Organized-crime slayings in Mexico more than doubled so far this year, and could rise even further, as powerful drug cartels fight increasingly bloody battles for control of territory, the government said on Monday.
Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said gangland killings rose by 117 percent to 5,376 as compared to January to November last year, when there were 2,477 slayings.
Previously the government had not provided a total number for such killings.
Medina Mora tied the spike in “homicides related to organized crime” to an internal falling out between former allies in the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico’s most powerful cartel, and predicted the violence could get worse before it declines late next year.
“We have not reached the peak of the curve yet,” he told a briefing. “I still see an increase.”
Underscoring the brutality of the conflict, authorities on Monday said at least 18 people were killed in a single day in southern Guerrero state and that two human heads were left in buckets outside the governor’s office.
The announcement of the death toll came days after Washington released US$197 million, the first installment of a US$400 million aid package to support Mexico’s police and soldiers in their fight against drug cartels.
The wave of killings, massacres and beheadings began at the start of this year when the Beltran-Leyva gang split from the main wing of the cartel led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman setting off battles between rival factions, the attorney general told reporters.
Most of the bloodshed takes place in the northern states of Baja California, Sinaloa and Chihuahua, where powerful cartels headed by Guzman and rival Vicente Carrillo Fuentes fight over smuggling routes into the US.
The increasingly gruesome slayings also come amid a massive government offensive against drug cartels in which Mexican President Felipe Calderon has sent tens of thousands of soldiers to states plagued by drug gangs. Since Calderon took office on Dec. 1, 2006, a total of 8,150 people have died in organized-crime slayings.
Other contributing factors include increased street-level drug dealing and leadership disputes following the arrest of some cartel lieutenants, officials say.
Law enforcement has also been hit by the biggest corruption scandal in a decade in recent months, as more than a dozen high-ranking officials in police and prosecutors’ offices have been detained or charged for allegedly passing information to the cartels.
Medina Mora said the law enforcement cleanup, known as “Operation Clean House,” had not affected US confidence in Mexico’s ability to fight drug traffickers: “This is not only not affecting the confidence and capacity to work together, it has even increased the level of cooperation and confidence.”
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