Ouch.

Mexico City (AFP) – Mexico suffered a record 33,341 homicides in 2018, according to official statistics released Monday, breaking the record set in 2017, as violence fueled by a war on the country’s powerful drug cartels plagues the country.

More than 200,000 people have been murdered in Mexico since the government controversially deployed the army to fight drug trafficking in 2006. The previous record was 28,866 homicides in 2017.

The new record shows the grim challenge facing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, an anti-establishment leftist who took office in December with a promise to curb the gruesome violence.

His strategy is built on creating a national guard that will officially bring civilian police duties under military control.

It is worth noting that Mexico has very strict gun control laws. It is almost as if criminals and cartel thugs don’t obey those laws.