Feminicides in Mexico: Government acknowledges 7.1% increase between January and May.

The Mexican government acknowledged on Monday that femicides in Mexico increased by 7.1 percent between January and May compared to the same period last year.

So far in 2021, 423 victims of this crime have been reported, said Rosa Icela Rodríguez, head of the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection.

She also detailed that in terms of incidence per 100,000 inhabitants, the states of Morelos, Sonora, Quintana Roo, Colima, Jalisco, Sinaloa, San Luis Potosí and Chiapas have the highest rates.

Tamaulipas, Yucatán, Michoacán de Ocampo, Tabasco and Nayarit are the states with the lowest incidence of this crime.

Of the 2,402 femicide crimes registered in 724 municipalities, Culiacán, Tijuana, Juárez, Guadalajara and Monterrey account for 7.9 per cent of the victims.

The official also pointed out that eight states account for 57.4 percent of the investigation files.

During the previous security report, which was released in mid-June, it was also noted that the crime of rape had increased by 30 percent, while human trafficking registered an increase of 47 percent.

Rodríguez also emphasised that the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is committed to classifying feminicides «regardless of the fact that this sum implies an increase in the statistics».

In the same vein, he commented that in entities such as Mexico City every investigation file related to the homicide of a woman is initiated as a feminicide.

According to figures from the authorities, in May there were 2,963 intentional homicides in Mexico, the highest figure since July 2020.