MEXICO CITY —
Mexico has surpassed 2,000 murders in a month for the first time since the summer of 2011, and had more murders in the first quarter of 2017 than in the start of any year in at least two decades.
Unlike 2011, when a bloody cartel clash in Ciudad Juarez was driving the national toll to new heights, the murders driving the 2017 total are spread across a number of states.
The federal government released the state-by-state murders totals for March on Friday. There were 2,020 murders in March, up about 11 percent from February.
For January through March, the total was 5,775 murders, up 29 percent from the same three months last year.
Guerrero, Baja California and Baja California Sur were among states that saw jumps in March.
