Mexico City: Some 7,667 people were killed in Mexico in the first quarter of 2018, up 20 per cent on the same period last year, making it the most violent year in two decades for the country, government figures show.

In 2017, the figure stood at 6,406 violent deaths, according to the Mexican security services. The worst month was March, when 2,729 people were killed, most of them shot dead. January's figure stood at 2,549 murders, with another 2,389 in February, the data released yesterday showed.

The violence comes as Mexico gears up for a July 1 ballot that will include presidential elections as well as a vote for the two branches of Congress and a number of local seats. About 80 candidates have been murdered since campaigning for Mexico's 2018 elections began in September. Many have been targeted for opposing drug cartels — or conspiring with them. In most cases the killers remain at large — some statistics put the unsolved rate at 97 percent of Mexico's staggering murder tally — but officials largely blame organized crime for the politicians' deaths.

Though, the killings of politicians in such large numbers is a relatively new phenomenon, journalists, activists and other noncombatants have long been targeted by cartels. For example, Mexico leads Latin America in the killings of Roman Catholic priests. Authorities in Mexico say a priest has been killed in the west-central state of Jalisco, the second cleric slain in the country this week. The Catholic Multimedia Center says that 33-year-old Juan Miguel Contreras Garcia was shot dead late on Friday April 20, on the outskirts of Guadalajara. According to the center, at least four priests have been murdered in Mexico in 2018 and at least 23 have been murdered since 2012.

But the number of political leaders coming in the crosshairs of narco-gangs has only gone up with each following year. One estimate says one hundred and seventy-two politicians have been killed since 2006, when Mexico launched its war on drugs.

The spate of bloodshed this year follows a proliferation of gangs involved in drug trafficking, as well as stealing fuel, kidnappings, extortion and other criminal activities. 2016 saw 20,792 homicides in Mexico — a 22% increase over 2015, and a 35% jump over 2014.  In 2017, a total of 25,339 people were killed in Mexico, the highest number since monitoring began 10 years earlier. (With Agency inputs)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 23, 2018 02:38 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).