MEXICO CITY — The number of homicides in Mexico rose to 35,588 in 2019, but the rate of annual increase in murders has slowed, according to government figures.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has said crime and violence are the toughest challenges he faces. But on Tuesday, he said corruption is the country’s main problem.
López Obrador said that white collar criminals have done more damage to Mexico than the drug cartels responsible for many of the killings.
“We are giving the almost the same weight to (fighting) white collar crime, as we do to drug cartels,” López Obrador said.
There were 933 more murders in Mexico in 2019 than in 2018, but that 2.7% increase was well below the double-digit growth in killings in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
In those years, homicides grew by annual rates of 27%, 28% and 17%, respectively.
While it is not clear what percentage of homicides are related to drug gang violence, the fact that those gangs have expanded into extortion and kidnapping makes them Mexico’s main single source of violence.
