MEXICO CITY: Mexico has this year registered its highest murder total since modern records began, according to official data, dealing a fresh blow to President Enrique Pena Nieto's pledge to get gang violence under control with presidential elections due in 2018. Pena Nieto took office in Dec 2012 pledging to tame the violence that escalated under his predecessor Felipe Calderon. At 18.7 per 100,000 inhabitants, the 2017 Mexican murder rate is still lower than it was in 2011, when it reached almost 19.4 per 100,000, the data showed. The current front-runner in the race, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has floated exploring an amnesty with criminal gangs to reduce the violence, without fleshing out the idea. Things can't go on as before," Reforma quoted Lopez Obrador as saying.

Source: New Strait Times December 23, 2017 18:00 UTC