Global General

Mexico newspapers see March as decade's deadliest month

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-02 11:43

MEXICO CITY - Several local newspapers Thursday pointed to the past month as the bloodiest in the past decade in Mexico although the figures they cited were not in full agreement.

Daily "Milenio" said at least 1,130 people were killed in March 2010, making the month the first one to witness more than 1,000 deaths.

The paper said the deaths included 89 policemen, three officers, 63 women and 25 children.

It added that 88 percent of the killings took place in the states of Chihuahua, Baja California, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tamaulipas, Guerrero, Michoacan and Nuevo Leon.

The number of homicides in Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Guerrero stood at 389, 143 and 129, respectively.

The paper said that the past 39 months since Mexican President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006 saw a total of 19,548 deaths.

Daily "El Universal" said drug-related violence resulted in the death of 18,757 people in the past 39 months.

It said Chihuahua was the most violent state witnessing 670 homicides in March, followed by Sinaloa with 155 and Guerrero with 109.

Daily "Excelsior" said 30 percent of those killed in March were aged between 18-25 and 67 percent were below 17 years old.

A report from the General Prosecutor's Office -- "the National Situation of Violence" attributed the increased violence to the armed conflicts between the Golfo drug cartel and the "Los Zetas" drug cartel that fight for the control of the states of Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas and Veracruz.

The report said that the number of beheaded and dismembered victims also increased in March.