As Mexico security spending slows, some fear ever-worsening murder tally

FILE PHOTO: Federal forces keep watch at a crime scene where three men were gunned down by unknown assailants in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, September 27, 2016. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's murder tally rose last year to its highest level since President Enrique Pena Nieto took office in December 2012, and with security budgets stretched by a weak economy and low oil prices, some fear more violence this year.

Law enforcement experts are torn on the cause of the increase in killings, but a Reuters analysis of Pena Nieto's federal security spending shows it has coincided with a dip in outlays.