Mexico’s Murder Numbers Soared in 2019, While America’s Border Remains Porous
Jose Nino
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The Mexican government recently confirmed that 2019 was its most blood-soaked year in recent memory as homicides increased by 2.7 percent during President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s first full year in office.
On Monday, January 20, 2020, the National System of Public Security announced that 35,588 people were victims of homicides in 2019. This included 1,006 women targeted in “femicides,” or killings carried because of the victims’ gender.
On top of that, approximately 5,000 people disappeared in Mexico in 2019 and were not discovered.
Authorities carried out the highest number of murder investigations last year since they began to keep such data in 1997.
AMLO acknowledged his government’s failure to keep homicides in check but said Tuesday that there were more pressing matters.
“I think that the bigger damage has been done by white-collar criminals, whether politicians or businessmen who call themselves entrepreneurs,” the leftist leader said during his news conference.
In recent years, violence has increased as certain organized-crime groups have split up into warring cells and criminal organizations have diversified in their tactics. Cartels used to focus on shipping drugs to the United States, but many now also participate in predatory crimes in Mexico, which include extortion, kidnapping and retail drug sales.
Recent months have illustrated the gut-wrenching power of drug cartels. In November, cartel gunmen massacred three women and six children who held dual American-Mexican citizenship while living in the northern state of Sonora.
A few weeks prior to that incident, Sinaloa cartel gunmen virtually captured the city of Culiacan, compelling the government to release Ovidio Guzmán, a son of drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, shortly after Mexican authorities arrested him.
Towards the end of the year in December, dozens of cartel gunmen assaulted a town hall in Villa Union, which is located 40 miles southwest of the U.S. border town of Eagle Pass, Texas. This assault sparked a two-day battle with security forces that left 19 dead.
What’s taking place in Mexico is indicative of a failed state.
Mexico is no longer dealing with everyday criminals equipped with regular weapons, but with paramilitary forces that can outgun government forces and create parallel governments.
This shows why the U.S. desperately needs a solid wall on the Southern border and a total overhaul of its immigration policies so that its national security interests stay intact.
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