Mexico updates four years of drug war deaths to 34,612
Baku, January 13 (AZERTAC). A total of 34,612 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico over the past four years, according to new, more detailed government statistics.
Unveiling the database, President Felipe Calderon acknowledged that 2010, which saw 15,273 deaths, had been "a year of extreme violence".
Half of the murders were in three northern states, officials said.
The figures include the killings of gang members, police and troops, as well as innocent bystanders.
President Calderon, who launched his offensive against the drug gangs after taking office in December 2006, told a meeting of anti-crime groups that his government "was aware that it was going through a very difficult time on security issues".
Government security spokesman Alejandro Poire said half of the killings had been carried out in three northern states: Chihuahua, Tamaulipas and Sinaloa.
Other states, he explained, had been virtually untouched by the violence, with Yucatan and Tlaxcala registering fewer than 10 crime-related murders in 2010.
Mr. Poire said the northern states were particularly badly hit because they were at the centre of a battle between rival drug gangs.
He said the murder rate had dropped by 10% in the fourth quarter of the year, but that there was no way of telling whether the trend would continue in 2011.
The previous government figures released last month put the total number of dead at 30,196.
The government says that the new figures show that the vast majority of those killed are suspected gang members, killed in turf wars between rival gangs.
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