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Drug violence kills 21 in Mexico

14 July 2011 04:30 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez has witnessed its deadliest day this year, with 21 killed in drug related violence, APA reports quoting Press TV.

"It was the most violent day (Tuesday) in 2011, surpassing February 18 when 19 people were killed," a spokesman for the state prosecutor said on Wednesday.

Ciudad Juarez has already been labeled Mexicoâ€™s most violent city. This is, as it lies opposite the Texas city of El Paso and has therefore been a center of the ongoing battle between rival drug gangs seeking to gain control of the drug market in the US.

The country has recently seen a rise in drug-related violence in particular near the US border.

Over 3,100 recorded homicides occurred in the city of Ciudad Juarez in 2010. In all of Mexico, government findings showed over 15,000 drug-related murders last year.

Mexico has long been plagued by drug-related crime. Yet the violence has boomed since the government launched a military crackdown on organized crime in 2006.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has deployed some 50,000 troops across Mexico to combat the drug gangs. He has also recently announced that four additional battalions will also be deployed to the northeast of the country in a near future.