down the narcoviolence-related murder rate in Mexico in various ways, providing an interesting and unsettling picture of Mexico's increasing violence. Because the image is in Spanish, here are a few statistics that stand out:

  • So far in 2009, 5,874 people have been murdered as a result of narcoviolence.
  • September 2009 was the most violent month since Mexican President Felipe Calderón took office, with 826 narcoviolence-related murders. The map of Mexico breaks down the September murder rate in the states with military operations ongoing, indicating Chihuahua as the state with the most murders in September (409) and Sinaloa trailing it with 101 murders. Ciudad Juárez, widely viewed as Mexico's most violent city, is in Chihuahua.
  • During the month of September, at least 10 people were killed every day, with multiple days tallying over 30 murders and one day reaching 50 murders (as indicated by the line graph).
  • Of the 826 people killed in September, 43 were police, 32 women, 15 minors, and 7 government officials.
  • In Chihuahua, the number of people killed by drug-related violence has been increasing steadily since January 2009, reaching 409 murders in September, as indicated by the bar graph at the bottom of the image. The bar graph also shows that 3,037 people were murdered as a result of narcoviolence in the state of Chihuahua alone, making up almost 52% of the nation's total narcoviolence-related murders in 2009.
  • Since President Calderón took office, 14,478 people have been killed as a result of drug-related violence.