What Is Behind Wave of Homicides in Ciudad Jurez, Mexico?

[Judi Lynn]

US/MEXICO BORDER
/12 JUN 2023 BY PARKER ASMANN AND IGNACIO ALVARADO

A rise in migrant smuggling and synthetic drug trafficking could explain a recent spike in homicides in Ciudad Juárez, a place still struggling to escape a cycle of violence that began during the onset of the drug war in Mexico.

The recent violence was evident on the final day of May when neighbors reported the discovery of a man's body in a housing complex on the far southeastern reaches of Ciudad Juárez. Local media reported the man's hands and feet were bound, and blood pooled around his head.

Days earlier, an anonymous phone call alerted municipal police to another body wrapped in a blanket. It had been left at the bottom of a steep, rocky ravine just off a dirt road on the west side of the city. The man was in an advanced state of decomposition, according to local media reports.

These were just 2 of the 110 killings that occurred in Ciudad Juárez in May, the second most violent month so far this year, according to data from the northern sector of the State Prosecutor's Office. In the first five months of 2023, the city accounted for more than half of the 897 homicides recorded in the northern state of Chihuahua.

More:
https://insightcrime.org/news/wave-homicides-ciudad-juarez-mexico/