Mexico’s top security official recently highlighted several parts of Sonora as particularly troubling when it comes to murder.
Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo, a native of the state, pointed to three Sonoran municipalities during a recent press conference: Empalme, neighboring Guaymas, which includes the popular beach resort of San Carlos, and Caborca.
Explaining the hotspots concentrated in Northwestern Mexico, he said they are in the zones with “the largest shipments of drugs toward the world’s most important market, which is the United States.”
Over the first seven months of 2020, Empalme had the fourth-highest rate of homicide cases among Mexican cities with more than 50,000 people, according to federal crime data. Guaymas, Caborca and Cajeme are all in the top 20.
Kidnapping figures for Sonora and a number of other states have shown a more positive trend.
According to data presented by Durazo, kidnapping rates through August of this year have fallen nearly 80 percent when compared to the same period the year before.
