Violence in Mexico has been on the rise for decades, fuelled in part by a flow of illegal firearms from the United States.
Much of the blame recently has fallen on Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who was elected on a platform of scaling back violent crime.
Many worry the worsening security crisis could set a new record for violence by the end of 2020.
Al Jazeera’s Manuel Rapalo reports.
Mexico is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is the most populous Spanish-speaking nation. Mexico City is its capital city and largest metropolis.
Mexico became an independent nation state after the successful Mexican War of Independence against Spain in 1821.
Mexico is a developing country, but has the world’s 15th-largest economy by nominal GDP and the 11th-largest by PPP, with the United States being its largest economic partner. Since 2006, a conflict between the government and drug trafficking syndicates has led to over 120,000 deaths.
Mexico receives a significant number of tourists every year; in 2018, it was the 6th most-visited country in the world, with 39 million international arrivals.
The United States is a country also known as the United States of America, USA, US or just America. There are fifty states in the union, which is a federal republic ruled by a representative democracy. Nearly ten million square kilometres are inhabited by over 300 million people. The majority of Americans speak English.