Despite an average of close to 20 violent deaths per day, Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora insists violent deaths remain below their 1994 level, and below the rate in other nations in the Americas.

Medina Mora said that in 1994 there were 18 murders per 100,000 residents in Mexico. He added that in 2008, with a total of 6,290 violent deaths, the rate was only 10.7 deaths per 100,000 people.

He also noted that in Colombia there were 33 violent deaths per 100,000 people last year, while Brazil had close to 40, Guatemala and El Salvador had more than 50 and that the capital of the United States, Washington, had more 30.