Mexico recorded 33,308 assassinations in 2021, an average of 91.25 per day, down 3.6% from the previous two years, according to official figures released Thursday.
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“Six states out of 32 account for 50% of homicide victims,” said Secretary (Minister) of Public Security, Rosa Icela Rodríguez.
These are the State of Mexico around the capital and Guanajuato (center), Baja California and Chihuaha (north) along the border with the United States, and other traffic hubs drugs like Jalisco and Michoacán (west).
“We are seeing a downward trend,” welcomed the minister of President Manuel Lopez Obrador’s left-wing government at a press conference.
A record 34,690 homicides were recorded in 2019 then 34,554 in 2020, a year of reduced social activities in the wake of the pandemic.
Some 340,000 people have been killed since 2006, when ex-president Felipe Calderon declared total war on drug trafficking.
Mexico also has more than 95,000 missing according to official figures from the National Research Commission.
The disappearances began with the “dirty war” of the authorities against the left-wing revolutionary movements of the 1960s-1980s. Their number exploded as much as the assassinations from 2006.
Despite this violence, the country of 128 million inhabitants ranks seventh among the most touristic countries in the world, with 45 million visitors in 2019 according to the World Tourism Organization.
Violence sporadically affected the seaside resort of Tulum on the Gulf of Mexico in 2021, where two tourists were killed at the end of October.
Other very touristy areas are relatively safe, such as the state of Oaxaca (southwest).