Mexican crime rate
Getty images Spencer Platt Getty images Spencer Platt

A total of 117 murders were recorded in 24 hours in June, which marks the country's most violent day.

The previous record had been on April 20 when 114 homicides happened.

BBC News reported that 2020 could become the bloodiest year on the record if this trend continues.

The number of murders in the country has increased to record levels as the number of other crimes has reduced as most people stay at home to avoid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Gang-related Violence

Reuters reported on June 18 that gunmen abducted and killed seven police officers, killed ten people in a drug rehab center, and dumped 12-bullet-riddled bodies.

All of these happened in areas where the Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) cartel operates.

Criminal gangs have also aimed at low-level-cartel foot soldiers and high-profile political figures alike.

There were also both mass killings and assassinations.

"This is a cost that we are now paying for years and years of continued, almost perfect impunity in Mexico" Falko Ernst, a senior analyst at Crisis Group, was quoted in a report.

A core group for Mexico's anti-cartel fight in the military has been drafted to help in COVID-19 efforts. Some of the barracks have been turned into treatment clinics.

Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said in June about 70-percent of the homicides this year were cartel-linked.

Mexican Criminal Groups "Helping" During Pandemic

In the city of Apatzingán in Mexico, gunmen gave bags of groceries to citizens. The group is also asking local businesses to help those in need.

Another lieutenant of an armed group has directed the local government to organize a food bank.

"If we protect [local populations], they'll protect us as well," head of the Cartel of the South was quoted in an interview.

Cartels have been providing help in the states of Guerrero, Michoacán, Tamaulipas, and Guanajuato.

A Michoacán local said during an interview that they could not expect much from anybody else. They added that they at least know "they are in some way the least bad solution."

Crime rates and COVID-19 cases

Between 2009 and 2011, the years were considered some of the worst years of the country's drug war.

Most communities lived under almost constant curfew, and gun battles for territorial control were frequent.

The effects of COVID-19 in Mexico include a shortage of police and security sources.

"Security forces in Mexico were already very weak to start with, and now they're being overwhelmed by the pandemic," Mexican security analyst Alejandro Hope was quoted in a report.

Mexico has around 300,000 new cases of COVID-19, with 185,000 recoveries, and 35,006 deaths.

Mexico has now outranked Italy for the world's fourth-highest death total as it rose about 35,000 death rates.

On Sunday, Lopez Obrador said that the pandemic was "losing intensity" in Mexico and said the "conservative media" has been causing alarm.

The Mexico president said he was optimistic after he was updated on the pandemic.

"The report is positive, good. The conclusion is that the pandemic is going down, that it is losing intensity," he quoted in a report.

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