As has occurred in the last four years, Baja California was last in Mexico’s Peace Index 2022.
The report, issued by the Institute for Economics and Peace, gave the state a grade of 4.307 — the highest in the country.
The study says the higher the grade the more violent the state is.
Baja California was above states like Sonora, Guanajuato, Colima and Zacatecas in terms of violence.
The study includes reports on homicides, violent crime, gun crimes, organized crime, arrests without warrants and other topics.
In all of those indicators, Baja California is either the last or among the last ones nationwide.
The Institute’s report says the eight more violent states in Mexico were Zacatecas, Baja California, Colima, Chihuahua, Sonora, Morelos, Michoacán and Guanajuato.
According to a map included in the report Baja California is the only state that has all of its municipalities in red as every single one reported over 50 homicides in the last year.
With 1,770 homicides last year, Tijuana led among the nation’s municipalities with a homicide rate of 95 per 100,000, above Ciudad Juárez, Acapulco, Guadalajara and Culiacan.
The first ten municipalities with the highest number of homicides record a quarter of the nations’ murders, the report says.
Since 2015, Tijuana has recorded over 11,000 homicides or about three quarters of the state’s murders
This city is key to organized crime for smuggling of drugs, weapons and immigrants, the report adds.
According to the Institute, violence recorded in Tijuana in the last years is due to the hostility between the Sinaloa Cartel and the remnants of the Tijuana Cartel, that allied with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel has become the Tijuana New Generation Cartel. Both criminal organizations seek to take control of the city.
Since 2015, rivalry between both cartels has left over 6,700 homicides in Baja California.
The states of Coahuila and Baja California were second and third, respectively, with the highest rates of drug crimes.
The report also highlights Baja California for the murder of police officers and politicians. With 15 in the first case and six in the second, the state is ninth and sixth, respectively.
Along with Guanajuato and Zacatecas, the state was among the worst due to organized crime activity and crimes committed with firearms.
The report quotes part of a study held by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that says 70 percent of firearms used in crimes committed in Mexico were from the United States.
The Institute’s report says the economic impact of crime in Baja California reached over 70,730 pesos per resident, or around $3,500.
The state was the third most economically impacted by crime in Mexico behind Colima and Zacatecas.
According to the report, the economic impact increased 50.7 percent between 2015 and 2021. However, the report clarifies that the cost has decreased close to 5 percent in the last two years.
Just last year, the economic impact of crime in Baja California was 261 billion pesos or about $13 billion. That cost was $7.8 billion in 2015.
The report adds that Baja California spends less than the nation’s annual average of $70 per person in law enforcement and justice. Only 10 states are above the threshold. While the Mexican government has increased military expenses by 31.3 percent since 2015, funds for domestic security and justice dropped 37.2 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively.