And the beat goes on....

MEXIDATA . INFO
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Monday, May 26, 2008

The Drug Wars' Body Counts Continue To Mount in Mexico

By Allan Wall

In Mexico, the ongoing battles between the drug cartels, and between drug cartels and the government, go on and on – and the body count mounts.

On May 23rd, 2008, Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora announced that, thus far in calendar year 2008, killings linked to organized crime and drug trafficking have increased 47% over those in 2007.

According to Medina Mora’s figures, as of May 24th there had been 1,378 such murders. At this time last year the figure was 940.

Since it’s only May, that means that 2008 is well on the way to surpass the 2007 total of 2,500 killings.

The total body count (to date) during President Felipe Calderon’s administration is 4,152 killings, 450 of whom were policemen, prosecutors or Mexican military personnel.

(As a point of comparison, the U.S. has lost 4,081 military personnel in Iraq since 2003).

Another way to look at the death toll is as a daily average. On May 22nd (the day before Medina Mora’s higher figures were announced), Mexico’s La Jornada newspaper published its calculation of an average of 7.6 killings per day since Calderon took office, although it added that in the week previous the average was 15 such killings per day.

According to Medina Mora, there has been a “significant increaseâ€