Mexico lists 12,903 deaths for nine-month period
Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office said Wednesday there were 12,903 drug-related killings in Mexico from January 2011 through September 2011. Included on the city-by-city and state-by-state list are the following numbers of casualties:
- Juárez, Chihuahua 1,206
- Acapulco, Guerrero 795
- Torreón, Coahuila 476
- Chihuahua, Chihuahua 402
- Monterrey, Nuevo León 399
- Durango, Durango 390
- Culiacán, Sinaloa 365
- San Fernando, Tamaulipas 292
- Tijuana, Baja California 183
- Veracruz, Veracruz 155
- Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas 144
- State of Nuevo León 1,133
- State of Tamaulipas 1,108
Source: Procuraduría General de la República
The same month that ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata was killed in Santa María Del Rio in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí, 25 other people died in the state as rival drug cartels battled for control of trafficking routes.
They are among the 12,903 people killed from January 2011 through September 2011 throughout Mexico as gleaned from a report that the Attorney General’s Office — the Procuraduría General de la República — issued Wednesday.
From 2006 through September 2011, 47,515 people died as a result of the drug war.
Zapata, a Brownsville native, and fellow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Victor Avila of El Paso were attacked last Feb. 15 by two alleged hit squads as the two drove from San Luis Potosí to Mexico City where they were stationed. Avila survived the attack.
That same month in the state of San Luis Potosí, two people died in San Ciro de Acosta, 12 in the city of San Luis Potosí, one in San Vicente Tancuayalab, two in Soledad de Graciano Sánchez, and three in Tamuín, the PGR report shows.
The report indicates that of the 12,903 killed during the nine-month period last year, the city of Juárez in the state of Chihuahua had the most killings at 1,206, followed by 795 deaths in Acapulco, Guerrero.
In the states Tamaulipas and Nuevo León, both of which border the Rio Grande Valley, there were 1,108 and 1,133 deaths, respectively.
The community of San Fernando in Tamaulipas had one of the highest numbers at 292. The victims for the most part were migrants from Central America that had been traveling to the Mexico-United States border in buses or trucks.
The 12,903 deaths represent an 11 percent increase as compared to the same period in 2010.
The PGR noted, however, that although an increase, the rate is considerably lower than the 70 percent increase noted in killings in 2010 compared to 2009 for the same time frame; the 63 percent increase in 2009 from 2008; and the 110 percent increase in deaths in 2008 from the same time period in 2007.
eperez-trevino@brownsvilleherald.com
