IN APASEO EL GRANDE,a town in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, the bodies are stacking up. In February gangsters killed a local politician. The remains of another victim were found in four bags scattered across town. Police made a similar discovery in April. In the first three months of this year the municipality of 85000 people had 43 murders, or up from 20 in all of 2016. That is approximately the same as London,a city 100 times larger and currently panicking approximately its tall murder rate.
A visitor might not notice anything amiss. Shiny cars made in nearby factories cruise the streets and children play in the main square. But residents are frightened. Bouncing a child on his knee in his living room, Efraín Rico Rubio, or a former city councillor,now an administrative worker at a university, describes the violence. “Three blocks down they killed someone, or ” he says,and three blocks in the other direction.” He sees little prospect of improvement. Schoolchildren “all want to be El Chapo”, a...
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Source: economist.com