Mexico government sought to withhold drug war death statistics

Official records show both the administration and the attorney general's office late last year refused formal requests for updated statistics. Under pressure, partial figures for 2011 have been released.

Reporting from Mexico City—
Six months before a presidential election that his party is widely expected to lose, President Felipe Calderon is on the defensive about the government's blood-soaked drug war, with new revelations that it sought to conceal death toll statistics from the public.

By unofficial count, at least 50,000 people are believed to have been killed since Calderon deployed the military in the first days of his presidency in December 2006.

A year ago, the government released an official death toll up to that point — 34,612 — and pledged to periodically update a database and make it public. But official documents show that the offices of both the president and the attorney general late last year refused formal requests for updated statistics filed under the Mexican equivalent of the Freedom of Information Act.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-dead-numbers-20120112,0,1311879.story