In a macabre annual tradition, sometime in October, the number of murder victims in Sonora surpassed the previous year’s standing record of nearly 1,600 victims. That’s according to the most recent federal crime data, which goes through the end of October.
With two months left to report, there have now been 1,607 murder victims in Sonora, giving the state the fifth-highest murder rate in Mexico for 2021.
Extreme violence is concentrated in a handful municipalities, with southern Sonora’s Cajeme — home to the second-largest city Ciudad Obregon — accounting for more than a third of murder cases. A longstanding hot spot, the city worsened significantly in 2021, with cases up more than 50% from the same period a year ago.
