Updated: Thu, 19 Apr 2012 03:16:04 GMT | By MSN News, Chris Mitchell
Mexico's war on drugs: By the numbers

Violence in Mexico

In this photo taken Saturday May 14, 2011, local masked men, one holding a stick with nails on it , stand guard at a barricade in Cheran, Michoacan State, Mexico. (© AP Photo/Miguel Tovar)
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  • Mexico's war on drugs (© AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini)
  • A holiday resort in Cancun, Mexico. (© Photo by DK Images / Rex Features)
  • In this April 25, 2009 file photo, packages containing crystal methamphetamine seized during an anti-drug operation are displayed to the media in Tijuana, Mexico. (© AP Photo/Guillermo Arias, File)
  • In this photo taken July 14, 2011, guns and cartel paraphernalia are shown to the press when a training camp was discovered after a firefight between Mexican army soldiers and gunmen in the woods near the town of Santa Gertrudis, Mexico. (© AP Photo)
  • The body of a man shot to death lies next to a bus in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, Mexico, Monday Aug. 15, 2011. (© AP Photo/Bernandino Hernandez)
  • In this photo taken Saturday May 14, 2011, local masked men, one holding a stick with nails on it , stand guard at a barricade in Cheran, Michoacan State, Mexico. (© AP Photo/Miguel Tovar)
  • A Mexican army soldier mans a gun on top of a vehicle while guarding the perimeter around the site of a state prosecutors convention in the Gulf port city of Veracruz, Mexico, Thursday Sept. 22, 2011. (© AP Photo/Felix Marquez)
  • Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in 1993. Guzman has transformed himself from a middling Mexican capo into arguably the most powerful drug trafficker in the world. (© AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
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The easiest way to get killed in Mexico is probably to join a gang, though many innocent people have also died getting too close to the cartels.

Mexican security forces killed in 2009: 400
Mexican mayors killed in 2010: (At least) 14
Canadians killed in Mexico since 2006: (At least) 17
Canadians reporting being assaulted in Mexico since 2006: 120

Journalists killed in Mexico between 1994-2011: 59
Journalists killed in Mexico with motives relating to stories they covered: 25
Percentage of murdered journalists who reported on crime: 76

Sources:
The Committee to Protect Journalists, MSNBC, The U.S. Department of State, Maclean's


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