Drop in Murders? In Fact, No

My excitement about what appeared to be a significant drop in the murder rate in Mexico a couple of weeks ago was a bit premature; the first two months this year witnessed more murders than any January and February in recent history, with more than 2,000. (Last year there were just 1,703.) Although, if you are looking for silver linings (and I usually am), the murder rate is down slightly from the second part of last year, and the present pace would fall short of last year's total of more than 15,000 murders.