Violencia south of the border
Down Mexico way, violence is out of control. It's what everyone talks about when you speak with friends south of the border. This is from Kelin Dillon and Pulse News Mexico:
Only weeks after hactivist group Guacamaya revealed to the public that 72 percent of Mexico is under control of organized crime groups, Mexico experienced its most violent month of the year yet, registering 2,481 intentional homicides throughout Oct. 2022.
A total of 92 intentional murders were committed on Monday, Oct. 31 alone, says information publicized by Mexico's Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC) and Secretariat of National Defense's (Sedena) daily security reports.
October's high homicide frequency eclipses May 2022's 2,472 intentional homicides, upping the daily homicide rate from 79.7 deaths per day to 80 murders per day between the two months, while also increasing 6.5 percent month-to-month from September to October.
However, it must be noted that the information included in the government's daily public security reports are not finalized, with complete data available for analysis put out once a month by the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP).
Mass murders also contributed to October's record-high homicide rate, including the homicide of 20 people in San Miguel Totolapan, Guerrero on Oct. 5, and the murder of another 12 people in a bar in Irapuato, Guanajuato — Mexico's most homicidal state of the month — on Oct. 15.
Information recently released by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) went on to reveal that Mexico experienced more than 35,700 homicides in 2021, with 17,000 of said murders occurring between the age groups of 15 and 34 years old, officially placing homicide as the number one cause of death for this demographic in Mexico.
Well, whatever happened to hugs rather than bullets, or the President López-Obrador strategy? I guess the criminals did not get the memo to start hugging. They are not putting down their high-powered weapons, either. Gun laws work as well in Mexico as they do in Chicago, Philadelphia, etc.
Will "El Presidente" turn the page and try something new? I don't know, but we are impacted. The violence will accelerate migration north, and more will claim asylum from the violence. It's unsustainable, but the Biden administration is too worried about MAGA to seal the border under national security considerations.
Don't forget to think about all of this when you vote on Tuesday.
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Image: Public Domain.