Chihuahua, among states with the most homicides

In just eight states of the republic, 56 of every 100 intentional homicides committed in México in 2023 are concentrated, including Chihuahua, which until April registered 567 so many, placing it in fourth place on the list.

Data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP) specify that of 8,344 murders, 4,714 were committed in Guanajuato, State of México, Baja California, Chihuahua, Michoacán, Jalisco, Guerrero and Sonora. Only the last entity entered the classification of the eight most violent states, since in 2022 the eighth place was obtained by Nuevo León.

In 2023, the number of homicides at the state level is mainly made up of those committed with a firearm, which are 376, followed by 54 perpetrated with a knife and 137 carried out with other elements, including suffocation. and blows, among others.

In the same period (January to April) but from 2022 there were four fewer intentional homicides in the country, for a total of 4,710, among the eight most violent states. Chihuahua, in that period, registered 445 homicides before the SESNSP, far from the 567 in 2023.

The number of homicides in the eight states with the most cases increased by tens of thousands from 2015 to 2022, which are the years that the Secretariat has been recording. In the first year contemplated, there were 16,120 murders throughout the country, of which 57.4 percent or 9,262 cases were committed in the states with the highest incidence, Chihuahua in fourth place.

By comparison, in 2022 there were 26,275 intentional homicides in México, which itself already represents a 63 percent increase in violence nationwide in eight years. In the eight most violent entities, 15,288 of them were committed, 58.2 percent of the cases.

Ciudad Juárez, in addition, was placed 17th at the national level among the municipalities with the highest rate of murders per 100,000 inhabitants, with a figure of 69.5, according to figures from the Secretariat analyzed by the Institute for the Economy and La Paz (IEP), with the records of 2022.

The IEP described in its report as “an epicenter of violence” committed throughout the state, in addition to pointing out the high rates of human trafficking, homicides and drug trafficking in this town.

He added that “it is also the base of operations for the once dominant Juárez Cartel, which was one of the most powerful cartels in the country since the 1980s,” whose conflict with the Cartel de Sinaloa “because of control of the state and its crucial drug trafficking routes (…) it has continued to pose a serious threat to the security of the inhabitants of the state.”

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