Recently released data reveals that in 2022, nine cities in Mexico ranked among the top 10 most dangerous cities worldwide, according to World of Statistics. Topping this ominous list is the municipality of Colima in western Mexico, which claimed the unfortunate title of the world’s murder capital with a staggering 181.9 homicides per 100 inhabitants. Colima held the same position in 2021 with 196.6 murders per 100 inhabitants. The city is the second-largest in the state of Colima and continues to experience a high homicide rate in 2023, with 512 homicides recorded in the first seven months of the year.
Zamora, located in the western state of Michoacán, took the second spot with 177.7 homicides per 100 inhabitants. Ciudad Obregón, the second-largest city in the northwestern state of Sonora, ranked third with 138.2 homicides per 100 inhabitants. Zacatecas, the capital and largest city of the north-central state of Zacatecas, secured the fourth position with an average of 134.6 homicides per 100 inhabitants. The Pacific border city of Tijuana, situated across from California, rounded out the top five with 105.1 homicides per 100 inhabitants.
Celaya and Uruapan, located in the central state of Guanajuato, claimed the sixth and seventh spots, respectively. Celaya recorded 99.6 homicides per 100 inhabitants, while Uruapan followed with 78.3 homicides per 100 inhabitants. The list continued with Ciudad Juárez at ninth place, a border town in the northwestern state of Chihuahua, registering 67.7 homicides per 100 inhabitants. Acapulco, once a popular destination for Hollywood elites, ranked tenth, reporting an average of 65.6 murders per 100 inhabitants.
Additionally, the Guanajuato municipality of Irapuato placed 13th with 61.60 homicides per 100 inhabitants, and the city of Cuernavaca in the central state of Morelos secured the 14th position with 60.2 murders per 100 inhabitants. Each of these cities falls within Mexican states that have received travel advisories from the U.S. Department of State due to concerns about crime and kidnapping.
One tragic case highlighting the peril in these areas involves María del Carmen López, a Mexico-U.S. dual citizen who has been missing since February 9 after gunmen kidnapped her from her home in the Colima municipality of Pueblo Nuevo. In June, one of her children held a press conference in Los Angeles, pleading with President Joe Biden to help locate her. The kidnappers sent an audio message in which López can be heard begging her family to comply with their demands, stating that her life depended on it.