By Brianna Lee / International Business Times

New government figures released Monday showed that homicides fell again last year from the year before, making for a continuous downward streak since President Enrique Peña Nieto first took office.

The national statistics office published data showing 19,669 homicides for 2014, or a rate of 16 per 100,000 people. That marks a 27 percent decrease in homicides since 2012, when Peña Nieto first stepped into office, and a 37 percent increase since Mexican homicide figures hit their peak in 2011.

Although the killings were on the wane for the country as a whole, the violence was rising in certain parts of the country.

In Michoacán, where vigilante groups, have been more and more visible, the 2014 homicide rate was the highest the state had seen since 2009, with 931 deaths. Guerrero, the state that served as the flashpoint for nationwide outrage last year following the disappearance of 43 students allegedly at the hands of police and local criminal groups, remained one of the most violent states in the country, with 1,719 homicides last year.

http://www.ibtimes.com/mexico-homicide-rate-drops-27-percent-start-pena-nietos-term-2016708