/ Modified jun 26, 2017 4:14 p.m.

Cartels, Corruption and Gasoline Theft Make for Deadly May in Mexico

Almost 2,200 were murdered, making it the deadliest month in decades, data show.

CBP drugs seizure hero Customs and Border Protection agents in Arizona seize 265 pounds of marijuana, 2013.
CBP via Flickr

May was Mexico’s deadliest month on record since the peak of the drug war, but drug activity is likely only one reason for the spike, crime analysts say.

Figures published this week by the Interior Department showed 2,186 people were murdered last month, higher than the 2,131 recorded in May 2011.

The increase is likely due to poorly executed public safety policies, a fracturing of criminal groups and the diversifying sources of activities for those groups, according to Froylan Enciso, a Mexico analyst with the International Crisis Group.

“What all these explanations have in common is that they’re fed by longstanding agreements for corruption and impunity between criminal groups and a variety of governmental entities,” Enciso wrote in an examination of the new figures.

Raul Benitez Manaut, a political science professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, also attributed the violence to state-level government corruption and the increase in theft of government-owned gasoline.

“There’s a big crisis because some governors are protecting these criminal activities,” Benitez Manaut said in an interview.

Some of the states with the highest homicide increases were Baja California Sur, the southern state of Veracruz, and Sinaloa, the home state of the recently extradited kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.

Fronteras Desk
This story is from the Fronteras Desk, a collaboration of Southwestern public radio stations, including NPR 89.1. Read more from the Fronteras Desk.
By posting comments, you agree to our
AZPM encourages comments, but comments that contain profanity, unrelated information, threats, libel, defamatory statements, obscenities, pornography or that violate the law are not allowed. Comments that promote commercial products or services are not allowed. Comments in violation of this policy will be removed. Continued posting of comments that violate this policy will result in the commenter being banned from the site.

By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.
AZPM is a service of the University of Arizona and our broadcast stations are licensed to the Arizona Board of Regents who hold the trademarks for Arizona Public Media and AZPM. We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples.
The University of Arizona