• TREND: Murders in Mexico rose 8.5% in March breaking a three-month downward trend and reaching a total of 3,000 victims, according to Mexican government data. March is the month with the most homicides since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador came to power in December 2018.
• NUMBERS: In late March, the López Obrador administration expressed optimism about declining homicide figures since December 2019. However, the new 2020 March data is not only higher to February 2020, but also higher than that of March 2019, when 2,731 people were murdered.
• EXPECTATIONS: “Unfortunately we continue to have problems with homicides. Even because this coronavirus situation occurring they (the criminals) have not calmed down”, President López Obrador acknowledged during his daily morning press conference on Monday.
• HOTSPOTS: More than 10% of homicides during March (353 victims) occurred in the central state of Guanajuato (pop. 5.8 million), which is experiencing a turf war between two criminal groups. Yet, the state with the highest murder rate is the Pacific Coast state of Colima (pop. 711,000).
