98% of murders in Mexico last year went unsolved

By Roberto A. Ferdman


The capture of Mexican drug lord Miguel Angel Treviño Morales earlier this week has brought Mexico’s crime scene into the limelight, but its criminal justice system is perhaps what most deserves scrutiny.

Some 27,500 people were murdered in Mexico last year. That’s more than Columbia and Venezuela—combined. It’s more than twice the number of murders in China, and nearly twice the number in the US. In fact, it’s more than every other country in the world save for Brazil and India.

But the most alarming fact about the homicides that occurred in Mexico last year is that a paltry 523 have resulted in a sentence, according to a new report from Mexico’s central statistics bureau (INEGI). That means 98% of the 27,500 murders in Mexico last year went unsolved.

In two Mexican states, Hidalgo and Tlaxcala, not a single homicide case resulted in a sentence, and in some of the country’s most violent states, the numbers are only marginally better. In San Luis Potosi, 99.6% of homicide cases have not been resolved; in Sinalao, 99.2%; in Chihuahua, 98.3%. Even in the state with the highest rate of sentencing, Mexico’s Federal District, 81.4% of murders still remained unsolved.

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http://qz.com/105952/98-of-murders-in-mexico-last-year-went-unsolved/