Record number of homicides in Mexico in 2018

By James Blears

According to Mexico`s National Institute of Statistics and Geography, there were 33,341 murders throughout the Country during 2018. That`s a 33 percent increase on the previous year, which was itself an all time record.

Many of the homicides are a result of chaotic feuds between warring drug cartels, especially involving turf battles for multi million dollars transit drug routes flooding illicit narcotics into the United States.

Impunity or getting away with it, is rife with witnesses scarce, scared and even scarred, undermined by inept and sometimes corrupt or complicit policing, which isn't trusted by the vast majority of Mexicans.

The rising tide of killings is a major challenge to new Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who`s mentioned the option of legalizing all drugs, as one possible solution to break the vicious cycle.