Danger beyond the border: Nine Mexican cities are among the ten deadliest cities in the world
Newly released data shows nine Mexican cities will rank among the world’s ten deadliest cities in 2022, according to the World of Statistics.
The report listed the municipality of Colima in western Mexico as the world’s murder capital with 181.9 homicides per 100 people.
The city is the second largest in the state of Colima, ranking first in 2021 with 196.6 homicides per 100 residents.
The number of homicides in 2023 is on track to match or slightly exceed 2023 levels. In the first seven months of the year, 512 homicides were recorded, an average of 73.1 per month, after 887 people were murdered in the previous year, for a peak of 73.91 homicides per month.
According to the World of Statistics, nine of the ten most dangerous cities in the world are in Mexico. Another two finished 13th and 14th
Mexican troops were deployed to Tijuana International Airport on Aug. 13, 2022, after violent incidents broke out over the weekend that left 24 vehicles burned across the state of Baja California, including 15 in Tijuana, a border city across from San Diego. Tijuana ranked fifth in 2022 with 105.1 homicides per 100 people
Acapulco police stand near the body of one of the five men shot dead at Santana’s Sports and Snacks Bar on December 5, 2022. The seaside resort, once a top destination for Hollywood’s elite, is rife with crime, registering 65.6 homicides per 100 residents in 2022
The municipality of Zamora in western Michoacán state was second with 177.7 homicides per 100 people, while Ciudad Obregón, the second-largest city in northwestern Sonora state, had 138.2 homicides per 100 people.
Zacatecas, the capital and largest city of the north-central state of Zacatecas, ranked fourth with an average of 134.6 homicides per 100 people, and the Pacific city of Tijuana across the street from California ranked fifth with 105.1 homicides per 100 people.
The cities of Celaya and Uruapan in the central state of Guanajuato ranked fifth and sixth, respectively. Celaya recorded 99.6 homicides per 100 residents, followed by Uruapan with 78.3 homicides per 100 residents.
Rounding out the top 10 list is Ciudad Juárez with nine. The border town in the northwestern state of Chihuahua and south of El Paso, Texas, had 67.7 homicides per 100 residents. It was second in 2019 with 104.4 homicides per 100 people.
The beach resort of Acapulco, once a top travel destination for Hollywood’s elite, ranked tenth with an average of 65.6 homicides per 100 residents.
Forensic personnel work at the scene where unknown assailants left the bodies of three dismembered people on a vacant lot in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, on August 31. Ciudad Juárez, located on Mexico’s northern border across from El Paso, Texas, ranked ninth in 2022 with 67.7 homicides per 100 people
A forensic technician walks to a crime scene where unknown assailants left bodies of men wrapped in blankets in Zacatecas, Mexico, February 5, 2022
The municipality of Guanajuato in Irapuato ranked 13th with 61.60 homicides per 100 people and the city of Cuernavaca in central Morelos state ranked 14th with 60.2 homicides per 100 people.
Each of the cities featured in the report is within the Mexican states for which the US State Department has issued travel advisories due to crime and kidnapping.
María del Carmen López, 63, a Mexican-American dual citizen, has been missing since February 9 when gunmen hijacked her home in the Colima community of Pueblo Nuevo.
In June, one of her seven children held a press conference in Los Angeles, imploring President Joe Biden to help find her.
She revealed that the kidnappers had sent the family an audio recording of the woman begging to be taken home.
Her daughter, Zonia López, said her mother asked her: ‘Please hurry, act quickly, my children, and give them what they want.’ My life depends on it.’