Juárez's Best Month in Two Years

The improvement in security in the border town continues:

A total 150 people were killed in Mexico's Ciudad Juarez in May, the lowest monthly number since March 2009, when a massive army deployment caused the murder rate to temporarily plummet.

Before the recent improvement, the border town, across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, had enjoyed the dubious designation of the world’s most dangerous city for some years. At its peak of violence, 350 people were killed in October 2010, in the city of 1.3 million or so residents. Since then, the violence has steadily declined, slipping to 183 murders in March and 168 in April.

Despite the dip in killings, Juarez remains an exceedingly violent city; the May total may have been the lowest since 2009, but it was enough to put the annualized murder rate well above 100 per 100,000 residents, which would make it the bloodiest of any major Mexican metropolis.