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Murder Rate Rises in Mexico, While Other Crimes Fall


Mourners carry the coffin of slain mayor of Temixco, Gisela Mota, to the cemetery in Pueblo Viejo, Mexico, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. A new study suggests that Mexico's drug violence was so bad at its peak that it apparently caused the nation's male life expec
Mourners carry the coffin of slain mayor of Temixco, Gisela Mota, to the cemetery in Pueblo Viejo, Mexico, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. A new study suggests that Mexico's drug violence was so bad at its peak that it apparently caused the nation's male life expec

Murders in Mexico jumped nearly 9 percent last year, their first increase in four years, as President Enrique Pena Nieto struggles to make good on his election pledge to end the country's drug violence.

But other crimes like kidnapping and extortion have fallen, according to government data released late on Wednesday, perhaps pointing to a shift toward more brutal tactics by some of the country's dozens of drug cartels.

Prosecutors from Mexico's 31 states and Mexico City reported 17,013 murders last year, the fifth-highest figure in nearly two decades, Interior Ministry statistics showed. There were 15,653 murders reported in 2014.

The rate equates to about 14 murders per 100,000 people, higher than the U.S. rate of about five per 100,000 people, but below that of Mexico's Central American neighbors.

Many experts have said only a fraction of all crime in Mexico is reported. Drug cartels and other gangs are known to routinely buy off police to turn a blind eye to their operations, leading to widespread impunity and lack of trust.

The central state of Mexico, which encircles much of Mexico City, had the highest murder rate last year. In second place was Guerrero, a southwestern state where 43 trainee teachers were abducted last year and believed by government officials to have been massacred by a drug cartel in league with local police.

The number of kidnappings nationwide fell 24.5 percent from 2014, the lowest level since 2008, while extortion dropped 12.6 percent.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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